Agenda item

Cabinet Member Angela Sandles and Pennie Walker introduced the report and answered the members’ questions:

Key points made by Members: 

• Asking whether the Council plans to continue supporting Mind’s rural mental health project, with the funding stream having ended on 31^st May. – ACTION: officers to come back with plans for next year 

• A member stated that Welsh speakers in the authority continue to lose out in terms of being able to converse in their first language when dealing with the Council, and that Monmouthshire is lagging behind other authorities in this regard. 

• Particularly in the scenario of a resident calling with a complicated issue, he argued that the Council needs to make more progress in having an in-house capability in Welsh, specifically through better recruitment. 

• Regarding work opportunities for disabled people, asking whether this included flexible working and part-time options. 

• Suggesting using the actual protected characteristics from the Equality Act in the report instead of generic terms such as gender and race, and including the socio-economic duty as well. 

• Asking how many debt organisations have been supported by the Council to overcome inequalities in access to economic prosperity and deal with child poverty. 

• Stressing the importance of not developing a hierarchy of protected characteristics and considering them all equally. 

• Welcoming the new Equalities and Welsh language manager and thanking her for the work that she is doing for the disabled. 

• Proposing that the position of members of armed forces families and veterans be included in future equalities work, specifically in integrated impact assessments. 

• Asking, as a Disability Confident Employer, what we are doing to reach Level 3. 

• Enquiring about the future plans for the Building Stronger Families initiative. 

• Asking what potential barriers are foreseen in achieving the plans and objectives, and how the plan can be adapted in challenging circumstances e.g. a future pandemic. 

• Noting the importance of those affected having a mechanism to see how this plan will support them, asking how we will receive feedback from individuals on the plan’s implementation and monitor its progress. 

• Expressing the importance of fostering good relations between those who share a protected characteristic, and agreeing that there should be no hierarchy between protected characteristics. 

• Noting that encouraging disabled people into work is very important but in order to do that carers need to be supported as wellbut support services have been cut, so it is very difficult for them. 

• Expressing concern that Monmouthshire has an ageing population yet there is a drive towards digital services – we shouldn’t leave people behind, and therefore there needs to be a way for people to interact with the Council without needing digital services to do so. Those with sensory impairments also need to be considered. 

Chair’s Summary: 

Thank you to the Cabinet Member and Pennie Walker for the report and attending today. We have covered a number of points, namely protected characteristics, the move towards employment opportunities for disabled people, building stronger families, monitoring and feeding back what has been learned, including Armed forces status, there being no hierarchy amongst protected characteristics, support for carers, support for Mind and continued funding, digital services, and increasing the authority’s Welsh language capability when communicating with residents.