Agenda item

The committee was presented with an annual report detailing the council’s performance in embedding equalities legislation into practice.  The Equality Act 2010 was introduced in April 2011 and within the specific duties of the act is the requirement to publish an annual report that aligns with a Strategic Equality Plan and to detail its equality objectives through a comprehensive action Plan. The committee’s role is to ensure that policy and practice delivers these legislative requirements. The officer presented the report and highlighted how the council has tried to deliver on their responsibilities, offering examples. The chair invited questions from members.

Challenge:

·       Can you please check your reference to FEDEP as I believe this has been disbanded?

I can check this, but at the point of drafting this report, I believe FEDEP was still in place.

·     We have an anti-poverty plan which is still in progress 2 years later and that concerns me. The reports of last year and the year before seem to suggest the same, so I’m conscious that progress needs to be made. I feel the report needs some updating and an example of this is that there is hardly any mention of racism in the report and yet I’m aware of incidences in schools. Have you looked at data round this?  It’s not taught in schools and I know of 6 incidences. I believe that 45% of schools say they would like training around this, so I would like to see this reflected in the report.

In terms of racism, this is discussed more in the Strategic Equality Plan (SEP) 3, but I agree with you as I am aware of incidences. This new SEP 3 is looking to address that and there is a task group established to focus on this. We’re looking at how we can disseminate best practice and I’m not sure why schools are not reporting incidences. We have a forthcoming meeting called ‘show racism the red card’ and I would be really pleased if you could attend, so I will send you the details.  We are aware that some of the information is out of date, but this is the monitoring report for 2018-19, so it doesn’t reflect new evidence that we have received. We feel that it would be more helpful if this report was brought to members earlier in the year to give the committee a fuller picture of the evidence. 

·       In response, I would appreciate earlier oversight of this report. It also depends upon the purpose of you bringing the report to us. If we are simply signing it off, it doesn’t really matter when we consider it, but if it is to be used as a critical document to hone and improve our practice, it does need to be brought earlier.

The purpose of the report is the latter of your suggestions and you are right, we need to gather the evidence to shape our actions.

·       You have produced 2 reports, but are you operating as a lone ranger? Do people report their progress to you or do you actively have to go to them? My concern is around resources.

I do have to engage with my colleagues to receive the information, as this is effectively the council’s response and my role is to coordinate what activities are being undertaken and report on progress, but I always receive the information. 

Chairs Conclusion:

I think officers have taken our comments on board and will make any necessary amendments to the report in terms of our suggestions around checking on FEDEP and I’m asking for consideration of the future timing of the scrutiny of the monitoring report, in line with our discussions on role and purpose.  We would like to invite the Children and Young People’s Select Committee to do an engagement piece jointly with us on racism.