This page is currently being updated. If you have any further queries please contact webmaster@havant.gov.uk
Race Equality Scheme
Our Race Equality Values, Principles and Standards
The government believes that
public authorities, within their role as employers, policy makers
and service providers, should lead by example in eliminating race
inequality.
In line with Havant’s vision for
a cleaner, safer, more prosperous borough, the Council is committed
to ensuring that it meets the needs of all ethnic groups within the
borough in all aspects of service delivery. It is
acknowledged that we live in an unequal society and the Council is
committed to the removal of all barriers to race equality.
Havant Borough Council aims to
eliminate unlawful racial discrimination and promote equality of
opportunity and good race relations. The Council will work
towards providing an appropriate and professional service to all
citizens of and visitors to the borough regardless of colour,
culture or ethnic origin. In order to promote race equality
we aim to provide facilities that encourage inclusion of all
sections of the community and develop policies which strengthen and
enable all groups to contribute effectively.
Our Statutory Obligations
From April 2001 following the
Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 which strengthens and extends
the provisions of the1976 Race Relations Act, a general duty is
placed on all public authorities in carrying out their functions to
have due regard to the need to:
- eliminate unlawful race
discrimination
- promote equality of
opportunity
- promote good race relations
between people of different racial groups.
Additionally, specific duties
apply to the activities of authorities with regard to employment
and also policy and service delivery. These specific duties
came into effect on 3 December 2001.
The Act requires public
authorities to produce and publish a Race Equality Scheme
describing how they propose to fulfil the duties imposed. The
anti-discrimination provisions also apply to voluntary and private
sector bodies that carry out public functions.
Under the general duty, when a
council has a contract with a private or voluntary organisation to
carry out any of its functions to which the duty to promote race
equality applies, the council is responsible for meeting the duty
concerning those functions. In practice this means that when
a council is working within a mixed partnership involving public,
private and voluntary sector partners, it will need to be satisfied
that arrangements for planning and implementing partnership working
will meet its statutory race equality duties. The obligation
to comply with the duty is on the council, not on the voluntary or
private sector partner.
Additionally, councils that
co-operate with other public authorities in a mixed partnership are
still responsible for meeting their general duty to promote race
equality and any specific duties.
Havant Borough Council adopts the
Macpherson definition of “institutional racism” as contained in the
Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report and as such the Council will not
unfairly discriminate (directly or indirectly) against anyone on
the grounds of race, colour, culture or ethnic origin. The
Council will use the power to “do anything” to promote social
wellbeing as described in the Local Government Act 2000, to
encourage good race relations and tackle racism.
Our Race Equality Scheme will
translate our beliefs into clear actions, setting out suitable
methods of assessing how our current and proposed policies across
the organisation will affect the citizens of and visitors to the
borough belonging to different ethnic groups. The Council
deems it the responsibility of every elected Member and employee to
embrace fully the Council’s duties in being pro-active in promoting
race equality. This will require full co-operation and
commitment to avoid unlawful discrimination before it occurs, in
order to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between
people of different racial groups.
Race Equality Strategic Aims and Objectives
Havant Borough Council aims
to:
- Work closely with other agencies,
partnerships and voluntary organisations to ensure the needs of the
ethnic minority groups within the borough are reflected in all
aspects of service delivery; and to ensure that services are
delivered in a way that takes full account of their rights and
needs
- Ensure that all employees and
potential employees receive fair consideration and treatment and
are not racially discriminated against during the process of
recruitment and selection
- Encourage and listen to, the views
and opinions of both service users and employees and respond
appropriately
- Ensure that Race Equality
objectives are integral to the service and Group business
plans and to all service agreements and contracts with
private sector companies
- Provide appropriate employee and
elected Member training to ensure current practice does not
discriminate against people from ethnic minorities.
How We Will Meet the General Duty
The Council has carried out a
“screening” exercise of its policies and functions using the
following criteria:
- Which of the three parts of the
general duty – eliminating discrimination, promoting equality of
opportunity, and promoting good race relations – is relevant to
this function or policy?
- Is there any reason to believe
that people from some racial groups are being, or could be,
adversely affected by this function or policy? Which racial
groups does this function or policy affect?
- How much evidence is there – none,
a little, some or a lot (for example, from research, consultation,
complaints or ethnic monitoring)?
- Is there public concern
(especially among ethnic minority communities) that certain
functions or policies are discriminatory or racist?
