PAPER D

Purpose : For decision

Committee:                 EXECUTIVE                

Date:                          7 MAY 2002

Title:                          EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICY

PORTFOLIO HOLDER - RESOURCES

SUMMARY/PURPOSE 

To ask the Executive to adopt the Equality and Diversity Policy. 

BACKGROUND

The Council needs to have in place a comprehensive Equality and Diversity Policy to underpin its activities and give a clear message to staff and public alike that the Council is fully committed to equality of opportunity for all.

The proposed Equality and Diversity Policy is attached as Appendix A and links closely to the Equality Standard for Local Government.

The Equality Standard for Local Government lays down the actions the Council should address in terms of

◘          Leadership and corporate commitment.

◘          Consultation, community development and scrutiny.

◘          Service delivery and customer care.

◘          Employment and training.

The Standard looks at these four substantive areas in a series of 5 levels of achievement.

Level 1 - Commitment to a comprehensive equality policy.

Level 2 - Assessment and consultation.

Level 3 - Setting equality objectives and targets.

Level 4 - Information systems and monitoring against targets.

Level 5 - Achieving and reviewing outcomes.

Each level will require considerable work to fully comply with the requirements of the Standard and so the Policy identifies a target date of 2009 by which the Council intends to achieve level 5.

Progress through the Standard will be reported on annually in the Best Value Performance Plan - BVPI 2.

The Directors’ Group have identified that work on driving progress through the Standard will be undertaken by the Policy Unit.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The financial implications of this Equality and Diversity Policy have yet to be determined.

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

There is no legal duty to have an Equality and Diversity Policy as such. However, there is a legal duty to have a Race Equality Scheme and it is unlikely that the Race Equality Scheme will be acceptable if there is no supporting general Equality and Diversity Policy.

OPTIONS

1.        To reject the Equality and Diversity Policy.

2.        To recommend the adoption of the Equality and Diversity Policy to Council.

Contact Point: Richard Hards, Chief Fire Officer ☎ 01983 823199