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Equalities and Inclusion: Our Corporate Story

Suffolk County CouncilAnnual Report 2015-16

Equalities and Inclusion: Our Corporate Story 2015-16 1

Contents

Foreword 3

Equality objectives 4

Meeting our responsibilities 6

Support for staff and councillors 7

Staff networks 8

Disability Confident 10

Support for mental health 11

Making a difference for young people: travel training

12

Support in communities: Connect 13

Working with communities 14

Looking ahead 15


Foreword

Taking account of the needs of individuals and specific groups is essential if we are to eliminate discrimination, develop strong resilient communities and ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to develop their full potential. This report demonstrates our approach to the duties outlined in the Equalities Act (2010) and highlights the progress we have made to take into account the needs of people from the nine protected characteristics (outlined on page 4).

The profile of Suffolk has changed a great deal during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Data from Suffolk schools show that there are now 145 languages spoken by pupils, so an increasing number of pupils can speak at least two and sometimes more languages; an excellent skill to have in today’s global village. As health interventions have improved, many more people with long term health conditions are able to play an active role in education, work and social activities. There is now an expectation that most children will attend mainstream schools and that workplaces will be adapted to enable people to pursue their chosen career. We are delighted that the Department of Work and Pensions has accepted Suffolk County Council as a Disability Confident partner, recognising the efforts we are making to be a good employer for disabled colleagues. There is more about this on page 10.

The dedicated staff working for Suffolk County Council are actively involved in working with individuals, communities and other organisations to respond to the wide ranging areas of work we support and deliver. We recognise that in order for our staff to give their best, we need to be proactive in the support we provide as an employer. For instance, we are providing innovative IT solutions to help more staff work away from traditional office bases; we promote the positive benefits of people being involved in the staff networks and develop policies and guidance to ensure staff are supported appropriately, such as the new transgender guidance.

This fourth Equalities and Inclusion annual report uses examples of activities undertaken in different service areas across Suffolk County Council to demonstrate how taking due regard of equalities is embedded into the work of the organisation. Some of the work described includes the development of travel training for young people and the integration of care and support via Connect.

At a time when resources are limited it is even more important to work collaboratively to find joint solutions that help people live safe, healthy and independent lives. This report demonstrates some of the work we are doing to achieve this.

Tony Goldson Amanda JonesCabinet Member responsible for Corporate Management Team Equalities and Inclusion Acting Lead for Equalities and Inclusion


Equality objectives

The Equality Act 2010 requires us to review our equality objectives at least every four years. This review was undertaken by the Strategic Equalities and Inclusion Board earlier this year and three new equality objectives were agreed:

1. Ensure the needs of people with protected characteristics are considered when making changes to policies or services

2. Ensure that within a local working approach the voice of all communities are heard when decisions are being made

3. Empower more people with protected characteristics to live safe, healthy and independent lives

Proportionality is recognised as a key principle underpinning the public sector equality duty. This includes taking a proportionate approach to setting equality objectives.

With this in mind, the new equality objectives reflect our corporate priorities; the localities and partnership working in the Transforming Suffolk landscape; as well as further embedding everyone’s responsibility to consider the impact that changes to policies and services have on people with protected characteristics.

1. Ensure the needs of people with protected characteristics are considered when making changes to policies or services.

This equality objective supports our Public Sector Equality Duty. The Equality Act says that public bodies must pay ‘due regard’ to equality. This means that we must: Remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by

people due to their protected characteristics. Take steps to meet the needs of people from

protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people.

The law does not mean that no changes can be made, even if they have a negative effect on people. However, we must demonstrate that we have considered the impact that could happen and what steps we have taken to mitigate against any negative impacts.


