Leicestershire County Council s. Equality Monitoring Policy

Transcription

1 Leicestershire County Council s Equality Monitoring Policy June 2013

2 Introduction and purpose Equality, diversity, human rights and community cohesion are integral to the work of Leicestershire County Council (LCC) and are embedded in the Council s Sustainable Community Strategy. LCC is committed to ensuring that it understands its customers and operates fairly and equitably in both employment practices and service delivery. We will tackle all forms of discrimination and promote equality and diversity at every opportunity. This document outlines how LCC aims to implement the recommendations from the Equality Act 2010, why we collect and analyse equality monitoring information, things to consider in implementing equality monitoring, how to use the questions and why, any exceptions and how to act on the results. Implementation of the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty The Equality Act 2010 expects local authories to: o know the race, disability, gender, age breakdown and distribution of our workforce o have an indication of likely representation on sexual orientation and religion or belief o have an indication of any issues for transgender staff The Public Sector Equality Duty is part of the Equality Act Authorities need to be transparent about how they are responding to the general equality duty. This includes showing that they have enough information to understand the effect of their work to be able to demonstrate due regard. This should be included as part of the Equality Impact Assessment process, but there may also be additional monitoring needed to understand how well and how broadly our services are reaching people. Equality monitoring is an essential requirement to provide evidence and demonstrate due regard to the requirements of the law. We also want to know whether there is a difference in how groups access LCC services, whether there is a difference in their levels of satisfaction, or performance. To know this we need to understand the effect that our policies and practices have on employees, service users and others from the protected groups. The Equality Act 2010 outlines nine protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. It is important that we understand each of these protected characteristics in order to prevent discrimination occurring. Equality Impact Assessments (EIA s) The Equality Impact Assessment uses relevant information research, data to understand and assess the impact of a policy, procedure, function or service. In considering what monitoring needs to be undertaken, the EIA should be the starting point to understand what monitoring and information has already been gathered and how this is being collected. 2

3 What is Equality Monitoring? Equality Monitoring refers to collecting data on personal characteristics or demographic information. Equality Monitoring is good practice and enables LCC to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations. It is a fundamental requirement of LCC s Equality Impact Assessment and performance management process- details can be found on CiS or the LCC website. LCC feels that, providing data can be used to improve policies or practices. Equality monitoring is an appropriate method of collecting information for the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation in order to: o understand the make up of our workforce o understand the make up of service users and differences in service take up o (where there are sufficient numbers to analyse) identify differences between groups in terms of satisfaction, perceptions, needs and service performance measures In order to understand and prevent discrimination you may also need to consider methods other than equality monitoring. Although the collection of data is an integral part of monitoring, it is also important to understand the issues people are experiencing, and to explain trends in the data. It is therefore recommended that the following methods that supplement data analysis are considered to provide additional depth and meaning. Monitoring alone isn t sufficient. Analysis and understanding of the information means that it can be used effectively in making improvements to services, and therefore making a positive difference to people s outcomes. You may wish to consider: reviewing complaints and comments focus groups/ lobby groups and outcome of consultation exercises national and local statistics any previous equality impact assessment service monitoring reports previous research and customer satisfaction surveys user feedback and satisfaction reports staff surveys, opinions and information from trade unions feedback from individuals or organisations representing the interests of target groups or similar census data The above methods are considered more appropriate in understanding discrimination for the protected characteristics of marriage and civil partnership or pregnancy and maternity, as well as other protected characteristics where further insight is required. This data can then be used to: highlight possible inequalities investigate their underlying causes; and remove any unfairness or disadvantage. Why collect and analyse equality monitoring information? One reason why we need to collect equality monitoring data is to understand our customers so that we design and deliver services that meet their needs. Equality monitoring also enables us to monitor the representativeness of our workforce. We need to equality monitor to: 3

