Agenda item

The Director of Delivery, Communication and Political Governance submits a report to the Overview Select Committee which provides an overview of the draft refreshed Equality Action Plan (EAP) for 2021/22 and the related Building a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce Action Plan (BDIWAP) 2021/22. The Overview Select Committee are asked to note and make comment on the draft action plans for 2021/22.

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance submitted a report to the Overview Select Committee which provided an overview of the draft refreshed Equality Action Plan (EAP) for 2021/22 and the related Building a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce Action Plan (BDIWAP) 2021/22. The Overview Select Committee were asked to note and make comment on the draft action plans for 2021/22.

Councillor Rita Patel, Assistant Mayor for Equalities and Special Projects, introduced the report, and made the following points:

·         Since the last action plan was presented to the Committee, there had been a couple of changes to the Equalities Team, with Kalvaran Sandhu taking over as Head of Equalities Team, and David Shire joining as Race Equalities and Engagement Officer.

·         The Corporate Equality Strategy was developed in 2018 and crossed four years 2018 to 2022.

·         A separate Workforce Action Plan had also been developed which afforded a specific focus on workforce equalities issues.

Kalvaran Sandhu presented the report, and noted the following:

·         Some things had continued primarily because of Covid, but others would remain on the action plan around the EIA process and training etc, but a couple of things to note were the greater focus on embedding equalities early on in processes and in decision making.

·         There had been a lot of decisions made during the Covid pandemic where services had to change slightly and this had formed a large part of the Equalities Team’ work in undertaking support for a lot of EIAs and supporting the service changes over the past two years.

·         There was more focus on work around disabilities, which would be picked up in the EAP, with the need for consideration for disability work across all Council services. Also the Team wanted to garner a better understanding and awareness raising around LGBTQ+ communities as well as some of the issues they faced. The above two communities were particularly vulnerable throughout Covid and would be key areas focussed upon over the next 12 months.

·         The Team had also pushed to be more proactive around awareness raising and embedding early proactive processes when having to react to local or national equality-related issues, for example, Black Lives Matter, where big issues had a real impact locally.

·         The workforce element of equalities related issues had been separated out into a plan to enable better focus.  In summary there was a lot of data and evidence such as workforce data profiling, healthy workplace survey results, new starter and leavers feedback and glass door feedback that had led to the plan, and that work had gone on to increase knowledge of staffing concerns in relation to inclusion and diversity and what the authority was doing around those concerns.

·         There was focus on two-way communication within the plan, maintaining open dialogues with employees and creating a culture of openness, with a push in driving leadership values in particular, a push towards succession planning and growing the workforce from within, and nurturing a diverse workforce to make sure it was representative.

·         An Internal First recruitment process has been implemented, which would hopefully see people move up the ladder through succession and development.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions which were responded to as follows:

·         In reference to page 76, item 1f, with equality monitoring what gaps had been identified and how would the experiences for staff, and stakeholders to the council be improved. It was noted as part of the Council’s equality duty, it was something it wanted to improve across the board. It was recognised it was not just about undertaking EIAs, but talking to employees, colleagues, etc. Also the service analysis and improvement team who undertake detailed reviews across different services have included an equalities focus in their methodology that would help reach areas in the authority not previously touched upon or which hadn’t performed as well so they could then be offered better support.

·         With reference to item 2e, it was said the organisation demonstrated its commitment to equality issues. It was asked how the Council would leverage its communications plan to make sure that it wasn’t just fit for a certain demographic of people, and that the plan did not exclude certain demographics of the multilingual, multicultural city of Leicester. It was noted the approach had been sporadic in the past, so the authority wanted to make sure it had greater reach than it already did. It was noted the Race Equality Action Plan had been brought previously and the comms plan would build on some of that work, and would enable better focus on the other different areas so they wouldn’t be missed. A key point was the communications plan would be the first time one would have been issued and was a good way to move forward.

·         Reverse mentoring at 4.24 in the report was referenced, and it was asked how could it be ensured that the process of reverse mentoring benefitted the ethnic minority mentor rather than the senior level mentee who was supposed to be learning from the experience of what it felt like to be from different backgrounds because it needed to be ensured that the process was not a one-way learning experience. It was reported the reverse mentoring was part of the HR Action Plan and it was a valid point about the mentor also getting something out of the process. It was noted that a first pilot of this had already been run in partnership with the health service and so we had a tried and tested method in which had included Adult Social Care recently, and it was this approach that would be rolled out to the rest of the authority. It was further pointed out it was not just race focused but would look at disability and LGBTQ+ also. Built upon and fed into the process was previous mentors experiences from which feedback said they had also gained from the process.

Miranda Cannon, Director of Delivery, Communication and Political Governance, added that the programme consisted of a half-day training for mentors, with monthly peer support meetings with the Organisational Development Team, and a reflective learning session and evaluation session at the end of the mentoring also, so there was plenty of structure to support mentors built into the process.

The Assistant Mayor said she found the questions really heartening, as she had raised some questions about the mentoring scheme because of concerns that people already finding themselves in challenging positions would now find themselves being inadvertently exploited for the knowledge they had but would not be recognised or supported through that process, but she had been reassured the mentors would receive the necessary training and support.

It was also noted that as well as the accurate identification of gaps, officers were constantly horizon scanning, talking to people in different departments to see how processes could be improved and how to start to engage and empower people to find solutions and share best practice across the Council.

The Chair said he had lots of questions that he would put outside of the meeting with others if interested, with the Head of Equalities and Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance, to go through issues in depth to gain better understanding. He added it was important that the process be monitored and recommended a couple of sessions be arranged for Members to meet with officers.

The City Mayor said the suggestion was welcomed and asked that he take part in the sessions also as there were lots of business issues that required more consideration and some form of scrutiny.

The Chair thanked the officers for the report.

AGREED:

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    That further sessions be arranged for Members of the Overview Select Committee, City Mayor, Head of Equalities and Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance to examine the report in detail.