As a service provider and major employer, the Council is committed to promoting equality and tackling social exclusion and, as such, will integrate equality into all activities, having due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination
- Promote equality of opportunity and
- Promote good relations between all groups
The above also applies to the role the Council has as a commissioner and procurer of goods and services.
Equality priorities
Our vision is for a council which "Puts Customers First" when developing and delivering local services by engaging with local people to ensure they get the services they need and can influence and shape the way we work.
Our Equality Strategy centres on the following equality priorities with the priorities reflecting our commitment to Customer Care, as stated in our Corporate Plan, in particular 'Putting the Customer First'. We will:
- Respect and value staff, customers, councillors and partners so that they are treated with dignity and respect;
- Engage effectively with our communities so that people can influence decisions that affect their lives;
- Empower people in their communities to shape and tackle local issues;
- Ensure services are centred on meeting the needs of our customers;
- Promote fair pay and equal access to employment and learning and development opportunities; and
- Build a clear picture of local need based on what local people have told us and what we know about our customers.
The intention is that these equality priorities will enable us to meet this vision and emphasize how important listening and engaging with communities is to developing and delivering local services. These priorities will help to guide our decisions and ensure that any changes made to the services we provide continue to address the individual needs of our customers.
As part of our on-going community engagement programme we will continually review these priorities based on the information our customers give us. The priorities will be reviewed formally every 4 years.
How will we deliver on these priorities?
A range of actions are in already in place to support delivery against these priorities both in the Corporate Plan and in Service Improvement Plans. To help us measure progress on these priorities we have an equalities action plan which is monitored on an ongoing basis. An annual report will be produced which will note the progress made against the priorities.
The Equality & Inclusion Action Plan included below provides a summary of the measures that the Council will use to gauge how well we are meeting our Equality Priorities.
Equality & Inclusion documents
These documents are currently in the process of being reviewed and updated. If you have any queries please contact us by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
