Equality and Diversity

Equality, diversity, and inclusion form an important part of our values. It effects how decisions are made, how services are delivered, and how staff are recruited.

As a council, we are committed to delivering good quality services that are accessible to all. We are determined to actively promote equality both internally within our organisation as well as in our local community.

Our Equality Duty

Public sector equality duty

The public sector equality duty is a duty on public authorities established by the Equality Act 2010. It obliges public authorities to consider about how their policies affect those groups defined as having a protected characteristic as well as actively promote equality and conclusion.

The public sector equality duty can be considered in 2 parts:

General duties: This requires us to show due regard when exercising our functions to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between people who share protected characteristics and those who do not.
Specific duties: This obliges us to publish equality objectives every 4 years and develop an action plan on how these objectives are to be achieved. Additionally, we have to publish equality information annually. This includes our workforce profile.

Equality and Diversity Objectives

Under the Equality Act 2010 we are required to publish a list of equality objectives. Our objectives help us to achieve our duties under the act and provide us with clear aims for improvement. Working towards achieving these objectives will ensure that we are providing support and consideration in our service delivery and policy development to all members of our community.

The Council is reviewing its objectives and will be publishing them shortly.

Equality monitoring

Knowing our communities

Knowing the community we serve is important to us. It helps us understand how our policies and practices effect our residents to ensure that we meet the needs and aspirations of the community we serve.

We collect and use a range of equality information to ensure that we have enough evidence to inform the decisions we make. This includes data from our surveys, which is collated and analysed in order to inform policy decisions and identify gaps in participation. To collect this information, all our external surveys include equality monitoring questions in relation to the protected characteristics.

For information on our most recent consultations and surveys, visit our consultation page.

All committee and council reports include details on equality implications of proposed recommendations so that elected members are aware of them when taking decisions. You can browse meeting reports, agendas and minutes online.

Knowing our workforce

As a council we are committed to promoting equality and inclusion within our workforce. In order to achieve this, we monitor our workforce profile annually in relation to gender, ethnicity, disability, and age.

Monitoring our workforce helps us identify whether it is representative of the community it serves. Also, it helps us assess how our decisions and policies effect people as an employer.

See the Employment Information report for the most recent workforce profile.