Appendix 1 Cabinet report May 2006

Hampshire County Council

Race Equality Scheme

2006 - 2009

Introduction

Hampshire County Council has committed itself to delivering equality and meeting the needs of the people of Hampshire. As a community leader, Hampshire County Council acknowledges the valuable contribution that the people of Hampshire make to life in the county. These people include black and minority ethnic (BME) people, women, disabled people and lesbians and gay men.

All local authorities have a legal duty to

· eliminate racial discrimination

· promote equality of opportunity

· promote good relations

under the statutory requirements of the Race Relation (Amendment) Act. The County Council is using our Race and Equal Impact Assessments to drive our commitment to mainstreaming race and equality. This scheme and its associated action plan are interlinked with the Council's performance and service planning processes.

The County Council published its first Race Equality Scheme in 2002 and has made year on year progress and has achieved the following:

Dept. achievements

· Proposals to collate family history of people from BME communities

· Regular radio slot on local community BME radio hosted by Director of Recreation and Heritage and Race Advisor on participation and engagement

· Appointment of new community support officer to engage BME people with regards to sport, community and outdoor activities

· Healthy walking with BME communities project being established

· Libraries forged closer lines with Asian communities

· Central resource of `Profile of Hampshire' developed within Environmental department, to be shared across the County Court

· Property, Business and Regulatory Services have developed a number of in-house training courses for staff on diversity and equality, about 200 staff have completed equality and diversity training

· Property, Business and Regulatory Services are also developing monitoring for quality and diversity with regards to procurement

· An `African Day' was held on 30^th November, combining African music, cuisine, poetry and art, issues of Fair Trade were addressed, the event raised about £3000 for 3 charities working in Africa

· Regular involvement in Black History month by the County Council Libraries and Arts Services

· Hampshire Faith in the Communities Network set up and supported

· Funding for SACRE, young peoples interfaith forum provided

· All Senior HR advisors and the HR advisors have attended courses in Selection and Interviewing

· A training programme has been implemented across HR resourcing for all staff on a range of equality and diversity issues

· The awarding of our recruitment advertising contract, we ensured that the provider was committed to equality and diversity

· A new equality and diversity recruitment strategy has been developed

· Equality and diversity is incorporated with the pay and benefits project

· All papers to adult services DMT are subject to screening for Race Impact assessment and the Race Advisor is on the formal Departmental Management team

· The Strategic Equality Group in Adult Services is being reformed to reflect the new department

· The core governance strategy has fully incorporated equality and diversity in its principles, values and activities

· A research policy and training developed for supporting unaccompanied asylum seeking children

· The youth services cited as a example by an external consultant with regards to equality and diversity

· Our ethnic minority achievement series is continuing its work with training and interpreting

· About 500 staff across the County Council have been trained in Impact Assessment

· An e-learning pack is being rolled out across all staff to raise their awareness of equality and diversity issues.

· Part funding of BMAP a project to look at infra-structure needs of voluntary sector organisations with regards to black and minority ethnic communities.

· Commissioning research looking at the needs of refugees and asylum seekers, faith groups, gypsies and travellers. For the above project, the groups commissioned to carry out the work were drawn from the appropriate communities.

This second scheme outlines our re-prioritised factors, our plans over the next three years as our response to the duty to promote equality of opportunity and eliminate racial discrimination. This scheme is part of a triumvirate of schemes which will include the Disability Equality Scheme and the Gender Equality Scheme.

Hampshire County Council Race Equality Scheme

What is a Race Equality Scheme (RES)

A RES is the County Council's strategic response to our statutory duties outlined in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. This is a public document and summarises our approach to race equality and it's links with corporate aims and objectives.

Hampshire, A Diverse County

Census 2001

We also have new emerging communities from Eastern Europe. Historically the Gypsy and traveller communities have been part of the New Forest for a long time.

Our approach to Race and Equality

Race equality is part of our overall commitment to equality, diversity and fairness. We see the County Council as having three key roles with this regard:

As a Community Leader

Through our members taking a pro-active approach both in terms of our external partners and our direction of travel. Members have been briefed and understand their responsibilities under the equality legislation and take their scrutiny role very seriously. A cabinet member has taken the lead on equality and diversity and through his initiative, the County Council has facilitated the Faith in the Community Network. A forum for better understanding, participation and consultation for the diverse Faith communities in Hampshire. The Leader has also supported setting up the Youth Faith Forum, under the auspices of the Youth Forum.

The Hampshire Strategic Partnership has a key priority with regards to building capacity and engagement with minority ethnic people and groups.

We have supported Community Action, Hampshire's project on mapping the infra-structure and support needs of minority ethnic voluntary sector organisation.

As a Service Provider

The County Council provides services to the people of Hampshire, some 1.3 million of them. We provide a huge range of services and touch everyone's life in one way or another. Our approach to ensure that our services are sensitive and appropriate is based on regular feedback from service users though satisfaction surveys, complaints and compliments. As a service provider/facilitator we see our procurement role as a driver for influencing service providers in the voluntary and private sector.

We have also regularly made explicit our commitment to appropriate service with our partners in Health, Police, District, Borough and Parish Councils.

As an Employer

Hampshire County Council is a major employer, drawing people in from all walks of life. Our recruitment and retention strategies reflect our commitment to be a fair and model employer. Our regular revues of these policies and practices continues to inform and guide us with regards to our performance.

