Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Worcester City Council is committed to ensuring that Diversity, Inclusion and Equality is at the heart of everything we do, not just making sure everyone who lives works and visits our city is treated with equality and dignity, but also we get the very best out of our diverse city.

Equality, diversity and inclusion impacts on every individual in Worcester and responsibility is therefore universal. The list of characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010 (“the protected characteristics”) encompasses everybody and there may be an event in any person’s life where they are subject to discrimination (less favourable treatment) or harassment or victimisation, on the basis of one of these protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender Reassignment
• Marriage and Civil Partnership
• Pregnancy and Maternity
• Race
• Religion and Belief
• Sex
• Sexual Orientation

All businesses and employers are subject to the Equality Act prohibitions on discrimination, victimisation and harassment. In addition for the Council, there are enhanced obligations under the public sector equality duty, s149 of the Equality Act 2010. This places a specific statutory duty on public sector bodies to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good community relations.

The Council is also under a duty to collect and monitor information about

the diversity of its population of customers as well as its workforce. Each year the Council must publish equality objectives, identifying the priority areas it has decided to focus on in order to meet its legal obligations.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion objectives for 2021/22 are:

1. Action the two Motions to Council on race equality and anti-Semitism passed unanimously in 2020 by Councillors
2. Complete the Local Government Associations’ Equalities Framework for Local Government Self-assessment
3. Develop a new Diversity, Inclusion and Equality Strategy

1. Motions to Council on Race Equality and Anti-semitism

In 2020 the City Council passed two specific motions related to equalities

These were:

Council Motion: Ethnic and Racial Inequality

That this Council values the cultural diversity of our city and commits to addressing ethnic and racial inequality in Worcester and agrees to call on officers to:

• review the collection of data by the Council on race and ethnicity
• implement training to tackle racism
• work towards ensuring the City Council’s workforce is representative of the community it serves
• ensure equality law is applied in relation to all policy areas and decisions in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Council Motion: Adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Anti-Semitism

That the Council will not tolerate anti-Semitic behaviour and therefore adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, including all its examples, and include its application in the Members’ Code of Conduct and in any governance relating to Council staff and officers.

2. Complete the Local Government Association’s Equality Framework self-assessment

The Local Government Association Equalities Framework for Local Authorities and the associated tools are widely used by councils to evaluate their performance against their equality, diversity and inclusion standards to help them better understand where improvement is required in order to develop better policy and decision-making processes are open and diverse.

The City Council has committed to an exercise using the LGA’s Equalities Framework standards, which in summary comprises of:

These standards are measured against the following criteria:

• Developing - The developing level criteria contain the basic building blocks for each priority. An organisation at the Developing level has made an organisational commitment to improving equality. It is putting in place processes to deliver on equality issues and is working towards meeting and exceeding the statutory requirements.
• Achieving - An organisation at the Achieving level has policies, processes and procedures in place and is delivering some good equality outcomes. It is not only meeting, but can demonstrate exceeding statutory requirements.
• Excellent - An organisation at the Excellent level has mainstreamed equality throughout the organisation and can demonstrate that it is delivering significant outcomes across its services that are making a difference in its communities. The organisation not only exceeds statutory requirements and it is an exemplar council for equality and diversity in the local government and wider public sector.

Once the council has completed the self-assessment exercise a list of priorities and objectives will feed into a renewed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy which will be developed to reflect the needs, priorities and ambitions of the City Council for the future.

3. Develop a new Diversity, Inclusion and Equalities Strategy for the future

Using the findings from the Local Government Equalities Framework for Local Government self-assessment, the council will develop a Strategy fit for the future, which reflects the diverse needs of its workforce, residents, visitors and businesses.

Further to the council’s legal obligations, we want to make the most of our diverse environment and communities in order to achieve ambitious goals for our city and council. Diverse and engaged organisations have a proved positive impact on performance and the quality of service they provide.

This City Council will consult with its’ Members, staff and communities as part of the strategy development.