Equality And Diversity Objectives

Equality and Diversity Objectives

We're committed to celebrating diversity and promoting equality throughout our services. Equality needs to be an integral part of the way the Council works by putting it at the centre of everything we do. We are committed to celebrating diversity and promoting equality

• as an employer
• in the services we provide
• in partnerships and relationships with our communities
• in the decisions we make

We recognise that promoting equality and diversity is the right thing to do and  will improve public services for everyone.

Our objectives ensure that Spelthorne is a place where people are supported, and diversity is celebrated. Through service delivery and our transformation programme we can work in more creative ways which can better reflect the diversity of the community and those we support and improve service delivery in the process.

How we achieve our equality duties is outlined in our equality objectives:-

• impact - support and deliver meaningful change to our communities which are at the heart of everything we do ;

• listen - listen and involve all voices and to enable our diverse communities to play an active role in civic society that is inclusive to individuals' needs and respects faith, beliefs and cultural differences;

• inspire - celebrate and promote the diversity in our borough and surrounding areas and make the most of the positive opportunities this brings especially in terms of enabling residential and business communities to recover from Covid;

• integrate - deliver and promote accessible and equitable services for all and to be open and accountable in doing so including access to the environment to benefit the health and wellbeing of all our communities;

• inform - be a council which empowers and cares about people and is equitable in meeting housing needs and service delivery;
• Integrity- through encouraging and enabling a skilled and diverse workforce to build a culture of equality and inclusion in everything we do.

What we will do to meet our objectives

• Ensure comprehensive equality impact assessments are completed for all decisions impacting on services users and wider community.
• Promote tolerance and mutual respect across people of all faiths and none,
• Provide further training on equality and diversity
• Ensure Equality Impact Assessments are carried  out where appropriate
• Undertake a whole council approach to the development of inclusive community engagement structures throughout the organisation. Then to further integrate engagement mechanisms and structures to involve stakeholders in scrutinising service delivery, decision-making and progress. The Council will engage with all its communities when making decisions, including those from under- represented groups.
• To ensure structures are in place within the organisation and across partnerships to understand community relationships and map any community tensions
• Meet both the general duties under the Equality and Diversity Act and the specific duties of producing information showing compliance with the equality duty each year and publishing specific and measurable equality objectives at least every four years.