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Person responsible for managing the
assessment
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Development Services Manager
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Name and brief description of the
service / policy to be assessed
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Development Control & Building Control
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Objectives of the service/policy to be
assessed
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The delivery of services relating to
Development Control and Building Control including determination of
Planning and Building Regulation applications, protection of trees,
enforcement of the relevant legislation, dangerous structures,
demolition licenses, protection of historic buildings and
conservation areas.
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Baseline/monitoring data
2006/07
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Approx 1300 Planning Applications, 1200
Building Regulation Applications, 8000 competent persons schemes
notifications and 30 dangerous structures per annum.
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Service/policy outcome
evaluation
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Addressed via:
- Customer satisfaction surveys
- Articles in Serving You
- Consultation with external bodies including DCLG, Environment
Agency, SEEDA, Fire Brigade, English Heritage, Health and Safety
Executive, Hampshire County Council, Langstone Harbour Board,
Portsmouth Water, Open Space Society and many more.
- Internal liaison
- Performance Indicators
- Compliance with legislation
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List of main
stakeholders/beneficiaries
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- Residents
- Businesses
- Architects / Agents
- Solicitors
- Builders
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How representative is the
‘stakeholder’ list above?
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These are the main stakeholders (90%)
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Who benefits from the
service/policy?
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- Community
- Individual service users/recipients
- Businesses
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In what area are there concerns that
the policy could have a differential impact
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Race√
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Disability √
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Gender
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Age
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Religious beliefs
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Sexual Orientation
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Please explain for each of the target equality groups,
but in particular race, disability and gender:
Race: Communication of legal requirements /
expectations of service
Disability: Availability of published guidance
and information
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Areas of concern that the
service/policy could have a differential
impact
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The delivery of the service as it stands could
impact in the following ways
Race: People who can read or speak little or
no English may experience difficulties in accessing the
service and may have different expectations of the service.
Disability: Blind people may experience
difficulties in accessing all published information. Deaf people
may have communication difficulties particularly away from the
civic offices on site or at meetings.
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Differential impact
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No evidence can be found to substantiate that
there is any impact in the areas of age, gender, religious belief
or sexual orientation.
In the areas of race and disability, whilst
there is no direct evidence of differential impact it is considered
that there is not enough information to analyse these areas. There
may be an impact in terms of full access to the service. If full
access is not being achieved then customers may be less likely to
use it and therefore are at a higher risk of not complying with the
legislation. This impacts particularly groups who may have
difficulty in communication, particularly groups who do not
understand English and certain disabilities. These customers
would be at a higher risk of enforcement action.
There is no direct evidence to suggest that
this is the case although this area requires further investigation
and analysis (see below)
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Reasons for any differential
impact
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Forms / guidance not provided in a variety of
languages
Possible communication problems when
dealing with customers on site or at meetings who do not speak
English or are deaf.
Staff having inadequate training to deal with
equalities issues
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Are there any barriers to
opportunities or access for some groups?
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Language (helped by language line) although
dealing with customers on site away from the office may be a
particular issue.
In a similar manner dealing with deaf people
on remote sites where facilities are not available may cause a
barrier.
Expectations of type of outcome due to
culture
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Complaints data
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None received on equality issues.
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Are there disadvantages caused by
discrimination?
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Possible reduced access to services – see
comments above
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Are there opportunities to better
promote service/policy inclusion?
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This is being discussed generally within the
Council.
In addition, there is an intention to
develop further links with other welfare groups to gain a greater
understanding of how to reach minority groups. A new directory of
hard to reach representatives (such as community and voluntary
organisations) is currently being written that Officers will be
able to access to help their service areas consult directly with
hard to reach groups.
Specifically relating to Development Services
the following areas need to be considered :
Increase staff training on equalities issues
and awareness of existing provisions that the Council makes.
Review and analyse the need for possibly
upgrading existing documents to cater for other languages.
Review facilities for staff to communicate
with deaf people in all aspects of their work.
Investigate if certain groups within the
Borough are being disadvantaged in accessing and using the service
and analyse their understanding and expectation of the service. It
is not clear at this time if the department is fully sensitive to
user needs.
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Have you undertaken any
consultation?
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Whilst we carry out customer satisfaction
surveys, the questions are not constructed to determine whether or
not the service was accessible in the terms of equality.
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Consultation outcomes
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None
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Assessment conclusion
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Low impact. There is no evidence of existing
working practices, procedures or attitudes within Planning and
Building Control producing direct or indirect discrimination,
however the following issues need to be considered as
improvements
- Staff training in equalities issues.
- Existing documents / forms – do these need to consider other
languages ?
- Is service delivery to deaf people properly equipped to deal
with all situations where communication is required? Eg: Remote
site meetings.
- Are any groups particularly groups who do not use English as
their first language being discriminated against in terms of access
to the service?
- Customer satisfaction surveys must include references to
equalities.
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Monitoring timetable
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Development Services Manager
to:
- Ensure all staff and Members have completed equalities training
by March 08 following production of Learning Plan produced by
Equalities Officer
- Review the use of accessible formats of publications and forms
by April 08 following completion of equalities training
- Review the use and effectiveness of availability of
communication services (translation and those for deaf / hard of
hearing) for staff who deal with customers in remote locations / on
site, together with staff awareness of these services by April 08
following completion of Equalities training.
- Ensure that all future Customer satisfaction surveys include
references to equalities. The Equalities project team are looking
at ways of adding references to Equalities so that services have a
standardised reference that they can add to their customer
satisfaction surveys. The Equalities project team will produce
guidance by November 2007 and then this should be implemented from
time of publication.
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Please ensure that you have provided as
much evidence as possible to support the responses you have
given.
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Additional Comments
No additional comments
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Signed: Building Control Team
Leader
(Completing Officer)
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Signed: Head of Development &
Technical Services (Head of Service)
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Date: 28th September
2007
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