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Equality and diversity

Equality and Diversity statement 2012

The Equality Framework for Local Government

The Equality Framework for Local Government (EFLG) is a national standard. It was developed to help local authorities improve their performance in delivering equality of opportunity and valuing diversity and to help them to mainstream equality into all of the workings of the authority.  It also serves as a benchmarking tool to enable one local authority to compare its performance against others.

It was developed from the former Equality Standard for Local Government (ESLG) and was introduced in October 2009 when it replaced the ESLG.

The EFLG has five areas of performance against which performance is assessed. They are:

• Knowing your communities and equality mapping
• Place shaping, leadership, partnership and organisational commitment
• Community engagement and satisfaction
• Responsive services and customer care
• A modern and diverse workforce

It has three levels of performance/attainment which are:

• Developing - understanding the importance of equality
• Achieving - achieving better equality outcomes
• Excellent - truly making a difference across all of the protected characteristics

The Council adopted the (former) ESLG and self-assessed itself as being at Level 3 (out of 5 Levels) of that Standard. This self assessment was externally validated which confirmed the Council’s rating as a ‘good’ authority in this respect.

When the EFLG replaced the ESLG, under the agreed migration arrangements, the Council was treated as being at the ‘achieving’ level.

Now the Council is reassessing itself against the five performance areas with the intention of confirming that it meets the ‘achieving’ requirements of the EFLG.

Equality Impact Assessments

The Council has screened its policies and services to assess those most likely to impact on different groups of people. Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) have been carried out for those likely to have the greatest impact to make sure that they do not discriminate. These assess and record the actual, likely or potential impact on different groups of people so that any negative consequences can be eliminated or minimised. It also identifies unmet need which can be used as the basis of service improvement.

EIA Assessment Summary - summary of the action points from all the Council's Equality Impact Assessments. 

Now the Council conducts an Impact Assessment at the planning stage when it is consider adopting something new, changing (in a way that would be consider to have an impact on the user) something that it already does or stopping something that it is doing. Where an initial assessment of the potential impact indicates that there could be a differential impact on one or more of the protected groups identified in the Equality Act 2010, the Council will consult with interested parties on its impact assessment before any proposed changes are agreed.

Copies of future Equality Impact Assessments will be made available on this website.

Equality & Diversity Group

The Council's work in this area, when necessary, is monitored, co-ordinated and encouraged by the Equality & Diversity Group which comprises representatives from different sections of the Council’s workforce. It meets when there is a clearly identified need to learn and share best practice across services.

Equality Monitoring of the Council’s workforce

The Council collects data on the characteristics (the ‘equality profile’) of its work force against many of the protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010.  Similarly it collects data on applicants for employment with the Council.

It does this to understand and help ensure that its recruitment and employment policies, procedures and practices do not have the affect of unlawfully discriminating against people who share a particular characteristic.  Periodical assessment of the data helps the Council to understand the impact of its policies and whether or not they need to be adapted to encourage greater representation of underrepresented groups.

The Council has been monitoring in detail for the protected characteristics of age, disability, race/ethnicity and sex (gender).

It analyses the equality profile of people under the following criteria:

• Overall employment
• Access to training and development
• Discipline and grievance case
• Performance Appraisal outcomes
• Staff turnover (the number of leavers)
• Internal promotions
• External recruitment

The equality profile of the overall workforce (320 in total) of the Council shows a reasonable balance between male (52%) and female (48%) employees (in the year 2010/2011).

Of the overall employees, 24 (8%) have declared that they have a disability that is recognised under the definitions set out in the Equality Act 2010.  This reasonably reflects the representation of disabled people in the community who are available for work.

There is a low representation of employees from minority ethnic groups but the level is consistent with the representation of minority groups in the community in which the significant majority (96.9% - census 2001 figure) describe themselves as ‘white’.

From the review of the data on applicants for employment, the most significant conclusion is that there is a disproportionately low representation of applicants who declare that they have a disability.  Although the equality monitoring data on job applicants is separated from the application form immediately on receipt such that those who are involved in the selection are unaware of this characteristic, this low representation may indicate reluctance on the part of disabled applicants to declare their disability when making their application. Regardless, the Council is looking at ways in which it can present itself better as an employer that welcomes applications from members of the community who are disabled.

Now the Council has extended the range of protected characteristics on which it collects data on employees and job applicants.  It is also considering extending the activities on which it collects and publishes data to include by:

• Full-time and part-time employees
• Numbers at different employment grades
• Length of service in which the employee has stayed in the same grade
• Applications for flexible working and success rates

Equal Pay Audit

As part of its equality monitoring of its workforce, in 2010, the Council conducted an Equal Pay Audit.  This was to review whether or not there was an unacceptable and unjustifiable gap between the pay of female and male staff. The audit would help ensure that the Council’s pay and reward policies and practice and other payments and allowances are fair, transparent and discrimination free.

The audit was carried out by a person independent of the Council.  Whereas no major discrepancies were identified the auditor made a number of recommendations to help ensure that the reward arrangements are fair and discrimination free and to minimise the potential risk of an equal pay complaint. All of the recommendations have been acted upon.

Employee survey

The Council carries out regular staff satisfaction surveys. The most recent survey was carried out in 2010.  (The next one is planned for late 2012.)  It included a question on whether staff, disaggregated by six of the current protected characteristics, felt that they were discriminated against because of their particular characteristics.

Generally the outcomes were satisfactory although, compared with the previous survey; there was a reduction in the numbers of staff who were clear that they did not experience any discrimination on grounds of age or sex (gender). In the case of age, this appears to be related to the implementation of a default retirement age of 65 years which has now been removed.   For sex discrimination some feeling of favouritism towards male staff was expressed although there was no clear evidence of this. This situation is being kept under review.

Related Pages:

Accessibility for disabled people    Access for all (Pages)

Access for visually impaired users (Pages)

Access to the internet (Pages)

Accessibility information (Pages)

Accessible services (Pages)

Accesskeys (Pages)

Bus passes (Pages)

DisabledGo Tandridge (Pages)

Equality Act (Pages)

Get safe online (Pages)

Language line (Pages)

Older and vulnerable people (Pages)

People with disabilities (Pages)

Social bookmarking (Pages)

Disability    Access for all (Pages)

Care and repair (Pages)

Grants and loans for home repairs and adaptations (Pages)

IHOT's information brochure (Documents)

Older and vulnerable people (Pages)

Equal opportunities and diversity    Accessible services (Pages)

Racial harassment (Pages)

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