Fairness for All
Borough of Poole’s Equality Policy
September 2010–2012
Promoting Equality, Celebrating Diversity
Foreword
Promoting Equality, Celebrating Diversity
Borough of Poole’s second Equality Scheme: Sept 2009–2012
Our second Equality Scheme “Fairness for All” sets out our policy commitments and future actions to
promote equality and celebrate diversity. We will do this for and with Poole’s residents and visitors,
our partners and contractors, and our employees and Councillors.
This Scheme is for everyone who uses services, facilities and information provided by, or on behalf
of, the Council.
We recognise that people have different needs, find themselves in different circumstances, and may face
barriers that could limit what they can do and be. We recognise that by promoting equality and celebrating
diversity we will provide better quality services and outcomes for the people of Poole. We see our
Scheme’s commitments as important to achieving real improvements in the way that we work.
We have taken steps forward over the life of our first “Promoting Equality, Respecting Diversity”
Scheme but we know that we are still on a journey. We would like to thank those who have helped us
move forward this far. We know there is much more work to do still.
We have revised the Scheme based on the views of residents and partners but want this to be a ‘living’
programme of work. We will continue to welcome your feedback or suggestions about where we can do
better. We will regularly review and report on our progress and let you know how we are doing.
John McBride
Elaine Atkinson
Chief Executive
Portfolio Holder for Equality
and Social Inclusion
September 2009
Please contact Sue Newell, Corporate Equality Officer
on 01202 633035 or email performance@poole.gov.uk
for more information about our Scheme or to tell us what you think.
Contents
Page
Definitions of Equality and Diversity
4
Our Fairness for All Commitment
5
Our Vision for Fairer Outcomes
5
What Informs Our Commitment
6
Who Delivers Our Commitment
6
Our Commitment Targets
8
How We Will Check and Report How Well We Are Doing
8
Delivering Our Commitment
•
•
•
•
•
•
10
Providing Council services and information in a way that
meets individual needs – simply, fairly and efficiently
10
Enabling people to influence decisions that affect their lives
and no community is hard to reach
12
Building strong, safe and inclusive communities where people
from all backgrounds come together …
12
Enabling people to trust and have confidence in us to tackle
discrimination, abuse and report prejudice incidents …
13
Services enabling people to fulfil their potential and make
choices about their lives and services they use
14
Being an employer of choice, promoting fair pay and equal
access to employment …
15
How We Pay For This Work
18
Sharing Our Approach and Welcoming Your Views
18
Appendices
1. What Informs Our Commitment
19
2. The Law
24
3. Supporting Policies, Standards and Guidance
25
Definitions
Equality
Equality is concerned with breaking down the barriers that block opportunities for certain groups of
people, in society, the workplace, education and so on.
Equality schemes aim to identify and minimise the barriers that exclude people. They take action to
ensure that everyone has equal access to all aspects of life and work.
Eliminating discrimination is important in achieving equality. It is not just the physical environment or
poor policies that create barriers. It is also ways of working, attitudes and stereotypes about different
groups of people.
Diversity
Everybody is different, with different needs and potential. Treating everybody in the same way fails to
recognise the differences between people and can cause unfairness and inequality.
By recognising diversity and meeting different needs effectively, every individual has a better chance
of being able to live and work in the way that is best for them.
Britain and Poole are made up of increasingly diverse communities. The Borough of Poole has a
leadership role to play to make sure people from different backgrounds get on well and value each
other, as well as in promoting the celebration of diversity in our local community.
Our Fairness for All Commitment
We are committed to taking action to:
•
Advance equality of opportunity
•
Foster good relations and positive attitudes towards all people
•
Encourage participation in public life
•
Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
•
Take steps to meet the needs of disabled people, even if this requires ‘more favourable’ treatment.
Our ‘Fairness for All’ commitment covers promoting equality and celebrating diversity on the grounds
of age1, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage & civil partnership1, pregnancy &
maternity2, race, religion and belief, and sexual orientation. These are collectively known as the nine
protected characteristics. Refer to Appendix 2 ‘Equality Act - The Law’..
We also recognise that people on very low incomes or that live in relative poverty may also
experience inequality and reduced life chances. Other groups also need additional support or
specialist services to achieve their aspirations. These include children looked after by the Council and
carers. Our commitment extends to all people who live in and visit Poole.
Our commitment is recognised in our work with partners in Poole’s Sustainable Community
Strategy. Our Corporate Plan ‘Striving for Excellence’ reflects the Council’s continued promise to
promote ‘equality of opportunity’ as one of our values. This shapes everything the Council does.
Our Vision for Fairer Outcomes
We are committed to promoting equality and celebrating diversity in our town, services and
workplace. The outcomes we want to see are:
1. Council services and information provided in a way that meets individual needs – simply, fairly and
efficiently
2. People can influence decisions that affect their lives and no community is ‘hard to reach’
3. Poole being a strong, safe and inclusive community where people from all backgrounds come
together, get on well and diversity is celebrated
4. People trust and have confidence in us to tackle discrimination, abuse and report prejudice
incidents, and are happy with how we deal with it
5. Services enable people to fulfil their potential and make choices about their lives and services 3
they use
6. We are an employer of choice for all our community; promote fair pay and equal access to
employment, training and career development opportunities
Our vision has been shaped by consultation, local research, progress reviews, the Equality
Framework for Local Government, best practice, legislation, inspections and performance measures.
