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1. Introduction

This document is an amended version of the original strategy; changes to the strategy were undertaken in August 2005, to ensure the document is kept up to date with changes within the equality and diversity field.

This strategy is the companion document to the corporate comprehensive equality policy. The strategy builds on the commitment outlined in the equality policy and provides clear objectives and actions that are intended to improve equality and diversity practice. This document is also linked to the councils Race Equality Scheme.

Wigan Council recognises that implementing equality of opportunity and actively valuing diversity are critical features of modern public-sector organisations providing excellent local services.

The purpose of this strategy is to outline the key priorities for action by Wigan Borough Council and its staff to promote the implementation of equal opportunities and active valuing of diversity during the period 2004-2008. It is intended to provide information to Members, employees and residents about our approach, priorities and methods for contributing to this broad agenda.

Wigan Council also recognises that it has a crucial role to play in implementing equality and valuing diversity initiatives in the borough in terms of its role as:

• Community leader, which sees the Council working in partnership with local communities to develop and realise a vision of a thriving, cohesive borough which recognises its inherent diversity as part of its core strengths.
• A principal member of the Wigan Borough Partnership in working with other statutory, voluntary and private sector agencies to improve diversity and equality practice.
• The largest employer in the Borough, the Council will work towards employing a workforce that is representative of and sensitive to the needs of the many and diverse communities that live, work, study and volunteer in the borough.
• A provider of many key public services from street cleansing to social care, we will continue to deliver quality services that are responsive to the needs of individuals, families and communities.
• A key procurer and commissioner of services such as housing management and leisure and cultural services. Using its spending power with probity whilst ensuring that we promote the implementation of equality of opportunity and the active valuing of diversity into practice for the borough.

Wigan Council’s approach to Diversity and Equality

It is the Council’s intention is to treat everyone equitably, without discrimination on any relevant grounds in particular their age, class, disability, gender, faith, race, or sexuality. This applies to all elected Members, our employees and our stakeholders. This commitment is further outlined in the Comprehensive Equalities Policy.

Wigan Council provides a wide range of services for a diverse range of communities in the borough, each with different needs and interests. Ensuring that the Council responds effectively and equitably to these different groups requires the Council to think about equality and diversity issues.

The Council intends to use a ‘Whole Organisation Approach’ to delivering the implementation of equality of opportunity and the valuing of diversity whilst at the same time stressing the importance of personal processes in delivering change.

The Whole Organisational Approach takes a systemic view of organisations and aims to ensure that policies and processes including equality and diversity issues as a matter of course. It therefore focuses on equal opportunities policies, business planning processes, recruitment and selection and flexible working. The Council’s approach also recognises that changes in the culture, values, attitudes and beliefs of the organisation are important if change in equality and diversity is to be supported.

The Diversity Champions Group have created the following definitions:

Equalities work is defined as activities that are primarily reactive and compliance-based in essence. It is recognised that activities in this area are generally designed to assist specific groups with overcoming previous disadvantage and can take the form of a range of monitoring, positive action and policy based initiatives.

Diversity is principally seen as difference. Wigan Council recognises that difference takes many forms not simply, age, class, disability, gender, faith, race, or sexuality. The Council’s approach to diversity recognises the value that these differences bring to the world of work and aims to make constructive use of those differences to achieve business aims. The Council will adopt a managing inclusion approach to diversity.

The Importance of Leadership

This strategy recognises that commitment from Chief Officers and elected Members is critical in initiating and sustaining change within the Council. This strategy will make full use of the vision, drive and commitment that comes from the leadership and aims to complement this with a facilitative, listening approach that engages with leaders at all levels throughout the organisation.

2. Aims of the Strategy

• To support the equality and diversity vision set out in the Comprehensive Equalities Policy and provide an action plan for implementation and delivery.
• To become an organisation recognised for the promotion and celebration of diversity and equality in employment and service delivery
• To fully undertake our community leadership role as defined by the Local Government Act (2000)
• To meet our legal obligations under legislation including the Disability Discrimination Act, The Race Relations Act (and subsequent amendment) and the European Regulations on Faith, Sexuality and Belief.
• To support the councils attainment of the Equality Standard for Local Government.
• To support and work in partnership with a range of other organisations to promote equality of opportunity and actively value diversity as a core part of our strategic aims as well as our day-to-day business management practices.

