The Social Value Act – A Perfect Partner to the Public

Sector Equality Duty

Michelle de Oude

County Community Relations and Equality Officer

(on behalf of) the Norfolk Community Relations and Equality Board

michelle@equalitycohesionnorfolk.net

07824 080269

Norfolk Community Relations and Equality Board (CREB)

What? - public, voluntary, community and third sector partners working together

What does it do? – helps everyone in Norfolk to work together and co-ordinate what they do on Hate Crime, Community Tension Monitoring and Equality

Norfolk Community Relations and Equality Board (CREB)

Who – Chaired by Jenny McKibben, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk and members from public, voluntary, community and third sector organisations – (full list of members on website)

Why – we are all doing things but in these difficult times we can achieve a lot more by working together, supporting each other and being more joined up….

How does the Act link to Equality?

Public bodies have a legal duty to promote equality called the Public Sector Equality Duty

It requires public sector organisations, or those who are doing work on the behalf to comply with a proactive duty to ‘pay due regard’ to:

•Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation

•Advancing equality of opportunity between different groups

•Fostering good relations between different groups

What public bodies should consider when they buy services?

• Do current arrangements adversely affect some people or unlawfully discriminate against them?

• Do differences in service take up or satisfaction levels indicate that it is not being provided fairly or that there is unlawful discrimination in the way it is delivered?

• Are there population changes that might indicate new needs?

• Are there alternative ways of meeting your buying requirements that could advance equality?

An exampleContract for an advice service for all residents

•The contract could specify that advisers from under-represented groups should be recruited - posts can even be ring-fenced - ‘positive action’ under the Equality Act

•The contract could ask the provider to capture qualitative information about how the advice service lead to improved life experiences for individuals

•The advice service could be asked to demonstrate how it works with service providers to give them feedback on their service thus leading to improvements

Some challenges and thoughts

1. We know that many services offered by the voluntary sector already have clear added social value – but how do we all measure this in Norfolk?

2. Do public sector contracting organisations know how their services deliver on equality – how do they measure this?

3. What are the ‘social value’ goals that Norfolk wants to promote?

4. How can we work together on these – CREB could be one mechanism