Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive

The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property presented the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Scheme update and Diversity Annual Report 2023 to 2024 to the Group.

The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property confirmed that the report was brought to the Group annually and explained that the residents’ data remained the same as last year as it was based on Census 2021 information. She noted that there was some consistency between the profile of Rushcliffe residents, Councillors and Council employees.

In relation to Gender Pay Gap reporting, the Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property explained that legislation required organisations with over 250 employees to publish this information every year and information contained in the report was up to the end of March 2023, with information up to March 2024 due to be published in July this year. She noted that there had been an increase in the percentage of women receiving higher pay than men.

In relation to applicants for jobs, the Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that the Council had received around 300 more applicants than last year, in some part due to a few roles receiving a high number of applications. She noted that that the majority of people applying for roles were aged 25-34 which was different to the average workforce age of 45-64, which was positive for future organisational resilience.

In relation to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Scheme (ED&I) Action Plan, the Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property explained that the scheme was adopted in May 2021 with four high level objectives; to make Rushcliffe a welcoming place for everyone, for its services to be easy to access for all, to treat people fairly and to meet individual needs, and to make Rushcliffe a place where everyone could achieve their potential.

The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that the Council had established an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Scheme Steering Group which met quarterly and involved Officers from across the Council so that different service areas from across the Council contributed to the Action Plan activity.

The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property explained that a review of the Equality Impact Assessment process had been carried out with the outcome that the process be split into two parts, implementing an initial assessment of key questions to identify whether a more in-depth review was required. She said that any assessments completed would go to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Scheme Steering Group for review. She said that the Council also received support from East Midlands Council.

The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that a review of Equality and Diversity staff training had been carried out, which had led to additional aspects being included in the online training programme. She said that the Council was looking at providing British Sign Language training and Neurodiversity training, initially for frontline and line manager staff respectively.

The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that the Council had implemented a new Supporting our Employees policy, including providing guidance on a range of matters, including domestic abuse and menopause. She said that the Council was also working with Nottinghamshire Carers Association to achieve a Carer Friendly Employer Quality award which had included offering training for staff to become carer champions and providing assistance for any staff who acted as carers. She said that the Council had also delivered Dementia Friends and Carer Awareness Training to staff, which was also available to local business, the public and community and volunteer groups.

In relation to externally focussed activity, the Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that Cotgrave Leisure Centre now had a Changing Places toilet. She said that the Council had recently held a Youth Summit where pupils had been asked to talk about issues that were important to them to identify key areas for the Youth Forum to take forward. 

The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property referred to UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF) and noted that some funding had been used to support particular groups of the local community, such as the Moon Festival celebration event for Hong Kong residents and a lunar New Year event. She referred to the Green Doctor scheme delivered by Groundwork which helped residents identify ways of improving energy efficiency and reducing bills and the Transform Your Future programme delivered by Nottinghamshire Futures to support local residents not in work, education or training. She said that funding of up to £1,000 was available for residents to access training to up and re skill.

The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that the Council was working with the dementia friendly community, partners and community and voluntary organisations to improve the support available to people living with dementia and their carers.

In relation to the Council’s plans for the coming year, the Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property highlighted that the Council was adopting a new play strategy and was working with consultants to ensure that play equipment was inclusive and accessible, including creating safe spaces for women and girls. She said that improvements were planned for West Bridgford Park play area.

The Chairman asked whether there was any information on the number of people in the Borough with sight or hearing problems and suggested lobbying Notts TV to have someone to sign their programmes. The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that she would check whether this data was available.

The Vice Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group said that the Borough was becoming more diverse with 11% of residents from ethnic groups and thought it important to ensure that those groups were communicated with and had the ability to contribute to making Rushcliffe a better place to live. The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property explained that the aim of the Rushcliffe Community Cohesion Network had been to fulfil that need but that it hadn’t attracted local residents as hoped and so the Council was looking at different ways of engaging with different groups in the local community.

The Vice Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group asked how outcomes from actions were monitored and the Service Manager for Economic Growth said that the Council carried out a resident’s survey to gain feedback and engaged with local networks and groups to have conversations and hear feedback. She said that the Lunar New Year celebrations had attracted over 2000 people which demonstrated that there was local interest. The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Council would also be looking at increasing focus on engagement in its revised communications strategy.

The Chairman referred to making non-English speaking residents aware that they could translate Council information and communicate in their native language. The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that there were various ways in which information on the Council’s website could be translated.

The Vice Chair of Governance Scrutiny Group referred to the Youth Summit and asked whether it would be possible to expand it into primary schools. The Service Manager for Economic Growth said that the aim of the event was to identify key issues for the Youth Forum to take forward and that the Council was setting up focus groups to talk to young people about play spaces. She said that the Council may struggle to engage primary schools and it may not fit with their curriculum but that engagement did take place through partners going in to talk about skills for the future.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group asked whether British Sign Language (BSL) training would be held for the Council’s partners, such as Lex Leisure and whether training would be offered in other signing languages. The Service Manager for Economic Growth said that the current intention was to train the Council’s Customer Services staff and that BSL had been chosen as it was the standard sign language but that the Council would review whether this was one that most suited residents’ needs.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group said that the Moon Celebration event in Bingham had had excellent attendance and asked about events to integrate new communities with the existing community. The Service Manager for Economic Growth said that another Moon Celebration event was planned for early 2025 using UKSPF funding and that the Council could contact Bingham Town Council about how to best promote the events programme to all areas of the community and could look at any best practice from other areas. 

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group asked whether making play areas inclusive could be integrated into planning policy for new development play areas. The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that an intention of the Play Strategy was to inform the Communities Team’s responses to planning applications to set the standards for what it expected. She said that the Strategy would also help inform parish councils who wanted to improve their play areas.

The Chair of Governance referred to gender pay gap reporting and thought that the figures did not necessarily reflect whether men and women were getting paid the same amount for the same job and the Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that the Council was required to report these statistics but did also monitor pay levels across the organisation across similar posts.

The Chair of Governance noted that the number of employees not wanting to give their nationality had increased and even though related to Streetwise staff transferring to the Council it seemed a high number. The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that she would check with HR to see if they had any more information.

The Vice Chair of Governance Scrutiny Group noted that the Council did not currently ask Councillors to declare their ethnicity and thought that as the Councillor group was becoming more diverse and wanted to attract more diversity, suggested that the Council consider asking for this information at the next Councillor intake after the next election.

 The Vice Chair of Governance Scrutiny Group asked how UKSPF funding projects were communicated to the community and how take up was recorded. The Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that data and targets were recorded against all projects and that this had to be fed back to Government as part of the funding agreement. She referred to the English for Speakers for other Languages and said that courses had been oversubscribed and so further courses were being put on. She said that she could report back to the Group with information about the projects and could include project outcome information in next year’s report, by which time UKSPF funding would have finished.

The Vice Chair of Governance asked whether the Council provided training on transexual awareness and LGBT safe spaces and the Service Manager for Economic Growth and Property said that the Council would look at this.

It was RESOLVED that the Corporate Overview Group:

a)    considered and endorse the information provided for the diversity annual report

b)    reviewed the action taken so far as a part of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Scheme action plan and make suggestions for future action or areas of focus.