This strategy is structured around the following areas:-

• Mainstreaming
• Employer of choice
• Partnership and consultation
• Access to services

3. Mainstreaming

Mainstreaming refers to the process by which an equality and diversity perspective is systematically integrated into all aspects of the Council’s activities. It involves elected Members, managers and employees and has a demonstrable impact on the Council’s long-term strategic goals as well its day-to-day business operations. Organisations have been successful at mainstreaming once equality and diversity perspectives are seamlessly embedded into their organisational culture and performance management frameworks.

A: Business planning and diversity outputs

All officers have responsibility for ensuring their work takes account of equality and diversity considerations and:

• Is anti-discriminatory and actively values diversity
• Involves communities of interest in planning and evaluating service provision, strategy development, implementation and project management as appropriate
• Prioritises actions and resources to those in greatest need
• Develops and integrates critical equality and diversity performance indicators which are robust, rigorous and challenging into the Performance Plus TM system.
• Each service area will produce a diversity action plan as part of its annual business-planning process

Managers will be evaluated on the extent to which they have contributed to, promoted or delivered outputs relating to diversity and equalities through the Employee Development Need Review scheme (EDNR) and the Wigan Manager Competency Framework.

B: Measuring progress

• We will publish an annual diversity report outlining and assessing our work around diversity and equalities.
• We will evaluate our performance against the Equality Standard for Local Government or other standard as recommended by the Audit Commission or other equivalent body. The Council is committed to reaching Level 3 of the Equality Standard by March 2008.
• We will monitor and assess our progress against the Race Equality Scheme and other specific equality and diversity strategies and schemes on an annual basis and report our progress in the Council’s Diversity Report.
• We will regularly review our equalities and diversity performance indicators and report progress against them in our annual Diversity Report.
• We will ensure that all our Best Value reviews highlight diversity and equalities practice in all areas

C: Policy and strategy development

• We will invite, as appropriate, agencies like the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Disability Rights Commission and other specialist agencies to consider the equalities and diversity dimension of our policies and strategies.
• We will assess all strategies to ensure that equalities and diversity issues have been fully integrated into all aspects of strategy development and delivery.
• We will continue to work with a broad range of partners within Wigan Council in order to share and promote good practice in relation to equality and divers

4. Employer of Choice

Wigan Council recognises the importance of valuing diversity and implementing equality of opportunity in positioning itself as an employer of choice within an increasingly competitive market for talent.

Credibility in promoting diversity and equality issues is a good way of attracting and retaining the most qualified and talented employees who are best able to deliver the services to the diverse communities that the Council serves.

We will develop and implement conditions of service for employees that:

• Are recognised models of good practice and meet the requirements of legislation in this area
• Promote the rights of all staff to equal treatment and remains free from harassment and discrimination
• Promotes the work life balance and a culture of dignity and mutual respect at work
• Develop recruitment and training practices and procedures that fully develop our most important asset - our staff
• Enable staff to make full use of their skills, talents and experience to achieve their full potential at work
• We will produce an annual set of equalities and diversity milestones that will include information about the work we intend to do to promote equality and diversity amongst our staff.

5. Partnership and Consultation

Wigan Council recognises that delivering equality of opportunity and valuing diversity requires the sustained support of elected Members and employees but also communities, peers and our external partners and stakeholders.

The Council also recognises that the process of mainstreaming diversity and equality of opportunity is dynamic and subject to change.

Working in partnership with our employees, members and other stakeholder’s means that the Council is able to listen to and act on important feedback from these groups as to where our processes around delivering equality of opportunity and valuing diversity need to change and adapt to new circumstances.

In this area, we intend to:

• Consult targeted groups on key strategies as appropriate
• Contribute to specific events that celebrate the lives, faiths and cultures of people who live and work in Wigan
• Seek out ways to work in partnership across the public, private and voluntary and community sector to develop relevant strategies and set targets
• Ensure that key documents are accessible to all and available in a range of different formats
• Communicate our progress on diversity and equality to the wider community.

