Equalities Impact Assessment
Waste Minimisation Initiatives
Date: August 2007
Record of Equality Impact Assessment
1. Department/Service Area
Department of Highways, Transportation and Waste Management – Waste
Management, Waste Minimisation Initiatives.
2. Equality Areas Assessed
Race, Disability, Gender and Age, Religion or Belief, Sexual Orientation
3. Timescale of the assessment
19th July 2007 to the 31st August, 2007
4. Who is involved in the EIA? (There should be a minimum of at least 3
officers)
Waste Minimisation officer, Team Leader and Waste Policy Manager.
5. Policy, procedure, service assessed
What is its purpose?
Leicestershire County Council (LCC), as a member of the Leicestershire
Waste Management Partnership, have adopted a Municipal Waste
Management Strategy that sets out how the Partnership intends to manage
municipal waste up to 2020 and beyond.
The Strategy contains a number of core objectives, which set out the
Partnership’s principal aims. Core objective 1 relates to the Partnership’s
intention to prioritise waste prevention.
‘Objective 1: Manage materials in accordance with the Waste Management
Hierarchy – in order of preference, prevention, re-use, recycle/compost,
recovery, disposal – except where costs are prohibitive, or where the
environmental consequences can be demonstrated to be negative’
A waste prevention plan for the Partnership is currently being formulated.
However, LCC already carry out a number of waste prevention initiatives
including the promotion of real (washable) nappies.
Waste prevention and reuse are the top tiers of the waste management
hierarchy. A programme of initiatives will engage households in reducing the
volume of waste needing to be managed in Leicestershire. A secondary
benefit is likely to be the awareness raising resulting from engagement in the
initiatives, this is likely to have benefits for the performance of the recycling
and composting aspects of the Strategy.
Who is it for?
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Services available to all Leicestershire residents.
6. Data Collection and consultation
What data has been collected on different sections of the community, e.g. on
ethnic origin, disability, gender, age, faith/religion and/or sexual orientation?
Other Data Considered
As part of the assessment we considered a number of reports that gave us an
insight into the demographic make up of Leicestershire and whether any of
this information would have a bearing on our assessment. The reports we
considered were:
 Cohesive Communities in Leicestershire (2007 LCC)
 Ethnicity in Leicestershire – Results from the 2001 Census (LCC)
 Report on the preparation, Facilitation and Verdict of the Citizens Jury
for Disabled People in Leicestershire. (Equal Ability 2004)
 BME Citizens Jury Action Plan (LCC 2005)
This service area and its actions are directly linked to the Leicestershire
Municipal Waste Management Strategy 2006.The Strategy is a revision of one
adopted in 2002. Local people were consulted during the development of the
original strategy and during the revision to produce the current Strategy there
were a range of community and stakeholder involvement initiatives. A variety
of approaches were adopted to ensure that the development of the strategy
engaged the Leicestershire public as well as organisations with a particular
interest in the proposals. Detailed reports on Community Involvement are
available. These cover Public Consultation; the Stakeholder Group; Focus
Groups and the Community Panel. The priorities in this service area are
consistent with the findings of this broad consultation. The strategy has also
been subject to an EIA.
The initiatives in place include our Real Nappy £30 Cashback scheme. This
allows parents to claim £30 Cashback when they spend £30 or more on Real
Nappies. Parents are required to fill out our application form and return it to us
with receipts attached as proof of purchase. Data has been collected in
relation to the Real Nappy Cashback scheme that is in place. The application
form requests name, address and telephone number along with the babies
date of birth.
In addition to this scheme is the Real Nappy Lending Kit. This allows parents
to borrow a kit of nappies for two weeks. The kit contains different types of
Real Nappies so parents can find out which system suits them before they
commit themselves to spending any money. This scheme is free of charge to
Leicestershire County Council residents. A deposit cheque of £150 is required
which is returned once the lending kit has been sent back.
The Real Nappy Lending Kit also requires address details in order for the kits
to be delivered by a member of the Real Nappy Network. A postcard being
inserted into all Bounty Packs in the hospitals in Leicestershire advertises the
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Real Nappy Lending Kit.
Open days are also held around the County. The open days are rotated
around the districts where possible. Open days have nappies for sale and
help and advice on real nappies. It is also an opportunity to promote our
Cashback and lending schemes.
Work at hospitals has included open days, which are for both hospital staff
and the public. A buffet is provided and free samples of nappies for parents
and demo kits for health visitors are available.
Sure Start is a Government programme which aims to achieve better
outcomes for children, parents and communities by:
 increasing the availability of childcare for all children
 improving health and emotional development for young children
 Supporting parents as parents and in their aspirations towards
employment.
Working with Sure Start allows us to target a wide range of parents and allows
us to educate them on the advantages of Real Nappies.
Advertisements that promote Real Nappies are diverse. We have been
involved with bus back advertisements, newspaper advertisements and
promotions through hospitals.
Nappuccinos are informal coffee mornings where parents can come along and
find out more about Real Nappies.
Reusable Bags Reusable bags are available and are promoted to all
Leicestershire County Council residents. One bag is issued per household.
There are two types of bag offered namely cotton and jute bags.
What information is available on the different rates of satisfaction; take
up of service, complaints and other relevant performance information in
relation to the different groups of people outlined above?
A questionnaire is handed out to parents that take part in our real nappy
lending kit. This gives all parents that take part the chance to feed back
information to us.
No data collected is divided into the different sub groups.
At present we monitor the split between districts as to how many people have
received bags. There is no data collected with regards to ethnic origin,
disability, gender, age, faith/religion or sexual orientation.
What consultation has been carried out and do the results provide data for
different sections of the community?
No consultation has been carried so far.
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What other sources of information have been used to carry out this
assessment?
As part of the assessment we considered a number of reports that gave us an
insight into the demographic make up of Leicestershire and whether any of
this information would have a bearing on our assessment. The reports we
considered were:




Cohesive Communities in Leicestershire (2007 LCC)
Ethnicity in Leicestershire – Results from the 2001 Census (LCC)
Report on the preparation, Facilitation and Verdict of the Citizens Jury for
Disabled People in Leicestershire. (Equal Ability 2004)
BME Citizens Jury Action Plan (LCC 2005)
Further data was collected from 2001 Census data from Leicestershire County
Councils web site regarding age proportions in each district.
Findings
In summary what are the main results of the assessment?
Age
At present we do not collect data on the ages of applicants that take part in
the lending kit or the Cashback scheme. A questionnaire also given out at
Nappuccino as well as with the lending kit but does not include this question.
Disability
We do not have any data on the proportion of users with a disability or longterm illness that take part in our schemes. The open days and Nappuccinos
that are held always provide access for wheelchairs.
Gender
All schemes and advertisements are aimed at parents and are not aimed at
mums alone. At present we have not got any data on the gender of people
attending open days.
With regards to the Cashback and lending kit schemes there is no data
collected on which gender has applied for the schemes.
Ethnicity
The BME population is at its highest in Charnwood which is where we have
the highest number of applicants for the Cashback scheme and the lending
kit. The Census information shows that Oadby and Wigston also have a
higher proportion of BME but our schemes have a lower proportion of
Cashback returns from these areas.
We do not hold any information as to how many people have applied for any
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of our nappy schemes from the different ethnic backgrounds.
Religion or Belief
There is no data collected from any of the real nappy initiatives in relation to
religion or belief. We do not target any of our promotions at specific groups
other than parents. All parents are welcome to take part in our schemes.
Sexual Orientation
No data is collected in relation to sexual orientation. All Leicestershire parents
are welcome to take part in all of our scheme regardless of their sexual
orientation.
Which groups or individuals are most affected and how does this effect
their access to the service?
No one group has been affected, these initiatives are available to all
Leicestershire residents.
8. Conclusions
Does the policy, procedure or service have an adverse impact on the groups
being assessed?
The results show that we do not have sufficient evidence on the issues
analysed above in terms of base line data but there are no adverse impacts
recorded.
However there is a correlation between the number of babies in each district
and the number of cash back forms received. The BME’s do seem to be well
represented in terms of the districts that Cashback applications are received.
If so, which groups?
None
9. Actions
What actions will be taken to mitigate adverse impact?
Application Forms - It is proposed that additional questions are added to the
Nappy Cashback Form as well as the Lending kit request form so that we can
understand who we are targeting and if necessary how this can be improved.
The additional questions will cover four areas namely age, disability, gender
and ethnicity.
Questionnaires will also be handed out at open days to obtain the information
required to ensure an adequate equality impact assessment.
How will these actions result in positive changes in future practices?
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At present we do not have any baseline data on which to fully assess the
initiatives that we run. By collecting the necessary information we will be in a
position to identify any strengths and weaknesses.
What equality objectives and targets resulting from this assessment will
be included in the next service plan?
Baseline data needs to be collected before any changes can be considered.
Then it will be possible to integrate EIA into all initiatives.
It is essential for us to begin to gather data on age, gender, ethnicity and
disability. This can be gathered using questionnaire’s at open days when
issuing bags and on the application post card people use to requests the
bags.
10. Monitoring
How will the actions outlined above be monitored?
Real Nappies
It our intention to gain additional data from parents that sign up to our
cashback scheme, lending kit and any of our open days or Nappuccino’s.
The application forms currently used for our two main schemes are to be
changed to collect additional data with regards to race, disability, gender and
age.
Questionnaires will also be developed for parents to complete when they
attend our open days and Nappuccion’s.
These measures will allow us to collect data for us to monitor. This will allow
us to monitor our own performance and make any adjustments if necessary.
Reusable Bags
Data collected on the questionnaire will be logged by the Customer First
Team or on an excel spreadsheet as would the data collected on the
application post card.
This will allow us to monitor what groups are responding to our advertising.
Is there a need to introduce equality monitoring systems, if so by when?
Yes there is a need for equality monitoring systems to be introduced. These
will be implemented as and when new initiatives are developed and when
leaflets etc need to be updated. Additional questions will need to be added to
the nappy cashback form to collect the necessary data.
There will also be alterations made to the lending kit application form as well
as the postcard for the real nappy lending kit.
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11. Authorisation
Name and position of officer authorising the EIA (this should be the head of
service)
Waste Policy Manager
12. Contact
Contact details of officer to discuss EIA with if different from section 11 above:
Education Officer
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