Our Plans and Policies

The purpose of our Equality and Diversity Policy and Action Plan is to promote our commitment to encouraging an equal and diverse town and workforce, and to set out how we plan to achieve this from now until 2021. It also explains what our duties are under the Equality Act 2010 and in particular the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Although the socio-economic duty has been removed from the Equality Act 2010, our Councillors and officers are encouraged to use their discretion in considering the impact of their decisions on people who are less fortunate because of their social or economic background. For example, this could be a working family who are in receipt of benefits and have little spare income, or a person looking for work who has achieved a lower-than-average educational attainment.

The Equality Framework for Local Government

We use the Equality Framework for Local Government as a tool to help us think practically about how we can deliver better and more accessible services for our customers, and improve the working environment for our staff. The Framework consists of three levels of performance, 'Developing, Achieving and Excellent' In demonstrating our commitment to equality and diversity, in April 2009, we were awarded Achieving status. 

We have aligned the structure of our Equality and Diversity Policy and Action Plan with the five performance themes of the Equality Framework for Local Government. Each theme is represented as a goal that also aligns to one of our Co-operative Principles. This means that we will continue to set activities that meet the needs of our residents, communities and staff.

Performance Themes

Goal	Equality Framework for Local Government theme	Co-operative Principle
Understanding	Knowing our communities	We all understand each other
Together	Leadership, partnership and organisation commitment	We're all working together for each other and for our town
Engaging	Community engagement and satisfaction	You can play a part
Listening	Responsive services and customer care	We're here when you need us
Supportive	A skilled and committed workforce	We can all work together to support each other