WORCESTERSHIRE County Council has one of the worst records in the entire country for giving top jobs to people from ethnic minorities.

In a survey of England's 150 county counties and unitary authorities undertaken by the workers' union GMB, Worcestershire finished in the bottom 15 for the proportion of its highest-earning officers who are from minority ethnic groups.

The county's score of just 0.64 per cent puts it bottom of the league for the West Midlands region, comparing unfavourably even with other rural counties such as Herefordshire (2.14 per cent), Shropshire (2.10 per cent) and Staffordshire (1.52 per cent).

Roger Britton, development and training manager, at Worcestershire County Council, said changes were already under way at County Hall.

"The county council is not satisfied with its performance attracting senior staff from ethnic communities," he said. "That's why we are working hard to do something about it.

"This includes mentoring black and minority ethnic colleagues who are looking for promotions, promoting employment opportunities to minority communities, and ensuring all our recruitment processes are fit for purpose.

"We want to be certain the people who work for the county council reflect the people we serve - not because of some theoretical principle, but because it makes good business sense.

"The more we understand the community we serve the better we can serve it.

"Our starting point has been to increase the overall proportion of staff from minority communities, for without this key building block we are unlikely to improve elsewhere. We are proud of our success here having achieved a year on year increase over the past six years. The proportion now stands at 3.6 per cent."

Unsurprisingly, considering its hugely diverse make-up, Birmingham Council came out top for the West Midlands region, with 14.7 per cent of its top earners coming from ethnic minorities.

Mr Britton stressed that the figures were only meaningful when compared with the proportion of minority ethnic people living in each area.

"The real measure is the proportion in the workforce compared with the proportion in the overall population," he said.

"In Worcestershire the census tells us that the proportion of citizens from ethnic minorities in the area's overall working age population is 2.4 per cent.

"The comparative figure for Birmingham is 28.2 per cent, more than ten times higher than Worcestershire - so you would expect their figures to be significantly higher."