6. Access to services

• We will ensure that we prioritise areas identified as being in the greatest need. Wigan currently has a number of wards and neighbourhoods that score highly on the indices of deprivation as some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Manchester.
• We will develop and implement specific schemes to address gender and disability issues among others using a Race Equality Scheme as a model of good practice.
• The Council will introduce a Social Inclusion Strategy which will identify key priorities for action and other related targets to combat social exclusion within the borough.

7. Best Value Performance Indicators

The Government has set a range of indicators, which measure the ‘health’ of public organisations and how well they are run. These are called Best Value Performance Indicators; some of these indicators measure our performance in promoting equal opportunities.

Table 1. Wigan Council’s Equality BVPI’s Indicators and Targets

	31/03/2005		31/03/2006	31/03/2007	31/03/2008
	Wigan Actual	Target	Target	Target	Target
BV002a. Equality Standard for Local Government	0.00	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.0
BV002b Duty to Promote Race Equality	47.4	55.5	61.0	72.0	83.0
BV011a. Top 5% of Earners: Women	42.0	40.0	41.0	42.0	42.0
BV011b. Top 5% of Earners: Ethnic Minorities	1.00	1.3	1.4	1.5	1.5
BV016a Percentage of Employees with a Disability	1.6	1.6	1.8	2.0	2.0
BV017a Ethnic minority representation in the workforce - employees	1.0	1.0	1.2	1.5	1.5
BV156 Buildings Accessible to People with a Disability	10.9	14.7	25.7	44.5	50.0
BV175 Racial incidents - further action	97.3	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

 

8. Structure of the plan

The Corporate Equality and Diversity Action plan is structured along the lines of the themes detailed in the Local Government Equality Standard in order to bring together the existing work of the Diversity Champions Group and to delineate a clear way forward for the Council over the next three years.

The strategy itself has four key headings.

• Leadership and Corporate Commitment
• Consultation, community development and scrutiny
• Service delivery and customer care
• Employment and training

Glossary of key terms

Access refers to the methods by which people with a range of needs (such as disabled people, people with children, people whose first language is not English) find out about and use services and information

Asian refers to people who define themselves as being Asian, East African Asian, British Asian or originate from Bangladesh, China, Nepal, India or Pakistan.

Black is an all-inclusive term that refers to all ethnic groups who have a common experience of discrimination on the basis of their skin colour. It also includes those who define themselves as black. In relation to data collection, such as the Census, the term black has been more narrowly defined to refer to people who define themselves as any of the black or black British categories which are: African, Caribbean, or black other.

Disability the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 defines disability as a ‘physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. However, disabled people’s organisations prefer a social approach that defines disability as the ‘loss or limitation of opportunities that prevent people who have impairments from taking part in the life of the community on an equal level with others because of physical and social barriers.’

Diversity The differences in values, attitudes, cultural perspectives, beliefs, ethnic backgrounds, sexuality, skills, knowledge and life experiences of each individual in any group of people. Good practice around diversity looks at making a constructive use of difference to achieve organisational goals. This term refers to differences between people and is used to highlight individual need. It can be used inappropriately as an alternative to equal opportunities

Direct discrimination refers to the less favourable treatment of people on the grounds of their race, gender, faith, nationality, sexuality or age etc.

Equalities used as a term to refer to all work addressing issues of discrimination and disadvantage, particularly as it relates to race equality, disability, gender, sexuality, faith and age.

Equality The vision or aim of creating a society where power and quality of life is shared equally and both individuals and communities are able to live their lives free from discrimination and oppression experienced by certain groups.

Equal opportunities the development of practices that promote the possibility of fair and equal chances for all to develop their full potential in all aspects of life and the removal of barriers of discrimination and oppression experienced by certain groups.

Ethnicity An individual’s identification with a group sharing any or all of the following: nationality, lifestyles, religion, customs and language.

Gender this term refers to the social differences between men and women that have been learned, are changeable over time and have wide variations both within and between cultures. This term is often used to differentiate from ‘sex’, which refers to biological differences.