In terms of retention, our in-house initiatives include staff development through our Learning and Development Centre, our flexible working policy, our employee help line and our leave and absence management strategies.

Equality standard for local government

Equality forward from 2006 - 2009

The County Council has reviewed and established an integrated approach to equality work. Through this process the County Council has required departmental management teams to examine key features of service delivery and incorporate equality impact assessment of service plans to ensure that they will help identify and respond to the needs of local BME residents.

Hampshire County Council's Race Equality Scheme, one of three equality schemes is and will continue to be a key driver to delivering our statutory equality duties. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act's Specific Duties requires that our RES includes:

· a set list of our prioritised functions that are relevant to the general duty

· our arrangements for:

a)	monitoring our policies for any adverse impact on race equality
b)	assessing and commenting on the likely impact of proposed policies
c)	publishing the results of our assessments, consultation and monitoring
d)	making sure that the public has access to information and services
e)	training of staff on the general duty

We also have specific employment duties such as:

· monitoring existing staff by ethnicity

· monitoring applicants for jobs, promotion and training by racial group

As we employ more than 150 staff we are also required to monitor and analyse by racial group:

· grievances

· disciplinary action

· performance appraisal (when they lead to benefits and detriment)

· training

· staff leaving the authority

The following outlines how we intend to continue the progress made from our first RES.

The Assessment of Function and Policies for Relevance

Section 71(1) of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 states that public bodies must have `due regard' to their duty to promote race equality. For Hampshire, this means that we are expected to ensure that proper consideration is given to race equality in the way we carry out our functions.

In our first Race Equality Scheme, we carried out an initial prioritisation of functions and policies for relevance and impact assessments were carried out. Since then, departments have systematically reviewed their list of functions and policies. Each department now has a revised list of a prioritised list of what is relevant to the general duty, the same system is to be used for assessing the relevance of their functions and policies to other equality needs in order to deliver the Disability Duty, Gender Duty and continued progress for the Local Government Equality Standard.

Monitoring Arrangements

As part of the specific duty, we are required to have in place, a framework which will help to identify how our policies are affecting different racial groups and whether they are having an adverse impact on some racial groups. The County Council has a framework which is being used by each department to assess the impact of each of its functions, with regards to race and equality.

The County Council also has internal monitoring processes which ensures that our prioritised functions are being impact assessed and are being carried out. This group is being chaired by the Cabinet lead for Equality and Diversity.

Each departmental management team is responsible for ensuring that all decision papers have included a screening at the very least and an impact assessment where appropriate. Similarly, Service Planning incorporates screening for relevance.

Assessment and Consultation Arrangements

We will publish summaries of all our impact assessments, consultations and monitoring as well as our Corporate and Departmental race equality action plans on the Council's website and internet. Other print formats will be available on request.

Consultation

Consultation has to be and is a key drive for Hampshire County Council's approach to tackling disadvantage, removing barriers and improving the quality of life and services in Hampshire. In terms of service delivery and employment, an impact assessment requires that arrangements have been made to consult minority ethnic communities and people, the corporate communication team are backing this up with commissioned research on the experiences and perception of people from minority ethnic communities. Some examples of specific initiatives with regards to funding capacity building and engagement from these disparate communities in Hampshire are identified below.

· Funding of Community Development workers in Basingstoke and Eastleigh

· Seed money grants to Basingstoke Diversity Forum

· Seed money and running costs to Asian welfare and Cultural Association

· Engagement with Race Equality Forum with Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service

· Funding Independence Day workshops for Caribbean and Asian Communities

Access to Information and Services

Our impact assessments will help us identify the different information needs of the people of Hampshire and we will endeavour to ensure that people can get information about Hampshire County Council and its services.

We will consult on this scheme across the County, a list of the BME organisation to be consulted is on the Evolve list of community groups.

Customer Satisfaction

The County Council carries out regular surveys about the quality of our services and quality of life in Hampshire. We will be using an ethnic question in the survey and the results will be collated accordingly.

Training staff on relevant issues

We have developed an in-house equality and learning pack which is being rolled out across all employees of the county. Our inductions incorporate equality and diversity as a key component and we have trained over 500 staff to carry out impact assessments. Our target for March 2007 is 1000 staff.

Specific Employment Duties

This duty aims to introduce openness and fairness to the employment process. Ethnic monitoring in the County Council is carried out by our SAP system and this is used to produce statistical reports for monitoring purposes and as the basis for management action to achieve improvements for our latest profile. This data is published on the Hampshire County Council web site http://www3.hants.gov.uk/equality/news-latest.htm.

Responsibilities and Reporting Mechanisms

All departments, through the Chief Officer are responsible for monitoring and performance. The Corporate Equality Group (EDAG) will scrutinise the annual performance for each department and councillors and lead cabinet members will take responsibility for the overall direction and performance of the County Council, through the Chief Executive.

Action Plan

We have outlined how we will deliver our Race Equality Scheme in the attached Action Plan.

Contact

For enquiries about this scheme please contact: Mohammed Mossadaq

Commissioning & Strategy Manager ( Equality and Inclusion ), Adult Services Dept., Trafalgar House

The Castle, Winchester SO23 8UQ, Tel 01962 845880, e-mail: [email protected]

Race Equality Scheme 2006 -2009

Corporate Action Plan

Corporate Action Plan - Race Equality Scheme