Object Area

Action

Lead

Completion  Date

Outcomes to be Achieved

1        Addressing  Institutional Racism

.1      Adoption of the Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Race Equality Scheme Review.

CEG, DG, Executive, ET

Oct 05

The Race Equality Scheme Review will the driver for organisational change, ensuring that the Council is meeting the needs of the whole community.

Compliance with the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

.2      Adoption of the Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Race Equality Action Plan Review.

DG, Executive, CEG,ET

Oct 05

 The Race Equality Action Plan Review will enable the Council to mainstream  race equality through out all services,  polices and functions.

Compliance with the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

.3      Public Launch of  the Race Equality Scheme and Action Plan

ET, WH

Nov 05

A clear and public commitment to combating racial inequality.

.4      Conduct an Impact Assessment of all Services, setting priority areas.

HS, ET

Nov 05

Monitor and evaluate  the impact of service provision and to assess if the services are being provided appropriately or accessed equally  

.5      Support the Council to achieve level 2 of the Standard for local Government and the Audit Commission's Performance Indicators.

ET, CEG, SL

April 06

The Council will achieve the appropriate level measured by the Audit Commission’s Performance Indicators.

.6      Work in partnership with Heads of Service to develop Operational Equalities Action Plan

ET, HS

August 06

All Operational Equalities Action Plans will incorporate race equality targets in line with compliance with the General Duty.

2        Service Delivery               Explicitly integrate the race equality issue into service Delivery, Best Value planning and review

.1      Review the role of existing Race Equality groups to identify models of consultation.

ET, CEG

March 06

Improve the Council's formal and informal mechanism for consulting with black & Other Minority Ethnic people.

Update the directory of B&OME Groups

.2      develop guidelines and publicity for Services to know when to access and use and use translation and interpretation facilities

ET

Oct 05

Increased use of translation and interpretation service.

.3      Work with Public and Voluntary Sector Partners to develop a community Translation, Interpreting and accessible formats Service for the use of organisations within the Bath & North East Somerset Area.

ET, SL, BCP

June 06

A community partnership with the ability to deliver an accessible service for the use of the whole of Bath & North East Somerset organisations.

Work with  Voluntary Sector Equalities Partners to develop mechanisms to support a Short term Management Secondment program

ET, HR,CEG,

Dec 05

Managers will gain an understanding of the issues affecting equalities groups, Managers may benefit from a short spell working on a short specific project within a Voluntary sector organisation from one of the equalities groups.

3        Customer Satisfaction and Complaints

.1      Develop corporate systems for monitoring and evaluating of the percentage of B&OME service users satisfied with the overall service provided by the Council. Producing guidance for to carry out the monitoring.

ET,CEG,HS

Jan 05

The Council will be able to identify areas of best practice that other services can benefit from.

The Council will be able to identify the number of black and other minority ethnic service users accessing Council Services.

Target areas of poor service provision for black and other minority ethnic service users.

.2      Ensure the monitoring of the percentage of B&OME people making complaints

ET,HR, VH

March 07

Identify areas of poor service provision for black and other minority ethnic service users.

.3      Ensure the monitoring of the percentage of B&OME people satisfied with the Council's handing of those complaints.

ET,HR, VH

March 07

Increased confidence in the Councils service provision by the black and other minority ethnic community.

.4      Develop a comprehensive system of monitoring and reporting racial incidents.

ET,CEG,WH

Oct 05

Compliance with the Lawrence Inquiry Recommendations and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

Council will be able to identify how effective the Harassment Policy, the Corporate Complaints Procedure and other anti-racism work have been.

4        Community Leadership

.1      The Council will use it’s power and influence through the compliance of the Specific duties and the general duty to promote racial equality, and cultural diversity, and tackle institutionalised racism, with all community partners.

DG,CEG, JA, SB

June 07

Compliance with the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 and the secondary legislation.

All partnerships and community plans will have mainstreamed race equality

5        Community Development

.1      Confirmed commitment to continued partnership working with the B&OME Voluntary Sector.

CEG,ET

June 07

More use of Council Services by the B&OME communities.

A greater level of partnership working between the Council and the B&OME Voluntary Sector

6        Contracting

.1      Develop a procurement equalities standard to be taken forward for all contracting and purchasing.

CEG, HS, ET

Sept 05

All organisations that the Council has contracting or purchasing contracts with should also be working within race equality frame work.

.2   Develop a sub-regional     procurement equalities standard for contracting and purchasing

ET

Sept 05

This will enable sub- regional public sector organisations to use equalities as a mechanism for  championing equalities within the private and voluntary sectors and comply with the General Duty for Race Equality.

7        Employment Issues

.1      Continue the monitoring and evaluation of the council's Ethnic Monitoring Workforce Audit.

WH,ET

June 07

Compliance with the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000,Equality Standard for Local Government and the Audit Commissions Performance Indicators.

Enable the Council to demonstrate the success or identify the weakness of the Equal Opportunities Policy.

Enable the Council to target areas of under representation of B&OME staff, as the Council is committed to making it’s workforce representative of the Bath & North East Somerset community.

.2      Ensure that the Workforce Audit Also includes ethnic monitoring by grade

WH,ET

June 07

Targeting of Service areas having difficulty recruiting and promoting black and other minority ethnic staff.

