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Venue: via Microsoft Teams
Contact: Email: helen.crowther@cambridge.gov.uk Equality and Anti-Poverty Officer
Note: If you are not a member of the Panel but are interested in joining to observe the meeting, please contact Helen Crowther, Equality and Anti-Poverty Officer, on 01223 457046 or helen.crowther@cambridge.gov.uk
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Welcome, Introductions and Apologies Minutes: Apologies were received from: Staff members: Alistair Wilson, Lesley-Ann George, Naomi
Armstrong |
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Tribute to Judith Margolis Minutes: A tribute was given for Judith Margolis by Robert Pollock,
Chief Executive, before starting the meeting: The Equalities Panel is very saddened that Judith Margolis,
Public Member of the Panel, died recently of gallbladder cancer. Judith has been on the Panel as a public member for a number of years, and before we started this meeting we wanted to pay tribute to her, including to her contribution on the Panel. Judith was a passionate advocate for local people and her insights on disability rights and tackling discrimination and poverty were hugely valued. Outside of the Panel, she was Chair of Disability
Cambridgeshire and Trustee for 10 years. Disability Cambridgeshire describe her
as having been an “inspirational leader” and hugely important in ensuring the
continuation of the charity’s work. Judith also had extensive and committed involvement with a
vast number of other organisations within the voluntary sector involved in the
fields of disability rights and reducing poverty, discrimination and/or injustice. The Panel is pleased that we were able to send her flowers
and a card to thank her for her contribution to the Panel before she passed
away. Our thoughts and heart-felt condolences are with Judith’s friends,
family, and colleagues at this difficult time.
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Declarations of Interest Minutes: No interests were declared. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting and Matters Arising PDF 355 KB Minutes: The notes of the meeting of the 26 January 2021 were noted. Helen Crowther, Equality and Anti-Poverty Officer, agreed to
resend minutes from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s 16th
December 2020 Business Coordination Board. These contain details on measures
put in place to address disproportionality of Black, Asian
and Minority Ethnic people affected by the use of Stop and Search. Helen Crowther also shared that the Race Equality Toolkit
for businesses will be shared with the Equalities Panel once the final draft is
ready. |
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Public Questions Minutes: There were no public questions. |
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Single Equality Scheme 2021 to 2024 PDF 120 KB (Helen Crowther, Equality and Anti-Poverty Officer) Minutes: Helen Crowther, Equality and Anti-Poverty Officer,
delivered a presentation on Cambridge City Council’s Single Equality Scheme
2021 to 2024 that is due to go to the Environment and Community Scrutiny
Committee on 7 October 2021. Helen shared: ·
Some key achievements of the previous Single
Equality Scheme (2018 to 2021),such as that the
Council: o Resettled
125 refugees in and near Cambridge o Became
the 5th local authority to be awarded the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance
accreditation o Provided
nearly 7,900 hires for the Shopmobility service ·
The consultation process for the Single
Equality Scheme (SES) 2021 to 2024 from summer 2020 to the present, including
details on internal meetings with key groups of staff and external meetings
with voluntary and community sector organisations supporting different equality
groups. ·
Information on the Community Inclusion and
Engagement Questionnaire undertaken to identify the needs of different
communities in the city. The questionnaire findings are being used to inform
the SES 2021 to 2024, where they are supported by findings of national research
on issues experienced by equality groups. Helen noted that the findings of the
questionnaire are not fully representative of the Cambridge population, as 202
people completed it and some equality groups were under-represented in
responses, including young people and people from diverse ethnic communities. ·
A summary of the proposed objectives of the
new Scheme for 2021 to 2024, carried over from the 2018 to 2021 Scheme. The
objectives are to: o Increase
our understanding of the needs of communities o Improve
access to and take-up of Council services o Help
ensure all residents have equal access to public activities & spaces and are able to participate fully in the community o Tackle
discrimination and promote community cohesion o Ensure
that our employment and procurement policies and practices are
non-discriminatory and work towards a more representative workforce ·
Three proposed priorities of SES 2021 to 2024
relevant to the objectives that are: o To
identify opportunities to hear from people with protected characteristics about
their experiences of inequality and discrimination: especially relating to
poverty and impacts of COVID-19. o To
collaborate with voluntary and community sector, public sector, and private
sector partners, and people directly experiencing discrimination and
disadvantage to address equality issues. o For
services to use intersectionality as an analytical framework in responding to
residents’ and customers’ needs. ·
Some of the key issues raised in consultation
on the SES 2021 to 2024 and areas of work that will be taken forward to address
these issues: o Digital
exclusion has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The Council plans to help
address this through further collaboration with the Cambridgeshire Digital
Partnership. The Council will also provide face-to-face appointments when
digital exclusion means people cannot get support using the Council’s new
‘digital first’ customer services model and plans to support sheltered housing
scheme staff to improve their digital skills to help residents. o Mental
health has worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. Cambridge City Council
aims to develop strong working relationships with mental health services, so
City Council staff have a better understanding of the services and continue to
provide training for Council staff on best practice in supporting service users
with mental health problems. o Loneliness
and isolation have been increasingly experienced by young people and disabled
people. The Council will
look for opportunities to address this through its Community
Grants and through its community
development work. o Some
organisations supporting different ethnic groups wanted more opportunities for
celebrating different cultures. So far in 2021/22 the Council has been
supporting CB Mentoring to set up a mentoring project for young people from
Black communities in Cambridgeshire. In 2021/22 Gypsy, Roma and Traveller
History Month has been marked in the city for the first year. Cambridge City
Council also plans to liaise with Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum, Cambridge
Women’s Resource Centre and other relevant partners
about setting up a group for South Asian women. o Voluntary
and community sector organisations that the Council consulted with highlighted that hate
crime and hate incidents have been increasingly experienced by people with
hidden disabilities, transgender people and South Asian people. Cambridge City
Council will continue working with partners in the Community Safety Partnership
to help address this issue and continue to provide a Racial Harassment service.
