Agenda item

Sarah Eaton, Assistant Director, Strategy & Policy, and Sally Pearson, Head of Learning and Development, attended the meeting and provided members with a presentation to compliment the report on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy Progress for 2022/23,  which had been circulated  in advance of the meeting and to present and outline proposals and timescales for the refresh of the Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

The Council’s current Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy was previously discussed by Resources Committee on 3 March 2022 prior to adoption by Cabinet on 10 March 2022. At its meeting on 3 March 2022, it was agreed that an annual progress report would be brought back to the Committee for discussion and consideration.

The Council’s EDI Strategy 2022-2025, set out the Council’s vision and values for equality, diversity and inclusion identifying five key priorities to focus future effort across the authority:

?     Create a diverse and confident workforce

?     Ensure fair access to employment, skills, and business support

?     Engaged communities able to influence decisions

?     Healthy and supported people

?     Safe and inclusive places for everyone

The Strategy contains a Delivery Plan consisting of a number of one, two and three-year deliverables and a number of success measures to monitor progress. A workstream for each of the five key priorities was established and identified Lead Officers meet regularly.

As set out in the Strategy, progress against the measures and deliverables in the EDI Strategy is considered on a six-monthly basis by the EDI Board and Corporate Management Team. The report provided an end of year update on progress made during the implementation of the Strategy in its first year. The focus of the current update was on the additional activity undertaken between April 2022 – March 2023 against the identified actions contained in the Strategy for completion by end of year.

Generally, as outlined in the annual report attached at Appendix 2 to the report for consideration, positive progress has been made against deliverables identified for completion during year one against all five priorities.

Despite good progress there had been a number of challenges across a number of workstreams as follows:

-   Number of deliverables relating to health inequalities unrealistic in light of other health and social care challengesarising from pandemic

-   Need to encourage inclusion of activity in respect of Childrens Service and Adult Care deliverables outlined in other strategies

-   Priorities for employment and skills difficult to deliver due to disparate nature of work across organisation

-   Disability Employment Strategy, which forms key part of workstream, delayed

A timetable had been developed for refreshing the EDI Strategy to ensure improved synergy with Council Plan objectives and to respond to the changes affecting the Council and its communities, with the aim of completing and adopting a new strategy by May 2024. It was proposed that the new Strategy will then run until the end of March 2027 with an annual review taking place each year to reflect key developments.

The review of the Strategy will commence in September 2023 with the

aim 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.

-   Include an updated context following the release of the Census 2021 providing a more recent and detailed picture of diversity across the Derbyshire population

-   Review the workstreams approach and ascertain whether they remain relevant, along with the “deliverables” or individual actions outlined for the remaining two years

-   Aligned to the above, clarify which elements of employment and skills related activity should be prioritised for inclusion in the EDI Strategy

-   Capture key developments in Adult Social Care, Childrens Services, Modern Ways of Working and the introduction of the Council’s new transformation approach

-   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, even with positive action initiatives in place

-   Reflect upon, and support, activities which will support people struggling with the Cost-of-Living pressures

-   Highlight any challenges with regard to resources and/or the -delivery of the approach across the authority

-   Better engage senior leaders and Elected Members from all parties on EDI developments and the ongoing development of the strategy over the coming period

-   Engage service departments more effectively in the ongoing delivery of the strategy.

Details were given of how the engagement process would take place

with leaders and departments and internal and external consultation was

also planned so that a final draft could be presented for consideration by

Cabinet in May 2024.

Members made a number of observations and asked questions which

were duly noted or answered by officers and would be included as part

of the refresh moving forward

RESOLVED to note the report and the annual EDI progress report attached at Appendix 2.

SARAH EATON

The Chair informed members that Sarah Eaton would be leaving the Authority shortly and on behalf of the Committee wished to place on record his thanks and appreciation for all her hard work and commitment over the years and wished her all the best for the future., H