Agenda and draft minutes

To receive declarations of interest (if any)

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the non-exempt minutes of the meeting of the Improvement and Scrutiny Committee – Resources held on 22 January 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 2024 were confirmed as a correct record.

(Questions may be submitted to be answered by the Scrutiny Committee, or Council officers who are attending the meeting as witnesses, on any item that is within the scope of the Committee. Please see the procedure for the submission of questions at the end of this agenda)

There were no public questions.

Jen Skila, Director, People and Organisational Change, and Wes Downes, Policy Manager attended the meeting and provided members with a presentation to compliment the report on the update on the review of the Strategic Approach to  Equality, Diversity and Inclusion  which had been circulated in advance of the meeting and to ask the committee to note the recommendations of the Diverse Council Motion Cross Party Working Group.

The refresh of the approach comes at time of ongoing changes and challenges affecting the Council and local communities and aims to:

-      Redefine the organisation’s vision and priorities in relation to EDI, both internally and externally, and when considering the organisation’s statutory obligations and organisation culture;

-      Capture key developments in Adult Social Care, Childrens Services and the development of the Council’s new organisational strategy;

-      Consider what constitutes feasible action in relation to the make-up of the workforce, given the current challenges within the job market and the rate of change which can be achieved;

-      Highlight any challenges regarding resources and/or the delivery of the approach across the Council; and

-      Better engage senior leaders and Elected Members from all parties on EDI developments and the ongoing development of the strategic approach to EDI.

Over recent months, in addition to the initial engagement carried out with this Committee a number of additional engagement sessions on revising the Council’s EDI approach had been held as follows:

-      Internal stakeholders including senior leaders through the Shaping the Future Forum and feedback from Executive Directors;

-      Two workshops with members of EDI Board and the existing EDI workstreams leads;

-      A workshop EDI Board Members extended for frontline employees to consider and provide input on the proposed objectives;

-      A survey and follow up discussion with Employee network leads; and

-      Initial engagement has been undertaken with the BME Forum, the Youth Network and Derbyshire LGBT+ Network Alliance.

Stakeholder feedback from the above engagement sessions had highlighted key themes and issues around the current position which were detailed in the report and after recognising this feedback it had broadly indicated what the approach moving forward should be, which were again highlighted in the report.

As a result of the feedback received and in order to aid understanding, commitment and delivery of EDI ambitions across employees, Elected Members and stakeholders it was proposed to move away from having a separate EDI Strategy document and to move to the main EDI focus being on four equality objectives. This approach would, overall, enable the organisation to raise awareness around EDI issues and for the Council move towards applying an EDI “lens” as part of its day-to-day business and organisational culture, whilst simplifying the current approach and yet maintaining delivery of realistic outcomes.

As a result of the key issues expressed in the engagement to date, along with the aims of revising the strategic approach, it is proposed to take forward the Council’s strategic approach around the following four draft key equality objectives:

1.    Better understand  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/22