[David Pattison, Director of Governance, to present report]

David Pattison, Director of Governance, introduced the presentation to the panel. The Director of Governance gave a brief outline to background to equalities work across the Council. The issue of equalities is embedded in the Council Plan and the Relighting Our City documents. The Relighting Our City document was approved by Council in September 2020.  The Council was awarded Excellence in Equality Framework for Local Government in October 2018.

The Director of Governance commented on the importance of equalities and that this important work continues to make a difference in tackling the inequalities in local communities and reflects the values of the Council. The Director of Governance commented on the renewed focus on equalities within the Council in response to events of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter campaign and the impact of Covid-19. The events have given the Council the opportunity to think about its role as an employer and how things can be done differently. The new ways working has created challenges but has also created opportunities to really engage with people across the board and build on the excellent platform of progress. The Director of Governance advised the panel that in response to the events in June 2020 a virtual session was held with 120 employees and the Chief Executive attended to listen to employee experiences and concerns. The event provided an excellent platform build on existing learning to improve and build partnership with employees, communities and partners.

A new Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy is due to presented to Cabinet in March 2021.

The Director of Governance briefed the panel on the good progress of the four employee forums, which have flourished over the time reflected in an increased levels of attendance. Each forum is supported by a member of SEB which has helped support the discussion and allowed them to hear directly about the concerns of employees. The Director of Governance commented on the work of the Equality Advisory Group. The group is chaired by the Equalities Champion. Each of the forums has appointed a Chair and Vice Chair and they are invited to attend meetings of the Equality Advisory Group.

The Director of Governance commented on the work with external partners and other community groups such as Wolverhampton Equality and Diversity Partnership and the importance of listening to the views of local communities and people particularly those with protected characteristics, in making sure their voice is listened too.  The Director of Governance commented on the work done to invest in employees by giving them opportunities for training and development and show the Council’s commitment to tackle inequalities.

The Director of Governance commented the areas where further work is needed.  To support this, work the Equalities Team led by Jin Takhar, Corporate EDI Manager, has had its resources increased in response in comments from the employee forum. In addition, there are plans to further support the work with a graduate placement.

This is an example of the commitment of the Council to tackle race inequality and diversity. The Director of Governance commented on the plans for four identified priority areas for action and highlighted achievements to date.

Cllr Paula Brookfield, Cabinet Member for Governance, expressed her appreciation for the leadership shown by Director of Governance since his appointment and the progress in successfully pushing forward the equalities agenda in all parts of the Council. The establishment and support of employee forums has provided the Council with the opportunity to really tackle equalities and inequalities issues.

The panel queried the progress in building inequalities into the assessment of employee performance and recruitment and suggested it would be helpful to have a report presented to a future meeting.  The Director of Governance commented on work being done to support managers in addressing inequalities and agreed to attend a future meeting to provide more details of work being done in this area.

The panel thanked the Director of Governance for the presentation and praised his leadership in taking forward the issues of equalities and diversity and responding to concerns expressed at the time of his appointment.

Resolved:

1.    The panel agreed to note the report.

2.    The Director of Governance agreed to present a future report on the inclusion of inequalities in the assessment of employee performance and recruitment to a future meeting of the panel.