- Any new policies will be screened
for relevance using the criteria identified in the paragraph above
so that race equality is built into the policy-making and review
process.
How We Will Meet the Specific Duties
Specific Duty – Policy and Service Delivery
Under the specific duty on policy
and service delivery, for each review of existing or proposed new
policy or function which has been assessed as relevant to race
equality, we will carry out a Race Equality Impact Assessment to
answer the following questions:
- Could the policy have an adverse
impact on equality of opportunity for some racial groups? In
other words, does it put some racial groups at a
disadvantage?
- Could the policy have an adverse
impact on relations between different racial groups?
- Is the adverse impact, if any,
unavoidable? Could it be considered to be unlawful racial
discrimination? Can it be justified by the policy’s aims and
importance? Are there other ways in which the Council’s aims
can be achieved without causing an adverse impact on some racial
groups?
- Can the adverse impact be reduced
by taking particular measures?
- Is further research or
consultation necessary? Would this research be proportionate
to the importance of the policy? Is it likely to lead to a
different outcome?
Race Equality Impact Assessment Methodology
Race Equality Impact Assessments
will be carried out as follows:
- Analyse data for impact on
different racial groups
- Investigate causes and reasons of
inequalities by setting up consultation groups and working
parties
- Prepare report on
findings
- Consider changes to policy or
proposed policy.
Monitoring
We will carry out ongoing
monitoring of existing, revised and proposed new policies by:
- reviewing and improving existing
methods of ethnic monitoring data collection
· analysing
results
- measuring effects on groups
affected by any policy or service, for any potential
inequalities
- considering and taking action to
review the policy or service
· preparing
reports on the monitoring process.
Such monitoring will allow us to
measure:
- ·demographic changes within the
population of the borough
- the possible effects of proposed
policies on ethnic minority groups
- how often ethnic minority groups
use our services
- whether services are adequate for
their needs
- how often ethnic minority groups
complain about our services
- whether any complaints are fairly
and impartially resolved
The Council has set up an
Equality Policy/Race Equality Scheme Project Team to co-ordinate
equalities and diversity work for the Council. This Team will
work with representatives from all sections of the community to
ensure that race and equality awareness considerations are
incorporated into all aspects of service delivery for and
communication with our customers. This Team has assisted in the
development of:
- Statement of Community Involvement
(January 2006)
- Customer Care and Access Strategy
(March 2006)
- Comprehensive Equality Policy
(March 2006)
Consultation Process
The Council is committed to
engaging groups and individuals in the consultation process at as
early a stage as possible and will consult ethnic minority groups,
voluntary and community groups and other public authorities (using
members of Havant’s Community Partnership) together with trade
unions, staff and any other groups and stakeholders who may have a
legitimate interest in the work of the Council. In term’s of
ethnic minority groups in Havant, 1700 residents (1.5%) class
themselves as non-white, increasing to 3570 (3.1%) when including
those white residents who don’t class themselves as British. (ONS,
Census 2001.) Since Havant has a small ethnic minority
population, links have been established with groups within our
neighbouring Unitary Authority, Portsmouth. These
include:
Portsmouth Race Equality Action
Group
Portsmouth Bangladesh Welfare
Association
Portsmouth Anglo-Arab
Society
Portsmouth Chinese
Association.
Portsmouth Minority Communities
Forum
Consultations may involve:
- face to face meetings
- advisory groups
- surveys
- consultative groups
- focus groups
It is intended that barriers to
consultation should be removed by ensuring accessibility of
language and appropriate format for any documentation and by
choosing consultation methods appropriate for those being
consulted.
Publishing the Results of Assessments, Consultation and
Monitoring
To demonstrate our commitment to
openness and promoting racial equality, we will:
- Publish reports of impact
assessments consultation and monitoring in the following ways:
- a full report on this website
(http://www.havant.gov.uk/)
- copies available from Civic
Offices reception
- regular summaries in “Serving
You”
- summary leaflets printed in
languages other than English, and in Braille, on request
- audio cassettes, on request.
Access to Information and Services
The Council is committed to
making sure that wherever possible all members of the community
have access to the information and services provided.
This will be undertaken by making
Council information available, wherever possible, in languages,
which reflect the ethnic minority population of the borough, as
well as in English.
To identify the requirement for
publication of information in ethnic minority languages and where
that information should be made available, we will consult with
local ethnic minority groups.