1
This currently only applies to employment but if it becomes law in April 2012 for services and public
functions it will specifically apply to people over 18
2
Applies to employment
3
These may be directly provided by us or on our behalf by other organisations
What Informs Our Commitment
Inspections
What you have
told us
Performance
Indicators
Demographics
Fairness
for All
Scheme
Progress reviews
of equality work
Equality
Framework for
Local Government
Best Practice, Law
Our ‘Fairness for All’ commitment sets out how we will meet our duties under equality legislation. We
aim, however, to carry out our work in the spirit of the law and go beyond the minimum legislative
requirements.
Our ‘Fairness for All’ vision is shaped by our wider learning and experience over the last few years.
Each of the above sources helps us identify issues that we need to address locally and is used in
shaping and designing our service and action planning. Appendix 1 gives more detail.
In the life of this Scheme we recognise the need to involve people on an ongoing basis and to fill
gaps in our knowledge. Our action plan sets out areas where we need to do this. We will regularly
review new information and update it as a result.
Who Delivers Our Commitment
Everyone – our Councillors, employees, suppliers and contractors – is responsible for working
together to meet all our Scheme’s commitments. All Councillors represent and need to reflect the
needs of all parts of our community. However some people have specific responsibilities:
•
Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care and Equality is the Member lead that makes sure that
Cabinet embeds equality and diversity into our policies and culture
•
The Equality Councillor Champion and Councillor Champions and leads for some protected
characteristics support the Portfolio Holder in their Cabinet role. They engage with specific
community groups to better understand local needs, highlight issues and address concerns
•
Chief Executive has overall leadership responsibility for the commitments in the ‘Fairness for
All’ Scheme
•
Strategic Directors are responsible for providing leadership and delivering consistent practice
on the equality and diversity agenda across services
•
Service Unit Heads are responsible for making sure that equality and diversity is considered in
their service delivery and employment practice
•
Line managers are responsible for making sure their teams are aware of the Council’s
‘Fairness for All’ commitments. They should provide support to achieving these and deliver
good practice in their services and employment practice. They are also responsible for
recruiting and employing people fairly.
We require all employees and Councillors to deliver our commitments by:
•
Providing access to services, facilities and information
•
Treating staff and customers fairly, with dignity and respect
•
Reporting and responding to prejudice incidents and complaints in a positive, proactive way
•
Meeting specific needs of service users, the public and those they work with.
We have an Equality Leadership Group. This is made up of:
•
Chief Executive
•
Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care and Equality
•
Equality Councillor Champion
•
Lead representative from the opposition parties
•
Strategic Director with an Equality lead
•
Head of Legal & Democratic Services
•
Corporate Equality Officer.
This Group meets quarterly steer and monitor delivery of the equality objectives and performance
targets. They recommend key decisions to Cabinet. The Corporate Equality Officer supports the
Group by developing, co-ordinating and reporting on the corporate programme of work.
Each unit has an Equality Representative to champion issues in their service; the People Strategy
Group meets quarterly and addresses HR related equality issues; and a Policy and Performance
Officer Group will meet and further mainstream equality at the core of organisational strategy and
policy. Corporate guidance and practice is shared via the intranet and e-learning portal.
Our Commitment Targets
The Equality Framework for Local Government is a national standard that helps us put in place processes
to meet the needs of different people and our legal duties. It has three levels – ‘Developing’, ‘Achieving’1
and ‘Excellent’. We were externally assessed as ‘Achieving’ in September 2009.
By September 2012 we want to meet the ‘Excellent’ level of the Framework
We will also use a number of other national and local performance indicators to monitor progress, measure
success and set improvement targets (see below). We will develop further equality-related targets as a
result of Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs), which will be included in updates of our action plan.
Other examples of key success measures include:
•
Achieve web accessibility standards accredited by disabled people from the Shaw Trust
•
Responding to all prejudice incidents reported to the Council
•
Increase number of domestic violence offenders brought to justice
•
Increase the proportion of our employees from a Black and minority ethnic background
How We Will Check and Report How Well
We Are Doing
We have six Overview and Scrutiny Committees that look at the effectiveness of our policies and
practice in our service delivery. An additional committee exists for decisions that are ‘called-in’ or
challenged. Each committee looks at equality issues in relation to their area of work.
In addition the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee has the overall responsibility for
reviewing our work on equality. A report will be taken to them at least annually to enable them to
assess progress and raise any issues.
We report to Cabinet on the performance indicators used to measure progress against our objectives
every six months. We produce a full annual review to highlight achievements, assess progress and
set future priorities.
We will be looking into how we can work with the Research Equality Network to help shape and
scrutinise our equality work. The Network is made up of community and voluntary sector
organisations with an interest, knowledge and understanding of equality issues.
We will also undertake external assessments against the Equality Framework.
Any performance issues will be referred to the Equality Leadership Group to investigate and take
action on.