The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 identifies nine characteristics to be protected from discrimination:

Age

Disability

Gender

Gender reassignment

Marriage and civil partnership

Pregnancy and maternity

Race

Religion or belief

Sexual orientation

Within the Act, the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) requires public bodies, including the county council, to have due regard to the needs of the protected groups when designing, commissioning and delivering services in order to:

Eliminate discrimination

Advance equality of opportunity and access

Foster good relations between different groups in the community

Each Directorate Management Team is responsible for ensuring that an Equality Impact Assessment has been carried out before decisions about service changes and policies are made.

Our Equality Impact Assessments are published on the Suffolk County Council website and can be accessed via this page: http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/your-council/plans-and-policies/equality-and-diversity

2. Ensure that within a locality working approach the voice of all communities are heard when decisions are being made.

This equality objective was developed from the corporate priority to empower local communities, which states that: ‘We want to empower local people to have more control over what happens in their communities, and, as the public sector contracts, to provide them with the tools to help them meet their needs and achieve their aspirations in ways that make most sense locally’.

It also supports the localism strand of the Transforming Suffolk activities that we are undertaking with partners across the Suffolk System; recognising that we need to consider ‘communities of interest’ representing people with different ethnicities, cultures, faiths, abilities and disabilities, sexual orientation etc as well as communities determined by their geographical location.

3. Empower more people with protected characteristics to live safe, healthy and independent lives.

The corporate priority to support those most vulnerable in our communities is reflected in this equality objective. It recognises that some people with protected characteristics may need more support than others to help them to live independent lives and to maintain or develop a healthy lifestyle.

Making this an equality objective helps to emphasise that different communities will require a variety of tools to help them to both help themselves and others who share the same backgrounds and life experiences.

Progress against these equality priorities will be included in the quarterly performance reports to the Corporate Management Team.


http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/your-council/plans-and-policies/equality-and-diversity

Cabinet member responsible for

equalities

Strategic Equalities and

Inclusion Board

CMT lead for equalities

Directorate Management Teams (DMTs)

(Internal) Staff Support Networks

(External) Links to partner organisations

and communities

Policy Clearing House (PCH)

Meeting our responsibilities

The diagram below demonstrates how equalities and inclusion is linked into all parts of the organisation.

The Strategic Equalities and Inclusion Board drive the equality agenda for the County Council and includes representation from Councillors, directorates, unions and staff networks. The Board provides a steer to the organisation in terms of responding to the particular needs of people from the different protected groups.

The Directorate Management Teams are responsible for ensuring actions are undertaken to meet their directorate equality priorities.

The Policy Clearing House helps to ensure that we are meeting our Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) by reviewing the Equality Impact Assessments (EIA) for key changes to policies and service provision. Officers drawn from different service areas review EIAs in terms of how due regard has been paid to the needs of people with protected characteristics as part of the changes being proposed.


Support for staff and councillors

Staff disclosure rates

SCC wishes to reflect the wider population amongst our staff. In order to track how well we are doing with this staff are asked to add information to their confidential profile on the online myHR system. As part of encouraging more staff to add information to their profile, officers from the Human Resources and Communications teams developed a joint ‘Without You’ campaign.

This included posters, email banners, information on the front page of myHR and mySCC and in InsideSCC. Many staff responded to the campaign and disclosure rates increased.

Transgender guidance

New guidance has been produced to demonstrate that SCC aims to create an inclusive trans-friendly culture, workplace and learning environment, free from discrimination, harassment or victimisation, where all transgender people are treated with dignity and respect in the gender in which they choose to present themselves. The launch of the guidance featured in one of the Chief Executive’s vlogs and has been heavily promoted across the organisation. The HR team are equipped to support staff, managers and colleagues of those considering transition at work.

Stonewall Workplace Equality Index

Participation in this process allows us to benchmark our performance as employers of LGB&T staff against over 400 other organisations in the country. We improved our position in the Top 100 employers in the 2016 index by 20 places to position 78. Feedback from Stonewall stated that we should be proud of


Learning and development

Councillor development:

This year Councillors had the opportunity to attend training sessions on tackling all forms of extremism and another covering equalities and the profile of communities in Suffolk.

Feedback from those that attended was that the sessions had provided a useful insight into these topics which they would recommend to colleagues.

The Councillor Development Working Group are considering including the equalities training in the programme for new Councillors after the 2017 elections.

E-learning:

The ‘Equality Essentials’ module meets the needs of new starters and any existing staff who wish to refresh their knowledge.

Participants access key equalities information they need for their work and links to further advice and support. All new starters are expected to complete this module within their first six months at SCC.

The College for Policing e-learning module that covers the Prevent Duty has been added to myLearning to provide people with an additional route to learn about this topic; or can attend face to face training at regular Workshop to Raise

https://itrent.suffolk.gov.uk/tprod_ess/ess/index.html#/login

many excellent areas of work and in particular the outstanding work of the LGB&T Staff Network.


Staff networks

The enthusiasm and dedication of the staff who contribute to the work of each of the staff networks should be acknowledged. The range of activities they undertake include: providing advice and support to others, providing training, putting on events and helping the organisation to address issues faced by staff.

The Council’s Leadership Team have endorsed the value of the staff networks and continue to encourage managers to release staff to participate in meetings and events organised by the staff networks. Feedback from staff demonstrates the valuable support that the staff networks provide for them; in some cases helping them to address issues they are facing so that they can continue to work in their roles.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) NetworkThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) Network is open to all staff and Councillors, offering peer support to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender colleagues and allows staff to network across directorate and team boundaries, socially and in a work context. Over 100 rainbow lanyards were distributed to staff and Councillors this year, including to many straight allies, to act as a visible sign of support for LGB&T people.

Members of the network contributed to the development of the transgender guidance this year and as in previous years the range of activities supported by this group included in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index submission were highly praised by Stonewall.

The LGB&T Network worked with Children and Young People’s Services to pull together a Suffolk Rainbow Conference this year around LGB&T in Education. Her Majesty’s Inspector and national lead for Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) in schools and Stonewall’s Education Champions Coordinator were speakers. Plus workshops were run by a couple of top performing schools around what is unique in the way that they approach vulnerable children, peer mentoring and handling LGB&T related topics in their schools.

To help staff feel more confident about being themselves at work, the network produced a video “We value you, not your masks” as research demonstrates that if people are able to be themselves in the workplace they are happier and more productive.

Women’s NetworkWomen make up the majority of SCC’s workforce. This network, which is virtual but with organised events, provides an opportunity for female staff to share experiences about topics that impact them directly, including career development and juggling work-life balance. Members of the network have undertaken some straw poll consultation to find out what staff would like the network to get involved in. We like to look at both sides in a discussion so male voices are always welcome.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-W7Y6V568Y

Christian FellowshipThe Christian Fellowship is a workplace support network, open to all staff interested in discussing Christianity and related issues. Participants do not need to be a Christian to attend the events. The fellowship is also open to retired staff, partners and Councillors. Speakers are also invited to share their thoughts. Recently Inspire Counselling were invited to Ipswich to talk about supporting mental health through counselling.Throughout the year, the network mark Christian festivals. Joint events with Ipswich Borough Council included a Christmas carol event in Grafton House and an Easter Service in Endeavour House. The West Suffolk House group meets each week and is run jointly with St Edmundsbury Borough Council staff. There is also a weekly meeting at Landmark House, Ipswich. It is hoped that a joint meeting with Waveney District Council will begin with the move into the Riverside Campus in Lowestoft. The Fellowship collected over 100 charity shoe boxes at Christmas and collected food donations for the charity Families in Need at harvest time.

The Mental Health Group

This group have continued to be involved in training and awareness raising sessions for staff, managers and Councillors, including the Positive Mental Health Management in the Workplace workshops for managers.

