Equality & diversity

Equality is about creating a fairer society where everyone can participate and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. This is backed up by legislation and is often referred to as ‘Equal Opportunities’.

Diversity is about recognising and valuing difference in its widest sense. It means establishing a culture where difference is valued and respected for the benefit of the organisation and the individual.

We are committed to providing equal access to service and employment opportunities.

The Equality and Diversity strategy shows how we will ensure that we fully comply with our responsibilities in relation to all of the Protected Characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010.

There are nine Protected Characteristics:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity.

‘Challenge, inspire, support, champion, share knowledge and experience to ensure equality for anyone accessing our services including our own staff.’

We recognise that as an Authority we have a substantial amount of work to do to meet our statutory obligations and we will go beyond the minimum requirements. We want consideration of diversity and equality issues to become a way of life in the organisation.

Through developing and implementing the Strategy we aim to:

• Achieve a better understanding of what the public want and need from the way we deliver our services
• Improve customer satisfaction with fewer complaints about diversity and equality issues
• Improve our recruitment processes to ensure opportunities are available to all
• Ensure flexible working is available to as many staff as possible
• Ensure equal pay for jobs of equal value
• Maximise the development and use of the talents of our staff.

We are committed to providing equal access to services and employment opportunities.

The strategy aims to ensure that equality and diversity is part of the mainstream day to day business of the authority and is an inherent part of its planning, decision making, employment and service delivery functions. The strategy incorporates the policies, action plans and practices operated by the authority in one place and provides a single focus for the development of the policy in the future.

The Strategy is designed to ensure that equality and diversity are considered every day in the areas of service delivery and employment. In particular the Strategy will focus on:

Service delivery
The Strategy will set out ways for the Authority to identify and remove any discriminatory barriers that prevent equal access to our services, and monitor the progress that we make.

Employment
The Authority aims to ensure that as far as possible opportunities for employment are available to all and that the workforce is representative of the local community.

Policy consultation
The Strategy will lead to the development of stronger consultation and monitoring processes to ensure real progress is made in ensuring everyone has an opportunity to make their views known, if they wish. This consultation will involve employees, members and local communities.

• To continue to commit to a programme of equalities training for both new and existing staff

• That service areas complete Equality Impact Assessments for their areas showing that they have considered the impact on those with protected characteristics as part of the decision making process

• To ensure that all future formal reports to members or management board include a section which considers Equality and Diversity Implications.

Workforce data as at 31 March 2020

Total number of employees = 84

Which equates to 73.74 full time equivalents.

Made up of 30% males and 70% females:

• 26% are full time male
• 36% are full time female
• 4% are part time male
• 35% are part time female.

Management

24% of the workforce are classed as being in management positions.
Of these, 55% are female and 45% are male.

BME (Black and Minority Ethnic groups)

1.2% of the workforce would be classed as BME.

Disabled

3.6% of the workforce would be considered to have a disability.