Equality and diversity
Equality
At Lancaster City Council we recognise that equality and diversity plays an important part in everything that we do. Getting to know and understand our community better can help us to tailor and target our services more effectively.
The Equality Act encourages local authorities to ensure that people of different ages and from different groups are treated fairly and equally and that discrimination doesn't take place.
Our commitment is outlined below.
Our Equality policy (PDF, 301KB) sets out Lancaster City Council’s commitment to advancing equality and celebrating the diversity across the district. It has been written so that everyone will know what we are committed to.
We promote our equality objectives and review on an annual basis:
| Objective 1 | Maintain a cohesive community by ensuring we understand the needs of our communities and provide equality of access to our services and employment opportunities |
|---|---|
| Objective 2 | Bring communities and agencies together to work in partnership to address the major issues affecting the district. |
| Objective 3 | Provide a range of customer focused services that offer value for money and meet the needs of people who live, work and visit the district. |
| Objective 4 | Reduce hate crime and the fear of crime felt by minority communities |
| Objective 5 | Ensure that we support the diverse needs of our workforce and in doing so develop a range of skills and learning Eopportunities that are accessible to all |
| Workforce diversity |
We continue to gather information about our workforce. Our workforce data can be used to help the council better understand its workforce and identify potential equality issues and barriers. |
|---|---|
| Getting to know our communities |
We have gathered information about our communities in our Getting to Know our Communities data. This is from a range of sources and can be used to help the council better understand its communities and inform future decision making and service delivery. |
| Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) |
Our improved Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) programme works across all our services and functions. This programme helps us to meet our legal requirements under equalities and human rights legislation, as well as helping us to measure the impact of our services on all of us in relation to age, disability, sex, transgender, race, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity as well as in relation to community cohesion’. Equality analysis (PDF, 456KB) must take place when introducing a new process, practice or procedure (new way of doing something) or when making/recommending a decision. |
| Equality Monitoring |
Equality monitoring continues to take place as part of the council’s recruitment process. We continue to carry out service equality monitoring. This helps to ensure that our services are accessible to all our communities and help us to further develop our services to ensure we advance equality of opportunity, promote good relations between communities and eliminate unlawful discrimination. |
| Consult |
We consult our residents on a wide range of issues each year. An annual plan and current consultations can be found on the Have your Say web page. We aim to carry out inclusive consultations and sometimes focus consultations on specific groups eg children and young people, people with disabilities, people from different races and cultures etc. |
| Range of programmes, projects, initiatives and services |
We continue to have a range of programmes, projects, initiatives and services underpinning our equality and diversity policy. For example we continue to host the Communities Together meetings, whereby leaders from our diverse communities have an opportunity to share information and develop strong relationships with the city council and other partners. |
Last updated: 18 September 2023