Archived decisions

Contact: Jane Goodwin - 01962 813847- [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report presents the Committee with the outcome of the Equality and Diversity Review together with the Improvement Plan. At a meeting of the Committee on 14^th February it was agreed that Option 2 should be pursued and therefore the Improvement Plan relates to that recommendation.

2. Background/Introduction

2.1 The Equality and Diversity review was instigated in response to the CPA (2002) observation that `the equality policy has yet to be embedded in the authority' and the recommendation that `the Council should adequately resource cross cutting initiatives such as equalities'. In January 2004 the project brief was agreed by Policy and Resources Policy Review Committee as follows:

"The scope of this review is clarified as carrying out an authority-wide assessment against the national standard that will enable the Council to move towards level three of that standard. The anticipated outputs from the review are:

· new aims in relation to equality and diversity, which will be incorporated in the Corporate Strategy

· a plan for delivery of these aims

· validation of the Council's policies and guidance that relate to equality and diversity."

2.2 The current Corporate Equalities Strategy was published in April 2000 and this sets out a strategic vision for the County Council of `securing genuine equality of opportunity whether required by law or not in all aspects of its activities as and employer and service provider'. When this was published the Council was seen as a leading authority particularly for its the approach towards `mainstreaming' the issues into all aspects of the work of the Council. Since then there have been many developments nationally and other authorities are now performing at a similar level.

2.3 The review team and a project plan were agreed (Appendix 1). A meeting was held in July 2004 with the aim of testing this vision against the developments since 2000 and a revised vision with four strategic outcomes was developed. These outcomes then provided the hypothesis for the review to test (see Appendix 2 for details). In order to ensure that the review was focussed and manageable it was agreed to focus on the current internal processes and structure that will deliver the vision.

3. Current delivery arrangements

3.1 Resources:

Specialist staff: 1 Corporate Equality and Diversity Manager based in Human Resource Department

1 Race Policy Adviser for Social Services Department with 2 days weekly available for corporate work (since May 2004)

1 Diversity Learning Consultant - commenced January 2005 for a 1 year period

Access Team (4 full time) to respond to Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act

Budget: There is no dedicated budget other than the above staffing budget. Funding for corporate equality work has been ad hoc and previously sourced from HR budget (prior to HR restructure). Currently there is no separately identified source of funding.

3.2 Policy framework: Corporate Equalities Strategy - April 2000

Equality in Employment Policy - April 2000

Equality in Service Delivery Policy - April 2000

Corporate Equality Plan and Race Scheme - May 2002

3.3 Management and Accountability Structure:

Executive Member for Human Resources also has Cabinet responsibility for Equality and Diversity

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) Member and Officer Working Group (since Sept 2003)

The Equalities Strategic Action Group (ESAG)- senior officer cross department representation (Appendix 3 for terms of reference)

Departmental Equality Groups

Annual progress reports as result of ESAG assessment presented to CMT and Cabinet for information

4. National Developments/External Influences

4.1 There have been significant developments in both the equality related legal framework and performance management/inspection regime for local authorities since 2000. It is clear that this will continue to develop in the future.

4.2 The Race Relations (Amendment) Act has placed a strong duty on public bodies to:

_ Eliminate unlawful race discrimination

_ Promote equality of opportunity, and

_ Promote good race relations

Public bodies must also produce a Race Equality Scheme and review this every 3 years.

4.3 This duty will be expanded to disability and gender by 2006 through legislation currently in the parliamentary process. The Disability Rights Commission has published a draft code of practice for consultation and generally this reflects the requirements outlined under the race duties. Key issues for the Council are the requirement to publish a Disability Equality Scheme by December 2006 and to show how disabled people have been involved in the development of that scheme.

4.4 Employment laws have been introduced which protect people from discrimination on grounds of religion, belief and sexual orientation. This will also be expanded to cover age by 2006.The Gender Recognition regulations and the Civil Partnership legislation will also have implications for the authority.

4.5 The Equality Standard for Local Government was introduced as a national performance indicator and was adopted by the Council in May 2002. This is a framework that looks for progressive improvements in the way authorities deliver equal access to services and employment by setting standards in four areas of performance:

_ Leadership and Corporate Commitment

_ Consultation and Community Development

_ Service Delivery and Customer Care

_ Employment and Training

4.6 The various inspection bodies have incorporated equality and diversity into their frameworks and are being robust in their scrutiny of performance. Consultation on the review of the Corporate Performance Assessment from 2005 states that:

"User focus, diversity and human rights will be integral elements of the new corporate assessment. These judgements will influence each theme score and therefore make a significant contribution to the overall assessment score. This reflects the importance we attach to ensuring that the diverse needs of communities are reflected in the way that services are designed and delivered with and for local people. The corporate assessment will include consideration of whether councils are meeting statutory requirements on human rights, race, age, sexual orientation, gender, disability and religion. We will also invest more time in understanding the context in which councils deliver services, for example, to rural communities or those living in pockets of extreme poverty or deprivation."

4.7 It has been made very clear that social services and education ratings will be influenced by their performance on diversity as will the overall corporate performance. The improvements leading from this review must respond to these expectations and equip the Council to respond to future developments.

