Agenda item

Scrutiny of the Council’s performance in applying Equalities Legislation to policy and practice.

Purpose:

The Select Committee has a responsibility to ensure that the Council complies with relevant legislation to ensure policy is embedded into practice. The Equality Act 2010 was introduced in April 2011.  Within the Specific duties of the Equality Act is the requirement to publish an annual report on the progress made by the Council in its compliance with its Strategic Equality Plan, equality objectives and comprehensive action Plan. The Act’s principles and processes ensure that the Council remains true to its corporate values of Openness, Fairness, Flexibility and Teamwork.

Key issues:

One of the specific duties of the Equality Act 2010 requires all listed Public Bodies to publish an annual report. The purpose of this report is as follows:

1.    To evidence the progress made on the action plan that sits in the Strategic Equality Plan 2016 -2020.

2.    It gives many examples of the good practice carried out by the directorates of the council as outlined in the report covering the period 1st April 2017 to the 31st March 2018.

3.    It also records how the council complies with the Specific Duties as set out in the Equality Act 2010 namely: 

4.    How and who we engage with, our process for the assessment of impact, the recording of equality information by protected characteristic, the recording of employment information also by protected characteristic, recording of pay differences and staff training data, the procurement process, and finally the requirement to report and publish.

Member scrutiny:

The Equalities and Welsh Language Policy Officer presented the Strategic Equality Report and invited questions from the Select Committee as follows:  

·         A Member referred to the proposed Monmouthshire Pride event in Caldicot following on from last year's successful event.  It was noted that a two-day event is planned this year. Planning is being led by a working party and it was explained that £13,000 is required to fund the event of which some money has been pledged already.

            In response to a question, it was confirmed that the work of the LGBTQ support network started in Chepstow School and is being disseminated to other schools.  It was added that next year’s annual report will show further progress.

·         A Member asked if the “Adopt a Granny” scheme, which promotes young people’s association with older people, was known about in Monmouthshire to promote association with older people.  It was responded that there is good engagement when young people visit dementia units e.g. Severn View Club.

·         A Member asked if we are developing a better dementia friendly network across Council services. It was confirmed that there is a lot of work going on but there is no Equalities Group to formally gather the information.  A question was asked about support for families of dementia patients and how this can be improved. This matter is regularly considered by Adult Select Committee and it was requested that the dementia friendly café in Chepstow is represented at a future meeting.

·         In response to a question, it was responded that some specific groups are more difficult to communicate with in Monmouthshire e.g. Black Minority Ethnic is a hard to reach group.  There is also limited diversity of religion and belief in the County.  Reassurance was sought that there is a mechanism to report issues involving hard to reach groups to enable trends to be highlighted.  Information was provided that for hate crimes identified in schools, there are specific policies and procedures to address and report issues.  It was confirmed that there is also a Newport and Monmouthshire Hate Crime Group.  Work being carried out by Children and Young People Select Committee currently and this will be shared in due course.

·         The Chair asked if any elected members had taken up the opportunity to learn the Welsh language.  It was confirmed that some councillors are learning Welsh and some are fluent Welsh speakers already.

·         It was queried if there is increased engagement with the Gypsy and Traveller community.

·         A Member explained about “I Need” which is a Caldicot-based charity helping Syrian refugees.  Reassurance was provided that Children and Young People Select Committee has considered support for refugee children in detail.

·         It was queried if there is a pay gap between male and female workers in the Council.  In response, it was explained that there remains a pay gap but this is not extensive. The authority is working towards closing the gap where it is identified that employees are carrying out similar functions.