The Council plans to encourage other organisations to sign up to Safer Spaces,
a campaign run by the Encompass Network, to help organisations identify best
practice to be inclusive, safe and welcoming for
LGBTQ+ people. In addition, the Council has developed communications to help
raise awareness of the difficulties people with hidden disabilities may have
with complying with public health restrictions and to tackle public harassment
they experience during the pandemic. Following the presentation, Equalities Panel members were
invited to ask questions or provide feedback on the areas of work and priorities
of the new Single Equality Scheme. Panel members asked: · For
more information on how the aims of the Black Lives Matter and may be
incorporated into the new SES. · For
details on how the new SES will address the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on
equalities groups. · Whether
other vulnerable people, as well as many digitally excluded people, will have
opportunities to book face-to-face appointments with customer services. · If
local information on anti-Semitic hate crime is available, given that incidences
have risen nationally. · What
metrics are in place to measure the success of initiatives addressing
inequalities relating to Covid-19. · Whether
the Council is planning to adopt a transgender equality policy. · What
local support is in place to support young people who are LGBTQ+ who have
mental health issues. ·
What impact that Covid-19 has had on
Cambridge City Council’s budget and by extension the SES. In response to these queries, Helen Crowther explained: · The
Council motion on Black Lives Matter specifically asked that in the SES the Council
should review employment and retention, with an emphasis on consultation with
BAME staff. · The
Council has supported the establishment of a BAME staff group, and will continue holding
discussions on race equality issue with all staff members by taking part in
Race Equality Week each February. · The
BAME staff group felt that supporting internal promotions is important to
retaining BAME staff and to ensure BAME staff are represented in higher pay
bands. As a result of this feedback, the Council is developing training for all
staff relating to progression in the workplace and applications. · The
Black Lives Matter motion also asked the Council to use its role as a public
leader to further race equality and tackle discrimination. The Council will be
working with Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum on a needs
assessment with ethnically diverse communities, which aims aims
to help identify needs that may be addressed through working with
partners. · In
addressing the impact Covid-19, an overarching priority of the Scheme is to
continue to develop work with partners to tailor support to people’s needs
(especially mental health services, Cambridgeshire Digital Partnership,
Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum and the Food Poverty
Alliance). · In
considering how poverty has been exacerbated for certain groups during the
pandemic, the Council aims to make sure it identifies opportunities to hear
from people with protected characteristics directly about their needs. Tackling
loneliness especially of young people and disabled people will continue to be a
priority. · The
Council’s Customer Services would make face-to-face appointments with other
vulnerable people as well as digitally excluded people. People may be
vulnerable due to mental health issues or from experiencing domestic abuse, for
instance. · The
Council will ask Cambridgeshire Police if there has been a local increase in
anti-Semitic hate crime. · The
feedback on the increases of hate crime experienced by people with hidden
disabilities, transgender people and South Asian people was from anecdotal
evidence from voluntary and community sector organisations that have been
consulted on the new Scheme. · It
is difficult to get local indications of the extent of hate crimes in the city
experienced by different groups. A high proportion of people do not report hate
crimes or incidents and local figures for each equality group are very low,
making it difficult to identify patterns. · The
Council does not currently have plans for a specific transgender equality
policy, but the Council has taken a range of action, including producing a
pronouns protocol for staff, providing Transgender Awareness training for staff
and Councillors, and signing up to Safer Spaces (an Encompass Network campaign
to identify good practice for organisations to be welcoming, inclusive
and safe to LGBTQ+ employees and service users). · The
Council’s Children and Young People’s Participation Service (CHYPPS) works with
The Kite Trust to signpost and refer young LGBTQ+ people needing support. A
Panel member also shared that The Kite Trust is a member of Fullscope, working
together with other charities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to improve the
mental health and well-being of all young people. David Kidston, explained
that the Council’s Anti-Poverty Strategy includes a number of different metrics
to measures aspects of poverty. The Council is also introducing a Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) that can help track
households that come in and out of poverty. The Council is also working closely
with Cambridgeshire County Council on a wider project looking into the impact
