Agenda item

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report.

Susan Lewis, Senior Project Improvement Officer introduced the report on the Equality Objectives 2016-2020 and 2018-2023 giving a six monthly review and a combined annual report.

The purpose of this report was to provide an update on the current action plan for the Equality Objectives 2016-20 and the approach to enable the Council to set some new Objectives for 2018-2023 alongside the corporate plan for 2018-23. The proposed actions were to be completed over the coming months and a new set of draft objectives presented back to Management Board for implementation in April 2018.

In addition, the new version Equality Impact Assessment form was attached for information. This would be used consistently going forward and would replace the previous Equality Analysis Report.

Equality Objectives 2016-20

The Equalities Working Group (EWG) met in July 2017 to review the action plan for the 2016-2020 objectives and an updated copy with current status against deliverables was attached to agenda item 6, appendix 1 for information.

Recommendations for new Equality Objectives 2018-23

Having conducted some research on other local authorities’ equality objectives it was felt that our current plan focussed very much inwards on EFDC operations.  The Council felt that the Equalities Objectives would benefit from a more holistic approach embracing our communities and focussing on the culture and behaviours the Council would like to improve throughout EFDC.

For this reason the Council were taking the following approach to what would be a timely introduction of new Equality Objectives for 2018-2023:

·         Consult with all staff and ask for their feedback on what they felt our vision and objectives should be for Equality via an all staff survey;

·         Consult with a number of potentially vulnerable groups on our strategy and objectives to capture their feedback; and

·         Develop a draft set of new Equality objectives to be taken back to Management Board for implementation from April 2018.

Equality Impact Assessment

There had been some inconsistency in usage of the new Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) form which was attached to agenda item 6, appendix 2. The Council had communicated to all Directorates and advised them that the EIA form was to be attached to all reports to Cabinet going forward, no reports would be accepted without an EIA form.  A user guide to aid completion had been provided and Members would be given an overview and training on the form at a date which was to be advised, this guidance was attached to agenda item 6, appendix 3.

Councillor D Stallan asked if the EIA was to be included with Portfolio Holder Decisions and if so the wording should be changed to reflect this on appendix 2.

S Lewis stated that it did include Portfolio Holder Decisions and the wording would be changed to reflect this.

Councillor J Knapman stated that training was needed regarding the EIA, Portfolio Holders needed to know the significance of the EIA when signing off their Council, Cabinet and Portfolio Holder reports and decisions.

S Hill advised that previously there was a paragraph on the reports called a Due Regard but it had been identified that there was a higher level of importance attached to the reports and decisions and therefore a more detailed approach was needed.

G Chipp informed the Committee that at a recent meeting of the Leadership Team a long debate took place and it was recognised that the Councils decisions were challengeable if we didn’t properly consider the impact of the decisions.

Councillor J Knapman asked what did section 2 of the EIA have to do in relation with equality.

Councillor Wixley referred to 2.3 of Section 2 and noted that it listed service users, employees and the wider community or groups of people but did not mention individuals.

G Chipp stated that the Equality Impact Assessment form, Section 2, in line with Members comments should be revised.

Councillor D Stallan asked Members if they had any further concerns in relation to any other sections of the EIA.

Councillor M Sartin stated that she had concerns around the amount of time Officers would have to spend filling in these forms.

S Hill advised that the EIA’s were designed to be scaled up or down depending on what the reports were concerning.

            RESOLVED:

(1)        That the update on our existing Equality Objectives 2016-2020 and proposed approach for setting new Equality Objectives for 2018-2023 be noted.

(2)        That the new version Equality Impact Assessment form, which replaced the previous Equality Analysis Report be noted apart from Section 2, which would be revised and circulated to Members of the Governance Select Committee, including Councillor J Knapman and Councillor H Whitbread who were in attendance as substitutes and Councillor M Sartin as Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.