1
Level 3 of the former Equality Standard
Framework For Our Approach
Driven by:
Poole Partnership’s Sustainable Community Strategy
Striving For Excellence - our Corporate Plan
Legislation
Led by:
Equality Leadership Group
Implemented via:
Consistent Equality Impact Assessments and
monitoring in all services and partnerships
Embedded through:
Service Unit Equality Champions
Planning and Performance Framework
Programme and Project Management
Customer Service Standards
Communications Guidance
Procurement Strategy
Asset Management Plan
Community Engagement Strategy
Research Governance
Workforce Plan
Appraisals
Training
Outlined in:
Equality specific guidance
Corporate guidance on the above areas
Support to employees:
Trade Union Representatives
Employee Groups
Chaplaincy
Scrutiny and Performance Management through:
Cabinet
Overview and Scrutiny Committees
Customer and community feedback
Progress reviews
Inspections and performance measures
Delivering Our Commitment
This section of the Scheme sets out our policy for delivering our commitment and identifies some of
the areas for improvement and review following on from our first Promoting Equality, Respecting
Diversity Scheme. Our action plan sets out in more detail what we intend to do over the next three
years to further meet our commitments.
1. Providing Council services and information in a way that
meets individual needs – simply, fairly and efficiently
Our vision for customer service is to provide people with the highest quality services we can afford, in
a way that meets their individual needs – simply, fairly and efficiently – at times and in places that are
convenient and accessible.
Treating people fairly
We are committed to treating people fairly and according to their needs. We already have standards
for our Customer Service Unit and all services are encouraged to work to them. The standards say
that when you make contact with us we will:
•
Be easy to deal with and provide quality responses to your queries
•
Treat you fairly, equally and with respect
•
Ensure your privacy in all your dealings with us
•
Try to give you all the advice and information you need the first time you contact us
•
Where appropriate, give you a case number or reference number and contact details relating to
your enquiry
•
Advise you of relevant timescales for responding to your enquiry
•
Where it is not possible for us to meet the standards we have set, keep you updated on the
progress with your enquiry and let you know when a full response can be provided
•
Keep information on our website and in our reception areas up to date.
We aim to deliver the highest standard of service to all our customers. In return we ask you to:
•
Help our employees to help you effectively by being patient when asked for information and by
providing answers where you can
•
Not use any foul or abusive language
•
Let us know if you have any specific access needs
•
Ask us to explain anything you are not sure of
•
Arrive on time for appointments and tell us in advance if you are going to be late.
Access to information
We aim to provide our information in an accessible way. This means we will:
•
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Use plain English
•
Follow our guidance on making printed information accessible and make it clear that we will
help people understand the information and / or provide other formats, such as large print, Easy
Read, audio tapes
•
Provide access to services through BigWord written and telephone translation services and
RNID’s Text Relay service for contacting deaf and speech-impaired customers by telephone
•
Make arrangements for a sign language interpreter and other face to face language interpreters
when necessary
•
Use positive images that reflect all sectors of our local community
•
Meet web-accessibility standards on boroughofpoole.com
We will review use of our intranet to improve employees’ access to information and improve access to
translations and interpreting services.
Access to buildings
We audit buildings and facilities run by the Council for their disability access. We will work to ensure that
people with physical disabilities are able to access and use our buildings and the surrounding environment
using the same route as other people. Signage will be simple, clear and use symbols. Entry systems,
reception points and meeting rooms will be adjusted for ease of access and communication.
All new and refurbished Council buildings will be fully accessible.
Access to meetings
We will make sure events and meetings are easy to access. We expect meeting organisers to ask people
in advance if they have any special requirements such as diet, access or communication support. We ask
people what their most suitable form of support is and then seek to arrange this. Where people need
communications support, this will be provided. When food and drink is made available, special diets must
be identified and catered for, different food separated and clearly labelled.
When people attend meetings we plan for emergency evacuations. Organisers must consider how
best to evacuate disabled attendees.
Events, meetings, facilities and services must take account of people’s ability to get to them. This
includes public transport links, disabled parking bays, slopes or steps around the building. When
setting a date or time commitments such as caring responsibilities and religious holidays or Sabbaths,
including the implications of fasting, should be considered.
Buying or commissioning goods and services
Where we buy or commission goods and services we expect contractors, suppliers and consultants to
meet equality legislation and standards. A review of our Corporate Procurement Strategy will provide
refreshed procedures that will clearly set out our expectations. These will be mandatory and apply
across all Service Units and local authority community schools, and will be monitored for compliance.
Employees and Members will be trained on their use. Contracts will not be awarded if commitment to
promoting equality is not demonstrated. Breaches may lead to termination of contracts.
11
Monitoring fair access to services
We collect data about our customers and employees, which we use to identify trends and patterns. It
will help us see if we apply our policies fairly or if they have any unintentional consequences. We look
for under or over-representation of different groups of people and use this information to take action
where needed.
Where relevant and appropriate, data will be collected on the protected characteristics. We may
collect other information, such as first language or cultural or religious needs, where this will help
deliver our services.
We will implement new guidance about gathering, collecting, using and storing this information
sensitively, consistently and appropriately.