Homophobia is a fear or dislike of an individual or group of individuals because they are perceived to have sexual and/or emotional affinity or sexual contact with their own sex. This term has come to refer particularly to fear and hatred of homosexuals and homosexuality.

Impairment is a physical or mental condition of lacking all or part of a limb or having a limb, or organ or mechanism of the body that is not functioning, or fully functioning.

Indirect discrimination describes the application of a rule, provision, criterion or practice which places some groups at a disadvantage because they are unable to comply. For example, a security firm might argue that all its employees must be at least 6ft tall, this is something that the majority of women could not comply with through no fault of their own and which could not be justified in terms of the job.

Institutional racism is the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen and detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people. (Sir William Macpherson, The Lawrence Enquiry Report 1999)

Positive action refers to a variety of measures designed to counteract the effects of past discrimination and to help eliminate continuing patterns of disadvantage. Under this broad definition positive action may include initiatives such as the introduction of non-discriminatory selection procedures, training programmes or policies aimed at preventing sexual harassment.

Positive discrimination is often confused with positive action. Positive discrimination, which generally means employing someone because they come from a disadvantaged group regardless of whether they have the relevant skills and qualifications, is unlawful.

Racism refers to a set of attitudes and behaviour towards another racial or ethnic group based on the belief that differences in physical characteristics (such as skin colour, hair type or face shape) correspond directly to differences in personality and ability.

Racist Incidents are defined as any incident, which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.

Sexuality a person’s emotional, physical, and or sexual attraction and the expression of that attraction. It is not generally thought to be a choice that people make, rather sexuality is something that people are born with. Sexuality refers to both gay and heterosexual people.

Stereotyping is making broad generalisations about particular groups of people and expecting all members of that group to think and behave in that way. One example of this might be that all gay men are effeminate.

Social Inclusion the position from where someone can access and benefit from the full range of opportunities available to members of society. Social inclusion is generally seen as a description of activities aimed at removing barriers such as discrimination, isolation, poverty and fear to enable individuals and communities to fully participate in civil society

