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Equality and diversity

The Council is a service provider, employer and community leader. We value diversity and take our responsibility to promote community cohesion very seriously.

We, at Hertsmere Borough Council, recognise and value the different communities living in, visiting and working in the borough.
 
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and will endeavour not to discriminate against any employee, job applicant or service user on grounds such as gender, age, marital status, social class, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability, sexual orientation, unrelated criminal conviction, religion or belief.

Equality Act 2010

The new Equality Act   http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents came into force on 1st October 2010.  This Act brings together over 116 separate pieces of legislation into one single Act.  This provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.
The Act will simplify, strengthen and harmonise the current legislation to provide Britain with a new discrimination law, which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and equal society.
The nine main pieces of legislation that have merged are:

Equal Pay Act 1970
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
Race Relations Act 1976
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003
Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006
Equality Act 2006, Part 2
Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007

Who is protected by the Act?

Everyone in Britain is protected by the Act.  The 'protected characteristics' under the Act are:

Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion and belief
Sex
Sexual orientation

The general duty is set out in the Act.  In summary, we must, in the exercise of our functions, have due regard to the need to:

Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

We must publish sufficient information to demonstrate our compliance with the general equality duty across our functions.  This must be done by 31 January 2012 and at least annually thereafter.

By 6 April 2012 we must prepare and publish equality objectives we reasonably think we should achieve to meet one or more aims of the general equality duty.  We must also publish details of the engagement we undertook, in developing our objectives, with people we consider having an interest in furthering the aims of the general duty

Eliminate, Advance and Foster

Hertsmere Borough Council's response to the General Equality Duty can be found here.PDF logo

Equality Policy

This policy aims to provide a framework for equality and diversity practice across the authority and the means for implementing it.  We will be seeking actively to achieve measurable outcomes that are consistent with the goal of this policy here.PDF logo

Equalities Monitoring

The current legislation obliges us to have in place comprehensive systems of monitoring of our employment, recruitment and training policies, procedures and practices particularly for disability, gender and ethnicity monitoring.

Clearly not everything can be monitored, nor is it appropriate, so departments need to identify and prioritise relevant service areas to be covered.

Equality does not mean providing the same service for all customers or treating them all in the same way. It is about adapting the service, when and where appropriate or possible, to meet the needs of diverse communities.

It is becoming increasingly important for us to monitor who our customers are, and to find out why certain people are not using services. By collecting monitoring information we will be able to provide evidence that we are reaching the people that need particular services and identify when they are not.  This will enable us set realistic targets on how we are going to tackle under-representation of diverse communities.

All equality monitoring information is classed as personal data under the Data Protection Act and as so will be treated confidentially.

Equality monitoring questions are not mandatory and will not make any difference to the service you receive. However, by answering the questions you will help us to ensure that our services are fair and accessible to all.

We want to ensure that we treat people from different groups fairly and equally and have devised a short survey to capture people’s views.  We invite anyone and everyone to take part – all responses are anonymous.

Hertfordshire County Council, in partnership with other agencies, carried out an online survey aimed at Hertfordshire’s lesbian, gay bisexual and trans (LGBT) residents.   The findings of this survey can be found here Hertfordshire 2010 LGBT Voice Counts Survey. PDF logo

Hertfordshire County Council, in partnership with other agencies, has also produced a Herts LGBT Guide which aims to inform Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people about services in  and around Hertfordshire.  It also lists local and national information as well as giving practical tips and advice.  The Herts LGBT Guide includes contributions from a number of statutory and voluntary partners across Hertfordshire.

Hertsmere is an Achieving Authority

We have made significant improvements in equality and diversity practices across the council. In October 2009, the council was assessed as an ‘Achieving’ authority by the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA).

This summary of achievements document gives a picture of the progress we have made on equality and diversity.  We would be seeking actively to build on our successes in order to achieve our ambition in relation to strengthening equality and diversity in Hertsmere.

Hertsmere's Equality and Diversity Policy

This policy aims to provide a framework for equality and diversity practice across the authority and the means for implementing it.  We will be seeking actively to achieve measurable outcomes that are consistent with the goal of this policy.

Hertsmere's Equalities Impact Assessment

Equality impact assessment is about assessing how our policies and procedures affect different groups of people.  It enables us to identify what we are doing well which promotes equal opportunities for all groups within the communities we serve; as well as the areas where we need to improve the services we provide in order to ensure that no group is disadvantaged.  The following documents are all PDF format.

Hertsmere Community Profiles

We have collated comprehensive community profiles to develop a deeper understanding of the community and their needs by conducting ward and district profiling using detailed information.  

Hertsmere Community Profiles provide information on the community in Hertsmere including the five main settlement areas, Borehamwood & Elstree, Bushey, Potters Bar, Radlett and Shenley as well as each ward in our borough.

Further Information

For further information about Equalities e-mail equalities@hertsmere.gov.uk.