Decision status: Recommendations approved
Decision:
9.1
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The Director Policy and Democratic Engagement presented a
report setting outs out, for
approval, a package of activity to promote equality,
diversity and inclusion and meet our statutory duties. It brings
together our new Equality Objectives 2024-2028, which were
previously accepted in draft on 21 December 2023 by this Committee
as part of our Equality Framework “equality is
everybody’s business”, which have now been updated
following the consultation. These are accompanied by our
Council-level Equality Objectives Action Plan 2024-25, proposed
Awareness Days to mark in 2024-25, and our Annual Equality Report
2022–23.
The 2022-23 Annual Equality Report summarises our
actions and progress on improving equality in the way we serve the
people of Sheffield and how we behave as an employer. It gives an
overview of how we are meeting our Public Sector Equality Duty
(PSED) including summary progress against our previous Equality
Objectives with examples of a selection of work to improve equality
and to meet the Duties.
It also includes the council’s Annual
Workforce Data Report which is part of meeting the Specific Duty
under the PSED to publish equality information on our employees.
Producing this report enables us to identify any disparities in our
workforce profile, understand how fair our workforce policies are
and identify any differences in the experiences of different groups
in our workforce. The report also details our pay gap
information.
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9.2
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RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Strategy and
Resources Policy Committee:-
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(a)
agrees the new Equality Objectives 2024-2028, as detailed in the
report;
(b) agrees
the Council-level Equality Objectives Action Plan
2024-25 which will monitor progress against the
Objectives;
(c) agrees the Annual Awareness
days we will mark in 2024-25, as set out in the
report;
(d) notes the
2022-23
Annual Equality Report, specifically:
(i)
progress made in meeting our Statutory Equality
Duties and
(ii)
our Statutory Workforce Report, including
improvements, ongoing challenges and pay gap
information
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9.3
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Reasons for Decision
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9.3.1
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Although there are many
inequalities within the city as noted in the Council Plan and
annual report, colleagues across the Council are working hard to
tackle these. Many are because of national factors that impact on
the city that are outside our control. We do however seek to
address these such as work on health inequalities within the work
in the Council and city such as via the City Goals and Council
plans and strategies. We want to acknowledge the work whether new
projects or work that is business as usual and thank our colleagues
for working together to help make Sheffield a fairer, accessible
and a more inclusive place to live and work
in.
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9.3.2
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It is therefore
recommended that Strategy and Resources Committee approve the
Equality Objectives as they will support the fundamental
repositioning of the council’s equality, diversity and
inclusion work in line with the ambitions of the Council Plan and
our work to embed anti-racism within the organisation and the
city. By agreeing the Objectives, the
Committee will also ensure that we meet our statutory obligation to
publish a set of four-year equality
objectives.
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9.4
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Alternatives Considered and
Rejected
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9.4.1
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The Council has
previously agreed that it should pursue a specific approach to
equality rather than one where equality is
‘mainstreamed’ within other activity. Because of the
importance given to equality, diversity and inclusion within the
draft City Goals and Council Plan this report does not recommend a
change to that approach.
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9.4.2
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The do-nothing
option was discounted when discussing this paper as it is a
Specific Statutory Equality Duty to set Equality Objectives at
least every 4 years and to report annually on how we are meeting
our General and Specific Duties as set out in the annual
report.
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Report author: James Henderson
Publication date: 28/03/2024
Date of decision: 12/03/2024
Decided at meeting: 12/03/2024 - Strategy and Resources Policy Committee
Accompanying Documents: