Pest Control Strategy - The Affect Of Color And Culture

Transcription

1 Assessing a proposed new policy / strategy or function: Pest Control Service team: Environmental Services (Food and Safety Team) Officer completing the EIA: Andrew Burbridge 1

2 Date started: 25/06/2008 Once completed: Date completed: 22/12/2008 Signed _ Andrew Burbridge_ (Officer) Signed _ Clare Kingston _ (Head of Service) Signed _ Cheryl Reeves _ (Lead Officer on Equality & Diversity) PLEASE NOTE THIS EIA MUST BE COMPLETED BY DECEMBER

3 OUTLINE OF THE STRATEGY / FUNCTION / POLICY YOU ARE ASSESSING: What are the aims and objectives of this strategy / function / policy? The pest control is and important public health function within Environmental Services. It provides a subsidised treatments for the control of pests such as rats and mice which carry diseases transmissible to humans. The Council employs one full time pest control officer, Bob Pearson, and when Bob is on leave or at times of peak demand a private company, Advanced Pest Control, Ewelme, covers the work on a temporary basis. From April 2009 it is likely that the Council will no longer be directly providing the pest control and will be appointing a contractor. Who is the proposed strategy, function or policy designed to support / help / serve? Occupiers of all residential premises in South Oxfordshire upon request and payment of the appropriate fee as applicable. 3

4 1. Consider how the new policy, strategy or function will ensure equality of access for people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities, people of particular religions or beliefs, disabled people, women or men, people of particular sexual orientation, older and younger people and people living in rural/urban communities. How the strategy, policy or function ensures equality of access (Existing good practice that you can apply to this strategy, policy or function) People with pest problems indoors are unable to take action for themselves because they are elderly and/or disabled will be given priority pest treatments. Any special customer requirements would be noted on the booking form such as the disability of the customer or the elderly Equality strand relevant to (as above) Disabled people Older people The has been advertised in the Embrace newsletter sent to BME businesses in the four towns within the district Our safety information on the booking form that is left with the customer is written in plain English. Information about the featured on our website is also written in plain English. We carry out satisfaction surveys that are analysed according to equality strand Ethnicity People with learning disabilities and se first language is not English Gender, disability, ethnicity 2. In order to assess this strategy, policy or function, you will need to gather evidence to inform and support your answers to the following questions. Choose those most appropriate for your assessment or use other evidence which may not be on the list. 4

5 Existing equality monitoring relating to usage / experience of the your strategy, policy or function relates to (this may include results of customer satisfaction surveys (BVPI, citizens panel, internal surveys), consultation generally, applications etc) Compare the to local census statistics and or your own expectations of how the target groups (people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities, people of particular religions or beliefs, disabled people, women or men, people of particular sexual orientation, older and younger people and people living in rural/urban communities) should be using the or experience using the. Q1. Are any of these groups disproportionately under using the or having a significantly lesser experience of using the compared with the majority? Please indicate what you have gathered and what it tells you Sample size is small as the customer survey return rate was only 2.8 per cent. Service usage Evidence source Time period covered by Pest control customer survey forms April 07 March 08 sample size number ethnicity From those ethnicity, the percentage are from a BME community use the Does this evidence show that people from BME communities are disproportionately and significantly under using this? Can any negative impact be justified? [Please refer to the guidance notes] % Of the respondents 49 (83%) stated they were white British, 1 (2%) was Irish, 1 (2%) was white and black African and 8 (13%) gave no indication of ethnic origin. In South Oxfordshire 1.01% of the population is Irish and 2.08% are from non white ethnic groups. The figures are from small samples but they would seem to indicate that BME communities are not under using the pest control. 5

