Issue - meetings

(Leader of Council) To consider the attached report (C-054-2017/18).

(1)        That the Council’s Equality Objectives and Action Plan for 2018-22 be agreed.

The Leader of Council presented a report on the proposed Equality Objectives for the period 2018 – 22.

The Leader reminded the Cabinet that the Council was required to publish equality objectives every four years to take forward its public sector equality duty. This duty required that the Council proactively considered how discrimination could be addressed through the work that the Council did, and also whether the Council could advance equality of opportunity and encourage good relations between different protected groups. The setting of objectives provided a focus on the outcomes to be achieved during the next four years.

The Leader added that new objectives had been developed to take the Council up to April 2022, and because the objectives had to be specific and measureable, an Action Plan had been developed to deliver them. The Cabinet was requested to consider and approve the adoption of the proposed Equality Objectives and Action Plan for 2018-2022.

Decision:

(1)        That the Council’s Equality Objectives and Action Plan for 2018-22 be agreed.

Reasons for Decision:

The setting of equality objectives every four years was required of public bodies under the Equality Act 2010. It was therefore, a key statutory duty that the objectives were set and published, together with the ongoing progress to achieve them.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

To not adopt one or more of the proposed objectives, or to adopt alternative objectives. However, this was a statutory duty for the Council and there was no alternative option to the setting and publishing of one or more equality objectives for the period 2018 - 22.