of Covid-19 on particular groups. A report on Covid
impacts on poverty and inequality in Cambridge could be presented to a future
meeting. Robert Pollock, Chief Executive, shared that the impact
of Covid-19 on the Council’s budget has been 20% net revenue. |
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Equality in Employment End of Year Workforce Update: April 2020 - March 2021 PDF 5 KB (Deborah Simpson, Head of Human Resources) Additional documents: Minutes: Deborah Simpson, Head of Human Resources, presented the
Equality in Employment report and key information shared included: · At 31 March 2021, there were 816 staff now
compared to 827 at 31 March 2020. · Staff
representation in terms of sex is 52% male and 48 % female and has been broadly
50% male and 50% female for a number of years. Gender
pay data for 2020 identified there has been an improvement in the gender pay
balance between females and males. There are fewer women in the lowest quartile
of the pay bands. · The
highest percentage of staff were in the 45-54 age band, and there are
relatively fewer people aged under 24 or over 65. This has been consistent for a number of years. · There
has been an increase in the percentage of BAME people in the workforce from
7.54% at 31 March 2020 to 7.71% at 31 March 2021. BAME
representation across the pay grades has improved. · Cambridge
City Council is proposing to increase its target of the percentage of disabled
staff to 8.5%. At 31 March 2021, 7.11% of staff
declared they are disabled, which is similar to the previous year. The Council
will be looking at why numbers of applicants declaring a disability are
declining. · The
2021 Census data will further help the Council to review its data and set new
targets for the percentage of disabled staff and BAME staff as a proportion of
its workforce. · The
Council has worked towards increasing representation of BAME people, partly by
promoting employment opportunities through networks with far reaching and
diverse audiences. Following feedback from the BAME staff group on improving
retention of BAME staff, the Council is also developing training for staff around
preparing for roles as internal promotions. · Overall
attendance for training across the Council was up in 2020/21, but there was a
marked decline in the number of males attending training accounting for 29%
compared to 71% female attendees. The Council will look at teams with a high
number of males in operational roles to identify actions which identify the
imbalance in training attendance between the sexes in this last year. · Last
year there was an increase in staff declaring their sexual orientation, but
this year it was lower. We will continue
to monitor this. · The
number of job applicants in the 25-54 age group has increased. · Cambridge
City Council has still been using BAME as a term but will be talking to the
BAME staff group about terminology that is used in future reporting. The report
breaks down overall workforce data and training into categories on ethnicity
used in the Census. · The
largest group of people declaring a religion is Christian, which has been the
case for a number of years. · There
were 9 promotions compared to 25 in the previous year. There were fewer job
roles recruited to in 2020/21 . · Actions
to focus on from the Equality in Employment report include to: o Continue
monitoring the number of staff declaring as LGBT in case this continues to
decline. o Follow
up on actions relating to recruitment and promotion of BAME staff o Using
new Census data as a comparator once available o Develop
an understanding of and address low proportion of disabled applicants o Develop
an understanding of the change in training attendance by males The Panel members asked questions on and provided
feedback on the Equality in Employment report: · The
Council was asked if more use could be made of infographics to make the
information more understandable and if figures may be used in the report as
well as percentages. It was suggested that the information on gender pay
reporting was especially unclear. · A
Panel member asked whether BAME is a term the Council should still use given
reports that this may be disrespectful, and if transgender identity may be
reported on as well as sex in the report. · The
Council was asked if data that is unchanging needs to be covered in the report.
· Another
Panel member asked if there are processes put in place to increase internal
progression and promotion. In response to these questions and feedback Deborah
Simpson, Head of Human Resources, said: · The
Council has changed the look of the report recently and can also look at more
use of infographics to make the information clearer for next year. Data on
quartiles relating to the gender pay gap is included in the report because it
is a requirement of the government to report back on this
but it could be held elsewhere as it is not that accessible. · It
is still helpful to report back on statistics that are not changing (for
instance the male/female split) because these findings are a key feature of our
workforce and understanding of the identity of the organisation. ·
The Council is looking to give more support
with internal promotion. It did recently have a Management Development
Programme and Management Apprenticeships, but attendance of different groups
was lower than their representation in the workforce relating to ethnicity.