The group has organised a number of events and workshops over the year, with a number of activities during Mental Health Awareness Week (May 2015). There were opportunities to try Indian Head Massage, Taoist Tai Chi™ and Mindfulness as well as Stress Busting Strolls. In Endeavour House there were stands from Suffolk Family Carers, Realise Futures with their Stress Busting Stand and Men’s Sheds, as well as a MENtal Health Lounge, Manager’s Information Stand and updates from the Emotional Wellbeing Transformation Plan. People were also able to hang both their troubles and solutions on the ReLeaf Trees.

Young Person and Apprentice Staff NetworkThis network is open to all staff at Suffolk County Council between the ages of 16 and 25, including those who are apprentices. The purpose of this network is to offer a united voice for young people within Suffolk County Council and to provide a central contact for young people throughout the Council.

The network has had support from senior officers recently to help plan their next steps.

Disability NetworkThe Disability Network is for all disabled staff and their managers and those that have an interest in disABILITY, to promote the ABILITIES of what society classifies as disABLED colleagues, offer support, guidance and advice (including resolving any workplace issues), to influence policies and services affecting their working lives and to work towards making SCC a disABILITY friendly exemplar and confident organisation.


The group is open to all staff including those working for our strategic partners that are affected by disability issues, including those who are newly diagnosed with a long term health condition, physical or mobility impairment, visual or hearing impairment, lifelong developmental disability or cognitive impairments (including early on-set dementia). We have a particular focus on “hidden disABILITIES”, but no one is excluded! The Network positively welcomes associate membership from carers and all those staff who have a responsibility for disability service provision.

Disability Confident

SCC has met the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) ‘Two Ticks’ standard re provision for disabled people in the recruitment process for many years. The DWP have developed an expanded scheme: Disability Confident. Through Disability Confident the DWP are working with employers to:

challenge attitudes towards disability increase understanding of disability remove barriers to disabled people and those with long term health conditions

in employment ensure that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfill their potential and

realise their aspirations

In May 2016 the DWP accepted SCC as a Disability Confident partner. We were only the 4th county council so far to do this. This is a great step and will provide a platform from which to continue our efforts in this area of work.


Support for mental health

There have been a number of initiatives over the last few years to support people’s mental health and increase understanding of the topic by the Mental Health Staff Network, Human Resources and the Health and Safety Team. During the last year this work has been progressed and includes the following activities.

A new course entitled “Positive Mental Health Management” addresses the needs of managers and staff within SCC. The course focuses on reducing stigma and raising awareness of mental health conditions in the workplace. We work in an organisation which is blessed by having a rich and diverse workforce, many of whom will experience and live with mental health conditions either some, or all of the time. Having a mental health condition is not a negative thing, nor does it mean you are “less capable”, “more fragile” or “more of a liability”; in fact, the reverse is often true. Many highly skilled and successful people experience mental health conditions, either apparent conditions, or non-apparent. In some cases, their mental health condition actually contributes to their success e.g. creativity, logic, linear thinking, empathy. The course aims to both highlight the positive aspects of mental health conditions and how to manage and support people so that mental ill-health is avoided, or where someone is experiencing mental ill-health, how to properly and effectively support them.

The Mental Health Policy has been revised to make it more “user friendly” and accessible to people. The policy gives a clear commitment from SCC to creative a positive mental health and wellbeing culture; recognises the strengths and positive attributes of people with mental health conditions; offers support to staff with mental health conditions; commits to working with partners to promote positive approaches to mental health, reduce stigma and discrimination and facilitate opportunities for staff to reach their full potential. The new mental health policy is part of a suite of policies and procedures within the Health, Safety and Wellbeing portfolio. A copy of the policy can be found here.

A Mental Health Toolkit has been designed to help implement and imbed the policy. It is designed for use by managers and individuals and provides practical information about how to facilitate a positive mental health culture and support and manage individuals. It also explains the rights and responsibilities of individuals and provides both staff and managers with information about reasonable adjustments; referrals to occupational health; supporting the absent employee; treatments and medication and the potential impact on work. It includes sections on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); supporting colleagues; caring for someone with a mental health condition; where to go for help; and training opportunities. The Toolkit can be found here.

