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

Equality objective one

Our mission is to be a Council that collaborates with its residents, communities, and partnerships - a council that supports, enables, and empowers. We recognise and value strong partnership working and understand the importance of effective engagement with communities. Our Community Engagement and Empowerment Strategy sets out how we are building more positive and trusted relationships. It also outlines how we intend to meet our mission to be a Council that works in collaboration with its residents, communities, and partners and actively seeks the views of underrepresented groups.

The strategy reiterates our commitment to ensuring that our communities and stakeholders participate in the decision-making process and are given the opportunity to help find solutions through high-quality, appropriately targeted consultation and engagement.

In 2023, to ensure that a wide range of voices are reached and heard in decision-making and designing and delivering service we:

• Asked 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.
• Continued to assess our website to identify where and how we can make information more accessible. Over the past 12 months we have reviewed and refreshed our adult social care webpages.
• Continued to complete equality impact assessments to ensure that we are considering equality when making decisions.
• Co-produced the Learning Disability Strategy (the LD Big Plan) with people with lived expertise and the Learning Disability Partnership Board to ensure that the voice of people with learning disabilities are heard across the Council.
• Consulted with people including the Deaf community, unpaid carers and people with Learning Disabilities in relation to the Adult Social Care strategy over the summer months.
• Continued to support the Autism Partnership Board which has regularly meet and have played a pivotal part in making change in Torbay, including expanding the Torbay Leisure Card membership to include Autistic people. The Autism Ambassadors also held an Adult Autism Awareness event in May 2023 which received very good feedback from local professionals and the public.
• Included contact details on our documents and correspondence to enable customers or service users to request information in an alternative format or language.
• Held community engagement events to better understand the needs of local areas.
• Distributed funding to more than fifty community groups and voluntary sector organisations in Torbay as part of the Community Fund, delivered in collaboration with Torbay Communities.
• Encouraged employees to use our templates to ensure our documents and letters are accessible to users of assistive technology.
• Live streamed our Council meetings to enable residents to participate in local democracy in a way that works best for them.
• Provided British Sign Language interpretation and translation and, foreign language interpretation where required.

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Equality objective two

We are committed to reducing inequalities and ensuring that its residents thrive. Torbay is the most deprived local authority in England and there is significant variation in health and wellbeing across the Bay. In our most affluent areas residents can expect to live on average over eight years longer than those living in our more deprived communities. There are also significant gaps in healthy life expectancy between the most affluent and deprived areas.

To help us understand the needs of our different communities when we are developing and commissioning services, we produce a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA). The JSNA provides comprehensive insight on the protected characteristics and includes information about education, housing, and care. This information sits alongside our Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

In 2023, our work to reduce inequalities we:

• Worked with our partners to deliver our Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Torbay which helps to inform the planning of future care and ensures that we respond to the areas of greatest need.
• Launched an innovative regional campaign in July about PrEP, a HIV prevention medicine with regional colleagues.
• Launched the new Multiple Complex Needs Alliance in February 2023. This Alliance joins together the drug and alcohol treatment service, the domestic abuse and sexual violence service, and the homeless hostel. A key objective of the Alliance is to better integrate these services so that people can be supported more holistically and address the underlying causes of their issues, rather than the presenting needs.
• Coproduced and launched our Learning Disability Strategy which sets out our approach to making things better for people with learning disabilities in Torbay.
• Worked with our partners including Diversity Business Incubator to support local black, Asian and minority ethnic led businesses to thrive.
• Developed the Safety of Women at Night (SWaN) Charter which is part of our commitment to keeping Torbay a safe place, where women can feel confident and safe at night.
• Led the development of our healthy ageing programme with our voluntary sector partners.
• Supported the health protection needs of vulnerable groups including those experiencing homelessness.
• Developed Family Hubs and an associated comprehensive community engagement and peer support programme with the objective of improving health outcomes for children and families.
• Remained committed to ‘Our Promise to You’ Pledge, a corporate promise made by us and our partners to the cared for and care-experienced children and young people of Torbay, between the ages of 0-25. The Pledge outlines principles for the Council and partners to follow as a corporate parent such as always acting with honesty and approachability, in addition to tangible commitments like accessibility to dental appointments, and education and healthcare plans.
• Launched the Children in Care Council which is available for all young people that are cared for or care experienced. The Council highlight what their priorities are to work on, gather information from other young people, and focus their attention on the voice of the child. The previous Children in Care Councils (My Voice & The Circle), worked on creating Torbay’s Pledge. It consists of five key priorities for young people and outlines how they will be achieved. The Pledge will be reviewed on a yearly basis, to ensure that it is still reflective of the voices of our young people.
• Delivered 44 projects through the Healthy Holidays (HAF) programme which was attended by 3,859 children and young people over the summer. The programme offered free activities for children who receive benefits-related free school meals and for children and young people who are electively home educated. Eligible children got to take part in activities and learn new skills. Each session included a healthy meal.
• Celebrated National Care Leavers Week in October 2023. This involved reaching out to our care-experienced young people to help them celebrate their achievements and help amplify their voices. Our vision is to improve the quality of life, mental health and well-being of our Care experienced young people and break down the barriers to them accessing services.
• Continued to work in partnership with NHS Devon and SEND Family Voice Torbay to improve services for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities, and their families. We have produced an improvement plan called a ‘written statement of action’. The plan sets out how we are going to make improvements in areas highlighted in an inspection of SEND services in 2021.

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Equality objective three

The Torbay Racism Review was established by us in response to the murder of George Floyd in the USA in May 2020 and the resulting community protests in the UK. The Review aimed to explore and better understand racism in Torbay and was keen to engage with our partners and community in a way that allowed them the space and time to voice their experiences and views.

The review panel consisted of five councillors who reflected the political make-up of the council alongside co-opted community members who supported the panel with their knowledge and expertise. The Review culminated in a report which included recommendations for the Council and its partners which have been progressed in some areas.

A key recommendation from the Review was for us to employ an officer whose job focuses on promoting inclusion. In 2023, this post was advertised, and an officer is now in post. The post provides additional capacity to the organisation around inclusion and will allow a renewed focus to promote and embed inclusion across the Council and implement the remaining recommendations where appropriate.

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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 creating an environment where:

• our staff are supported and encouraged to reach their potential
• they can provide the best possible service to our customers

Our adopted Core Values are at the heart of everything we do and help guide our actions as individuals and teams, particularly when we work through increasingly challenging issues.

Demonstrating our Core Values, we will:

• Always be approachable, calm and respectful.
• Create an environment where we act professionally and treat everyone with respect.
• Ensure that policies and initiatives are in place so our staff can feel safe at work and perform their duties without feeling bullied or discriminated against
• Support staff to continue to improve their cultural competence and confidence to improve workforce inclusivity and engage with our diverse population and communities.

In addition, we have a range of equality policies in place, and we expect our staff to work in accordance with these.

In 2023, to support the diverse needs of our workforce we have:

• Drafted and developed our People Strategy.
• Launched a new applicant tracking system to help improve the experience for people applying for jobs.
• Provided new starters with an online induction to equality and diversity training as part of their induction.
• Worked to ensure that disabled employees are supported through the recruitment journey and employment as part of our Disability Confident Employer accreditation.
• Continued to work with our Public Health colleagues to offer an extensive wellbeing offer to employees which included:
  
  • An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) which helps staff deal with personal and professional problems that could be affecting their home life or work life.
  • A Wellbeing at Work Toolkit which is full of resources, services and tips for staff.
  • Wellbeing Supporters which are a point of contact and support for colleagues experiencing a wellbeing, mental health or emotional distress issue.
  • Stress Awareness Support through a toolkit and resources to help understand and manage stress.
  • Access to the Devon Wellbeing Hub for health and social care staff, which includes access to a wide range of health and wellbeing support, such as crisis support and interventions.
  • A Menopause Champions support group and resources.
  • Financial wellbeing support hub along with access to pensions, retirement, savings and loans information and sessions delivered by regulated providers.

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