5. Progress of the review

5.1 The focus of the review was to look at internal arrangements for meeting statutory requirements in this environment. The consultation, compare and challenge phase looked at the processes that other local authorities have in place (see appendix 4 for summary report). Internal research was conducted by the Treasurer's Consultancy Team and focussed on the members of ESAG (appendix 5 for summary). A brief staff opinion survey was also carried out by the staff representative of the review team. This survey also supported the view of the CPA 2002 findings that knowledge of the Corporate approach to Equality and Diversity was patchy. The result of this research was presented to a seminar in November where a range of areas for action were identified.

6. Links to other cross cutting themes

6.1 The other cross cutting themes were considered throughout the work, they all have significant two-way links with equality and diversity. In terms of Sustainability a recurring issue/challenge has been `how does equality and diversity differ from social inclusion and/or accessible services'. The conclusion seems to be that they are along the same theme and therefore clearer links must be made to avoid duplication of effort and clarity of understanding for the Council. A social inclusion statement will be developed showing the many links within the Council this will include Equality and Diversity.

6.2 It was shown that there has been insufficient use of e.solutions with the main barrier being access to funds and staff time to develop a web site or a database to record evidence. The review has shown that there is a need to develop an electronic resource facility that will serve to support staff, managers and Members to include the equality principles into service delivery and employment. There is also a need to identify an electronic system to record the evidence of progress with the Equality Standard for Local Government and the Race Equality Scheme.

7. Summary of findings

7.1 The following key areas for improvement/barriers to progress were identified (appendices 4 & 5 for details):

_ Improved guidance and direction is required especially in relation to Race and Equality Impact assessment

_ Improve information sharing including examples of good practice, especially regarding service delivery, development of the web pages move location into corporate pages as currently difficult to access in HR site

_ Relaunch equality and diversity for all staff to raise awareness of responsibilities and involve staff in development of action plans. Relate to the Equality Standard to show that how it relates to their role as service provider.

_ Stronger leadership from Chief Officer and Member level - a clear direction from CMT and Cabinet would be welcomed and greater Member involvement would be of benefit to ESAG

_ Development of the monitoring and scrutiny function - annual assessment is celebration of activities there is a need to undertake more robust scrutiny to define a clear audit trail

_ Investigate ways to combine assessment with other in house assessment processes e.g. IIP

_ Improve the availability of performance data and achieve a balance between culture change and a process driven compliance approach - other authorities have invested in a variety of electronic recording and monitoring systems.

_ Develop mechanisms to involve community in development of Race, Disability and Gender schemes

_ There is a need to identify a source of funding to support projects and equality related activity e.g. web site and database development, consultation and communication, seminars, provide training, time for equality champions.

_ Improve links to other corporate policy developments e.g. corporate and community strategy, social inclusion

8. Identified review options

8.1 Option One: no change - continue current approach.

8.1.1 This would make the Council vulnerable regarding the CPA in particular because the community and staff are not involved in developing the action plans, there is no clear monitoring and scrutiny process, it is unclear how leaders are involved with defining a clear direction. Without a source of funding it will not be possible to develop training and development opportunities or information and communication systems.

8.2 Option Two: Revise current structure

8.2.1 Merge the DDA panel and ESAG to create a joint Member/Officer Panel with revised terms of reference linked to CMT and Cabinet, remit to receive info from community, staff, and specialist advisers agree proposals for Cabinet CMT to agree and monitor/challenge performance. Develop CEP &RES, take a project approach to delivery - whole group meet 3/4 times annually and project groups reporting in. Key focus areas to address concerns identified by review, CPA and level 3 ESLG.

8.2.2 Allocate funds to support projects

8.2.3 Revise departmental approach to link equality groups with service planning. Performance management groups/systems use REIA to identify areas for action and inform action plans

8.2.4 Equality/Diversity Adviser role and Race adviser to formalise links with CX Policy unit through dual reporting mechanism and ensure clearer links with Corporate & Community strategy.

8.3 Option 3: Increase central team

8.3.1 Appoint specialist advisers for each equality strand to take forward projects on behalf of departments.

8.4 Following presentation to this committee on 14 February 2005 it was agreed to adopt option 2 and to develop a detailed improvement plan (see Appendix 6 for details).

9. Cost of the review

9.1 An initial budget was agreed of £7,000 as it was anticipated that an external review team would validate an assessment. However, it was agreed at an early stage that considerable effort was required to embed Race and Equality Impact Assessment into the service planning and policy development systems. This requirement is a significant element of level 2 of the Equality Standard and therefore the Council would not be ready for external validation until at least February 2006. Therefore, the achievement of Level 3 has been set as a target in the Improvement Plan.

9.2 Actual spend was as follows:

Venue and catering costs: £406:00

Facilitation costs: £1,000:00

Total direct cost of review = £1,406:00

Officer time: 14 hours for 20 senior officers

Core project team time: additional 30 hours

Admin support: 30 hours

Total indirect cost for officer time= £7,740

Elected Member time: 12 hours for 3 Members