Equality Policy Overview

 

An overview of the Council's plans to implement its corporate equality policy and meet the criteria of the equality standards for local government.

The CEP itself contains descriptions of many of the implementation activities and procedures. This overview is a summary of what we plan to achieve set against our aims. It will be supported by a more detailed programme of activities

 

Our aims	What we plan to do
Overall	To progress through the five  levels of the Equality Standards for Local Government year by year and to achieve level five by 31st March 2008 To integrate this policy with other policies and schemes where appropriate, including the Race Equality Scheme and the Disability Discrimination Act Scheme To fully meet criteria required as either statutory obligations or best value performance indicators
Appreciate the diverse people, communities and interests that go to make Chester District	To review and report at regular intervals on the make up of the communities and interests in the Chester District to ensure our approach and activities reflect the reality of Chester today To produce a pack to be used internally and by partners which provides information including comparative data about the diverse communities in Chester, their needs and expectations To carry out a triennial review (possibly aligned with the best value general survey) as part of our work to inform both community and council plans To monitor national and international trends and developments and to consider their impact on local communities and service providers To improve partnership working with representatives of different groups who may be or feel subject to inequality To develop closer relationships with representative organisations, especially the local Race Equality Council and the Chester Asian Council to target support for their key activities more effectively To promote a culture that appreciates and tolerates difference and respects peoples cultures, backgrounds, interests and lifestyles
Engage effectively with them to understand their needs and, particularly, their expectations from the Council	To ensure that our communication consultation and research arrangements take account of the make up of the district in all they do To increase participation by groups that represent or have interest in equality to ensure they are actively engaged To share whenever possible council proposals particularly relevance and impact assessments when necessary To use our communications and research policies and practice to ensure that groups are appropriately and fairly represented in our research and consultation and all views are taken into consideration Develop systems to better engage hard to reach groups either independently or in partnership with other public sector providers To carry our effective impact assessments for policies and services that include views from relevant sectors of the community
Ensure that we do not unfairly discriminate in anything that we do	To review and identify potential discrimination in our work and take appropriate action To incorporate our commitments to equality within our corporate and service planning
Where particular groups or interest have important needs do all we can to meet or help others meet them.	Through research and consultation to assess needs effectively To use information about needs to inform our decisions and plans To carry out robust impact needs requirements assessments to ensure that potential unfair treatment is identified or where positive intervention can meet high impact needs
Promote good equality practice within the Council and with our partners	Identify and maintain a strategic lead role with the community planning process and with the local strategic partnership to ensure that equality is embedded in the community plan and partner actions To challenge discriminatory procedures, actions or behaviours where necessary Provide a range of training and development support for all levels of the organisation on equality issues Review and update information on equality contained within the councils procurement policy and guidance manual to ensure service provided by others on behalf of the council meet statutory requirements, the councils expectations and best practice. Ensure that equality is included in our grant giving arrangements and that appropriate performance targets are set within service level agreements To engage effectively on equality issues with partner organisations in receipt of grants from the council or with whom we have service level agreements to promote equality objectives within their work To promote the corporate equality policy actively with our main partners to promote its principles and advocate good practice
To support these commitments within the Council we will
Promote positive attitudes towards equality	Encourage everyone involved with the council to consider equality issues in all that they do Promote and encourage the work of the Diversity Group to develop and monitor our response to equality Provide advice and guidance on cultural and equality issues to help people better   understand diversity Ensure that everyone in the council is clear about their obligations for equality contained in the corporate equality plan
Ensure equality is central to our corporate management and service delivery	Ensure that equality is a key aspect in the review of the Councils corporate plan during 2005 and remains central to our service planning and performance management framework Ensure that all services carry out impact needs requirements assessment in accordance with the agreed plan and the outcome of that process is used to inform policy and service development Ensure that equality is considered in all our plans but specifically that it is pivotal within services and polices identified as potentially high impact To ensure that equality data capture is included within our proposed customer relationship management arrangements and that data is used to inform policy and service development is included within
Will treat the people who work for the council fairly and adopt fair recruitment and selection procedures	Ensure that all our internal people policies are developed with the same rigour as our external policies Regularly review and revise all our employment policies in accordance with our people policy and new legislation or regulations Continue with regular monitoring of our workforce to ensure fairness and equity in all aspects of employment and development Provide everyone with fair access to training and development opportunities
Give people particular responsibilities for equality and give them the necessary skills to ensure they are able to support our equality commitments	Ensure that the different responsibilities identified within the policy are recognised and the people have the necessary skills and commitment Ensure our people policy is compliant with the principles and objectives of this policy Include diversity and equality training within our training plans Include diversity and equality in the emerging competencies framework being prepared for all officers in the Council