Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Cooperative Communities, Engagement and Partnerships presented the draft Equality and Diversity Strategy which followed on from the Equality and Diversity Progress Update report (October 2021), which highlighted positive steps that the Council had made in improving access to services, co-ordinating community response to hate crime incidents, celebrating diversity through a range of events and activities, and increasing training and guidance for Council employees.

Cabinet also recognised that despite the good progress that had been made, there was more that the organisation wanted to achieve, and so pledged to bring forward a new draft Equality & Diversity Strategy, which accompanied the report.

The draft strategy set out the Council’s revised approach to equality and diversity through a new 4-year strategy.  This replaced the existing Equality Policy. It took account of the legal duties and responsibilities and the type of culture the Council wished to promote throughout its workforce and in the way that local residents and customers were treated.

The strategy was currently in draft form but included a clear commitment and vision with meaningful and realistic objectives, together with a new set of objectives all of which would be driven by a supporting action plan that the Council would report against on an annual basis.

It was the intention for this strategy to inform and complement other strategies, many of which focussed on reducing inequality.

The draft strategy included four main areas of focus:

• Leading our organisation and communities;

• Supporting our workforce and elected members;

• Serving our customers;

• Celebrating and promoting diversity

External advice had been sought with the Equality and Diversity Steering Group continuing to be kept informed.  More engagement was required to ensure that the strategy truly reflected the needs of the community, partners and workforce with engagement workshops taking place, the results of which would be considered in February/March 2022 and brought back to Cabinet in 2022.

Members welcomed the report and felt that this would lead into an expansive policy which had been developed with input from different voices and community sectors.  The strength of work in achieving the objectives was pleasing to see as well as ensuring there would be monitoring of progress.  This showed determination to deliver on the commitment.

The Leader of the Conservative Group fully supported the strategy and hoped it achieved its aims.

RESOLVED – that Cabinet

a)    notes the new draft Equality & Diversity Strategy and approve the

draft as the basis for further community engagement;

b)   endorses the approach to public accountability by agreeing to

publish the new equality objectives in the revised Council Plan once finalised;

c)    agrees to annual progress reporting against the Strategy and Action Plan; and

d)      agrees to the Council appointing an independent facilitator to carry out further engagement within our communities before the strategy was finalised.