Valuing Diversity - The Council's Equality Strategy

Introduction and Background

North East Lincolnshire Council has always acknowledged the range of equalities legislation (see Appendix 1) with which it has to comply and demonstrated this by approving, as one of its first policies in 1996, an equal opportunities policy statement.

Following the MacPherson report on the death of Stephen Lawrence, the Council’s Cabinet received a report on equalities issues (October 2000) outlining the actions needed to ensure that equal treatment for all was given the proper priority. As a result the Corporate Equalities Group was established with the task of moving forward equality work.

One of its first tasks was to review the equal opportunities policy to ensure that it remained fit for purpose and a revised policy statement was subsequently approved.

Since that time, a considerable amount of work has been done.

A number of our corporate programmes and policies, such as the Community Strategy, the Corporate Business Plan and our Best Value programme, promote the importance of putting the service user first and have equal treatment and access to services for all at their heart.

We are also developing our partnership working through the ongoing work of our Local Strategic Partnership. Social inclusion and equality have been recognised as essential parts of the development of the Community Strategy and we will link into this work, taking advantage of the work of our partner organisations, to further enhance our equality agenda.

The Corporate Equalities Group was re-established following the restructuring of the Council and includes representatives from all Directorates.

The Group’s first task was to develop the Race Equality Scheme (subsequently incorporated into this strategy) in order to comply with both the general and specific duties set out in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

The Council also recognises its responsibility to comply with the requirements of the new Equalities Standard for Local Government, progress against which will be monitored through BVPI2.

All these actions are valuable in their own right but they have far greater value if they flow from and are linked to an overarching equalities strategy. This, in turn, will help to deliver the community cohesion agenda set by the Government who believes that local authorities have a key role to play in its delivery. Cohesive communities are those where there is a common vision and a sense of belonging; the diversity of people’s different backgrounds and circumstances are appreciated and positively valued; those from different backgrounds have similar life opportunities and strong and positive relationships are developed between people from different backgrounds in the workplace, in schools and within neighbourhoods.