Background

General problems being addressed

The areas of weakness identified in CPA reports and customer focus inspection reports indicated that

  • Equality and Diversity issues have not been consistently mainstreamed across organisations, particularly in strategies, policies and service plans.
  • In some areas the application of equalities policies and procedures are not implemented consistently by all contractors working on behalf of councils
  • There is insufficient expertise, research and experience in individual authorities
  • The mix of members does not reflect their communities. Barriers may exist to widening participation of people in under-represented groups.

Outputs and Outcomes sought in bid

  • Improved access to services for minority hard to reach groups
  • Equalities and diversity mainstreamed into strategies, policies and service plans
  • Improved understanding of the needs and requirements of minority hard to reach groups
  • Attraction of new members that reflect diversity in communities
  • Authorities to achieve level three of equalities standard for local government

Seven firms of consultancies were asked to bid for work detailed in the consultants brief. The brief can be viewed here. IDeA were appointed as project consultants in January 2007.

Work undertaken so far has included:

Diagnostic work has been undertaken with all five Councils and performance assessed against the Equality Standard for Local Government. Diagnostic work took the form of consideration of key strategies, policies and plans in each authority and focus group/interviews with key members of staff. The diagnostic reports can be viewed below.

Each authority was assessed against Level 2 of Equality Standard for Local Government and actions necessary to consolidate each authority at this level were identified and reported back.

The level 2 templates and actions identified for each authority can be viewed below:

Diagnostic work identified the following key areas of common weakness and a need for capacity building support

  • Equality Impact Assessments – There was seen to be a lack of expertise across authorities
  • Consultation – It was seen that whilst authorities did carry out consultation they were not effectively sharing information, there was a risk of over consultation of some groups and that expertise was limited in consultation methods to suit the needs and requirements of different groups
  • Procurement – In common with other authorities, Wiltshire authorities were seen to be in need of support around equalities in procurement to ensure legal requirements were being met
  • Good Practice- there was a need identified to share good practice across authorities strategies, policies and service plans.