4 ensure our policies are effective unless we know who is, and more importantly who is not, using our services and what people think of them, we cannot tell if we are achieving our aims of providing services that are appropriate and accessible to everyone. Monitoring is a way of identifying if any policies are adversely affecting people from different communities. assist service planning monitoring is vital for planning, targeting and measuring development in service provision. It can show inefficiencies in the way we organise services and indicate new opportunities to meet people s needs. It can also help us evaluate whether interventions to improve services have been effective. value diversity ensuring our workforce reflects the community it serves is central to the development of services that respond to local needs. reveal any discrimination stopping unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice. comply with the law there is a legal duty to take account of equality issues when planning and delivering services and developing policies. meet the criteria for accessing financial and other resources from external sources many funding organisations now require assurance from bidders that they meet equalities and diversity requirements and standards. provide information for inspections the Government requires evidence that we know who our communities and customers/service users are. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will monitor how effectively we are meeting our equality duties. improve service quality challenging inequality will improve the quality of our services because it ensures we are delivering them in the most appropriate way to meet the needs of all Leicestershire residents. achieve standards we are obliged to provide information for performance reasons about the provision of our services. It is therefore vital that equality monitoring is embedded in our performance management framework. provide moral and ethical leadership and ensure that the concept of equality of opportunity is made real through anti-discriminatory practice. Equality monitoring is a practical step towards achieving this. Monitoring questions how to use and why? It is imperative that equality monitoring informs service design or delivery and/or policy development. Monitoring questions can be asked alongside service specific questions to understand experiences or views of different communities and improve service delivery for all service users. 4

5 The first and most important question to ask is what is it that you are looking to find out with the information being collected. It is important for you to think about what you want the exercise to achieve do you just want to know the profile of your service users / employees or do you want to gain specific information about people s perceptions, satisfaction levels, needs and requirements? The key to good monitoring is that it helps to achieve improvements, and is done for this purpose rather than to monitor because it is a requirement. You may also need to consider what data or research already exists? What are the gaps? what information will be useful and will lead to improvements in service planning for different sections of the community? what will the information tell us about our users and about our service? how often can the data be collected and analysed? what methods will be used to collect the information? what resources are available to analyse the information? will the data help to set meaningful equalities targets? When do I need to undertake monitoring? There are a number of situations where it is considered good practice to undertake equality monitoring. If we are asking people for their view, we need to ensure that we have reached all the diverse groups that exist ensuring that views are representative. Therefore when undertaking consultation and engagement of any sort, whether it be surveys or focus group etc, monitoring needs to be done to demonstrate that you have engaged widely. Where services are delivered, some sort of equality monitoring should be in place to understand what the take up of the service is with different groups. This will enable us to make changes if we need to ensure that some groups need to be targeted more effectively. The frequency of monitoring will vary depending on what s being monitored and can be: a snapshot - a one off exercise, periodical, regular monitoring, with regular review. Case Example: A snapshot a one off exercise Often when we make changes to a service, we consult the public on these changes to tell us what people think before we make a decision. It is important that the consultation exercise reaches all communities. In this example, we are looking to find out whether we have a representative view from a range of different people. The Council is reviewing its services in relation to domestic abuse and wants to know what people think about the proposed changes so it is undertaking a consultation process for this purpose. The consultation has been advertised on the websites and copies have been sent to all community groups. The consultation questionnaire includes a section on equality monitoring. When analysing the responses, we will be able to see whether we have received views from all sections of the community, or whether more work is needed to target some groups. Case Example: Periodical, regular monitoring, with regular review The staff survey is undertaken every two years and the data is monitored periodically. In this example, there are a number of things we are looking to do. First of all, we want to encourage all 5