6 Evidence source Time period covered by Pest control customer survey forms April 07 March 08 Evidence source Time period covered by Pest control customer survey forms April 07 March 08 sample size number disability From those disability, the percentage of disabled people use the From those disability, the percentage of non disabled people use the Does this evidence show that disabled people are disproportionately and significantly under using this? Can any negative impact be justified? [Please refer to the guidance notes] % 92% Of the respondents 54 (92%) stated they were able bodied, 3 (5%) were disabled persons and 2 (3%) gave no indication of disability status. In South Oxfordshire 13% of the population have a limiting long-term illness. The figures are from small samples but they indicate that disabled persons may be under using the pest control. sample size number gender From those gender, the percentage of women use the From those gender, the percentage of men use the Does this evidence show that women/men are disproportionately and significantly under using this? Can any negative impact be justified? [Please refer to the guidance notes] % 29% Of the respondents 17 (29%) were male, 31 (52%) were female and the gender of 11 (19%) was not known. In South Oxfordshire close to 51% of the total population is female. It would seem that males may be under using the but the sample size is small and 6

7 the gender of a significant proportion of respondents is not known. Evidence source Time period covered by Data on age of users not available sample size number age Percentage of people using the Under Does this evidence show that people from different age groups are disproportionately and significantly under using this? Can any negative impact be justified? [Please refer to the guidance notes] Service satisfaction (including complaints) Evidence source Time period covered by Pest control customer survey forms April 07 March sample size number ethnicity From those ethnicity, the percentage are from a BME community Percentage of people from BME communities are dissatisfied with the Percentage of people from non BME communities are dissatisfied with the Does the evidence show that people from BME communities are significantly more dissatisfied with the that people from non BME communities? Can any negative impact be justified? [Please refer to the guidance notes] (2%) 6 (10%) 10% of respondents were dissatisfied with the and 2% were of BME origin. This would seem a higher rate for BME respondents but the sample size was small so this may not be significant. It should be 7

8 08 noted that the dissatisfaction was limited to problems arising from the booking of the treatment and the satisfaction level for the treatment itself was high. Evidence source Time period covered by Pest control customer survey forms April 07 March 08 sample size number disability From those disability, the number are disabled Percentage of disabled people are dissatisfied with the Percentage of non disabled people are dissatisfied with the Does the evidence show that disabled people are significantly more dissatisfied with the that non disabled people? Can any negative impact be justified? [Please refer to the guidance notes] % 12% Satisfaction rate would seem to be higher amongst disabled persons however the sample size is small. Evidence source Time period covered by Pest control customer survey forms sample size number gender Of those gender, the number are female Of those gender, the number are male Percentage of women are dissatisfied with the Percentage of men are dissatisfied with the Does the evidence show that one gender is significantly more dissatisfied with the than the other? Can any negative impact be justified? [Please refer to the guidance notes] % 12% A greater percentage of women are dissatisfied than men (though this is not a significant difference) 8

9 April 07 March 08 but sample size is small and the gender of a significant proportion of respondents is not known. The statistics also show that of those satisfied, 49% were female and 29% male (22% unknown). Evidence source Time period covered by Data on age of users not available sample size number age Percentage of people dissatisfied with the according to age group Under Does this evidence show that people from one age group are significantly more dissatisfied with the than another? Can any negative impact be justified? [Please refer to the guidance notes] Good practice research from other Councils EIAs or government departments on how they promote equality and diversity regarding your proposed function or the your strategy / policy relates to. Q2. What can be learnt from this that can be applied to your proposed strategy, policy or function? Supporting external evidence EIA reports from other local authorities. Potential issue/barrier Communication/problems in understanding the available. Is this likely to be an issue/barrier for your? / X X Explanation/details There is no evidence but it is a possibility to consider. Suggested solution(s) for your (if necessary) We could consider providing relevant information at local BME event. 9

10 Any audit commission inspection reports covering the your strategy, policy or function relates to. Q3. Were any equality / access issues identified as part of the inspection, please specify recommendations made? Not applicable Feedback from colleagues and / or your own observations about the impact your proposed strategy, policy or function could have on the target groups indicate this here. Possible issue/barrier limiting access to your Although there is no real evidence of barriers, problems with language and understanding could prevent people from being aware of the. It could be suggested that females are more likely to be dissatisfied with the but the sample size is small, there are more female users than males and people are dissatisfied are more likely to return the customer survey forms. Suggested solution We could consider providing relevant information at local BME events and advertising the periodically in the Embrace newsletter. Continue to monitor these trends and take action if appropriate. The Pest Control Officer has stated that he does from time to time undertake visits to treat at premises where the occupiers are non white and he cannot remember a time when communication, for example, was a barrier to undertaking the. The Food and Safety Manager sometimes speaks directly to, and even on very rare occasions visits aggrieved customers but does not recall any of these individuals obviously being of BME origin. Similarly the admin officer dealing mainly with pest control calls remembers bookings made by persons with non English sounding names could have been from BME No action required 10

