Delivering on Equalities: Guidance for Community Planning Partnerships (page 2)
Appendix One
The exercise is grouped around: evidence base, community engagement and training.
Evidence base includes data and other information, both quantitative and qualitative that might help develop understanding of equality groups and their needs.
Community engagement includes all activity that has targeted equality groups or can demonstrate their inclusion.
Training aims to gather a clear picture of who has had what training, whether the focus has been on equality legislation or its application in certain job related roles or certain issues.
The exercise is being carried out to gain a better understanding of what has been achieved to date and what further needs to be done. In broad terms, the aims of the mapping are to:
• improve understanding of the community
• identify needs and related action
• measure progress and
• support staff
EVIDENCE BASE | ||||
Subject Please give a brief description |
Targeted Is there a focus on a particular equality group? |
Available from e.g. contact person, web address |
Date Produced or organised when or period covered | |
Research or studies e.g. access to the labour market, health needs assessment |
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Data/analysis e.g. employment monitoring, school attainment |
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Other |
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT | ||||
Subject Please give a brief description |
Targeted Is there a focus on a particular equality group or are other aspects of equality identified |
Available from e.g. contact person, web address |
Date Produced or organised when or period covered | |
Consultations or focus groups e.g. satisfaction surveys, Community Plan, Citizens’ Panel |
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Projects funded e.g. CAB, voluntary organisations, integration activity, service specific |
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Other |
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TRAINING | ||||
Subject Please give a brief description |
Targeted Is the focus on a particular equality group or are other aspects of equality identified |
Available from e.g. contact person or web address |
Date Produced or organised when or period covered | |
Legislation e.g. equality legislation, specific duties, equality scheme |
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Role or issue specific e.g. housing mangers/reception staff or tackling harassment |
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Other |
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Appendix Two
EQUALITIES STATEMENT OF INTENT
1 Principles
We the partners in xxx that everyone is entitled to live, work, study and enjoy their leisure time, free from prejudice, intolerance, discrimination and harassment or the fear of these.
We recognise that everyone, at some point in their lives, is covered within the definition of equality groups and that by pursuing equality as a guiding principle, we will be benefiting all of the community we serve as well as those striving to serve it.
We believe that a principled approach to achieving equality for all will best be founded on the following elements:
• Encouraging tolerance
• Showing respect
• Increasing opportunities
• Maximising potential
• Improving access
• Understanding rights and responsibilities
2 Commitment
We will strive to make xxx a place where:
• people’s rights are respected;
• where everyone has equality of opportunity;
• where our diverse communities are valued and celebrated;
• where prejudice, intolerance, exclusion, harassment or discrimination are challenged if they occur.
Building upon current equality and diversity work within (our area of benefit), all partners acknowledge their responsibility for exercising leadership that will ensure this statement of intent becomes a reality. We are committed to action and will promote and support equality and diversity in all that we do and publish the results regularly.
3 Those facing disadvantage and discrimination
The main equality legislation has been introduced to protect people from discrimination and to prevent it occurring in the first place. Its introduction was based on evidence of continuing disadvantage and discrimination facing people for different reasons. These reasons include a person’s:
• nationality, ‘race’ or ethnicity
• disability
• sexual orientation
• age
• religion or belief and
• gender
We recognise that :
• people in these equality groups are more likely than other people to experience prejudice, discrimination or disadvantage.
• many people will be in more than one group
• the effects of poverty play a key role in determining quality of life and life chances amongst all equalities groups.
• there are a diverse range of communities and individuals within these broad groups. We need to understand more about the circumstances of people’s lives in order to better target our resources
4 Approach
We recognise the role of the partnership in adding value to the equality agenda as pursued by individual partners.
As a partnership, we will therefore learn from and build on the strengths of our individual partners.
We agree to adopt the approach recommended by COSLA and endorsed by the three statutory commissions, in summary to:
• Identify what action is to be taken to encourage equal opportunities
• Assess all policy proposals in terms of their impact on equalities
• Engage with equalities groups / interests as part of the process
• Build up our own capacity and the capacity of community bodies / equalities groups to participate fully in the process
• Share information on the needs and circumstances of equalities groups
• Monitor and evaluate our performance in relation to the encouragement of equal opportunities
• Report on our performance through the Public Performance Reporting
We recognise the need to develop our equalities work based on the evidence of need within equalities groups. Equal value is placed on quantitative and qualitative evidence and a variety of methods will be used to gather such information. Where possible, the partners agree to gather information together to reduce consultation fatigue within equalities groups and to progress this commitment will establish an information sharing protocol.
We are committed to delivering real outcomes for equalities groups that lead to discernible changes in quality of life and will undertake regular reporting of such outcomes to ensure accountability.
5 Resources
Whilst we remain individually and collectively committed to the mainstreaming of equalities, we recognise that this goal will not be achieved unaided. We therefore agree to identify stand alone as well as “mainstream” resources (personnel, finance, in-kind, structural) that will be dedicated to this task.
6 Legal framework
We welcome the equality legislation currently in place and that being consulted on as providing an opportunity to improve our understanding of discrimination and how to deal with it effectively.
We also welcome the recognition of the equality within other key areas of legislation such as the Scotland Act, education, housing, community care, local government etc which serves to underline our commitment to mainstreaming equality in all that we do.
We recognise that the equality legislation provides both for the rights of the individual as well as the positive duties of public authorities.
