Equality policy and plan | BETA - South Gloucestershire Council

We work with all communities and individuals to create good relationships, eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity. We do this through meeting the objectives in our equality policy and plan.

Our equality policy

Our corporate equality and diversity policy details our commitment to valuing and treating all people with dignity and respect.

To do this we:

recognise that individuals and communities have specific needs that have to be understood and addressed for them to develop their full potential
acknowledge that the rights of minority communities need to be protected
make sure all aspects of our policy development and service delivery take equality and diversity into account

Equality plan

Key objectives

Our equality plan sets out 5 key objectives:

to ensure a consistent approach to managing equalities
to ensure fair treatment for all by our services
to reduce any gaps in service use, take-up and outcomes
to continuously improve equality of opportunity for our employees and job applicants
to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between different people

Since we published these objectives, the new Council Plan sets out a clear commitment to reduce the inequality gap. We have also seen the Covid pandemic and we are experiencing a cost of living crisis.

Additionally, we have set out our 10 priority areas for equality and the reduction of inequality gaps.

Equality priority areas

We have set out 10 priority areas to reduce inequality gaps by tackling:

inequalities in educational attainment and experience
hate crime
inequalities across employment opportunities
inequalities related to poverty and financial hardship
housing inequalities
inequalities in access to transport, the built and natural environment, the wider economy and digital inclusion
inequalities in experience of positive mental health
health inequalities
inequalities in access to adult and children’s social care
inequalities as part of work to address the Climate Emergency

Monitoring reports

You can find our annual equality reports on the equalities monitoring page. These measure progress against the equality plan objectives and the equality priority areas as well as communicating actions which will be taken by individual service areas.

Updating the plan

We are in the process of preparing a refreshed approach to robustly deliver against our commitment to reduce the inequality gap. We will publish a comprehensive new Equality Plan following the election in May 2023.

Until a new equality plan is published, our equality objectives remain as above and we continue to work to these objectives and equality priority areas and report against them annually.

Equalities organisations we work with

We have an agreement with CVS South Gloucestershire to support the needs of local equalities groups through the South Gloucestershire equalities voice partnership. The members are:

They co-ordinate the South Gloucestershire Equalities Forum which brings together organisations that represent equality communities in the district.

Membership of the forum is open to any organisation working in the area that is committed to promoting equality of opportunity.

Forum members meet quarterly to:

share information about equality issues and examples of best practice
establish informal working groups to work on issues of concern
organise an annual event on a chosen topic
feedback on services to help contribute to changes in practice that will benefit equality communities

For more information you can contact: equalities@southglos.gov.uk