Agenda item

Chorley Council Equality Objectives

The Council has a duty to develop and publish equality objectives every 4 years. Equality objectives help focus attention on the priority equality issues for Chorley in order to deliver improvements in policy making, service delivery and employment.  We are now in the process of reviewing objectives and would like feedback from the forum to help establish new objectives from April 2016.  The current objectives can be found on the Council website http://chorley.gov.uk/Pages/AtoZ/Equality-information.aspx

Minutes:

Victoria Willett, Performance and Partnership Manager gave a presentation on the draft equality objectives proposed following a review by the Council set to be implemented in April 2016.

 

The Council’s last set of equality objectives published in 2012 were due to be updated and published in April 2016.  At the same time the Council was updating its Equality Scheme document, which was being reviewed and updated to ensure the Council still met its equality duties under the Equality Act 2010.

 

Members of the Forum were reminded of the equality objectives that had been set in 2012, in response to the introduction of the Equality Act 2010, which had imposed duties on all public bodies, including local councils.  The purpose of the Council’s equality objectives was to strengthen the Council’s performance against the general equality duty through providing focus on achieving specific outcomes.

 

The proposed objectives for 2016, including the measures and targets were detailed as follows –

 

Objective

Measures and targets

To work towards ensuring the Council’s overall approach to equalities fell within excellence on the Equalities Framework for Local Government (EFLG), where this was considered proportionate and appropriate

Reaching excellence in specific areas of the EFLG framework self- assessment

 

To achieve a representative workforce at all levels of the organisation and to continue to ensure all employees felt they were treated fairly and with respect

·     Increase the percentage of staff feeling that they were treated with respect and consideration by 5%

·     Increased the percentage of those aged 16-24 in the workforce by 25%

To reduce the effect of rural isolation across the borough

·     A 50% increase in the number people attending digital access sessions

·     Develop a community car scheme

To ensure future service planning and delivery took into account equality considerations and was informed by demographic trends

90% of Impact Assessments completed/reviewed

To foster good relations and improve community cohesion in communities across the borough

·     60% of residents willing to work together to improve local area

·      A 35% increase in the number of volunteering hours earned

To increase the satisfaction levels of customers and ensure all members of our community had the opportunity to, and felt that they were able to engage

·     Less than 20% of customers dissatisfied

·     85% of residents satisfied with the local area as a place to live

·     Satisfaction by disaggregated characteristic

·     Respondent data disaggregated by protected characteristic

To ensure the Council’s public realm and town centre improvement plans considered the needs of protected groups

·     Increase the percentage of consultation and engagement views and responses from communities across protected groups by 5%

·     Results of Integrated Impact Assessment.

 

At the invitation of the Performance and Partnership Manager, members of the Forum discussed within small groups, the proposed objectives and were encouraged to provide written feedback by the completion of a questionnaire circulated prior to the start of the meeting.

 

The Performance and Partnership Manager advised that a public consultation would also be carried out via the Council’s website with paper copies available on request.  All feedback and comments on the proposed objectives would be analysed, considered and where appropriate the objectives would be amended.  Once the equality objectives had been update to reflect the feedback received, they would be presented to the Executive Cabinet for approval.  The final objectives were expected to be published in April 2016.

 

Further information was available on the Council’s website –

http://chorley.gov.uk/Pages/AtoZ/Equality-information.aspx

Supporting documents: