Gender Equality Scheme 2007-2009
Foreword
This is the first Gender Equality Scheme to be produced by
Havant Borough Council. The scheme is linked into an overarching
Comprehensive Equality Policy. This policy sets out the Council’s
aim to eliminate unlawful discrimination and to promote equal
opportunities for all. There are particular people who may
experience exclusion for reasons relating to their race,
disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion and/or belief
(including lack of). The Comprehensive Equality Policy and
associated schemes explain what the Council intends to do to
improve fair and equal access to employment and council
services.
The Equality Act 2006 created the Gender Equality Duty for the
public sector. The Gender Equality Duty has two parts to it, the
“general” duty and the “specific” duty. The general duty places a
legal duty on the Council when carrying out all its functions, to
have due regard to the need:
- to eliminate unlawful discrimination and
harassment
- to promote equality of opportunity between men
and women.
To “help meet its general duty”, the Council has a specific duty
to:
- produce a Gender Equality Scheme identifying
its gender equality goals and actions to be implemented
within 3 years (unless unreasonable/impracticable)
- work in consultation with stakeholders
- monitor and review progress by producing a
yearly report with a full review of the scheme at least every three
years
- develop, publish and regularly review an
equal pay policy, including measures to address promotion,
development and gender balance within the organisation
- conduct and publish equality impact
assessments of all major current and proposed policies, and publish
its criteria for conducting such impact assessments.
The duty applies to Havant Borough Council in
three ways:
- through all policy-making function.
- through the Council’s role as an
employer
- through the Council’s role as a local service
provider (including the work carried out by our contractors in
relation to service provision).
Scheme Objectives
This scheme has been produced using priorities
set by the council’s strategic plans.
The purpose of this scheme is therefore
to:
- show how the Council will mainstream gender
equality in all areas of its work
- meet and go beyond our legal duties to make
gender equality a reality
- set out our priorities on how we intend to
tackle gender inequality, eliminate
- discrimination and promote equality of
opportunity between women and men.
This will lead to better informed decisions in
policy development resulting in more effective targeting of policy
and resources. With a clearer understanding of service users
this scheme will help raise the quality of services to meet varying
needs of customers, thus contributing to greater confidence in
public services.
The Action Plan relating to this scheme can be
found under the main overarching Comprehensive Equality Policy.
It is important to note that the scheme
equally applies to men and women and the particular needs of
transgender people.
1. The
Context
1.1
Some facts about women and men living in our
area:
- Of the population of 115,300 (Office of
National Statistics Mid Year 2005), the gender split between
females and males is 51.86% and 48.14% respectively compared to the
average for Great Britain of 51.04% and 48.96%
respectively
- 53.5% of female employees work part time
compared to 12.6% of males
- The average female full time wage is £356 per
week compared to £500 for males
- Women have much lower levels of
self-employment (8%) than men (13.9%)
- Of those employees in higher managerial jobs
more are occupied by men (77.64%) than women (22.36%)
- There are over ten times more female than
male lone parent households with dependent children, (91.38% as
compared to 8.62%).
2. Our
Priorities
2.1.
Part of the vision in the Havant Borough
Community Strategy ‘Stronger Together’ is:
‘A community where
no-one is disadvantaged by being unable to access a service they
need, because of age, gender, race, disability or where they
live.’
As an active partner of the Havant Community
Partnership, the Council supports this vision and will work towards
achieving this within its own policies and programmes.
2.2.
The actions within this scheme also reflect
the result of consultation with the Council’s employees and their
union, Unison.
3. Access
to Services
3.1.
Achieving gender equality through service delivery:
Equality and diversity are seen by the Council
as central to the provision of all services. The Gender Equality
Duty is not, however, about making single sex services unlawful
where there is a clear need (one example being domestic violence
single sex emergency refuges).
In order to ensure that services are
accessible to both women and men the Council will:
- monitor our customers’ satisfaction and use
of services by their gender
- assess whether there is an adverse impact due
to gender, in the provision of a service or planned
service
- take positive action to address any
inequality, disadvantage or discrimination
- encourage women and/or men to use our
services where evidence shows that either gender has a low level of
take up of particular services.
4. Employment
–
Improving
Diversity and Increasing Representation
4.1.
Breaking down gender stereotypes and promoting positive role
models:
- Monitoring of the Council’s own workforce
shows that 47.1% of its workforce is female and of the top 5% of
earners 38.1% are women
- Between April 2006 and March 2007 we had 700
applicants to the Council of which 486 of them returned their equal
opportunities form. Of those who did return their form 45%
were male and 55% were female
- The Council actively seeks to promote
positive role models through coaching, management development and
training support for staff and elected members
.
4.2.
Opening up more part-time working opportunities:
- 42.6% of the Council’s female workforce
(excluding the top 5% of earners), work part-time, compared to 6.7%
of male employees. No employees at more senior levels (the
top 5% earners) work part-time.
4.3.
The Council is committed to increasing
part-time working opportunities for employees at all levels,
subject to the operational requirements of the service and to make
this happen it will:
- actively welcome and support job share, and
other flexible working opportunities throughout the
organisation
- positively consider requests for reduction of
hours through the flexible retirement provisions of its Retirement
Policy
- promote job share and part-time opportunities
at all levels.
4.4.
Support and advice for employees who are carers:
4.4.1.
The Council has a number of policies in place
to support carers, which include:
- a flexible working hours scheme/procedure to
consider requests for flexible working arrangements (from April
07)
- child care voucher scheme.
4.5.