Action Plan

Leadership and corporate commitment

What do we want to achieve?	What actions need to be taken?	What is the performance indicator?	Lead	Timescale
To introduce the Corporate Diversity and Equalities Strategy as the Council’s principal planning document for meeting and setting equality and diversity –related issues in service delivery and employment	Draw up draft for consultation with Diversity Champions Group for agreement Strategy to be agreed by Chief Officers Group Formal agreement by Council Executive · Formal launch of the strategy at Managers Forums and SMTs/DMTs	BV 2a BV 2b Increased awareness of the Council’s goals and activities in relation to this area of work on the part of: Members Employees Partners Community	PO (E&D) Diversity Champions Group	Formal launch by Oct 2004
Complete self-assessment against the Equality Standard for Local Government	Design self-assessment template and complete. Report back to Diversity Champions Group and to Corporate Senior Management Team	BV 2a	PO (E&D)	Sept 2004
Move through the levels of the Equality Standard for Local Government in line with timetable	Using self-assessment results as a template: Develop level checklist. Establish external validation group. Produce project plan and create project team	Self-generated and independent assessment of evidence clearly shows the authority meeting and exceeding the required standard BV 2a	PO (E&D)
Develop Corporate ESLG planning group.	Develop central corporate planning group for the standard.	BV 2a	E&D Officer Diversity	11/05
Implement and monitor the Race Equality Scheme	Regular reports to Corporate Management Team Regular reports to Cabinet/Panel Incorporate results into the Annual Diversity Report	BV 2b	Diversity Champions Group	To be reviewed in March 2005
Revise the Race Equality Scheme in accordance with Race Relations (Amendment) Act	Review and revise actions contained in the scheme. Undertake relevance reviews in all depts. Produce new scheme. Consult on new scheme.	BV 2b	Diversity Champions Group	Sept 2005
Develop E&D Objective planning group.	Develop departmental and key stakeholder group to determine key E&D objectives.	BV 2A	E&D Officer Diversity Champions Group	Oct 2005
Devise a clear and concise statement of the Council’s principal vision and core values on implementing equal of opportunity and valuing diversity	Hold a Diversity and Equalities Development Day with Diversity Champions Group, Members and other key stakeholders. Vision to be agreed at Corporate Management Team and Cabinet	Statement produced and adopted corporately. Copied to all employees and stakeholders.	Diversity Champions Group	Oct 2004
Communicate Council’s vision/values to partners, stakeholders, employees and members	Ensure that all relevant Council publications contain at least one good news story on diversity and equalities initiatives.	Contributes to discharge of Community Leadership Function as defined by the Local Government Act 2000	Diversity Champions Group	To be reviewed in March 05
Rewrite current equal opportunities policy to include valuing diversity and incorporate the core values and vision.	Draft to be agreed by Diversity Champions Group Corporate Management Team Key stakeholders, Cabinet Formal Launch with communities of interest, other stakeholders, employees, trade unions and peers within AGMA	BV 2a	PO (E&D) PPI Team	Dec 2005
Ensure equality and diversity is key theme within the Community Strategy	Impacts assess community strategy.	Contributes to robust performance in terms of the following indicators: BV 1a BV 1b BV 1c	E&D Officer, Community Engagement	Dec 2005
Integrate equality and diversity impact assessment and issues into service delivery, best value planning and reviews	Provide briefing for managers responsible for writing and monitoring business plans on their additional responsibilities Set time frames for feedback	Scrutiny decision recorded in Performance Panel and Overview and Scrutiny Committee   Data to be fed into the Diversity Annual Report	PPI Team Diversity Champions Group	To be reviewed March 2005 and annually thereafter
Review Impact and SNRA	Review current models of working. Develop new models Role out models	BV 2b	E&D Officer	Dec2005
Strengthen the integration of equalities and diversity performance indicators into the performance management framework.		Quarterly performance monitoring reports include an explicit equality and diversity dimension and are used to inform service delivery and service configuration	PPI Team mgt teams	Mar 2005
Build the capacity of elected Members to effectively champion a range of equality and diversity in their Cabinet and Scrutiny function.	Set training specification and agree desired outcomes	Improved performance around the discharge of the Community Leadership Function as described by the Local Government Act 2000. Performance indicator- number of decisions taken to Cabinet and Panels that have been altered by members to include an equality or diversity dimension.		To be reviewed in May 2005
Develop the Equality and Diversity Dimension of the Council’s procurement strategy to ensure that it complies with guidance compiled by the Commission For Racial Equality and other diversity and equality considerations.	Review current policy and practice Compare with published guidance on:   · Race equality · Sustainability	Amended policy and procedures produced with responsible staff developing a series of competencies in scoring tenders	PO (E&D)	Nov 2004
Publish an annual Diversity Report highlighting progress on the Race Equality Scheme and best practice on diversity and equalities issues.	Carry out yearly reviews on the implementation of the Race Equality scheme and other specific equality strategies	BV 2b	Diversity Champions Group	May 2004
Devise a corporate diversity tool-kit to assist employees, partners and other stakeholders with understanding key diversity issues.	Research examples of best practice Prepare draft Cabinet Report Publish and launch	BV 2 Subsequent employee survey demonstrated increased competence in dealing with equality and diversity issues. Review feedback on the tool-kit Data to be fed into the Diversity Annual Report	PO (E&D)	Dec 2004 Contents reviewed and revised on a monthly basis thereafter
Review toolkit.	Undertake review of current tool kit.	Provide toolkit, which is accessible and more widely used by staff and partners.	PO (E&D)	March 2006
Review equality and diversity on the web site.	Undertake review of current internet and intranet facilities re: equality and diversity.	New enhanced internet and intranet facilities.	PO (E&D) Head of IT	May 2006