11 backgrounds and there have been no major problems with communication. Low response rate to survey forms means that we are unable to get a true picture of usage or satisfaction. Staff delivering the have not received equality and diversity training Safety information booking form is not offered in alternative formats or languages Current survey does not include age as a monitoring category People with disabilities appear to be under using the In order to increase the number of forms completed the council will follow up the forms that are not returned. Ensure the new contract specification requires the provision of equality and diversity training Ensure the new contract specification requires safety information is available in alternative formats and languages upon request. Update survey to include Promote through Outlook and to disability groups that advertises priority treatments Other evidence (please indicate below, any evidence you feel needs to be addressed during the development of the proposed strategy, policy or function) None 3. Look at the evidence you have considered, is your proposed strategy, policy or function likely to have a significant or negative impact on any of the target groups, can this be justified? Equality strand Yes No Please explain your decision, referring to the evidence that supports your answer Race The evidence suggests that people from BME communities are not under using the but may have a higher rate of dissatisfaction. The sample size is too small to confirm this however and, in fact, there was only one person from a BME community was dissatisfied with the. 11

12 Religion or belief Evidence was not collected concerning the religion or belief of users. Disability The evidence suggests that disabled persons may be under using the but the satisfaction rate was higher for disabled persons. The sample size is however too small to confirm this. Gender The information indicates that more women use the than men, but the sample size is small and the sex of a significant number of respondents is unknown. Sexual orientation Evidence was not collected concerning the sexual orientation of users. Age Evidence was not collected concerning the age of users. Rural / urban Insufficient evidence was collected to identify the rural or urban location of users. 4. Please outline how your proposed strategy, policy or function will actively address any negative impact or issues identified in question two. 12

13 Equality strand Race Negative impact / issue identified Language barriers could be preventing BME residents from using the Action required (please indicate if a corporate or action) Consider providing relevant information at local BME events and advertising the periodically in the Embrace newsletter. Ensure the new contract specification requires safety information is available in alternative formats and languages upon request Outcome Increased awareness and understanding of in BME community Target date I.e. include in proposed strategy etc or feed into review of strategy Q4 2009/10 Religion or belief N/A Disability Residents with disabilities appear to be under using the Promote the through Outlook and to disability groups Increased awareness of amongst disabled persons Q4 2009/10 All Sample size of returned satisfaction surveys is very small, therefore Council to follow up survey forms that are not returned Ongoing 13

14 All difficult to establish true satisfaction for each groups Continue to monitor satisfaction and usage according to equality group, annualise annually to map trends and address any issues if appropriate Increased monitoring information to inform planning Q4 2009/10 Sexual orientation N/A Age Race and disabilit y Age currently not collected on survey forms Staff delivering the have not received any equality and diversity training Update the survey form to collect this information Ensure new contact specification requires the provision of equality and diversity training (specifically disability and race equality) Increased monitoring information to inform planning Staff have increased knowledge to meet the users needs Q1 2009/10 Q4 2009/10 Rural / urban N/A Consultatio n feedback Additional consultation not undertaken 5. Have you already carried out consultation to inform your proposed strategy, policy or function? 14

15 Yes No a) Did you seek the views of disabled people, people from ethnic minority communities, and people of different faiths, of particular sexuality or varying age range and women in particular? Yes No b) If yes, please identify which groups you consulted with C) If you have not sought the views of these target groups, it is likely you will need to consult with representative groups on this assessment. Contact the Corporate Projects Officer before doing this. Consultees: Survey from satisfaction surveys Feedback received: Please bear in mind that in light of this feedback, you may need to amend the strategy, policy or function so that it better promote equality of access. Turn back to question four and complete the action plan. Please indicate the overall equality objectives for your EO1 EO2 EO3 Improve collection and analysis of equality monitoring information in order to establish trends in satisfaction and usage Ensure contract specification include equality requirements Increase access to information for people with disabilities and ethnic minority communities 15

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