2. Enabling people to influence decisions that affect their lives
and no community is hard to reach
We are committed to enabling people to influence our service design and delivery, and in setting our
priorities. This includes minority, disadvantaged, and emerging communities or groups so they are not
hard to reach. We want this involvement to be meaningful, and will therefore be honest about what
we can and cannot achieve or do.
Over the past three years we have improved the research and community development taking place
in Poole. We recognise, however, there are gaps in our knowledge and contact with specific equality
communities or groups. To strengthen this work we will formalise and focus on how we enable people
from Poole’s diverse communities to have a more effective say.
We will also be developing a prioritised programme of research with ‘hard to hear’ groups. This will be
used to inform our service plans. A review of our Research Governance Framework, which includes
equality elements, will be used to check how effectively the issues are considered in our research.
3. Building strong, safe and inclusive communities where
people from all backgrounds come together …
We are committed to fostering safe, strong communities where people feel included and everyone
can contribute and support one another. This involves developing a strong community and voluntary
sector that supports and represents a diverse range of Poole people. This would include
organisations such as Dorset Race Equality Council, Faithlinks, Poole Forum, Dorset Deaf Action and
Dorset Blind Association. We will work with Poole Community and Voluntary Services (PCVS) and
Dorset Race Equality Council to strengthen and broaden the diversity of this sector.
We regularly support events and activities in our communities. We want to make sure these appeal to a
diverse range of people and that people with specific needs can attend Council organised events. We can
help community groups seeking support and advice for particular events that celebrate diversity.
We also offer advice and support on setting up community groups including the Council’s annual grant
process and the Council’s mini grants scheme (maximum of £250), which can help newly forming groups.
We work closely with PCVS, who support community groups and promote volunteering for the benefit of
Poole’s communities. PCVS can also advise and support groups to gain funding.
12
In 2007, we launched the Safer Neighbourhoods initiative with the Police and other agencies. It is now
working in seven local areas across Poole. Through the scheme local residents decide what the most
important community safety issues are for them, and are then involved in finding and delivering
solutions to their concerns.
We support the work of the Safer Poole Partnership. This is made up of local agencies who tackle
crime and substance misuse together. They monitor the types and levels of crime and make sure
there are local services to support people who are affected. Their priorities include providing support
services to domestic abuse victims, and ensuring the safety and well-being of children and adults.
Over the coming three years we will be addressing how we work with communities to develop a
strong sense of belonging and a shared vision for Poole through a Community Cohesion Framework.
4. Enabling people to trust and have confidence in us to tackle
discrimination, abuse and report prejudice incidents …
We aim to challenge all forms of discrimination where we find them. We encourage people to report
any issues either through our complaints or ‘Prejudice Incidents Reporting’ processes.
Making a Complaint Against the Council
We have a complaints process to encourage people to tell us what we are doing wrong so that we
can try to put it right. We take complaints seriously. It is an opportunity to listen to those who use our
services to see how services can be improved. People can tell us through this process if they think
they have been subject to discrimination, prejudice or harrassment.
We aim to deal with complaints within 15 working days of receiving one. A review of the complaint
outcome can be requested. We aim to deliver this within 20 working days of its referral. Reviews are
carried out by a Strategic Director, who is independent of the service.
Complainants also have the right to refer the issue to the Local Government Ombudsman, whose job
it is to investigate complaints in a fair and independent way without taking sides.
We encourage people to tell us about themselves when they make a complaint. This allows us to
identify if there are particular equality issues that have led to the complaint being made. We then
consider what we need to do so that it does not happen again.
We are currently working to make customer feedback processes more consistent across the Council.
We want to improve how that feedback is used to inform service development.
Prejudice incidents
We also encourage people to tell us when they have experienced or witnessed any incident that they
think is discriminatory based on age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, faith/belief, race and
sexual orientation, or a combination of any of these. A ‘prejudice incident’ could have happened on
the street, at school or work. It could be a crime but it may also be a complaint against a service, an
outcome or a member of staff. We provide training to our staff on what to do if someone reports an
incident to them or if they witness or experience an incident.
13
We follow up on every report. Our Community Safety Team check how well we respond to reports. They
may be able to help residents where the incident is community based. We also monitor reports collectively
with the Police and other agencies, through the Bournemouth and Poole Prejudice Free Group, to see
where there are particular problems. We then take action together to provide support to particular
communities or groups of people, for example for Take Away Restaurants or taxi drivers. We will also
campaign together to raise awareness of the reporting process and put help in place for those affected.
The complaints process and the Prejudice Incident Reporting are linked so a problem can be raised
under either process and should be dealt with effectively. We will review how well the two processes
work together.
Annual reports on complaints and Prejudice Incidents are reported to our Management Team.
Learning from complaints feeds into our Equality Impact Assessment process.
5. Services enabling people to fulfil their potential and
make choices about their lives and services2 they use
To make sure that we enable people to reach their potential and have choices about services, we will
make equality and diversity part of our thinking and culture. We expect managers to consider equality
and diversity in all aspects of their business, project and programme plans.
We use a tool called Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) to guide our thinking. This helps us to
systematically consider how to best meet people’s needs across the equality strands and reduce any
potential negative impacts. We use EQIAs when a new policy or service is being developed or changed.