Consultation, Community Development and Scrutiny

What do we want to achieve?	What actions need to be taken?	What is the performance indicator? Including Best Value Performance Indicator	Lead / Resources	When?
Ensure that all Council publicity particularly about services is accessible and positively promotes images of diversity within the borough. Also where reasonably requested in: Appropriate community languages and styles Plain English and in accessible formats	R eview of current publications takes place and recommendations made	The number of publications with positive images of diversity. The number of items requested in alternative formats.   Data to be fed into the Diversity Annual Report	Diversity Champions Group	For review by March 2005
The Corporate Consultation Strategy and tool-kit reflects the diversity of Wigan’s communities	Complete an impact assessment of the Council’s Consultation strategy and tool kit	Impact assessment completed and relevant amendments implemented and reported back to Diversity Champions Group	PPI Team	September 2004
Review the composition of the Citizen’s Panel to ensure that it is representative of the local population	Analysis of the composition of the Citizenship Panel takes place	Increased correlation between the diversity that exists within the local population and the composition of the Citizen’s Panel	PPI Team	Reviewed in Feb 2005 and annually thereafter
Effective youth representation/ participation in the borough	Use existing borough-wide Young People’s Council and Township Forums. Carry out a diversity impact assessment on the Youth Participation Strategy	Amendments following diversity impact assessment implemented and reported back to the Diversity Champions Group	Community Engagement Team Positive Futures	To be reviewed in April 2005 and annually thereafter
Ensure that the Council has an accurate and up-to-date picture of the population of the borough which enables the Council to respond more effectively to the needs of all communities	Review census data and pool information on asylum seekers/refugees as well as traveller and other transient communities not captured in the census data	Report to Diversity Champions Group and Chief Officers Group. Service delivery amended according to the recommendations/information gathered	PO (E&D) Policy Officer (Social Inclusion)	Reviewed December 2004 and annually thereafter
Monitor satisfaction levels with the handling of all complaints by all customers and service users	Review current complaints systems	Complaints and customer feedback systems altered as per recommendations. Data fed into the Diversity Annual Report	ALL Services	For review March 2005 and annually thereafter
Ensure diversity and equality issues are routinely included in key council publications like Borough Life, Staff Newsletters etc.	Review current publications	The number of publications carrying information about equality/diversity matters	ALL services	To be reviewed Dec 2004 and annually thereafter
Organise a corporate response to key diversity events like: Holocaust Memorial Day, International Women’s Day, Black History Month, World Aids Day as appropriate	Create list of key diversity events and disseminate to all managers and employees Ensure that all working groups feedback into the corporate Diversity Champions Structure Include key diversity events and celebrations in Civic and Mayoral calendar	The number of events that have a clear and evidenced corporate response	Diversity Champions Group	To be reviewed October 2005 and annually thereafter
Local fora within Townships report on and reflect the diversity of the local communities	Membership and participation audit co-ordinated throughout the Township Team. Closer linkages are made with the Township Teams and Community Cohesion Forum	Report to various groups	Township Co-ordinator	To be reviewed December 2005 and annually thereafter
Grant aid and funding provided to voluntary and community sector does not discriminate against communities of interest and actively embraces valuing diversity and implementing equality of opportunity initiatives	Impact assessment of grant aid is carried out.	Recommendations arising from review and implemented and monitored.   Grant aid is demonstrably targeted at priority issues identified through the work/recommendations arising from the Community Cohesion Forum   Data will be used in the Diversity Annual Report	Corporate Grant-Aid Co-ordinator	December 2005 and reviewed annually thereafter
Develop a local Communities Facilities Strategy that builds in support and recognition for the needs of communities of interest	Review current partnership approach to community-based buildings	Increased capacity to deliver diversity and equality outcomes from voluntary and community sector organisations	PO (Social Inclusion)	To be reviewed March 2005 and reviewed annually thereafter
Devise mainstream Diversity Impact Assessment courses available to all services	Devise training courses	The number of course participants attending Data to be fed into the Diversity Annual Report	PO (E&D) Training Manger	March 2005 and annually thereafter