6 staff to participate. The monitoring information will tell us how well we are engaging staff. We are also looking to compare what the data tells us to previous surveys so that we can understand how people s views are changing. The analysis will tell us about areas where we ve got better, and areas where we ve got worse so that we can identify improvements to be made. The results of the next survey will then tell us how effective our improvements have been. It is important to note that the period of review may vary depending on what is being monitored. The following statement, or something similar, should precede all equality monitoring questions: Leicestershire County Council is committed to ensuring that its services, policies and practices are free from discrimination and prejudice and that they meet the needs of all sections of the community. The purpose of collecting this information is to enable us to check that the services we are providing are fair and effective. We would be grateful if you would answer the questions below. You are under no obligation to provide the information requested, but it would help us greatly if you did. The information will be anonymised, kept confidential and treated sensitively. Data Protection: Personal data supplied on this form will be held on computer and will be used in accordance with the Data Protection Act The information you provide will be used for statistical analysis, management, planning and the provision of services by the County Council and its partners, Leicestershire County Council will not share any personal information collected as part of this survey with its partners. The information will be held in accordance with the Council s records management and retention policy. The standard set of Equality Monitoring Questions is at Appendix 1 ( about you ) covering all the protected characteristics collected in this way. It is recommended that these questions are used to enable consistency in data collection and analysis. In order to achieve a consistent authority-wide approach to equalities monitoring, it is expected that monitoring will conform to these agreed standards. Sex Sex is defined as either female or male on LCC s monitoring forms. When giving this information, people should tick the gender they feel describes them, irrespective of the sex on their birth certificate. Gender Re-assignment LCC recognises that transgender people can face discrimination and it is committed to understanding and addressing discrimination due to gender re-assignment. People may or may not want to disclose this information if their gender is different from what it was at birth and it is important to respect this. Age People are more likely to feel positive about an organisation if they are treated fairly and with consideration regardless of their age. We must also ensure that our services are designed to meet the needs of people from all age groups. LCC must assess all policies to ensure they do not discriminate directly or indirectly on the grounds of age. 6

7 Some services will expect to have a higher proportion of older or younger service users, e.g. youth services or adult social care. However, many other services will need to measure the age of service users to ensure that people of all ages have access to their service. The Age question can be asked in a number of ways. One way of asking this question is by grouping or banding a range of ages together. This is often preferred where it is anticipated that respondents may be sensitive about revealing ages or where an overview of age groups is required quickly. However, it can be restrictive in terms of re-grouping categories (e.g. if ages are not evenly spread between originally specified groups) or if a more detailed analysis of age is required. It is worth noting that individual ages can then be re-grouped into appropriate age ranges if required. Date of birth may be more appropriate to ask if you want to calculate ages at different times (e.g. current age) or if surveying school pupils to determine year group. Disability There are number of ways of collecting disability information depending on the level of detail required. Collecting specific disability impairment information will tell you more about whether you meeting the needs of people with different types of impairment. For instance, you may be attracting physically disabled service users but not those with a learning disability. Monitoring of impairment will allow you to capture this information and helps to inform service improvement. Some people may feel sensitive about disclosing certain disabilities; therefore consideration should be given to confidentiality. Race Ethnicity monitoring plays a key role in identifying whether LCC s services are attracting people from all our diverse communities. It is also important in helping us to eliminate racial discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good race relations between people of different racial groups. Some forms may only require a basic set of equality monitoring questions. Also, if it is anticipated that only a very small number of responses will be achieved which would only allow a very limited analysis of the data by demographic categories, then a simple version may also suffice here. In cases where a simple overview is sufficient you could use the main ethnic monitoring headings, as below: White Mixed Asian or Asian British Black or Black British Other ethnic group The type and level of data analysis required will help you to identify whether you can ask this shortened version of the equality monitoring questions. If you are unsure about which ethnicity question to ask, please speak to one of the contacts listed at the end of this policy. 7

8 Religion or Belief LCC s religion or belief monitoring category is used to capture individuals religious or philosophical beliefs. Monitoring of religion or belief helps us to ensure that we are taking the needs of religious and faith groups, secular groups, or those who have no religion, into account when designing and delivering services. It also helps us to assess whether our equality and diversity policy is working to the benefit of all local people. Sexual Orientation It is important for LCC to know if its services or employment practices are having an unequal impact on our local lesbian, gay and bisexual community. Monitoring of sexual orientation should not be seen as an additional monitoring category and should be addressed alongside more established equality issues such as disability, gender and race. Monitoring of sexual orientation is a sensitive issue. A number of people may not be willing to disclose their sexual orientation and will be reluctant to share their sexual orientation with you, particularly if they do not understand why this information is being asked, also if they are unsure who will see the information. In some cases, you will need to explain that the information will be used to ensure that local services are not having an unequal impact on different equalities groups and that the information will be confidential. Further information is given in the guidance. The environment in which the monitoring of sexual orientation is carried out is likely to influence people s responses (e.g. if there are other people around). Therefore, full consideration should be given to ensuring confidentiality. Marriage and Civil Partnership LCC recognises that people who are married or are in a civil partnership can face discrimination and it is committed to understanding and addressing discrimination due to marital and civil partnership status. However, Equality Monitoring is not considered an effective method for this characteristic and other methods should be used. Pregnancy and Maternity LCC recognises that people who are pregnant or on maternity leave can face discrimination and it is committed to understanding and addressing discrimination due to pregnancy and maternity.. However, Equality Monitoring is not considered an effective method for this characteristic and other methods should be used. Others If a service area intends to gain further understanding of the needs of specific communities then additional monitoring questions may be required to fully answer the research questions being posed. You might decide that it is very important for your service to monitor additional areas, for example: single parents carers number of children country of birth household income socio-economic status refugees and asylum seekers 8

9 Full postcode data information can be highly valuable in identifying inequalities between communities and can be used to obtain a wealth of insight. Postcode data can be matched to a number of datasets to understand the socio-economic characteristics, the extent of deprivation or the rural/urban classification of the neighbourhood where respondents live. It is therefore recommended that postcode is collected where possible along with the equality strands. It may be necessary to explain to people that their postcode will not be used to identify them individually or used to contact them in the future. For further information, please contact the Research Team (contact details are on page 9). If you need help with how to ask these questions, or would like to see wording used in previous surveys, please refer to the guidance that supports this policy. For additional advice, speak to one of the contacts listed at the end of this policy. Exceptions It is expected that officers will work with clients and client groups to explain the value of and reasons for monitoring. Assumed sensitivity to monitoring for particular equalities groups would not usually be considered a sufficient reason for not monitoring for these categories. Please refer to the guidance that accompanies this policy for more information on how to explain the value and reasons for monitoring. As with all aims of the duty, to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and other prohibited conduct is a continuing obligation. A body subject to the duty should remain alert to new evidence suggesting that discrimination or other prohibited conduct is, or could be, occurring and take appropriate action to prevent this happening. (EHRC Technical Guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty England, p29) However, there may be cases where information collected can not be used to improve or inform service delivery and/or policy, either because data is not sufficiently robust (in terms of sample size) or meaningful (in terms of the relationship between the protected characteristics and the service area). Insufficient numbers It is important to note that the usefulness of analysing monitoring information is dependent on being able to get a sufficient number of replies. As with all data collection, questions should not be asked unless the information can be used. If Equality Monitoring questions are being used to understand differences between groups (e.g. in satisfaction, performance) then sufficient numbers of returns would be needed in order to be able to compare findings. As a general rule ideally at least 100 respondents from a sub group would need to be returned in order to produce reliable analysis. It isn t always possible to get this many responses, and in many cases numbers will be much smaller. It is, however, possible to use statistical techniques on smaller cohorts. Sometimes groups can be aggregated (at the analysis stage only) to facilitate analysis, e.g. from the detailed race classification to white and non-white, to increase the size of the sample. If a sufficient sample of responses is not possible, it may be more appropriate to gather insight through another method, such as focus groups or interviews. No relationship between the protected characteristics and the service area Questions should only be asked where the information collected is meaningful. For example, asking the religion of people having their bins collected may not be useful in improving the service 9

10 if religion is unlikely to be a factor affecting the quality of service received, or take-up of service. In such cases it may be appropriate to omit questions that are not applicable if this can be reasonably justified. However, it is important that assumptions about lack of impacts, or lack of awareness about potential discrimination, are carefully considered. Please contact the research or policy team for further guidance regarding what may constitute reasonable justification. There may also be other cases where there is the need for some flexibility. For example: Impact on response rates it was decided to omit a question on sexual orientation from the 2011 Census due to its potential effect on response rates. However, very few local consultations need to achieve such high response rates. If you are unsure about whether or not to ask this question, please seek guidance from the Research or Equalities Teams (contact details are on page 9). Compromising confidentiality where questions are asked face to face and there is felt to be a compromise to confidentiality, for example, where the location of interview is in presence of others, it may be that questions about sexual orientation and gender re-assignment are excluded. Again, if you are unsure please speak to the Research Team, or refer to the guidance notes that supplement this policy. Children and young people children and young people under 18 should not be asked questions about sexual orientation or gender re-assignment unless it is relevant to the service, e.g. a young gay person has been made homeless due to their sexuality. If you are unsure about any of the issues above, please speak to one of the contacts listed at the end of this policy. Acting on the results of equality monitoring: It is essential that where information is gathered it is properly analysed and that the analysis is used to inform and improve policy development or the delivery of services. If the data collected reveals that a) the service is not being used equitably by everyone who is eligible to receive it, and/or b) that there is under-representation of a particular group in a consultation exercise or responses to a survey, it will be important for further investigation and/or consultation to explore why this is the case and what action needs to be taken to address this. It is equally as important to measure the impact of interventions and improvement actions that are relevant to equalities. Equality monitoring forms part of all fundamental performance reviews, service planning and reporting processes. Service areas will need to report quarterly on how they are embedding equality objectives and performance indicators in service plans. For further information or advice please contact: 10

