Agenda item

To seek the Committee’s observations and support for the Council’s Interim Strategic Equality Plan2016-2018 (copy enclosed)

11:15pm – 11:45pm

The Lead Member for Corporate Standards introduced the Strategic Planning Team’s report (previously circulated) to members and presented the Committee with the Council’s draft Interim Strategic Equality Plan 2016-18.  During his introduction he informed members that this was the first time that the Plan, which outlined the key projects and activities the Council had delivered in line with the Equality Plan during the 2017-18 year, had been presented to the Committee.  In previous years plans had been presented to the Corporate Equalities Group (CEG).  However, CEG was disbanded in March 2017.  Going forward the intention would be to report on the Council’s commitment and contribution to equality and diversity via the regular monitoring reports on the Council’s performance in delivering its Corporate Plan, as equality and diversity should form an integral part of the delivery of the Council’s entire business.  The Lead Member also explained that the Equality Plan was being presented to members for observations prior to translation and subsequent publication in line with the statutory deadline of 31 March 2018.  He also advised that if members required further training and development opportunities on equality and diversity issues every effort would be made to provide them.  Work was currently underway with the Council’s HR Department to make the e-learning module on Equality available to staff on the Council’s e-learning platform in the near future.

In response to members’ questions the Lead Member, Strategic Planning Team Manager and the Strategic Planning and Performance Officer:

·         advised that Equality Impact Assessments (EqIA)/Well-being Impact Assessments (WIAs) were required to be undertaken for new or revised planning policies but were not a requirement or applicable to individual planning applications;

·         confirmed that there was an expectation for every Council Service to undertake a WIA and adhere to equality duties when developing new policies or reviewing current policies; and

·         emphasised that public sector equality duties stipulated in the Equality Act 2010 applied to public sector organisations only, they did not apply to private business.  However, information provided to private businesses with respect of submitting planning applications would emphasise the need for their proposals to conform with the disability discrimination requirements of the Equality Act 2010;

During the discussion on the Plan’s contents Committee members suggested that the following amendments and additions be made to the Plan document ahead of its translation and publication:

·         a glossary be included to explain the acronyms and terminology used throughout the document;

·         the document be checked to ensure that all organisations were correctly referenced throughout the document i.e. ‘Urdd’ not ‘URDD’;

·         for clarity and understanding, the inclusion of a short narrative to explain the role of certain groups i.e. ‘Community Development Co-ordinators’ etc.;

·         information to be included on the extensive work undertaken across the Council and in the community locally to raise awareness of dementia; and

·         inclusion of photographs to enhance its appearance and entice people to read it

At the conclusion of the discussion the Lead Member and officers undertook to explore methods by which the Council could seek to influence the wider community in the county to meet similar Equality standards to those met by the Authority.  The Committee:

Resolved:

(i)           subject to the observations made and the inclusion of the above suggested amendments and additions to support the Interim Strategic Equality Plan 2016-18 and recommend that it be translated and published in line with the statutory requirements; and

(ii)          that a report reviewing the Council’s performance in delivering its Strategic Equality Plan 2016-18 be presented to the Committee at its meeting in September 2018