Service delivery and customer care

What do we want to achieve?	What actions need to be taken?	What is the performance indicator?	Lead	Timescale
All departments and services to ensure that they have a coherent diversity and equality plan that reflects both corporate and local service business priorities and is a core part of their overall business planning and performance management processes	Consider gaps in current business/service planning processes	Amended plans in place as part of mainstream business and service planning process. Better service delivery outcomes for all communities achieved   Data to be fed into the Diversity Annual Report	Diversity Champions Group	Dec 2004 to be reviewed annually thereafter
Ensure that the Council’s complaints policy include specific reference to complaints of discrimination made on the ground of race, ethnicity, race, gender, disability and sexuality	Review current complaints procedure and remove barriers to access	Policy/procedures amended Local performance indicators developed BV 175 BV 175 Data fed into the Diversity Annual Report	ALL services	Dec 2004 to be reviewed periodically thereafter
Periodically monitor satisfaction levels with Council services. To include data on ethnicity, gender, disability, sexuality, age	Devise monitoring timetable	BV 74 BV 75 Results from all services to be fed into the Diversity Annual Report	ALL services	March 2005 to be reviewed annually thereafter
Expand existing customer service indicators to include diversity and equalities performance indicators and embed into the Performance Plus performance management system	Review and amend current indicators	Amendments incorporated into Performance Plus framework and reported on as part of mainstream performance improvement programme	PPI Team	March 2005 and then reviewed annually thereafter
Carry out diversity impact assessments in the areas of race, gender and disability within all service areas.	Impact assessment is timetabled into business and service planning process.	Improved performance on BV 2 BV 2b BV 156 Assessments complemented and recommendations implemented	ALL services	Mar 2005 to be reviewed annually thereafter
Develop Service Needs Requirement Impact Assessment tools, guidance and training package.	SNRIA tool, training tools	ESLG level 2 BV 2A	E&D Officer	Dec 2005
Implement SNRA		ESLG level 2 BV 2A	E. Champions E&D Officer	March 2006
Carry out and complete an audit of accessibility to Council service for people and communities with a disability as part of the diversity impact assessment process	Audits are timetabled.	BV 156 Disability Discrimination Act 1995 Audits completed and plans are put in place to rectify areas/reasonable adjustments to service delivery are made	ALL services	Jun 2005 to be reviewed periodically
Undertake an audit against the DDA compliance	Completed Audit Audit Report		E&D Officer PPI Team	Feb 2005
Ensure that all services meet the requirements of various codes of practice produced by the various equality commissions and other bodies	Include assessment of services against the codes of practice in the impact assessment process	BV 164	ALL services	To be reviewed by December 2005 and annually thereafter

Employment and training

What do we want to achieve? (Links with BVPI’s)	What actions need to be taken?	What is the performance indicator?	Who	When
Undertake an equal pay and fair employment review, which includes a comprehensive job evaluation review.	Project plan developed and implemented	BV 2a	Corporate Personnel	March 2007
Revise staff training programme to include valuing diversity and implementing equal of opportunity	Ensure that there is a strong equality and diversity component to training courses where appropriate but particularly: Corporate Awareness Induction Equal opportunities Appreciation Managers Briefing	BV 2a BV 2b	Recruitment Manager Training Manager	September 2005 to be reviewed periodically
Ensure that corporate and departmental recruitment and selection procedures are in line with codes of practice issued by the various Equality Commissions	Research codes of practice and compare with current policy and practice and amend as necessary	BV 2a BV 2b	Corporate Personnel	To be reviewed by September 2005
Develop and implement a Work-Life Balance Policy and consider the mainstreaming of the Home- Working Pilot	Develop draft policy and consult widely including the Diversity Champions Group	Improved performance against each of the following: BV 11a BV 11b BV 12 BV 16a BV 16b BV 17a BV 17b	Corporate Personnel	September 2006 to be reviewed periodically thereafter
Develop and implement a Dignity At Work Policy to support the corporate direction of effective management and elimination of discrimination and harassment at work	Develop draft policy and consult widely including the Diversity Champions Group	Improved performance against each of the following BV 11a BV 11b BV 12 BV 16a BV 16b BV 17a BV 17b BV 175 BV 176	Corporate Personnel	September 2005 policy to be reviewed annually thereafter
Ensure that valuing diversity and implementing equality of opportunity is integral to the Wigan Manager core competency and roll out framework	Agree core competencies and research best practice	Competencies rolled out, improvement on average scores relating to equality and diversity demonstrated significant improvement over time.	Corporate Personnel	September 2007 to be reviewed periodically thereafter
Develop and implement corporate mentoring / Positive Action schemes for staff representing different communities of interest	Project plan and team to be established	Feedback from participants in such programmes. Improved performance against BVPI’s shown below.	Corporate Personnel	September 2007 to be reviewed periodically thereafter
Improve the Council’s performance in terms of the recruitment, selection and retention for key target groups.	Develop strategy/action plan to meet gaps	Improved performance against each of the following indicators: BV 11a BV 11b BV 16a BV 16b BV 17a BV 17b Data used in the production of the Diversity Annual Report	Recruitment Manager	December 2007 to be reviewed annually thereafter
Consider revising the EDNR process to include awareness of valuing diversity and implementing equality of opportunity	Develop project plan	Project completed and recommendations arising from research are considered and implemented where possible.	Corporate Personnel	December 2006 to be reviewed periodically thereafter
Provide education/awareness and training for employees on their statutory responsibilities under equalities legislation	Devise briefing/training programme and deliver to target groups, particularly for manual/craft workers	Percentage of employee undertaking training Feedback from the course from participants	Corporate Personnel	December 2009
Training and development programmes assist with the roll out of the Diversity Tool-kit and communicates the Council’s values on implementing equality of opportunity and valuing diversity	Devise training and support to key staff on the roll out and use of the Diversity Tool-kit. Specifically around the following courses: · Induction/corporate awareness · Equalities appreciation · Customer care · Best Value Awareness · CPD · Leadership and Motivation · Harassment	Number of training sessions delivered Feedback from course participants on the effectiveness of the course	Corporate Personnel	To be reviewed December 2005

