North Norfolk District Council
Equality Impact Assessment
(EQIA) Guidance and Form
Owned by
Organisation Development
Date Published
January 2012.
Review Date
Location
January 2015.
http://intranet.northnorfolk.org/staff/equality.asp
Introduction
The Council is legally required to consider the equality duty as part of the
decision making process. In our activities, such as provision of services,
policy development, procedures and savings, we must consider how we can:
1. Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
2. Advance equality of opportunity between different groups; and
3. Foster good relations between different groups by tackling prejudice
and promoting understanding.
To do this the Council uses Equality Impact Assessments. These allow us to
assess the impact, either positively or negatively, on different section of our
community, employees in different ways and find ways to address concerns
and maximize opportunities.
Do you need to complete an EQIA?
If your proposed activity affects people in any way, you have a responsibility
to make sure you know how it affects different groups of people. Here are
some questions to help you decide if you need to complete an EQIA:
1. Will individuals have access to, or be denied access to a service or
function as a result of the proposed activity? e.g new policy / change of
service provision.
2. Will the proposed activity result in a change to staffing levels, change in
terms and conditions, employer or location?
3. If there a change in budget which will result in a service being
withdrawn, changed or expanded?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then you will need to complete
an EQIA
Advice and guidance
Topic
Equality & Diversity
Performance Management
Employment
Organisational Development Contacts
Kate Sullivan Ext 6052
Helen Thomas Ext 6214
Julie Cooke Ext 6040
A glossary and further information about Equality and Diversity and equality
analysis can be found at http://intranet.northnorfolk.org/staff/equality.asp
Equality Impact Assessment Form
When completing the form make sure:
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Your statements and conclusions are clearly supported by evidence.
The form is completed before decisions are made.
You complete all sections.
Section 1: responsibility and proposed activity
Service Area
Director
Manager
Reviewing Officer
Date of EQIA
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
Nick Baker
Maxine Collis/Duncan Ellis
Kate Sullivan
July 2013
Title of activity
Review of the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) Service
2013
As part of the Council’s budget savings exercise a review of
the current CCTV operation was requested by Cabinet as
part of the overall review of services. A paper was presented
to Cabinet in January 2013 to establish a politically balanced
Working Party to oversee the review and make
recommendations to Cabinet. The Terms of Reference for
the group included the requirement to consider options for
the future provision of the service, to identify savings and to
steer the review process, including stakeholder consultation.
Summarise the overall
aims of the activity/
proposal and how it will
achieve them.
The Working Party has arrived at 3 potential options to be
further considered by Cabinet which are as follows;
Option 1 – this involves shared working with Kings Lynn and
West Norfolk and will see the service change from 16hours
proactive monitoring to 24 hour reactive monitoring.
Option 2 – this involves continuing to operate the service in
house but with a slight reduction in monitoring hours but
improving efficiency by investing in wireless technology.
Option 3 – this option covers the decommissioning of the
service which would see the complete removal of the
cameras and the closure of the control room.
Section 2: Impact Assessment
Q1 Indicate whether people with any of the following protected
characteristics below will be affected by the activity / proposal. This
includes: service users and non service users, employees including
members and contract workers, and visitors. Please tick all boxes that
apply.
Sex
Ethnicity (includes, migrant workers, Gypsies & Travellers)
Disabled (e.g. physical disability, mental health, visually or hearing
impaired, learning difficulties, cancer, HIV etc.)
Transgender (People who are proposing to undergo, have
undergone a process (or part of a process) to reassign their sex
changing physiological or other attributes of their sex.
Religion & Belief (includes different faiths and beliefs such as
humanism and people with no religion or belief)
Sexual Orientation (gay, lesbian and bi-sexual)
Age
Civil Partnerships & Marriage
Pregnancy & Maternity
Q2 Describe how the proposed activity may affect people with a
protected characteristic when compared to people without those
characteristics i.e. does the activity or proposal put them at a
disadvantage. You will need to cite the evidence below. Think carefully
about the following areas
1. Do people with certain protected characteristics use the service more than others?
Might the proposal therefore particularly impact on them or people associated with
them, such as their families or carers?
2. The built environment (is it accessible - if not, are reasonable adjustments in
place?) e.g buildings where the activity is taking place.
3. ICT (is it accessible – if not, are adaptive ICT solutions in place?)
4. Communications (customer contact, paper, electronic, verbal etc - is it accessible?)
5. User involvement/participation/consultation (is it inclusive of everyone & does it
accommodate different needs?)
6. Have all reasonable and proportionate options been explored to use the proposed
activity as an opportunity to promote equality for all the protected characteristics?
For example by:
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Removing or minimising disadvantages.
Taking steps to meet the persons needs, this may include treating a person
more favourably if it relates to disability or through the use of Positive Action.
Encouraging persons who share a relevant protected characteristic to
participate in public life or in any other activity in which participation by such
persons is disproportionately low.
7. Have all reasonable and proportionate options been explored to use the
proposed activity as an opportunity to foster good relations between different
groups by tackling prejudice and promoting understanding.
