Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from public member Orsola Spivack, staff member Naomi Armstrong and Councillor Mairead Healy.

Robert Pollock paid tribute to former Panel members Graham Lewis and Susan Wan, who have resigned from the panel since the previous meeting, and Judith Margolis, who passed away last year. Robert explained that Council officers will be recruiting to the three vacancies for public members.

No interests were declared.

The minutes of the meeting of the 11 January 2022 were noted.

Robert Pollock explained that an update on progress relating to Disability Confident would be included under item 7.

There were no public questions.

Roger De Ste Croix, Cambridge City FC and Richard Nurse and Lyndsay Beauchamp, PicturePath

Roger De Ste Croix provided an overview of some of the key steps that Cambridge City Football Club has taken to promote equality and diversity, including:

·       Establishing an Equality and Diversity Review Board, which has produced two reports and a number of recommendations that are currently being implemented.

·       Developing an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) statement and signing the Equality Pledge.

·       Cambridge City men’s first team taking the knee and wearing rainbow laces.

·       Publicising Pride, Black History Month and Holocaust Memorial Day on the club website.

·       Ensuring that the club’s new ground in Sawston is accessible to different groups through measures such as step-free access, gender neutral toilets and baby changing facilities.

Richard Nurse of PicturePath gave a presentation on the PicturePath app, which provides free visitor guides to help neurodiverse visitors to plan their trips to venues. Cambridge City Football Club and Cambridge United have both worked with PicturePath to develop match-day apps for their grounds.

In response to questions from members of the Equalities Panel, Roger and Richard explained that:

·       Cambridge City Football Club have supported Pride and the players have worn rainbow laces to show support for LGBTQ+. It is hoped that this will help start conversations and discussions with players about LGBTQ+ issues.

·       There have been over 1,000 downloads of the PicturePath app to date and more are expected as schools start using the app.

·       PicturePath can be used to help children on the journey to school and they can also work with employers to help support their employees.

Kate Yerbury, Equality and Anti-Poverty Officer

David Kidston presented an update on activity during 2021/22 to deliver key actions identified in the Council’s Single Equality Scheme and highlighted some new actions that would be delivered during 2022/23.

In response to questions from members of the Equalities Panel, Council officers including David Kidston, Vickie Jameson and Ariadne Henry explained that:

·       As part of the recruitment process for roles at the City Council, recruiting managers try to ensure that interview panels are as diverse as they can be, subject to capacity and availability of staff.

·       Officers will be working with Cambridge Women’s Aid and Cambridge Rape Crisis to develop and deliver the inclusion and engagement survey focusing on the needs of women in Cambridge. The survey will include issues such as women’s safety and experience of misogynistic language.

·       The Gypsy and Traveller Needs Assessment (GTANA) is being managed by South Cambridgeshire District Council and it covers a wide sub-region (Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, and West Suffolk). The research will consider the level of need for sites across this area. The study is ongoing and the data and the findings will need to be robust, as the evidence will need to withstand detailed scrutiny at Local Plan inquiries in all the local authority areas covered by the research.

·       The Race Equality Toolkit was presented to the Equalities Panel at a previous meeting by Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum, but officers will circulate the toolkit to the panel again for information.

·       The Council is promoting digital inclusion through activities to help Council tenants get online, and through grant funding to Cambridge Online and support for the wider Cambridgeshire Digital Partnership, which are taking forward digital inclusion activities for the wider community.

·       The Council has put a lot of work into supporting staff during the periods of lockdown and restrictions in 2020 and 2021. Currently levels of Covid in the Council’s workforce are low. We have been able to support staff with Covid who are asymptomatic to work remotely, and we have few instances of long Covid.

Deborah Simpson, Head of Human Resources

Deborah Simpson and Vickie Jameson presented an analysis of key data and trends in the Council’s workforce relating to age, disability, ethnicity, sex, and religion and belief. The presentation included information on: representation of different groups within the workforce; recruitment, retention, and progression; and learning and development.

The full Equality in Employment report is not yet complete but will be circulated to members of the Equalities Panel when it is available.

In response to questions from members of the Equalities Panel, Deborah Simpson and Vickie Jameson explained that:

·       It is difficult to provide workforce data by Council service, as some services have a small number of staff so there is a risk of identifying individual members of staff.

·       Staff in some of the Council’s shared services, such as ICT, Waste and Planning, are employed by South Cambridgeshire District Council or Huntingdonshire District Council, so we do not have access to workforce data for these services.

Ariadne Henry, Community Development Officer and Panel member

Ariadne Henry provided an update on the work of voluntary and community groups that the Council works in partnership with, including:

·       There will be a short, formal event to remember Srebrenica, on Thursday 7^th July on the steps of the Guildhall. This follows on from the themes of recent local Holocaust Memorial Day/Refugee Week events.

·       A Health Inequalities Officer will be starting in the Council’s Community Services team, with the post being funded through Covid-related funding.

No other business was discussed.

The next Equalities Panel meeting will be held on 10 January 2023.

The next Equalities Panel meeting will be held on 10 January 2023.