Key

PO (E&D) Policy Officer (Equality and Diversity)

PPI Team – Policy and Performance Improvement Team

Appendix Appendix A

The Local Government Equality Standard

This standard aims to ‘mainstream’ equality/diversity issues by adopting a common approach to handling race, gender and disability equality matters.

Issues. The Standard also has significant linkages with both the general and specific duties imposed on local authorities under the Amended Race Relations Act 2000. The Council aims to reach level three of the Equality Standard for Local Government by 2006.

The standard aims to provide:

• A systematic framework for mainstreaming equality
• Integrate equality policy objectives with best value
• Provide a framework for the consistent improvement of performance

The standard itself consists of five levels:

Level one: Commitment to a comprehensive equality policy (CEP)

Level two: Assessment and consultation

Level three: Setting equality objectives and targets

Level four: Information systems and monitoring against targets

Level five: Achieving and reviewing outcomes.

Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

The General Duty

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 creates a general duty to promote race equality on all public authorities. The duty requires that in the undertaking of all functions, policies and procedures an authority must ensure that it takes into consideration the following:

• Elimination unlawful racial discrimination
• Promote equal opportunities
• Promote good relations between people from different racial groups

The duty aims to make the promotion of race equality central to the way public authorities work, and to improve the way public services and employment practices are delivered.

The Specific Duties

The specific duties have been developed to support authorities in complying with the general duties. The specific duties requires the following activities:

• Produce a Race Equality Scheme

• List all functions and policies and proposed policies that have been assessed as being relevant to the general duty to promote race equality.

• Set out the Councils arrangements to:

• Monitor policies for any adverse impacts.
• Assess and consult on, the impact on proposed policy.
• Publish the results of assessments, consultation, and monitoring.
• Make sure the public have access to information and services.
• Train staff on the general duty and specific duty.

• Employment Monitoring
• Monitor staff in post and applicants for jobs, promotion, and training, by ethnicity.
• Benefit or suffer from performance appraisals.
• Are involved in grievances.
• Are subject to disciplinary action.
• End their service with the authority.

Race Equality Scheme

The Race Equality Scheme is basically an action plan of how the Council plans to meet the general and specific duties. The aim of the RES is to ensure that the Council carries out the general duty in a systematic way, and considers all activities in order to develop ways of working that can deal with racial inequality and institutional racism.

Every three years the Council will review the scheme and undertake a reassessment of functions, policies and procedures. Actions for the delivery of the Race Relations Amendment Act will be included within the diversity and equality action plan.

Contact Details

Business Transformation Team

E-mail	PPITeam@wigan.gov.uk
Opening Hours	08:45 - 17:00
Phone Number	01942 828031
Fax	01942 827297
Address	Wigan Council, Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan, WN1 1YN
Location	Location of Business Transformation Team