Archived decisions

1. Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought.

The Executive Member accepts the report.

2. Reason(s)

At the Annual Review Meeting with the Commission for Social Care Inspection on 29 July 2004, the CSCI chair informed Hampshire that publishing equalities statistics on Hampshire's corporate website was not sufficient to ensure compliance with the required Key Threshold.

3. Other options considered and rejected

None, this approach was strongly advised by CSCI as proof of compliance

4. Conflicts of Interest declared by the decision-maker or other Executive Member consulted

None

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

None

6. Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent

Not applicable

Approved by: Date of decision:

Councillor Felicity Hindson

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Social Services are subject to annual scrutiny by the Commission for Social Services Inspection. This scrutiny uses the Department Of Health agreed operating procedures, published as part of the Performance Assessment Framework. A significant element of this scrutiny is through the Delivery and Improvement Statement, a planning and performance document which is updated every 6 months.

1.2 A section of the Spring Delivery and Improvement Statement was devoted to equalities monitoring as required under the "Race Relations Act - Part 3". Although accepting that publication was not yet a legal requirement, the operating procedures stated "Judgement is limited to 'Promising capacity for improvement' for adults and children's services if not published". This was accompanied by the statement "A council that is monitoring the ethnicity of its staff is more likely to be ensuring that its services are ethnically sensitive and tackling inequalities and institutionalised racism". The requirement was for publication by 31 May 2004.

1.3 Guidance notes subsequently issued stated "Please provide the website address where your results of ethnic monitoring are to be found ....(Where the information is not available on the website, please provide the name of a contact who can provide a copy of the external publication)."

1.4 Hampshire published the results on the website at http://www.hants.gov.uk/TC/equalities/equalitymonitoringreport.html. The Delivery and Improvement statement provided this web address.

1.5 At the Annual Review Meeting on 29 July 2004 the CSCI informed Hampshire that, due partly to the complexity of our internet site, the website link was not sufficient to meet the publication requirement. Hampshire was strongly advised to take a report through normal committee processes to ensure it reached the public domain. Hampshire, along with many other authorities in a similar situation, was given a revised deadline of 28 August 2004 to prove compliance.

1.6 This report has been prepared to ensure a rating of 'Excellent capacity for improvement' for adults and children's services remains possible.

2 Race Relations Act monitoring

2.1 The requirement for racial equality staff monitoring has been covered as part of the SAP-R3 Human Resources computer system implementation, and has been lead corporately by the Personnel & Training Department.

2.2 Data published covers the period 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004, and does not include school staff.

2.3 The published data is part of a "trial run" designed to ensure that the Council is fully able to meet its commitments under the Race Equality Scheme which promises full reporting against the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 Statutory Code of Practice by May 2005. Some gaps in data have been identified during the reporting process and these will be addressed in time for the next year's report.

2.4 The full report is attached as Appendix 1.

3 Decision Required

3.1 The Executive Member accepts the report.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act