EQIAs make use of national and local data, consultation and other feedback to inform developments.
EQIAs should:
•
Be clear so people can understand how decisions are made
•
Show how the service impacts on and meets the needs of different communities
•
Allow people to feed into or challenge decisions
Our revised Planning & Performance Framework guidance will reflect the need to undertake EQIAs, making it
integral to these processes. Our Programme and Project Management guidance already includes this.
Our Management Team, Cabinet, and Overview and Scrutiny Committees expect to see evidence of
EQIAs. This enables them to make informed decisions about meeting the needs of specific groups of
people. Committee administrators will check that equality implications are outlined in decision-making
reports before they are sent to Councillors.
All EQIAs are published on our website and will be reviewed every three years. We update and
publish service units’ EQIA timetables.
We will update our EQIA toolkit and continue to provide training to managers.
2
14
These may be directly provided by us or on our behalf by other organisations
6. Being an employer of choice, promoting fair pay and
equal access to employment …
We want to be an employer of choice that reflects all sections of our community. This means
providing equality of opportunity in all aspects of our employment practice. We value and want to
make best use of employees’ different competencies, skills and knowledge, and the contribution they
make to the organisation. We value diversity because of the opportunities and rich experiences that
this brings to the Council.
All staff must be treated fairly and we expect everyone to be treated with dignity and respect at work.
We are committed to and work towards promoting a working environment free from all forms of
unacceptable behaviour.
We carry out and publish EQIAs on our Human Resources policies and practice.
Recruiting people fairly
We advertise all our job vacancies on boroughofpoole.com and with JobCentrePlus. We also use local
press and, where appropriate, national press, specialist publications and relevant websites. Our adverts
and supporting information use positive images that reflect the diverse nature of our community.
We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Positive About Disabled People ‘Two Ticks’ employer.
We are assessed against these Schemes. ‘Two Ticks’ commits us to interview all disabled applicants
who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy.
We give priority to internal candidates where they have skills and experience appropriate to a job in
special circumstances, such as redundancy and redeployment.
Each role has a job description and person specification that outlines the main responsibilities and
criteria required to undertake the role. These must not include criteria that could directly or indirectly
discriminate against a potential applicant. When recruiting to new posts, we measure applicants on
whether they meet the person specification. We do not have essential or desirable criteria. We judge
applicants on their ability to meet various competencies, not the length of experience in a role.
Genuine Occupational Qualifications/Requirements may apply to some jobs. For example, recruiting a
female worker to work with women affected by domestic violence.
We positively consider applications from those seeking to work part time or job share.
We will take lawful positive action to achieve a workforce who reflect our community at all levels. We will
use specialist media/events to target under-represented communities or training/development/workplacement opportunities targeted at certain people where we think this will be beneficial.
Our interview processes are designed to be free from bias and to promote equality of opportunity. For
example, a candidate will not be asked questions – formally or informally – that are not directly
relevant to the job (for example, questions about family life or hobbies).
All managers involved in the interview process are encouraged to attend our two-day Recruitment and
Selection course. This covers our Recruitment and Selection guidance and best practice for interview
procedures. At least one member of an interview panel must have attended the course. We also
encourage services to consider the gender balance of interview panels.
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Monitoring fair access to employment
To ensure fair practice, we will monitor our employment practice for those who:
•
Apply for jobs, are shortlisted, interviewed and get the job
•
Apply and receive training and development opportunities
•
Have been involved in grievance or disciplinary procedures
•
Leave the organisation
Service Unit Heads will receive monitoring reports on their service area and be given guidance about
taking action to address any imbalances. For our workforce as a whole targets are set, monitored and
reported on to Management Team and Cabinet. Each year the results will be published on our website.
Providing appropriate training
We expect all our staff to understand and be confident about delivering our ‘Fairness for All’
commitments and their legal obligations in relation to their role. We support them to achieve this
through training and development.
An introduction to our equality and diversity commitments starts in our Corporate Induction Programme. A
further understanding of this and our legal duties is provided in our mandatory Fairness for All training.
Additional training is available and provided according to job roles, including:
•
Welcoming Disabled Customers
•
Dyslexia Awareness Training
•
Prejudice Incident Training
•
Equality Impact Assessment Training (for Managers)
•
Recruitment and Selection Training
•
Carer’s Rights Workshop
•
Gypsies and Travellers: Lifestyles, beliefs and practices
•
Trans-gender Awareness Training
•
Life and customs of the Polish community, …Chinese Community
•
Understanding Judaism, … Islam, … Christianity
Other mainstream courses, such as appraisal and business planning, include our equality and diversity
commitment at their core. Equality and Diversity intranet pages provide access to advice and guidance.
This and our Talking Matters staff newsletter keep all employees informed of new developments.
Members’ Equality training has been provided in modules. A full Member induction programme will be
developed.
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Listening to our employees
We listen to the experiences of our employees to improve our employment practice on an ongoing basis.
We carry out a staff survey every two years and look at statistically significant differences in
satisfaction in relation to different service areas, age, gender, and where possible disability, race,
sexual orientation and faith.