The Council subscribes to
Language Line, which provides instant telephone interpreting into
over 100 languages and a number of staff in Civic Offices have been
trained to access this facility when required. The Council’s
website also translates into a number of other languages and has a
facility to download Browsealoud, software to enable the website to
talk to the user.
Training for Employees and Elected Members
The Council is conscious that
effective communication and training will play a key role in
monitoring and maintaining the Race Equality Scheme. It is
therefore committed to a detailed training plan for all its
employees and elected Members. The training plan will aim to
achieve the following objectives:
1. To raise
awareness of current anti-discrimination legislation including the
provisions of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. This will
include an explanation of the general and specific duties and their
implications for all employees and elected Members and will form
part of Induction training.
2. To provide those
employees involved in the screening of policies with the necessary
skills and knowledge to do this work effectively.
3. To provide those
employees involved in the Race Equality Impact Assessment of
policies with the necessary skills and knowledge to do this work
effectively.
4. To provide
those employees who deal with complaints in relation to the
implementation of the Council's Race Equality Scheme, with the
necessary skills and knowledge to investigate and monitor
complaints effectively.
5. To provide those
employees involved in the consultation processes with the necessary
skills and knowledge to do this work effectively.
6. To provide those
employees involved in maintaining and monitoring the
Council's Race Equality Scheme with the necessary skills to do this
work effectively.
7. To evaluate
the extent to which all participants in the training programme have
acquired/refreshed the necessary skills and knowledge to achieve
each of the above objectives.
More focused training will be
provided for management and specialist staff from all functions
within the Council.
The training will be delivered by
in-house specialist staff and external consultants.
All employees will be given a
summary of the Scheme, with a covering letter stating the Council
and Senior Officers’ commitment to the implementation of the
Scheme. All employees and elected Members will also have
access to a full copy of the scheme.
An annual report on the extent to
which the Race Equality training objectives have been met will be
circulated to the Staffing Matters Committee.
.
Specific Duty – Employment
From April 2002 the Council
started to monitor staff in post, applicants for posts and
applicants for promotion, with regard to ethnic background. This
information - using the 2001 Census definitions – is gathered
either directly from staff or from monitoring sheets issued with
job application forms.
The information is stored
on the Council's Team Spirit Payroll/Personnel database.
Annually we will:
- Analyse information on
staff in post, applicants for posts and promotion and staff leaving
the Council's employment
- Identify and take
action where necessary to remove barriers and promote equality of
opportunity in relation to staff in post, applicants for posts,
applicants for promotion and staff leaving the Council's
employment
- Collect and monitor
information for numbers of staff applying for and/or receiving
training, benefiting or suffering detriment as a result of
performance assessment, involved in grievance procedures and the
subject of disciplinary procedures
- Publish the results of
this monitoring in April of each year.
Incorporating Race and
Equality issues into our Policies/Strategies and Action Plans for
improving service delivery
How We Will Tell the Public About Our Race Equality
Progress
The Scheme, is accessible from
here the Havant Borough Council website and available from Civic
Offices. Copies will be made available on request in
accessible formats such as audio cassette and Braille; and
summaries on request in large print. Summaries will also be
published in ethnic minority languages to meet the needs of those
for whom English is not their first language. To request a
copy of this Scheme in an alternative format, please
contact:
Customer Services Manager
Havant Borough
Council
Civic Offices
Civic Centre
Road
HAVANT
Hampshire
PO9 2AX
Telephone: 023 9244 6158
Fax: 023
9244 6418
How We Will Deal With Race Equality Complaints
The Council will respond to
complaints that it has not fulfilled its statutory obligations and
will seek to resolve such complaints bilaterally. When a
person believes that he/she has been affected by a failure of the
Council to comply with the Scheme, he/she should, in the first
instance, bring the complaint to the attention of:
Customer Services Manager
Havant Borough Council
Civic Offices
Civic Centre Road
HAVANT
PO9 2AX
Telephone: 023 9244 6510
Fax: 023
9244 6156
The complaint will be
acknowledged within 3 working days and the complainant advised as
to when a response can be expected. The complainant will also
be advised of the procedure for pursuing the complaint further with
the Commission for Racial Equality.
Related Strategies/Policies
Corporate Strategy ‘Focus On Our
Future’
Cultural Strategy ‘Inspiring
Life’
Regeneration Strategy ‘Unlocking
the Potential’
Customer Care and Access
Strategy
Comprehensive Equality
Policy
Review of the Scheme
This Scheme will be regularly
monitored for changes in legislation and reviewed at least
annually.
March 2006