Issue - items at meetings - ?possible Equalities

Report of the Acting Director of Strategy and Governance.

18.1    The Head of Equalities and Inclusion presented the six-monthly update report to the Commission. The Commission heard that, six months ago, the council had been working towards the Equality Standard assessment; the Head of Equalities and Inclusion was very pleased to be able to say that the council had achieved Equalities Standard Level 3 at the end of March 2009. This had now been replaced by a new Equalities framework, which was more focussed on outcomes and the council's assessment had been migrated to the new framework, being assessed as 'achieving', with 'excellent' being the next level to aspire to. The report provided an update on a number of issues relating to the Equalities Standard.

Members heard about the City Inclusion Partnership; the most recent meeting had been last week and it had been agreed that there would be an Equalities charter for the city, rather than having a shared equalities framework. The council would now be working to produce a council-wide single equalities scheme, which would link in to the proposed Charter.

18.2    Councillor McCaffery thanked the Head of Equalities and Inclusion for all of her team's hard work over the year, this was very welcomed. Councillor McCaffery had noticed positive movement across the city in terms of equalities, including the redefinition of the BME categorisation to include White European, and the positive recognition of the LGBT work carried out. Councillor McCaffery queried the statement on page 83 about scrutiny not having been used to monitor progress in the past; she felt this was a little inaccurate.

Councillor McCaffery was surprised to see that so few Equalities impact assessments had been completed over the last year; she had raised this at full council previously. Councillor McCaffery was looking forward to seeing more progress in the future and hoped that it would be monitored.

Councillor McCaffery was also concerned at how members were kept informed about equalities information as this seemed to be an area that should be improved. Councillor McCaffery was the lead opposition spokesperson for equalities and was surprised to see a number of significant issues in the report of which she had not been made aware     .

18.3    Councillor Kennedy supported Councillor McCaffery's comments; she had concerns about the City Inclusion Partnership's method of working as meetings were held in private. Previously, the Equalities Forum had met in public which had allowed for minority groups to engage with policy formation and air their concerns; there did not seem to be a suitable forum for this to happen in a suitable way. Councillor Kennedy asked for the City Inclusion Partnership's remit to be reviewed.

18.4    Councillor Elgood commented that the peer challenge report was an excellent piece of work, and suggested that the Commission should keep a close eye on future areas of work that the report raised. Councillor Elgood would have liked to see more target dates in the council's response, and asked that the next update could provide this information. Councillor Elgood commented on the range of issues raised to do with staff issues, for example the staff bus not being accessible to staff with mobility impairment; he asked for further information on staffing issues to be brought to a future Commission meeting. Councillor Bennett supported this request.          

18.5    Councillor Peltzer Dunn asked for clarification of the dates that were referred to in the report, and for more information about the work programme for the next six months. The Head of Equalities and Inclusion confirmed that the last report had come to the Commission in January 2009, and that this was the six-monthly report following that one. It was agreed that there was more work to be done in drawing up the next work plan to reflect the key issues.  In particular, there was a mis-print on p 109 of the report, and it should have referred to 2009 in general.

18.6    There was a discussion about the suitability of the City Inclusion Partnership as a forum for issues to be raised. Concerns included the frequency of meetings, which were now held quarterly, that the meetings were held in private and that the meetings were outside of the council's constitution. Previously, the Equalities Forum had met in public. The Chairman said that he would like to see a return to these arrangements; this was supported by Councillor Elgood, who suggested a working group to look at disability issues. Councillor McCaffery said that she had raised these issues with the Governance Committee previously.

The Head of Equalities and Inclusion explained that a cross-party working group had already been established to look at this issue, at the request of Councillor David Watkins. The group was due to meet for the first time next week and it might be appropriate to wait for the outcome of that meeting before any proposed panel was established. It was intended that the group's work would inform the constitutional review. Members on the working group included Councillors Pidgeon, McCaffery, Wakefield-Jarrett, Watkins and Simpson.

The Head of Overview and Scrutiny suggested that the Commission might like to write to the Cabinet Member for Equalities to outline its concerns and seek a response, prior to setting up a potential ad hoc panel. In light of the information about the working party, it would seem to be a duplication of work if a panel was established at today's Commission.  Members agreed to wait until the working party had reported before deciding on a course of action. 

Councillor Elgood welcomed the working party but also proposed a scrutiny review on disability issues, perhaps looking at workforce issues as well as the wider issues raised by Commission members.

The Head of Overview and Scrutiny requested that it might be more appropriate to have a scoping report before agreeing any scrutiny panels so that work could be coordinated across directorates and committees. This was agreed by members.

18.7    RESOLVED – (a) that a scoping report be brought to the next Commission meeting and (b) that the achievements to date be noted.