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Agenda item

Scrutiny of the Strategic Equality Plan (SEP) Annual Report 2019-20.

Minutes:

Alan Burkitt presented the report and answered the members’ questions.

Challenge:

This strategy is linked to 8 others – should they all be condensed and more focussed? Is this plan the overarching one, or is it the Social Justice Strategy? In what way do the two plans ‘dovetail’?

Under the Equality Act 2010, we have a responsibility to produce this strategy. A lot of good work is taking place on this agenda, but it is indeed difficult for the work to ‘dovetail’; ‘overlapping’ would be a better description. They could possibly gel more, yes. But we talk together as groups, so there is positive interaction, and the work is discrete. We could work more on linking together, and we should bear that in mind. Perhaps the work isn’t structured quite as neatly as it could be, but that reflects how keen we are to do so much work.

The work on Poverty and Inequality seems to happen after finances have been thought through. To what extent does this Strategic Equality Plan, or the Social Justice Strategy, influence the budget-setting process in the beginning?

The assessment document looks at protected characteristics, ensuring that when we make decisions, people with those characteristics aren’t disadvantaged. We tend to produce these documents when a report is going to Cabinet or Council, rather than using them to shape the process early on. It shouldn’t be that way, as the assessment is then tailored to the decision i.e. at the end of the process, when it is less effective. In terms of the SEP, it’s not the plan itself, it’s the safeguards within the Equality Act. The EQIA should be the process by which we seek not to disadvantage people. As an organisation, we need to start looking at that document at an earlier stage.

Page 19 refers to the European Union Settlement Scheme. It’s become clear that children in care and elderly EU citizens are over-reliant on local authorities to apply for them. How many EU national children are in our care and how many elderly EU nationals are in our care homes?

I don’t know. It’s a very good question but I don’t work closely enough in that level of detail. Shaz Miah (Community Cohesion Officer) might have answers, or would be the person to carry out the necessary work.

Potential overlap is actually important, as most things do overlap and almost nothing can be separated into different compartments.

Yes, it is difficult to separate matters. A lot of good work is happening, with a high level of commitment, and the different groups engage with each other in order to cross over but not double up. The most important thing is for us not to miss anything.

We need to think more about how we present reports – the use of coloured prints is difficult for some people to cope with.

Yes, this is something the Accessibility survey is going to look at. The RNIB says that Arial font, size 12 should be used, and to ensure there are contrasting colours. We will mention this in the upcoming meeting with the website designers.

The Access For All forum initially had a good take-off – what is its current state?

Yes, the late Jenny Barnes’ CAIR (Contact, Action, Inform, Represent) was the driving force – this morphed into Access For All because we wanted to get greater engagement. The forum hasn’t met for a while but is due to meet shortly, chaired by Tony Crowhurst. There was a well-attended meeting in Torfaen recently. Many members retired from CAIR after Jenny died but there is still a very active disability group in Abergavenny. It is important to have such external scrutiny and input of what we are doing. Online meetings will be beneficial and should encourage attendance.

Chair’s Summary:

Councillor Batrouni questioned whether 8 objectives are the most efficient way of working, and how do they fit around the Social Justice strategy, and if plans overlap, whether work is duplicated. He also has concerns around finance, feeling that it might have been an afterthought, and stated that the budget doesn’t reflect our strategic plan. He questioned at what point the Equality and Social Justice plan affects the budget from the start. He also asked a question about the European Settlement Status, and wanted to know how many EU Nationals suffering from cognitive problems are in care homes – the Chair will email Shaz Miah with this question following the meeting.

Councillors Powell and Edwards stated that sometimes overlapping in work can’t be avoided. Councillor Smith highlighted some typos in the report and noted that the coloured prints in reports can be difficult for some users. She also requested an update on the status of Access for All. On that point, Councillor Pratt informed members that she attended the meeting chaired by Torfaen yesterday, with Officer Burkitt. She stated that it is very valuable and she would like to engage more, to hear the issues faced by the disabled community. She is keen to build strong communication, and wishes to give it her full support.

 

Supporting documents: