Our equality objectives

Our equality objectives are embedded within our Policy Framework as part of the Community and Corporate Plan. Our progress against each of our equality objectives is set out below:

• Objective one
• Objective two
• Objective three
• Objective four

In May 2025, the Council updated its equality objectives to meet its specific duties within the Equality Act. Progress against each of our equality objectives is set out below:

Equality objective one

As part of a programme of work, we undertook the following activities in 2025/26:

• Continued to support the Learning Disability Partnership and Autism Partnership recognising the important role that the Ambassadors play in shaping services in Adult Social Care and beyond.
• Engagement and communication colleagues joined Torbay Pride to celebrate the local LGBT+ community and gather community feedback.
• Raised awareness of our British Sign Language provision amongst colleagues which resulted in more people accessing British Sign Language interpretation via our supplier Sign Solutions.
• Joined partners to explore how we can make our beaches more accessible for people with disabilities. We are committed to continuing to explore how we can promote accessibility more broadly in Torbay.
• Continued to hold community engagement events across Torbay to better understand the needs of the local community.
• Continued to raise awareness of the importance of completing meaningful equality impact assessments amongst colleagues. This enables decision makers to fully understand the impact of decisions on different parts of the community.
• Worked with Devon County Council to tender a new interpretation and translation contract to make our services accessible for people with various communication needs. The new service will go live in Spring 2026 once our new provider has been confirmed.
• Continued to ask equality questions within our consultation surveys to find out if a proposed change to our policy or one of our services would affect a particular group of people.
• We continued to engage with partners working with different communities as part of the consultation on Local Government Reform.

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Equality objective two

As part of a programme of work, we undertook the following activities in 2025/26:

• Following engagement with the Procurement Champions, we have developed procurement guidance to support colleagues in embedding equality, diversity and inclusion considerations within the procurement process.

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Equality objective three

As part of a programme of work, we undertook the following activities in 2025/26:

• Setting up the Torbay Inclusion Partnership to strengthen our relationship with seldom heard groups including those from minoritised ethnic communities. The Partnership aims to create an additional forum for groups to help shape policy and service development at the Council.
• Continued to implement recommendations from the Review, including reviewing the workforce data that is currently collected and identifying what data is missing.

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Equality objective four

Our staff are one of our biggest assets and our employees come from a wide range of backgrounds with a variety of skills and knowledge. We are committed to supporting our staff and enabling them to provide the best possible service to our customers.

As part of a programme of work, we undertook the following activities in 2025/26:

• Continuing to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion through marking a range of inclusion related dates to our staff throughout the year. Examples this year include Pride, Black History Month, International Women’s Day, Learning Disability Week.
• Ensuring that policies and initiatives are in place so our staff can feel safe at work and carry out their duties without feeling bullied or discriminated against.
• Delivering equality, diversity and inclusion training courses to managers as part of the Managers Framework.
• Launched a new mandatory all staff equality, diversity and inclusion e-learning course.

We are proud of the steps that we have taken to promote inclusion. We are aware that further work is needed to mainstream inclusion across the Council and are fully committed to doing so. Our refreshed Equality and Diversity Action Plan for 2026/27 aims to support us to continue this work in a meaningful and impactful manner.

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