Tackling harassment and discrimination:
4.5.1.
The council is committed to tackling all forms
of harassment, including sexual harassment. Sexual harassment
is not tolerated by the Council and specific procedures deal with
such allegations. The Dignity at Work procedure will be
reviewed to ensure that it reflects best practice and that all
employees are aware of the support and advice available if they
experience harassment.
4.5.2. The Council also has a ‘whistle blowing’ procedure,
which extends the protection for employees who want to report bad
practice without fear of being victimised as a result.
4.6.
Training employees on equality and diversity:
4.6.1.
Equality Training is included within the
Council’s Equalities Communication and Training Plan. The purpose
is to provide managers/employees and elected members with the
skills and knowledge they need to ensure that equality becomes part
of our day-to-day activities. The plan will also help to create a
culture where diversity is truly valued and is seen as an asset to
help deliver all the Council’s objectives.
4.6.2.
The approach includes:
- ensuring the content of training is designed
with relevant service delivery and employment perspectives in
mind
- undertaking an analysis of the training needs
for individual employees and members
Equal pay review/audit:
- The Council commissioned and received an Equal Pay Audit during
2005/6. This confirmed that a small number of areas required
attention including the need for a single Job Evaluation scheme and
a consistent approach to extended salary scales and grades. These
are now being addressed.
- The Council is undertaking a review of its Pay and Reward
structures during 2007/8 and will ensure that the outcomes of this
work reflect the principles of equality The review will identify
and inform us of the possible risks and our responsibilities
relating to Equal Pay. It also will help us to ensure we have
pay structures which are fair and therefore greatly reduce the
likelihood of pay gaps between jobs of equal value.
- UNISON will continue to be involved
throughout the Pay and Reward project in order that all aspects of
equal pay are properly examined, and that the review is carried out
with their agreement and support. Progress will be reported
to the Pay and Reward Project Board and to the Staffing Matters
Committee.
- In order to fulfil our commitment to carrying
out the gender equality obligation we will:
- undertake an equal pay audit every three
years
- Introduce a consistent approach to
decision-making on pay across the Council, so that inconsistencies
and anomalies are reduced or eradicated.
5.
Consultation
5.1.
To ensure this scheme meets its objectives, an
internal and external consultation process will be undertaken from
the end of April (2007) for 12 weeks. This will include
stakeholders from staff, Havant Community Partnership, Executive
Members, and Service users (through the Citizen’s Panel and via the
HBC Website).
5.2.
The scheme will be accessible on the HBC
Website and internal intranet and on request in various
formats.
5.3.
Feedback will be taken into account, so that
everyone has a way of influencing the action plan and therefore
this scheme is likely to change over time.
6. Comments and
Complaints
6.1.
Members of the public who feel that they have experienced
illegal discrimination in the way the Council has treated them may
make a complaint through the Council’s Corporate Complaints
procedure. We will take all complaints seriously and will not
tolerate any form of discriminatory behaviour. Monitoring
complaints is another way of gathering information to see whether
we are meeting our equality duties.
6.2.
The Members’ Code of Conduct and Standards Committee deal with
complaints about the conduct of elected members.
6.3.
Members of staff who fear that they may have experienced illegal
discrimination must alert the Council by using the grievance
procedure.
7. The
Equality Standard for Local Government
7.1.
In order to deliver our overall commitments on
equality and diversity, the Council has adopted the Equality
Standard for Local Government. The Equality Standard includes
the six equality areas covered by law; race, disability, gender,
religion or belief, sexual orientation and age.
7.2.
The Equality Standard is not a legal
requirement but has been produced to provide a framework through
which local authorities can meet their legal obligations under
anti-discrimination legislation. It has five levels of
achievement:
Level 1
Commitment
to a comprehensive Equality Policy
Level 2
Assessment
and consultation
Level 3
Setting
equality objectives and targets
Level 4
Using
information systems and monitoring against equality targets
Level 5
Achieving
and reviewing outcomes.
The Equality Standard is also about making
equalities part of our day-to-day activities. The Council is
working towards achieving the higher levels of the standard.
(In 2006 we achieved level 1 of the Standard and by December 2007
we will hope to have reached Level 2).
8. Equality
Impact Assessments
8.1.
An Equality Impact Assessment is a way of
deciding whether a current or proposed policy, procedure, practice
or service does (or may) have an “adverse impact” on some sections
of society. The “adverse impact” may often be the result of
not taking into account the needs of women or men, black and ethnic
minority groups, disabled people, people’s religion or belief,
sexual orientation or age.
8.2.
A number of equality impact
assessments on policies and services are planned to be carried out
by the Council in 2007. Assessments will be carried out on new
policies and services, as they are developed and over time on all
other existing policies and services. The Council’s
approach to gender equality issues is that they will be considered
alongside other equality issues when equality impact assessments
are carried out.
8.3.
Guidance and training have been, and will
continue to be, provided to employees who are responsible for
undertaking Equality Impact Assessments.
8.4.
The results of Equality Impact Assessments
will be put on the internet.
9.
Monitoring of the Scheme
9.1
Annual progress reports will be published and
presented to elected members and EMT. During the first year an
external equality access monitoring group will be established to
manage performance. The scheme will be reviewed in 2009.
Contact
We welcome comments or enquiries about this
scheme.
Please contact:
Caren Ransom
Equalities and Access Officer
Havant Borough Council
Tel: 023 9244 6007
e.mail: caren.ransom@havant.gov.uk
Version 1.5. Updated 23/8/07