The Equalities and Diversity Team is based in the corporate centre. The team works corporately and with directorates to develop and implement new systems, processes and initiatives to promote equality of opportunity, diversity and social inclusion within the Council and to ultimately improve council services so that they are more responsive to the diverse needs of our communities.
Although the most demanding legislation for Local Authorities focuses on Race, Disability and Gender, the team ha a holistic approach to equality and works to address issues facing a wider range of equality groups, including Age, Religion and Belief, Sexual Orientation and Transgender people. The Council has had this approach since it was established in 2003, and supports more recent national policy changes such the establishment of the Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Equalities Review.
The Council has a network of Champions who drive improvement and performance in relation to equality. Each Directorate has a Senior Equality Champion at Assistance Director or Director level and one Equality Practitioner at officer or manager level to support the Champion in driving the equalities agenda in their respective Directorates.
The Council also has a network of Equality Groups that work collaboratively to drive and steer the equalities agenda. The Corporate Equality Strategy Group, which is attended by all Equality Champions and Cllr. Jean Stretton provides strategic direction to action and improvement across the Council and monitors and evaluates progress and performance. This group is informed and supported by a Practitioners working group, which is made up of directorate practitioners and other key officers, such as HR. Each Directorate also has its own Equality & Diversity Group, which is chaired by respective Equality Champions and attended by appropriate service managers. View the Equalities Groups structure chart here (PDF 17Kb).
The Council is committed to improving its performance in relation to Equality & Diversity and to help measure its performance has adopted the Equality Standard for Local Government (ESLG). In 2004/05 The Council achieved level 3 of Equality Standard for Local Government and aims to achieve level 4 in 2008/09. For more information, please see the Equality Standard for Local Government page.
The Equalities Team has produced a number of polices, toolkits and guidance documents to support managers in ensuring that Equality & Diversity is considered in all aspects of the Councils functions.
Under the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and the Equality Act 2006, the Council is required to undertake an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) on all its current and proposed functions, polices and projects in relation to Race, Gender and Disability. However, the Council’s approach goes beyond this in scope and also looks at issue relating to age, sexual orientation, transgender / transsexual people, carers and those with dependent and religion and belief.
An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is a mechanism that supports managers to analyse a policy or project in relation to its impact on various groups of people within our community.
For more information please see our Equality Impact Assessments page.
Service Needs Assessments are a key stage to service planning. They have been designed to support managers identify if services are meeting the varying needs of communities and how they can be improved.
The Service Needs Assessments (SNRA) purpose is to ensure services undertake an equalities review of service provision, in order to secure or maintain continued improvement. Whereas the Equalities Impact Assessment is limited to ensuring that the equalities agenda is mainstreamed into new areas of work or where existing work is being significantly amended.
See the full Service Needs Assessment guidance here (PDF 63Kb).
Oldham Council has established worker forums for female, disabled, ethnic minority and lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans employees. Recognising that these groups are largely absent from decision-making processes, these Forums have been established to provide an opportunity for these employees to have a voice and influence change.
To contact the Equalities Team please email equalities@oldham.gov.uk or telephone 0161 770 4521.
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