Issue - meetings

This report presents the final Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy (Appendix I), taking into consideration feedback from the Equalities Sub-committee and public consultation, and summarises feedback from the public consultation.

Recommendation:

That the Policy and Resources Committee recommend the policy to Council.

That public access to the report be immediate.

That public access to the decision be immediate.

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Strategy and Partnerships recommending that the Committee approve and recommend to Full Council adoption of the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy (“the Policy”), set out in Appendix 1 of the report.

It was noted that the Policy has been finalised after taking into consideration feedback from the Equalities Sub-Committee and public consultation, the results of the public consultation being summarised in the report.

Shivani Dave, Partnerships Manager, presented the report.

During the subsequent discussion, the following points arose.

a)    Regarding the demographic information set out in Paragraph 4.1 of the background paper: Results of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy Consultation, it was reported that there had been some issues with the requirement to register with the “Have Your Say” platform before the survey could be completed.

The Community Engagement Officers within the Partnerships Team were working with local community groups and partners to ensure that their voices were being heard even if they had not completed the “Have Your Say” survey.

It was noted that, not everyone who has registered for, and returned, the survey had completed the demographic information requested as this was optional.

b)    Regarding the impolite comments that had been submitted in the comments section in the survey, it was reported that two people who were critical of the survey had submitted the comments.

c)    It was acknowledged that receiving only 45 responses from the 153 people who had visited the survey was below officer’s expectations and that changes had been made to improve both resident and Three Rivers District Council (TRDC) Elected Member and staff engagement as there were elements of the policy that were of relevance to the Council and its employees.

The Chair moved that the Committee approve the recommendations, as set out in the report.

RESOLVED: That the Committee –

1.    Approve the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy (“the Policy”); and

2.    Recommend the Policy to Full Council for adoption.