Therefore, the Council is looking into how it can encourage people to be
confident to apply for internal positions. Robert Pollock, Chief Executive, said that Cambridge is
one of the sixth youngest cities in the country due to its University but
pointed out that the Council has an older workforce. He commented that the
Council needs to think about how it ensures it represents its community/ the
local population, including related to senior BAME representation. |
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Disability Confident PDF 112 KB (Victoria Jameson, Recruitment Manager) Minutes: Victoria Jameson,
Recruitment Manager, delivered a presentation on the Disability Confident
Scheme, with which the City Council is accredited. Key points made were: ·
Disability
Confident was introduced by the Department for Work and Pensions in 2016 to
replace the Two Ticks scheme. It encourages organisations to regularly review
and develop their processes, helping employers to attract, recruit and retain
staff who declare themselves as having a disability. ·
There
are three levels to the Scheme and Cambridge City Council is a Level 2 Disability
Confident Employer. ·
20,000
employers have signed up to Disability Confident and this number is increasing. ·
As
a Disability Confident Employer, Cambridge City Council has made a commitment
to take practical steps to offer positive employment opportunities and are
committed to developing the full potential of employees with a disability. ·
As
at 31 March 2021, 7.11% of the Council’s workforce
declared themselves to have a Disability. For positions advertised in 2020/21,
5.42% (37) of applicants declared a disability and 7.4% (4) of all people who
were appointed declared a disability. ·
Disability
Confident Level 2 is split into two themes: one about the recruitment of people
with a disability, and the other on support and retention of staff with a
disability. · There are a number
of actions that the organisation takes and has committed to; some of
which include: o
Displaying
the Disability Confident logo on recruitment literature o
Sharing
opportunities with organisations that support disabled people (like the Shaw
Trust, Richmond Fellowship, GET Group, Papworth Trust and Cambridge &
District Citizens Advice) o
Ensuring that Job Descriptions and Person
Specifications are written and published in such a way that promotes the whole
entity of the job, being less prescriptive in asking for skills that exactly
match roles and focussing on transferrable skills, when people can learn this
within the role. o
Applicants
are selected on their abilities and merits according to the requirements of the
job. No personal or equality information
is available to the panel and applications are anonymised. o
Applicants
are asked whether there are any specific arrangements they need to be available
for them to be able to make an application or to attend/ participate in
interviews. o
The
Council can signpost to the Access to Work scheme if people require assistance
not covered by the Council’s reasonable adjustments. o
Staff
can discuss flexible working with managers in review meetings and this is
supported by the Council’s Flexible Working Policy. o
Cambridge
City Council provides wellbeing classes, activities
and promotions to support staff within the workforce. o
The
Council has a contract with an occupational health provider to support
employees and complement its Absence Management Policy. o
The
City Council has a contract to provide confidential support to employees via an
Employee Assistance Programme. o
The
Cambridge City Council Corporate Induction provides all new employees with a
half-day session on Diversity & Disability Awareness. o
Terms
of reference for staff groups have been published to ascertain if there is the
appetite amongst the workforce for setting up a Disability staff group (or
other types of staff group). The Council previously had a disability staff group but membership lapsed and staff currently have not
expressed an interest in re-establishing it. o
Staff
surveys are run to listen to staff about their experiences of working for
Cambridge City Council. The Panel members
were invited to ask questions and provide feedback on the information from the
presentation outside the meeting. They were asked to offer any thoughts or suggestions
on what more the Council can do to
understand any further barriers and how these can be addressed, so that
representation across the organisation is increased. A Panel member asked
if Cambridge City Council would pursue Level 3 Disability Confident and what
this would involve. Victoria Jameson
provided background on the different levels, explaining that Level 1 is about
considering becoming Disability Confident (Committed), Level 2 is about meeting
the criteria (Employer) and Level 3 (Leader) entails significant additional
commitment to becoming a champion within local and business communities. There
are a number of health and social care organisations
which are signed up to Level 3 of the scheme and the Council may lead by
example to get other types of organisation signed up at this level. |
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Any Other Business Minutes: Panel members were invited to contact Helen Crowther,
Equality and Anti-Poverty Officer, with any ideas for future agenda items or
feedback or questions on the agenda items from this meeting. Robert Pollock, Chief Executive, shared that the Council is
interested in revisiting the terms of reference of the Equalities Panel in
relation to considering inviting larger employers to the Panel to learn about
steps they are taking to promote diversity and inclusion in the
their workforce and wider contribution to equality in Cambridge. |
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Date of Next Meeting The next Equalities Panel meeting will be held on 11 January 2022. Minutes: 11 January 2022. |