Equality and Diversity

The Council recognises that promoting equality and diversity will improve public services for everyone. Our aim, therefore, is to make equality an integral part of the way the Council works by putting it at the centre of policy making, service delivery, regulation and enforcement and employment practice.

The Council has produced an interim Single Equality Scheme (PDF, 195KB) which sets out how we will promote equal opportunities regardless of race, gender, disability, age, faith or sexual orientation, in the delivery of services and the employment of staff. Attached to this scheme is an Action Plan (PDF, 111KB) which shows how we plan to mainstream equality and diversity in all that we do.

We have reviewed what we did in the past and thought we could do things better for the future. The Research and Intelligence Team prepared an equality profile of the Borough to inform the development of the Scheme and the ethos of understanding our communities and mapping issues relating to equal access and inclusion was the basis for our action plan.

We are a new organisation and we want to have a greater understanding of the way people live in, work in and visit our Borough, we need to understand the issues of disadvantage and how these impact on people so we can do more to make things fairer.

The Scheme covers our statutory equality duties in relation to race, disability and gender and our non-statutory duties in relation to age, sexual orientation and religion/belief. While there is no statutory requirement to meet general and specific duties in these areas, broadening our approach to all six recognised equality strands illustrates our commitment to inclusion for all, and puts us in a good and realistic position for expected changes in national equalities legislation.

A Single Equality Scheme covering the six equality strands is likely to become a legislative requirement once the 2009 Equality Bill passes in legislation. The Interim Scheme covers the period 2009-2010 and will inform a Single Equality Scheme and Action Plan which is being prepared and will cover a three year period from 2010 to 2013.