There have been regular stands at corporate events to improve the profile of and access to support services; there is increased attention to data provided from HML our Occupational Health Provider as well as Lifestyle Support, our Employee Assistance Programme leading to action relating to organisational ‘hotspots’ for mental health conditions. There is a new mediation scheme and around 100 people have attended the positive Mental Health Workshops over the last year. The Time to Talk campaign in February was celebrated across the Council and the ongoing offer of support through activities such as Mindfulness sessions are valued by staff. All of these activities are supported by the HR team in order to embed the organisation’s commitment to supporting those with mental health conditions.


https://suffolknet.sharepoint.com/sites/myscc/myjob/healthandsafety/Documents/Mental%20Health/2016-03-01%20MH%20Policy.pdf

Making a difference for young people: travel training

Suffolk County Council Passenger Transport is working in Partnership with Essex County Council (who has been delivering a very successful Travel Training scheme in Essex for 10 years.) We have asked them to deliver a Pilot scheme for 2 years within Suffolk to deliver the travel training to students in schools and colleges with additional needs to develop their ability to travel independently.

Initially this has a particular focus on preparing students for travel to College or Sixth Form, but for many students independent travel could be a reality long before this.

We are currently working with 11 schools/colleges across Suffolk and to date we have successfully trained 15 students who are now travelling independently to school or college. We currently have a further 101 students in training or waiting for training.

The Pilot scheme has been a great success and testimonials have been received from parents, student and college, examples as follows (names of students have been changed):-

“Hi l would like to let you know what a wonderful opportunity for my daughter to do travel training. It has given her confidence and independence; she now travels to and from college and occasionally into town to meet a friend. Theresa really helped Lucy gain confidence and how to overcome any problems and put into place really good strategies for her. I would highly recommend giving it a go as it could be a new lease of life. From a mother of a daughter on the autistic spectrum.”

"Harry is 16yrs old, is autistic with a speech impediment and had never travelled independently until he started college in September. Harry has benefited so much from the travel training he received from Mary from the Travel Training Team. I was very concerned about him using the bus independently but there was no need to have worried, since his training in July he has become so much more independent. Not only does he use the bus to get to and from college he also catches the bus into our local town and to visit family. I cannot praise Mary and the Travel Training Scheme highly enough."


Knowing our communities

Out of a current population of 738,500 in Suffolk 162,800 are aged over 65 and of those 22,900 are in the over 85 age bracket. This means that Suffolk has proportionately more older people than the average across England and Wales.

12.5% of people aged 18 and over are family carers which equates to 73,400.

The 2011 Census indicated that 34,968 (4.8%) people in Suffolk were from a Black and minority Ethnic background. The profile is around 15% for school aged pupils with 145 languages recorded in Suffolk schools.

Support in communities: Connect

Suffolk’s population is increasing and by 2031 it is estimated that there will be a 55% increase in the number of people in the county aged over 65 and a 72% increase in people aged over 75. As the population increases and people live longer, this will mean more people living with sustainable long-term health conditions.

The Connect programme will bring together social care staff for adults and children/families, health, police, mental health professionals, district and borough services and is working to include the voluntary and community sectors, with the help of local groups.

Connect is an important project to:a) Promote integrated care;b) Ensure services can cope with the projected increase in demand, and;c) Make sure that patients get the care and support they need, with each organisation

working and communicating together with others more effectively and directly.

There are four elements to this new model of care. 1. Prevention and Community Resilience – This is about keeping people healthy and

happy, ideally in their own homes, supported by local community networks which they can use to get the help and support they need.

2. Integrated Care Coordination – The focus is also on keeping people with multiple or complex health needs in their own home too. These people will be identified by health and social care professionals who will work together as Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs). These professionals will plan and coordinate services so that the needs of both patients and their carers can be met.