.3      Develop mechanisms for using the data collected from the Workforce Audit to map the placement and development of B&OME Staff.

WH,ET

June 07

Council will be able to Identify how many black and other minority ethnic staff are currently employed, where they are based and at what level within the Council.

.4      Continue to monitor and evaluate the Ethnic Monitoring data to be reported to the Lawrence Group biannually.

ET

June 07

CEG will supply Directors Group with Ethnic Monitoring progress reports.

5 Ensure all members of recruitment and selection panels are required to attend race equality and equal opportunities training.

DG,CEG,WH, CY, HS

June 07

Will ensure that selection decisions are based upon objective criteria and avoid the possibility of unlawful discrimination

.7      Regular review of the Council's recruitment and selection policies, procedures and outcomes, to ensure that the process remain free from racial discrimination.

CEG

Annually

Identify if any of the recruitment and selection policies are institutionally racist or can be used to discriminate.

8         Review  corporate targets for the recruitment, progression and retention of B&OME Staff.

CEG,DG

March 06

(Needs to be reviewed annually)

Ensure that the Council workforce will be more representative of the local community.

.9                  Develop corporate positive action    initiatives for the recruitment,   rogression and retention of B&OME staff.

CEG, ET,HR

April 05

Reduce the under representation of black and other minority ethnic staff employed by the Council.

.10              Develop targets and positive action initiatives for the recruitment, progression and retention of B&OME Staff at Senior Level.

CEG,DG

April 05

Reduce the under representation of black and other minority ethnic staff employed at senior levels by the Council.

.11              Review targets for particular sectors of the B&OME community that are under-represented within the Council.

CEG,DG

March 06

(Needs to be reviewed annually)

Reduce the under representation of a particular sector of the black and other minority ethnic community employed by the Council.

8        Organisational Development

.1      Ensure that a program of race equality training is available to all staff.

WH,CY,ET

Ongoing

Over the next five years the Council will have provided all staff with race equality training

The Council is committed to the training of all 5000 staff members

.2      Use all of the current methods of staff communication to ensure that all staff is made aware of their responsibilities in implementing the race equality policy.

HS,CEG,ET

Ongoing

Raise racial awareness of all council staff of their responsibilities in implementing the Equal Opportunities and the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000.

.3      Ensure that all job descriptions, performance reviews and appraisals for all managerial staff include racial awareness and equal opportunities competencies.

DG,HR

Ongoing

Ensure that all managers will have an understanding and awareness of race equality issues.

.4      Evaluation of the corporate race equality training

ET, CEG, Corporate trainer

Aug 05

Annual review of the training to evaluate and identify if the training objectives have been met.

5.      Develop and deliver race equality training for all Members and Parish Councillors

ET,CEG

Annually

All members will have a good understanding of race equality issues and the impact of Council decisions on the B&OME Communities.

6.      Develop and deliver race equality training for all Voluntary and Community Sector Partners

ET

Dec05– Dec 06

Raise racial awareness of the Bath & North East Somerset community.

Ensure that any Voluntary & Community sector organisations who receive council funding are working within a race equality frame work

7.      Support the corporate B&OME workers group, using best practice lessons learned from the Social Services B&OME Workers Group.

ET,SSB&OME WG

April 06

Provide all black and other minority ethnic staff with the necessary support mechanism.

An internal corporate body for the council to consult with on race equality issues.

9        Race Equality and Anti Racism Training

.1      Evaluate the current equality training provision available to staff and make recommendations for improvement where necessary.

ET

Annually

Identify strengths and weakness in the current training provision.

Provide an improved race awareness training package where necessary.

.2      Support  the necessary mechanisms for managers and staff who work with B&OME service users to receive training regular issue updates and briefing to insure they are aware and able to share any best practice.

ET,HR,CEG

March 06

Regular briefings will be available for services to access.

10    Employee Relations

.1      support the necessary mechanisms to incorporate and mainstream the corporate Harassment and Bullying Policy into the Council culture

ET,WH,SL

April 06

An initial rise in the number of Harassment complaints as staff adopts the policy.

The number of complaints will fall as the Council Culture changes

.2      Deliver in house briefing on the use of the harassment policy for managers, heads of service and team leaders

ET,WH

March 06

All Senior Managers and Team Leaders would have been briefed on implementing the Harassment Policy and will have gained an understanding of the issues.

3  Support a system of monitoring    grievances, disciplinary and harassment cases to identify race issues.

WH, ET

May-07

Enable the Council to monitor trends of possible discrimination and take the necessary effective action to combat it.

Enable the Council to monitor the effectiveness of the Harassment Policy.

Compliance with the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000.

11.  Race Equality Scheme

.1    Mid- term review of the Race Equality      Scheme

ET, CEG,DG

June 05

Review of all targets and performance indicators in accordance with S.71 Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

Use the data gathered to improve service provision

.1    Full Review of the Race Equality       Scheme

Review of all targets and performance indicators in accordance with S.71 Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

ET, CEG,DG

June 07

Review of all targets and performance indicators in accordance with S.71 Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

Use lessons learnt to improve service provision, mainstream race equality within the Council and community and develop a more effective Race equality scheme to address the issues of racial discrimination.