We will continue to engage with Trade Unions. Our employee support groups are also consulted in
the development or review of relevant policies.
We have also carried out equality specific consultation with employees through our Investors in
People re-assessment and a series of ‘All things being equal’ discussion forums in 2009. Actions
arising from this are included in our Fairness for All Scheme.
Employee concerns
Employees have the right to raise a complaint relating to equality and diversity, and to do this in good
faith and without being victimised. Our grievance procedure aims to resolve problems as early as
possible and as close to the point of origin. We hope to avoid formal grievances through effective
communication and early discussion between employees and their immediate line managers.
Employees are encouraged to follow our Dignity At Work Policy if they have any concerns about
bullying. Employees can also raise an issue under the Prejudice Incident Reporting Process. Affected
employees are given information on appropriate support, such as:
•
Unions
•
Chaplaincy – which is open to people of all faiths and none
•
Counselling or Occupation Health Services
•
An Employee Group
•
Buddies
•
Human Resources
Grievances are included in the monitoring data we collect and will be reported as part of our
employment practice.
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How We Pay For This Work
Most equality work is about making sure our services and employment opportunities are accessible to
everyone. As a result we plan how we can best use our resources through Medium Term Financial
Planning, annual budget setting and business planning process.
In doing so we will seek to target resources for groups and communities as appropriate and within the
overall means available to us in the short to medium term future. Priorities will be identified using
Equality Impact Assessments.
Some work is undertaken on a short-term, small-scale project basis. Funding this may be planned as part
of the annual budget planning cycle or could be funded by, or in partnership with, external organisations.
Some large costs (such as making Council buildings accessible) need to be planned and budgeted
for. They will be prioritised and carried out over several years.
We have a small dedicated ‘Corporate Equality Budget’. This is used for:
•
External scrutiny
•
Supporting events and activities for celebrating diversity
•
Consultation and research with minority or disadvantaged communities and employees
•
Producing guidance, campaigns and communications
•
Supporting telephone language translations
Our rolling medium term financial plan will more clearly demonstrate how resources will be allocated
to help meet our equality commitments in future years.
Sharing Our Approach and Welcoming Your Views
We will continue to update guidance and our approach, where needed, over time. Employees and
Councillors will be kept informed of new developments so they can keep in touch with what is expected of
them via our intranet, staff newsletter, People Strategy Group and our Service Unit Equality Champions.
Our equality and diversity pages on boroughofpoole.com provide a range of information about our
work. Every year we will publish progress reports against this Scheme on this site. We also aim to
keep the community informed about progress and developments through ‘Poole News’, our website
and the media.
This Scheme will be made available in a summary version and a range of different formats. It is a
‘living’ programme of work that is updated annually and fully reviewed after three years. We want to
involve people on an ongoing basis, continue to develop our knowledge and make improvements. We
welcome comments and suggestions on our equality work and how the issues affect you.
Please contact Sue Newell, Corporate Equality Officer, on 01202 633035 or e-mail
performance@poole.gov.uk for more information or if you have a complaint to make under this Scheme.
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Appendix 1: What Informs Our Commitment
Demographic information, research and consultation
We use this to continuously review and inform our work. For the most up to date information see:
www.boroughofpoole.com/research
What you have told us
We use the feedback from consultation and participation activities (which may be carried out by
ourselves or others) as well as other feedback to inform what we do. This includes comments,
compliments, complaints or prejudice incident reports.
Research and consultation
We undertake regular consultation through, for example, the Place Survey or Poole Opinion Panel. In these we
look for statistically significant differences in opinions between different types of people, for example by age,
gender, disability and MOSIAC groups. When designing research we seek to identify and consider specific
equalities issues need to be addressed. Recent examples of equality specific consultation are:
•
Fair Say consultation has led to amendments to the ‘Fairness for All’ Scheme. Three
consultation sessions were held at Lighthouse. In total, 93 residents took part in the event, and
over 20 organisations were represented. Feedback was also invited through our website and a
leaflet provide in a range of formats (Polish, Easy Read, Audio).
•
A Time of Our Lives – Poole’s older people strategy is based on the views and ideas put forward by
the older population during a variety of consultation exercises and three annual ‘Older People’s
Speak Out’ events. The Older People’s Services Steering Group oversees progress the Strategy.
•
The Children and Young People’s Plan is based on and reviewed in light of an annual Children
and Young People’s Needs Assessment that identifies inequalities for different groups of
children and their families in the different areas of Poole.
•
Gypsy Housing Needs Assessment led to the redevelopment of the existing Traveller site and
engagement with the community about a site allocation policy.
•
In 2006 the ‘Positive about Disability’ consultation offered disabled people the opportunity to
share their experiences of living and working in Poole, to tell agencies what is important to them,
the barriers they face and what can be done to overcome them. This informed the development
of our disability equality work.
We use other local relevant research, such as Gay and Grey’s research ‘Lifting the Lid on ageing and
sexuality’ and Dorset Healthcare Trusts report ‘Needs not Numbers’, which was about mental health
needs of Dorset’s BME community, to inform decision-making. NHS Bournemouth and Poole
commissioned consultation about the needs of gay and lesbian young people from the SPACE Youth
Group. As a result we commissioned SPACE to work with LBGT young people in Poole to develop
local activities. National research and benchmarking is also used to inform service planning.
