Race Equality Scheme 2008-2011

This is the Council’s third Race Equality Scheme and covers the period 2008 – 2011.

This latest scheme sets the Council’s agenda for race equality from 2008 to 2011 and the arrangements the Council has in place to meet the general and specific duties placed upon public bodies by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 strengthened the 1976 Race Relations Act and introduced proactive race equality duties placing race equality at the heart of public services.   The race equality duty comes in two parts:

• The General Duty requires the Council, when carrying out its functions, to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and promote good  relations between people of different racial groups
• The Specific Duties to deliver race equality are to prepare and publish a Race Equality Scheme by the 31st May, 2002 (and every three years after)

This scheme sets out how we will meet the race equality duty but more importantly it helps us to improve services and ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers and residents.

Race equality is critical to delivering good-quality public services and a better quality of life for everyone.  The drive towards citizen-focussed public service delivery recognises the needs of the individual vary according to their particular circumstances.

Good practice starts with acknowledging, recognising and responding appropriately to the diverse needs of the people we provide services for.

Race equality is a journey of continuous improvement and we have learned a great deal since publishing our first scheme in 2002.

We are very grateful to the many different people who have shared their views and experiences with us and helped us develop a meaningful scheme and identify the priority areas for 2008 – 2011, listed below.

1. Establish the Race Equality Scheme (Development, Monitoring and Review) Group
2. Equality Monitoring
3. Equality Training and Awareness
4. Equality Impact Assessments
5. Employment
6. Access to Services
7. Education and schools
8. Partnerships
9. Welsh Language and Culture
10. Community Cohesion

The Scheme is set out in two main parts:

• The body of the scheme summarises the legal and policy context and the arrangements in place for meeting the race equality duties.  It includes an action plan that sets out our priorities and a series of tasks and targets. 
• The Impact Assessment Schedule (appendix one) sets out the arrangements for assessing the impact policies, plans and strategies may have on the public.

The scheme benefits from sound performance management and Scrutiny arrangements enabling us to monitor and measure progress over time.

Achieving our race equality aims means making equality the responsibility of everyone in the organisation and strengthening internal and external links. 

This scheme has an important role to play in helping us to achieve our wider aims and meet the needs of residents, service users and stakeholders.

We have established clear roles and responsibilities and this will be made clear to all staff within our comprehensive training programmes.

The Council’s Chief Executive and Elected Members will continue to play a key role in taking race equality forward across the whole organisation. However, all staff at all levels of the organisation will play their part in delivering this scheme.

In practice this means

• We will make available information about the Council and the services we provide in Welsh, English and in other languages and formats to make sure all of our information is clear and easy to understand.
• When we ask our customers and residents to share their views we will ensure that we include people from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
• We will introduce effective arrangements to monitor the ethnic backgrounds of our customers to ensure we are treating people fairly.  This will mean asking customers, job applicants and staff to provide information about their ethnicity in the most appropriate way.  We will only use this information to help us understand if services are accessible and if people are getting the services that best suit their needs.
• Staff will undergo equality and diversity training to help us deliver citizen-focussed services that meet the needs of local people.
• We will take steps to deal with racism and racial discrimination including harassment.
• We will check new and existing policies to ensure that the diverse needs of different groups have been considered.

The Council also has in place a Gender Equality Scheme and a Disability Equality Scheme.  Each scheme has been prepared to meet the requirements of the race, disability and gender equality duties and supports our continued efforts to mainstream the equality duties and good practice into functions, policies, plans and working practices. 

In the future it is likely that we will publish a Single Equality Scheme that draws together our plans for all strands of equality.

For further information contact the Equality Manager by telephone on 01978 292808 or email equality@wrexham.gov.uk.

Race Equality Scheme 2008-2011

This document is available to download in the following format:

Race Equality Scheme 2008-20011 - PDF format 735Kb

Race Equality Scheme Appendix 1 (Assessment of Functions and Impact Assessment Schedule 2008 - 2011) - PDF version 1.1Mb