8. Have all reasonable and proportionate options been explored to use the
proposed activity as an opportunity to eliminate unlawful discrimination,
harassment and victimisation;
Enter your description and evidence here. (include file references to
evidence and any other relevant data)
Option 1 – Shared working
Under the shared working proposals with Kings Lynn and West Norfolk (KL)
there are not expected to be any negative effects on any of the groups
detailed above. The current service is operated for 16 hours a day on a
proactive basis, the shared working proposals with KL would actually see the
service increased to 24 hour coverage. This would be on a reactive basis so
the system would only be actively monitored when the control system were
alerted to an incident ie by the police. They would however still record
footage during this period with cameras working on’patrol’.
This option would result in an anticipated saving of around £69k per annum
although there is also a requirement for some capital investment.
As there would still be a service in operation, albeit a reactive one, it is not
felt that there would need to be any further actions taken to mitigate any
impacts as no negative impacts are anticipated.
As this option would see a fundamental change in the service, moving from a
proactive to a reactive service, the current staff would be made redundant.
The profile of the staff affected by this option would suggest there is no
adverse impact because of any protected characteristics.
Option 2 – in house investment
This option would retain the management of the active service in house and
minimise redundancies although there would still be a loss of one part time
post. It would take advantage of wireless technology and increase the future
flexibility of the service while also being popular with stakeholders.
This proposal does however involve a reduction on the hours covered, and
require a significant capital investment. It would involve the introduction of a
wireless system in a rural area, although the feasibility study does indicate
that the system would work in the area, subject to negotiation in relation to
aerial sites.
A visit was undertaken by Cllr Claussen-Reynolds to Great Yarmouth
Borough Council’s CCTV control room which recently moved from optic fibres
to a wireless system. The visit allowed an opportunity to assess the success
of this venture and confirm that there was no loss in quality of picture or
service. It should be noted that other Norfolk CCTV systems are also
considering wireless options.
Option 3 – Decommissioning and closure
The decommissioning of the service would result in the highest saving. It
would mean that the £50,000 for camera upgrades would not be required and
would allow for the space currently occupied by CCTV to be let out (although
this has proven difficult in the past at Fakenham). This option does however
come with a significant reputational risk for the Council and involves making
all of the staff redundant. It is likely to be unpopular with stakeholders and
once decommissioned it unlikely to ever be resurrected.
The Council does however have access to mobile CCTV via the
Environmental Health team if there is any future requirement, although it is
accepted that this would only be suitable for ad hoc use and does not have
the functionality of the CCTV cameras feeding to Fakenham control room.
Q3 Please describe any actions you will take to minimise or remove any
negative impacts of the proposed activity or to promote further equality
of opportunity and good relations.
Action
Outcome
Lead
Officer
End Date
N/A
Any actions taken to mitigated negative impacts of an activity or proposal
should be included in either: your service’s business plan, an appropriate
team member’s appraisal or logged on TEN.
Q4 If any negative impacts can not be minimized or removed state how
the impact can be justified. You must state the evidence for this.
Section 3: Monitoring & Review
You will need to make arrangements to monitor the implementation of the proposed
activity as this will allow you to:
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Easily review your Equality Impact Assessment in future.
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Understand, in practical terms, the impact of the proposed activity once it is
implemented.
Know whether any action to mitigate any negative affect of the proposed activity
has worked such as positive action.
Keep reasonable adjustments under review. For example, the adjustment may
cease to be effective, or where an adjustment would have been unreasonable to
make, changes in circumstances or technological developments may now mean
it is.
Think carefully about the following areas when deciding your monitoring
arrangements:
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Is the same impact being achieved for people with protected characteristics
compared to people without these characteristics – if not, why not?
Are the needs of people with protected characteristics being adequately met,
where these may differ from people without these characteristics?
Is uptake of any opportunities associated with the activity or proposal generally
representative of people with protected characteristics?
Does the customer/staff/volunteer profile reflect North Norfolk’s population – & if
not, why not?
Q5. Please describe your monitoring arrangements here. These can be
managed using the Council’s business management processes e.g.
TEN, appraisals etc.
If option 3 is selected then a Service Level Agreement (SLA) will be
established for the continued operation of the service. This will include
performance targets, quarterly meetings and an annual review which will
incorporate equality issues.
Section 4: EQIA Review
A completed EQIA should never go longer than 3 years without being
reviewed, however it should be reviewed more frequently if the activity, EQIA
and monitoring data suggests this would be beneficial.
You may need to be flexible with this date if there is a change in
circumstances, incident or series of complaints.
Review Date for EQIA
Lead Officer
July 2016
Maxine Collis
Section 5: Reporting your Equality Impact Assessment
1. Committee Reports
a. For activity which requires a committee decision, use the
existing Committee report template. There is a compulsory
section on Equality and Diversity.
2. Projects – Medium and large
a. An EQIA should accompany reporting at stage 3 of the project
management process i.e. when the scope for the project is
defined and the business case is made.
3. Projects - Small
a. A summary statement of the EQIA should be submitted to
relevant personnel before activity commences e.g. team leader,
manager.
The data which needs to be reported is summarized below:
1. That an EQIA has taken place.
2. What the key findings were i.e. whether there were any adverse impact
for customers or staff including: indirect and direct discrimination,
discrimination arising from a disability and discrimination through a
failure to comply with our statutory duty to anticipate and make
reasonable adjustments to a provision, criterion or practice, physical
feature or absence of auxiliary aid which results in a disadvantage to a
Disabled person.
3. How these affects will be mitigated or removed.
4. Where the EQIA can be located.
Signed
Signed
Print Name
Job Title
Date
Duncan Ellis
Head of Assets and Leisure