Southend on Sea Borough Council’s Equality Objectives

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We want Southend-on-Sea City Council to be a great place to work that champions diversity, and an organisation that is a leader of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the City.

The Council’s Equality Objectives were reviewed in 2022 with a new approach to support our desire to be more effective and accountable on EDI matters. The new approach includes an overarching Equalities Statement, one that sets a vision about the type of Council we aspire to be. We will achieve the stated vision through a number of objectives which cover four key topics: Workforce, Access to services, Partnership working and Community cohesion. Under each of these topics we will identify a commitment- currently being developed - which describes a specific and measurable piece of work, which when completed will help us on our journey to achieving our stated equalities vision.

The new statement and objectives have been developed in consultation with citizens and local partner organisations. The results of those conversations and a survey are provided below:

The Your Say Southend Survey asked the following questions:

Question 1 - Thinking about the protected characteristics, what do you think are the important issues for Southend on Sea Borough Council's workforce?

Results were:

Mental Health Support- 26.61% of respondents

Racial Equality – 22.02%

Disability – 22.%

Question 2 - Thinking about the protected characteristics, what do you think are the important issues for accessing services in Southend?

Results were:

Working with people from the groups of protected characteristics to design and co-produce services – 49.5%

Physical Accessibility – 15.3%

Digital Accessibility – 14.4%

Question 3. Thinking about the protected characteristics, what do you think are the important issues for a cohesive community in Southend?

Celebrating Diversity (e.g., Black History Month, Pride, Holocaust Memorial Day) -16.2%

Youth Support Services & Activities – 14.4%

Hate Crime Support – 13.5%

Initiatives that Oppose Violence against Women and Girls – 13.5%

Question 4. The Council works with many partners to deliver services and improve outcomes for residents, business, and visitors. How can the Council generate better equality, diversity and inclusion outcomes, through its work with partners?

This was a free text box – the key themes that emerged were:

Recognition of the value of diversity

Workforce Training Around EDI

Importance of co-production

Our Statement:

Southend-on-Sea City Council recognises and values the benefits of diversity and inclusiveness in our city, where people from different backgrounds are valued and get on well together. We will work to bring equality, diversity and inclusion issues into sharper focus and seek out improvements to our services and work environment.

We are committed to supporting all Members and staff to feel they belong at the council and have opportunities to succeed. We will work with staff to identify and remove barriers to inclusivity and diversity.

The Council will actively celebrate the value that a diversity of perspectives brings and will proactively seek opportunities to celebrate our differences as well as the common goals that connect and unify us all – together we are stronger.

As an inclusive Local Authority, we will seek opportunities to work with residents from all groups of protected characteristics to design, co-produce and deliver high quality services that work for all. Collaborative, partnership working is the way to achieve this.

Our equality objectives are:

Workforce – To support and enhance resilience in a workforce that is representative of our communities

Access to Services – To provide support in accessing services for all, accommodating diverse needs, and promoting inclusion at all levels, including a developed digital literacy offer.

Cohesive Community – To raise awareness of the richness in diversity, by celebrating our communities’ differences and what unites us.

Partnership Working – To seek opportunities to co-produce, co-design and to bring lived experience into policy making, strategy development and implementation/service delivery

The commitments which will sit under each of the objectives the feedback gathered has resulted in the below:

2022-2023 annual commitments – The Equality Act 2010 – Southend-on-Sea City Council