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Community Engagement and Development
Some community engagement examples are set out below:
•
Locality work with older people has improved access to health and social care services in people’s
homes, which in turn has decreased avoidable hospital stays. Older People’s Steering Groups led to
new services being developed such as podiatry, exercise classes and a new range of community
social care and well-being services. Older people have also become much more involved in the
recruitment of Council employees, taking an active part in some selection panels.
•
The Annual Performance Assessment (APA) praised the rate of participation of young people in
helping to develop the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP). This includes initiatives such as
the CYP Shadow Board, Inclusion Forum, school councils, Youth Forum, Anti-Bullying Alliance and
further specific consultations, such as Children and Young People’s consultation 2009.
•
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Engagement with BME communities has improved but needs to be better co-ordinated and
extended. This includes:
•
with Dorset Healthcare Foundation Trust’s BME Community Development work to improve
access to mental health services
•
funding and other support to Dorset Race Equality Council, and groups such as Poole
Indian Cultural Society, Unity in Vision, Dorset Bengali Women’s Association and
Bournemouth’s Chinese School
•
funding a community development worker to work with settled Gypsy and Travellers, and
work with South West Association of Nomads and those on the existing Travellers’ site
•
support to Multi-Cultural days and other BME community events.
•
Dialogue with the faith sector takes place via the Standing Advisory Councils on Religious
Education for Schools, and through Chaplaincy and an interfaith project, Faithlinks, which is
funded by the Council. Engagement with the Poole-based Dorset Islamic Centre has helped
find them a new, larger premises and resolved issues around burials. We also support the work
of a church-based community worker in the regeneration area of Poole, which supports the
integration of existing and new communities in the area.
•
International Women’s Day is an annual event that is organised and involves a wide range of
local women. The day highlights women’s contribution to the local area as well as profiles local
services to ‘hard to reach’ groups of women.
•
Established ways of engaging with people with a learning disability are through Poole Forum, a
user led organisation funded by the Council. They are commissioned to service our Learning
Disability Partnership Board and are routinely involved in all staff interviews. In 2009 they took
part in the tendering process for new care and support providers and volunteers are being
trained as quality checkers for the ‘Moving on from Hospital’ project.
•
PRO Disability, Disability Wessex and other specific user groups, including Dorset Blind
Association, Dorset Deaf Action, and Broadstone Access Group have contact with different parts
of the Council. Transportation’s ‘Getting About Group’ influences its transport plans and
developments in the town. Partners have also engaged others through the Expert Patient
Programme and the Mental Health Service User Forum. We are looking at how we can support
the development of local user-led (disability) organisations in the conurbation.
•
Engagement with the gay community includes addressing homophobic incidents through
Bournemouth and Poole Prejudice Free Group. We are developing our engagement with the
SPACE Youth Group. We have contact with organisations, such as Over the Rainbow, the MCC
Church and Body Positive (funding them through Supporting People Programme) and have a
presence at the annual Bourne Free celebration.
Complaints and prejudice incidents
From the equalities monitoring information about who is making complaints we found that a significant
number of ‘longer-running’ complaints relate to a person’s physical disability. Problems generally arise
because the service has not identified disability as a key factor in the complaint or request for service from
the beginning. More rare are issues related to mental, sensory loss or learning disability or other equalities
issues, possibly because affected people may not be aware of the complaints process. As a result we have
plans in place to improve complaints training, monitoring and to provide information in other formats.
Analysis of prejudice incidents informs the support given, for example, by our Community Safety
Team to neighbour disputes; anti-bullying work in schools, and training to schools and Take Away
Restaurant owners.
