East Kent Housing Equality report 2012

Introduction

The Public Sector Equality Duty as set out in the Equality Act 2010 requires all public bodies to publish equality information in relation to the three aims of the duty (see below) by 31 January 2012. This information should be used to set measurable and achievable equality objectives for the organisation over the next four years.

Background

East Kent Housing (EKH) was set up April 2011 to improve the provision of housing services for tenants and leaseholders in East Kent. The majority of equality information we have to date has therefore been supplied by each of the four councils of Canterbury, Dover, Shepway and Thanet.

The main objective for year one has been to establish a unified Equality and Diversity policy for EKH and set up an Equalities group to steer work in this area. We also started work to develop a customer profile to support our service improvement work. This information will help us assess how our services impact differently on different tenants and how we can shape our services to their circumstances and needs.

Summary

It is the intention of East Kent Housing to publish an Equality Strategy that supports the aims of the general duty including specific and measurable objectives to meet these aims. Our immediate priority is to ensure compliance with the Equalities Act and support the four councils in their duties under this act.  We intend to systematically and critically examine each aspect of the services we provide to test their accessibility and identify any potential for discrimination.

The purpose of this report is to set out the work we have done so far and identify areas for improvement. Gaps in information will form the basis of the strategy and action plans going forward. Using the tenant profile we will seek to develop awareness of the needs of specific groups of service users to help shape future decisions about the service.

Our Equality Strategy will be published no later than April 2012 and progress on our objectives reported to Board and Management team annually, the next report being due January 2013.

Meeting the general equality duty

The general equality duty requires public authorities to have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a characteristic and those who do not.
• Foster good relations between people who share a characteristic and those who do not.

Equality information

The information we have collected so far falls into the following broad areas:

1.How we have collected equality information and used it

This includes:

• Diversity data on our staff and service users
• Consultation and engagement with protected groups
• Information and access

2.How we assess the impact of our services on equality

This includes:

• Information on the effect our policies and practices have had on employees, service users and others from the protected groups
• Impact assessments on key areas of service

3. Plans for the future

This includes:

• How we will use equality information to develop and monitor our objectives
• How we will establish whether our policies and practices will further the three equality aims in the general equality duty

This report includes as an appendix a list of policies and documents that support equality.  Where gaps have been identified we have noted these in the table with suggested further actions we may take to address the gaps, although analysis is not complete at this stage.

Most of the documents are available to be downloaded directly from our website, but some are not.

Require further information?

If you require any further information please contact: Jonathan Hicks, Service Improvement and Policy Officer on 01227 862 120 or email [email protected]