Issue - items at meetings - Equalities and Social Inclusion

Report of the Director of Strategy and Governance.

73.1         The Head of Equalities and Inclusion introduced the report which had been requested by the Commission of the key achievements over the last six months. The draft remit of the City Inclusion Partnership and its Work Programme that had been discussed at its meeting on 12 January, had been circulated to the Members of the Commission.

73.2         Peer assessment for the Equalities standard would be carried out at the end of March and officers were confident in their aiming to achieve level 3. All Council departments were working on their Equalities Impact Assessments to include in their business planning processes. The publicity campaign for the new Equalities and Inclusion Policy would soon be launched.

73.3         The Commission was pleased to be told that more stringent regulations meant that with the Licensing Team, A-boards and other obstructions on narrow pavements could now be dealt with.  This had been a long-standing issue for some disabilities groups and individuals.

73.4         Councillor Simson congratulated the Equalities and Inclusion Team on its overall work and recent achievement of top local authority ranking and third ranmking overall  in the annual Stonewall workplace equality index.

73.5         The Head of Equalities and Inclusion answered questions about bikes chained to railings, badly parked cars and wrongly-sited dustbins which caused obstructions to pedestrians; disabilities training for all staff; Equalities Impacts Assessments (EIAs) and frequency of City Inclusion Partnership (CIP) meetings.

73.6         These concerns would be forwarded; EIAs were done for all policy areas and all services were Equalities Impact Assessed every three years. The CIP meets quarterly and the Equalities Coalition would meet more frequently.

73.7         The Equalities Coalition was welcomed by the Commission, though some Members felt that some individuals and organisations would benefit from more publicity of events and reassurance of the actions being taken.

73.8         The Head of Equalities and Inclusion said CIP would be producing its own additional publicity of events and minutes of meetings.

73.9         The Chairman welcomed the report and the new Involvement Officer post. She said it was good to have sight of the CIP work programme and that different partners were taking the lead.

73.10    RESOLVED; that a further report be requested to a future meeting.