11 Joelle Bradly Research and Insight Manager Julian Harrison Policy and Partnerships Manager Suzanne Kinder Policy and Partnerships Officer

12 APPENDIX 1 Standard Version - About you - Example The following statement, or something similar, should always precede Equality Monitoring questions: Leicestershire County Council is committed to ensuring that its services, policies and practices are free from discrimination and prejudice and that they meet the needs of all sections of the community. The purpose of collecting this information is to enable us to check that the services we are providing are fair and effective. We would be grateful if you would answer the questions below. You are under no obligation to provide the information requested, but it would help us greatly if you did. The information will be anonymised, kept confidential and treated sensitively. Data Protection: Personal data supplied on this form will be held on computer and will be used in accordance with the Data Protection Act The information you provide will be used for statistical analysis, management, planning and the provision of services by the County Council and its partners, Leicestershire County Council will not share any personal information collected as part of this survey with its partners. The information will be held in accordance with the Council s records management and retention policy. Please note: For most questions, you will need to select just one from each category. For Disability, one or more questions can be asked. Sex Q1 Are you male or female? Male... Female... Gender Re-assignment Q2 Do you identify as transgender? For the purposes of this question 'Transgender' is defined as an individual who lives, or wants to live, full time in the gender opposite to that they were assigned at birth Yes... No... Age Q3 a What was your age on your last birthday? Please write in below: OR 12

13 Q3 b How old are you? Under and over... OR Q3 c What is your date of birth? (dd/mm/yy) Health, illness and disability Q4 a Do you have any long-standing illness, disability or infirmity? Yes... No... OR Q4 b Source: Census AND/OR Do you have a long-standing health problem or disability that affects your day-today activities, which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months Please include problems which are due to old age. Yes, limited a lot Yes, limited a little No... Q4 c Do you have any of the following long-standing conditions? Please include problems which are due to old age. Please tick all boxes that apply. Deafness or severe hearing impairment... Blindness or severe visual impairment... A condition that substantially limits one or more basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, lifting or carrying... A learning difficulty (e.g. Dyslexia)... A learning disability (e.g. Down Syndrome) A long-standing psychological or emotional condition... Other, including any long-standing illness... No, I do not have a long-standing condition... Race and Ethnicity Q5 a What is your ethnic group? Please choose one section from a) to e) and then tick one box only to show your ethnic group a) White English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish / British.. Irish.. Gypsy or Irish Traveller 13

14 Any other White background... b) Mixed / multiple ethnic groups White and Black Caribbean. White and Black African... White and Asian Any other Mixed / multiple ethnic background... c) Asian / Asian British Indian.. Pakistani. Bangladeshi Chinese... Any other Asian background... d) Black / African / Caribbean / Black British Caribbean... African. Any other Black / African /Caribbean background... e) Other ethnic group Arab... Any other ethnic group.. Source: Census 2011 OR Q5 b What is your ethnic group? Please tick one box only White... Mixed... Asian or Asian British... Black or Black British... Other ethnic group... Religion or Belief Q6 Source: Census 2011 What is your religion or belief? Please tick one box only No religion... Christian (all denominations)... Buddhist... Hindu... Jewish... Muslim... Sikh... Any other religion or belief... Sexual Orientation 14

15 Many people face discrimination because of their sexual orientation and for this reason we have decided to ask this monitoring question. You do not have to answer it but we would be grateful if you could tick the box next to the category which describes your sexual orientation: Q7 What is your sexual orientation? Bisexual. Gay... Heterosexual / Straight... Lesbian... Other (please tick and specify below)... Note: Use with statement above Note: Do not ask under 18 s Recommended: Postcode Q8 What is your full postcode? 15

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