Fairness Statement
The Fairness Statement sets out the overall objective of achieving an Oldham which is fairer and a more equitable place for all.
Oldham is home to a diverse range of people. This diversity is a strength, to be valued and promoted.
However, some people in the borough experience disadvantage.
Disadvantage can affect any local community, and we recognise that some individuals experience a range of disadvantages as a result of who they are and the attitudes of others.
We will aim to address disadvantage and discrimination wherever they are found, in order to make Oldham a fairer and more equitable place for all.
We want to reduce inequalities that exist in all areas including: health and wellbeing, economic prosperity, education, service access and delivery, and overall levels of customer satisfaction.
We will also work with our partners to promote good equality practice to ensure that services are being fairly delivered to everyone.
The Council has a variety of roles to play in achieving this ambition - as a service provider, a procurer and a commissioner of services and an employer.
We will champion fairness and equality of opportunity, challenge all forms of discrimination and harassment, and contribute to making Oldham a place where people live together safely in peace, respect and friendship.
How will we achieve our aims?
In order to achieve the aims of the Fairness Statement, we will focus on...
Customer service
We will provide high quality services that are customer focused.
These services will be accessible, sensitive and responsive to the diverse needs of Oldham’s individuals, families and communities.
Service design
We will deliver services designed through community involvement, consultation and research enabling us to deliver services that meet the needs of our citizens.
Procurement and commissioning
As a major procurer and commissioner of services, we will ensure that we provide fair and equitable opportunities for a range of organisations to bid for our contracts.
We will influence organisations to promote equality of opportunity and to recognise the diverse needs of their customers and employees.
Being an employer of choice
We aim to be an employer of choice by engaging in fair and open recruitment processes.
We will encourage applications from all communities across the borough.
Workforce diversity
We will create a workforce that better represents the diversity of our population.
And we will respond to the diverse needs of our employees and eliminate unlawful discrimination in order to be recognised as an employer of choice for all our communities.
Accessible Information Standard
The Accessible Information Standard is there to make sure that disabled people who use adult social care services (and their carers) have access to information that they can understand and any communication support they might need.
Service and workforce data
Our equality-related data for some of the services we deliver and for our workforce is listed here.
Over time we intend to add additional service and workforce information and to strengthen the collection of equality related data across the Council.
We use this data to inform service planning and development to continually improve performance over time.
Equality objectives
Oldham Council’s ambition is to deliver a cooperative future where everyone does their bit to create a confident and ambitious borough. Our equality objectives complement and support the delivery of our co-operative ambition for the borough, by ensuring that we are inclusive in our approach. The equality objectives identify two key areas which we believe have the potential to drive further improvements in our equality performance and further strengthen and develop our intelligence and evidence base and be deliverable within existing resources.