Although not directly covered by these positive duties, the partnership itself recognises that they set a standard for delivering equality and we commit ourselves to following this best practice. In particular to:
• assess the relevance of everything we do in relation to equalities law and to prioritise work in areas of high relevance;
• promote equality of opportunity and outcome in everything we do and in all our dealings with the general public and other partners;
• set up management systems to ensure we are meeting our targets;
• develop partnership, consultation and involvement systems to gather information on equalities groups and the issues they face;
• equalities impact assess all relevant policies and services with a view to improving services and policies for equalities groups;
• develop action plans to improve services and policies for equalities groups that set clear targets and lead to real change;
• establish performance management systems to see how well we are doing and what outcomes have been achieved and report this to equalities groups. ; and
• develop employment practices that promote equality and diversity in our workforce.
7 Next Steps
A SUGGESTED APPROACH MIGHT INCLUDE:
• Diversity and Equality Working Group established with clear remit (e.g. to establish standards, provide oversight etc) reporting to the partnership board and an agreed work programme
• Mapping of equalities activity and information undertaken across partners and analysed
• Information sharing protocol developed in support of this analysis
• An agreed approach and tool for equality impact assessments identified
• Equality performance indicators – project group established
• Single outcome agreement better informed on equality needs and desired outcomes from the start
APPENDIX THREE
COSLA’s guidance on mainstreaming within community planning
The mainstreaming of equalities within the community planning process will mean that:
• Because equal opportunities is such an important objective it must be mainstreamed by all the community planning partners in the partnership activity and plans/strategies associated with the community planning process.
• The community planning process provides an effective bridge between national and local priorities. In that context community planning can help to deliver and inform the implementation of the national Equality Strategy in a way that is responsive to local needs and circumstances.
• To support the mainstreaming of equalities within the community planning process it is recommended that the partnership identify what actions they intend to take to encourage equal opportunities.
• Equalities objectives must be mainstreamed in the formulation of policy, the setting of targets and the review and reporting of performance review. All policy proposals must be assessed in terms of their impact on equalities.
• At the heart of community planning is the need for a better understanding of the needs of communities and, therefore, the need for a greater collective engagement with all communities. The Act itself sets out a requirement on councils to consult and encourage the engagement of community bodies as part of their role in facilitating the process. Those community bodies must include bodies representing equalities groups / interests.
Councils and their community planning partners will also need to build up the capacity of community bodies / equalities groups to participate fully in the process.
Community learning and development strategies provide an important vehicle to support communities and as such must take account of the particular needs of equalities groups.
• Community planning partners will also need to increase their knowledge and capacity to successfully engage with equality groups. This must be part of the training and development support they will need to mainstream equal opportunities into all their activities.
• The sharing of information is a pre-requisite for effective partnership working. Community planning partnership should share information on the needs and circumstances of equality groups. They could also use this opportunity to benchmark their own performance for example, in relation to the monitoring of employment of equality groups or in relation to service outcomes.
• Community planning at the local level will require a number of existing initiatives to be integrated within the planning process. For example the community regeneration statement suggests that Social Inclusion Partnership’s funding should be devolved to community planning partnerships. Partnerships should take account of equalities issues and assess the equalities impact of proposals to integrate initiatives.
• Where services are being jointly managed and resourced, equality requirements must be taken into account in the procurement of services. Any organizational and training plans to support joint working should also meet equality requirements.
• Reporting on actions taken to encourage equal opportunities through the community planning process will be geared towards the local community. This will improve accountability to local equalities groups. This should be achieved as part of the Public Performance Reporting Framework.
• Community planning partnerships should monitor and evaluate their performance in relation to the encouragement of equal opportunities. This should take account of feedback from equalities groups based on the reporting of actions taken by the partnership. The Auditor General / Controller of Audit should have regard to this information in their external scrutiny of the planning process.
APPENDIX FOUR
SMART
The acronym provides a helpful guide that assists planners and reminds us of key components to effective planning.
In full: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound
Outcome
An Outcome represents the difference that is being looked for as a result of a CPP’s interventions. Although pitched at quite a high-level, these measures should still be SMART.
In addition, it should be remembered that Outcomes should not simply reflect activity but come about as a result of that activity e.g. we may run a supported homework club for two terms across a network of schools, the outcome from which we would hope to see an increase in pupil attainment.
As this example illustrates, outcomes can sometimes emerge in time and it is important therefore to keep track on how performance will be measured.
Related Indicator
“Something that measures or records a specific situation or issue.”
Scottish Centre for Regeneration definition
Equality must be supported by activity that is largely measurable in order to demonstrate progress in tackling identified need.
Indicators themselves will reflect the broad intent of outcomes and provide a means of assessing progress against these intended results. They can be either qualitative or quantitative. The latter is all about numbers e.g. the number of trainees from an ethnic minority background; the former reflects the target group’s experience, feelings, aspirations etc e.g. face to face contact or survey work to ascertain increases in confidence amongst those seeking to return to work after illness.
Target
Targets provide a more immediate sense of progress over time, usually over the financial year or programme period.
Associated outputs
May be required pending the establishment of a strong evidence base as contributing nevertheless to the achievement of a specific outcome
Interim measures
In the absence of reliable monitoring data or other evidence, a sense of progression can still be obtained by establishing interim measures that reflect where things are just now.
These might include:
• interim targets based on existing monitoring data but with no substantive baseline
quantitative measures based on surveys showing change over time
• partner outputs designed to show what activity has been delivered in the short term e.g. number of sessions held and number of target group attending.
Equally it might be possible to establish foundation outputs when looking to establish an equality agenda e.g. we will establish an agreed statement of intent and develop an annual equality plan for the next three years OR we will agree a common monitoring system and target services for implementation
