Agenda and minutes

There were no communications to report to the Panel.

There were no Declarations of Interest to report.

There were no questions from members of the public or the press.

The Chairman welcomed Clive Parsons from BT who gave a presentation on Equalities in RBT, which focused on:-

·              The Joint Venture and services delivered by RBT

·              Beacon and other Awards

·              RBT’s aspirations

·              RBT Equality Agenda and focus

·              Actions taken in respect of embedding Equalities and Diversity into management, planning and service delivery

·              Service Plan Objectives for 2009 including supporting the Council in transferring from Level 5 of ESLG to excellent

·              Other initiatives e.g. South Yorkshire BME Manager Development Programme

A discussion and a question and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised and subsequently clarified:-

-        individual case studies e.g. Council tax; benefits payments

-        service users and collection of ethnicity data and customer satisfaction surveys

-        engagement with aged and disabled

-        RBT’s main aims and objectives in respect of targets, and did these mirror the Council’s

-        how far did RBT feel that it had embedded Equalities and Diversity into the company

-        training for managers and cascading to the workforce

-        the awareness of front line staff of Equalities and Diversity issues

-        skills audit and service reviews

Resolved:-  That Clive Parsons be thanked for his presentation.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Zafar Saleem, Community Engagement and Cohesion Manager, which provided an update on the Local Democracy Campaign detailing the success of the Local Democracy Week (LDW) which took place in October, 2008.

Reference was made to the work of the Council Directorates throughout 2008,

It was explained that it was now envisioned that rather than concentrating all activities each year into one week, an annual programme of events could be established to ensure democracy was supported all year round.   It was confirmed that this had support from partners e.g.  Police, RCAT, and from Council Directorates.

It was reported that a fact finding exercise was being carried out to establish what, if any, activities were already going on across the Council which could form part of this programme and which could potentially benefit from further resources to promote the activity. 

The proposed programme of events would run from November, 2008 through to September, 2009, with the intention to hold a ‘celebration’ event during Local Democracy Week 2009 showing evidence of all the activities which have taken place.  The main feature of the launch would be a presentation showcasing the involvement of young people using photographs and case studies. This event would also be an opportunity to present the programme of events for the following year and seek potential interest from those invited.

The following issues were discussed:-

-                      Widening the perception of democracy

-                      More representational work involving e.g. VAR, REMA

-                      Opportunity to involve Town and Parish Councils

-                      Involvement of Elected Members in the planning process and in events throughout the year

-                      Assessment of the number of  young people registered to vote

-                      How to measure outcomes, for example using LAA National Indicator 4

Resolved:-  (1)  That the success of this year’s Local Democracy Week be noted.

(2)                        That an annual programme of events be supported.

(2)                        That support be given for the involvement of Town and Parish Councils, together with the inclusion of Elected Members in the campaign programme.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Zafar Saleem, Community Engagement and Cohesion Manager, which outlined the approach to developing an integrated Single Equality Scheme for the Council.

Reference was made to:-

-                      The refresh of the Corporate Equalities Strategy and Action Plan

-                      Additional equality strands of religion and belief, sexuality and age in the extended standard for Local Government

-                      The forthcoming Equality Bill and consultation on specific duties of public authorities

-                      Issuing of Codes of practice and guidance expected 2010/2011

It was explained that the attached appendix 1 was an Interim Single Equality Scheme for the period 2008 to 2011and was intended to set out the overall common actions e.g. monitoring, impact assessment, consultation, community involvement, together with separate action plans for each community of interest.  In addition it was proposed to make easy to read versions and summary versions available for target audiences.

The following issues were discussed:-

-                      How would the results of the equality impact assessment be recorded and be made available to view?

-                      Consultation to date on this document

-                      How did the document relate to the general population of Rotherham?

-                      How could the Council be sure that all the major groupings had been included in the document?

-                      Was there a gender pay gap within the Council?  If so would this scheme address that?

-                      Publicity and marketing

-                      Involvement of partners and key stakeholders

Resolved:-  (1)  That the contents of the report be noted.

(2)  That the draft Single Equality Scheme be supported.

(3)         That the Single Equality Scheme be monitored on a quarterly basis by the Democratic Renewal Scrutiny Panel.

(4)         That the Single Equality Scheme be the subject of an all Members Seminar.

(5)         That a written response be obtained from the Assistant Chief Executive, Human Resources, on the issue of gender pay.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Myriam Berrada, Equalities and Diversity Officer, which outlined how the Council had achieved Level 5 of the Equality Standard for Local Government (ESLG) at 31st December, 2008 and highlighted areas for further action so that the Council could apply for assessment at Excellent Level under the New Equality Framework for Local Government (EFLG) which replaced the Equality Standard for Local Government in March, 2009.  

The report detailed the following:-

• Progress over the previous 3-4 years.
• Implementation and service provision.
• Application timetable.
• Peer Assessment following advice from IDeA.
• Areas for Improvement:- including Portfolios of Evidence of good practice and outcomes; Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs): Equality Monitoring: Workforce Profile: Children and Young People's Services Portfolio.
• Work programme to address the gaps – via the Equalities Champions.

The following issues were discussed:-

-                      The need to ensure that all Directorates of the Council and Partners were mainstreaming equalities within service delivery

-                      The work of the Equalities and Diversity team

-                      Acknowledgement of the amount of progress made to get to Level 5

-                      Procedures to report incidents of race/hate related crime (including racial graffiti;  number of incidents and actions taken

-                      The top 3 challenges to be faced by the Council to achieve Excellent status:  HR IT system of recording staff profile needs to be made more comprehensive – noting the associated cost of a change request;  mainstreaming the equalities and diversity agenda to embed it into the design, planning and delivery of services, noting the size and complexity of the Council; multi-impact assessments and joint ownership of strategies with the PCT, Police etc and associated practical difficulties

-                      the need for comprehensive monitoring and better use of information collected for service design, planning and delivery

Resolved:-  (1)  That the achievement of the Level 5 of the Equality Standard for Local Government be noted.

(2)  That the work programme agreed to consolidate this achievement and address the gaps to achieve Level Excellent under the new Equality Framework be noted.

(3)                  That it be noted that the Peer Assessment at Level Excellent under the new Framework be applied for as soon as the assessment guidance became available in May/June, 2009.

(4)  That the Safer Neighbourhoods Manager be asked to report on the issues raised in respect of the reporting system for incidents of race/hate crime (including graffiti).

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meeting of the Democratic Renewal Scrutiny Panel held on 26^th February, 2009 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meetings of the Cabinet Member for Communities and Involvement held on 20^th February and 13^th March, 2009.

Re:  Minute No. 80 of the meeting of the Cabinet Member for Communities and Involvement held on 13^th March, 2009 – 2009/2011 Infrastructure and Corporate Initiatives Fund (ICIB) – Grant Aid for Infrastructure Bodies - Information about the scheme – its criteria and operation etc, was requested.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the contents of the minutes be noted.

(2)  That a report on the scheme referred to above be scheduled into the Scrutiny Panel’s work programme for the forthcoming Municipal Year.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting of the Members’ Training and Development Panel held on 26^th February, 2009.

Resolved:-  That the contents of the minutes be noted.