Agenda item

Officer: Jo Negrini

Key decision: no

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To note the successful outcome, following the Local Government Association Equality Framework for Local Government peer assessment, and the Council’s accreditation as Achieving.

The Leader of the Council welcomed that challenge of the Equality Framework for Local Government and stated that he was pleased to note that the council had been awarded ‘achieving’ but also looked forward to seeing further progress following the review.

Equality and diversity were key priorities of the administration and the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities stated that participating in the initiative was a good means to evaluate how the council was performing on these key priorities.

Members were informed that a peer team visited Croydon in November and undertook a number of interviews and evaluations. Ahead of and during the visit a large amount of work was undertaken to support the evaluation and officers were thanked for their support.

There were three ratings as part of the scheme and the council had been rated as ‘achieving’ which was the middle rating and the level the council was seeking to achieve. This rating recognised the progress made by the council but also suggested there was further work to be done. The initial feedback was welcomed by the Cabinet Member, as it highlighted areas of success and areas of learning. The final report, Members were informed, would be taken to a future Cabinet meeting when available.

Members welcomed the work and progress made by the council, however noted that within the early recommendations of the peer group that data had been highlighted as an area for future focus. The challenge of ensuring that the right questions were asked to acquire data and then using that data effectively was recognised by the Cabinet Member and would be an area for consideration during the journey for further improvements.

In response to Member questions, the Cabinet Member noted that a large number of interviews had taken place, including with external partners. It was suggested by the Cabinet Member that the concerns raised by the voluntary sector in relation to change may have been related to the Community Fund as that had generated a lot of change in terms of how the sector was funded by the council.

It was noted by Members that the council went beyond the statutory requirement to publish the gender pay gap and published the ethnicity and disability pay gaps also. Work to calculate these pay gaps was being undertaken and would be published when available. From current analysis, the Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources stated that progress had been made to narrow the gap and ensure greater equality.

In response to Member questions, the Cabinet Member for Safer Croydon & Communities recognised that there were challenges experienced across the public sector, such as black men not progressing at the same rate as their female counterparts and BAME and disabled employees being disproportionately involved in disciplinary matters. It was stated that the council sought to look into this and address the issues wherever they were found. 

Cabinet Members were thanked for putting equalities at the heart of their portfolios. It was highlighted by Cabinet Members that a priority of the council has been to support disabled residents to enter employment and that equalities was integral to the council’s bid to be named the Borough of Culture in 2023. Furthermore, the Workforce Strategy was noted as being a vehicle to promote equality and a diverse workforce.

The Leader of the Council confirmed that the final report would be taken to a future Cabinet meeting and thanked all officers involved in this piece of work.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To note the successful outcome, following the Local Government Association Equality Framework for Local Government peer assessment, and the Council’s accreditation as Achieving.