3. Urgent Care Response and Treatment – This will ensure a rapid response for patient assessment and treatment, reducing the number of telephone numbers needed when urgent and emergency care is required. The ambulance service and NHS 111 will work more closely together and there will be better management of people attending A&E and, where appropriate, referrals to community-based rather than hospital-based services.

4. Returning to Independence – The Integrated Neighbourhood Team (INT) professionals will also have responsibility for ensuring people access the right rehabilitation services so they can get back to living a normal, happy and independent life as quickly as possible. The rehabilitation process includes not only practical support, but also ensuring all patients have access to the information they need to make the right healthcare decisions to support their recovery and future health and wellbeing.

Connect will focus on those people who need help, making sure that anyone in a community (including friends, neighbours, local police officer or shopkeeper) or a health professional can recognise when a person needs assistance and know how to get it for them, quickly and effectively. Connect aims to better involve everyone living in a community - small informal community groups, voluntary groups and organisations, libraries, church groups, charities and local businesses. It will


encourage mutual support between all these groups and services and the public sector.


Working with communities

Many communities benefit from the dedication and support provided by their own community members and we work with community organisations to support the work they do and help to address gaps identified. Here are some examples of activities that have taken place this year.

Key dates in the year provide us with an opportunity to demonstrate our support for different communities. ‘Don’t Stand By’ was the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2016. At the Waterfront Building, University Campus Suffolk there was an Act of Remembrance event which included moving talks by young people from Northgate High School and community members, as well as the lighting of a candle.

We recognise the great contribution that organisations who work with people from different protected characteristics make. Representatives from many groups contributed to the Groups at Risk of Disadvantage needs assessment commissioned by Public Health, who are now following up on the findings to address the health issues raised.

The migrant drop-in service, run by the charity Migrant Help, has specialist advisers from the migrant community who speak Polish, Spanish, Portuguese and Lithuanian offering information, advice and guidance to migrants at the Saturday sessions in Ipswich, Brandon and Newmarket. There have been over 9,500 individual interactions since this service started in October 2010.

Supplementary schools offer educational opportunities for children and young people outside mainstream school provision. Suffolk Supplementary Schools are predominately based in Ipswich but serve communities across Suffolk. As a result of the teaching received at their supplementary school some young people achieve GCSEs and A levels in their home language. We work in partnership with The National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education (NRCSE) a national strategic and support organisation for the supplementary education sector across England. This year five of the Suffolk Supplementary Schools submitted portfolios which were then moderated and resulted in them all achieving the NRCSE Gold quality framework award:

• Anglo Chinese Cultural Exchange• Education & Development Centre LINGUA• Kerala Community Supplementary School• Karibu African Women’s Support Group• Bangladeshi Support Centre Supplementary School


http://www.supplementaryeducation.org.uk/quality-framework/gold/

Looking ahead

During this time of major change in the public sector we will continue to consider the needs of people with different protected characteristics as a thread running through our processes as service provision changes and evolves.

Our corporate equality objectives reflect our commitment to considering equalities in both the work that we do for the people of Suffolk and our staff:

1. Ensure the needs of people with protected characteristics are considered when making changes to policies or services

2. Ensure that within a local working approach the voice of all communities are heard when decisions are being made

3. Empower more people with protected characteristics to live safe, healthy and independent lives

We will use the developing localities work with partners across Suffolk to respond to equality and inclusion issues as they emerge and to support communities to help themselves.

We recognise that the demography of Suffolk continues to evolve and the way that services are provided, as well as who they are provided by, needs to continue to adjust and respond. We will continue to support individuals to stay independent for as long as possible with the support of their own network.

And we will continue to celebrate the increasing diversity of this county where people from different backgrounds, abilities and disabilities, religions and beliefs along with those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender make up the rich picture of people taking part in business, work, learning and leisure in Suffolk.