Progress reviews
We annually review and report progress on the equalities agenda to Cabinet. We also undertook a 3 year
race equality review in May 2008. See below for some examples of key achievements from 2005/08:
For the latest review see: www.boroughofpoole.com/fairnessforall
Supporting Children and Young People
•
Published our Children and Young People’s Plan
•
Established six Children’s Centres across Poole, which are supporting vulnerable families in the
areas of highest need in Poole. Work has included fathers’ groups, groups for ethnic minority,
parents/carers and grandparent groups
•
Ten schools have achieved the Poole Inclusion Mark
•
Published a strategy for raising achievement of Traveller and Black and minority ethnic children
and young people, and provided ongoing race equality training and support to schools
21
•
Developed English Language support to children whose first language is not English through
bi‑lingual teaching assistants scheme
•
Developed an Anti-Bullying Strategy and Children and Young People Led Anti-Bullying Alliance
which has looked at racist and homophobic bullying
Promoting Health and Well-Being
•
Developed and published ‘A Time of Our Lives’, our Older People’s Strategy
•
Improved access to health and social care services in people’s homes, which in turn has decreased
avoidable hospital stays. Older People’s Steering groups led to new services being developed such
as podiatry, exercise classes and a new range of community social care and well-being services
•
Established a new, accessible mobile library to improve services to residential care and nursing
homes, and people who do not live near a static library
•
Improved take up of direct payments so that disabled people and parents of children with
disabilities can have a greater choice over the social care services they receive
•
Increased the take up of benefits by older people
•
Relaunched Poole Forum – a speaking up group run for and with people with learning disabilities
•
Supported Dorset Healthcare Foundation Trust’s research and ongoing work on the mental
health of local Black and minority ethnic communities
•
Improved disability access to our Leisure Centres
Protecting Poole’s Environment
•
Improved disabled access at recreational and leisure facilities around Poole. These include play
areas, fishing platforms and at the beaches
•
Set up ‘no cold calling’ zones with the Police in three areas of Poole. These help prevent
residents using rogue trades who sell goods and services door-to-door and prevent distraction
burglaries affecting older people
•
Amended the burial policy for Muslims to enable them to be buried facing Mecca without
additional costs
Strengthening Our Communities
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•
Increased support to more diverse community groups and events, supported a wide range of
arts and cultural activities which have celebrated diversity
•
Redeveloped our existing Gypsy and Traveller site
•
Facilitated an increasing number of civil partnerships and funerals
•
Enhanced support to those affected by Domestic Violence
•
Launched the Safer Neighbourhoods Initiative across seven areas of Poole
•
Extended the racist and homophobic incident reporting to cover all equality strands and
increased reporting levels from 20 in 05/06 to 46 in 08/09
•
Safer Poole Partnership funded the production of a DVD and teaching pack looking at prejudice
and discrimination, “harassment journals” (an evidence diary to be used as court evidence), and
Late Night Safety Training for Black and minority ethnic take away restaurants
Developing a Dynamic Economy
•
Set up the Cosmopolitan Business Initiative, which promotes dialogue with local BME
businesses and raise awareness of help available to them
•
Provided ‘Induction to Communicating in English’ (ICE) training for migrant workers who are in
employment through local employers
•
Supported up to 60 disabled people a year into employment through the Workstep programme
and implemented the ‘Bridge to Work’ Programme, to help those who have been unemployed
for a long time into work
•
Supported Skillsfest, which is a hands-on jobs fayre for young people. Over 8000 pupils went in
2008 which is 1,500 more than in 2007
•
Provided translated food safety workshops for BME-owned restaurants
•
Improved access to transport for older people and those with disabilities through improved
facilities at bus stops and pedestrian crossings; implementing the concessionary fare scheme
for over 60s and travel training for people with learning disabilities
•
Amended route 128 bus service to serve Upton House to facilitate learning disabled people to
access work placements
Mainstreaming equalities into our business and employment practice
•
Established a cross-party Equalities Leadership Group to shape and monitor progress against
the agenda
•
Undertaken Equality Impact Assessments across the Council and improved our understanding
of the needs of different equalities groups to inform services
•
Improved disability access to Council buildings and schools, and published guidance on
emergency evacuation for disabled visitors and employees
•
Signed up to the Plain English Campaign, implemented BIG Word language translation
services, and improved website accessibility
•
Invested significantly in equalities and diversity training across the whole organisation and
established a more comprehensive training programme
•
Reviewed the Council’s staff appraisal process, which now includes setting equality objectives
for individual employees
•
Undertaken Equal Pay audits targeted at groups of female employees where there have been
potential equal pay issues. An analysis undertaken indicates that 1662 employees have
benefited from equal pay reviews already undertaken, including 1514 female employees (91%)
Equality Framework, best practice and legislation
We review our progress against the Equality Framework for Local Government annually. We are also
committed to a number of other national best practice standards that aim to support our employees,
and potential employees, to have a positive experience. In 2008 we were successfully re-assessed as
an Investors in People employer. We are also a Stonewall Diversity Champion, ‘Positive about
Disabled People’ and ‘Skills pledge’ employer (which develops the basic skills of all employees).
We maintain a watching brief and update our policies following changes to legislation.
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Appendix 2: The Law
Our Scheme helps us meet the Equality Act 2010 requirements, which became law in October
2010. It replaces previous equality legislation.
These legal duties continue to apply to our role in the community, service delivery (including
the procurement of goods, services and works) and our employment practice.
It covers the same groups that were protected but extends some protections to groups not
previously covered, and also strengthens particular aspects of past law.
For more information see: www.equalityhumanrights.com
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Appendix 3
Supporting Policies, Standards and Guidance
‘Walking in someone else’s shoes’ - Equality Impact Assessment
Guidance Accessible Meetings Checklist
‘How to’ Accessible Communications Guidance and
statement Accessible Communications Suppliers
Design Standards for Printed Materials
Equality Monitoring Guidance For Service Delivery;
Emergency Evacuation Planning for Employees and
Visitors Prejudice Reporting Process Guidance and
Support Pack Research Governance Framework and
Consultation Brief Procurement Toolkit
Asset Management Plan
Workforce Plan and Recruitment and Selection
Guidance Customer Services Standards
Customers First Programme Definition Document
For Human Resource Policies see:
HR Handbook for Managers including Recruitment and Selection Guidelines
Employee Handbook including Dignity At Work Policy
Corporate Training Planner
Acknowledgement
Borough of Poole would like to acknowledge Devon County Council’s Fair for All Programme in aiding
the development of this Scheme.
Version 2: Updated November 2010
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