2008 01 07 Annex 1 Agenda Item 9 Joint Equality Scheme

Lake District National Park

Joint Equality Scheme

2011-2014

November 2013 Review

Joint Equality Scheme

Executive Summary

The Lake District National Park Authority’s (LDNPA) Joint Equality Schemeexplainsour commitment to equality and diversity in the way we employ people and deliver services.

The document sets outs our aims and objectives for celebratingdiversityandadvancing equality and the actions we plan to take to achieve them. We have always been committed to equality and diversity and this scheme is a further step to ensure that consideration for both is embedded into everything we do.

A key aspect of our work is based on partnership working and to increase our engagement activity with diverse groups. We recognise that we need to identify further opportunities for dialogue with diverse groups and to ensure their influence on the way we advanceequality and promote diversity to overcome barriers to inclusion.

This 2013 revision of Joint Equality Scheme includes a review of actions in 2012-13 and actions for 2013/14 and some for 2014/15.. A full review will take place in 2014.

The Purpose of the Joint Equality Scheme

• The Lake District National Park Joint Equality Scheme sets out how we intend to manage, monitor and measure our effectiveness inadvancing equality and celebrating diversity.
• As a minimum, the scheme intends to fulfil our statutory obligations under the relevant legislation and, wherever possible, seeks to promote and apply best practice.
• The Action Plans detail actions that the Authority will undertake over the next yearand beyond as key priority areas.

Introduction

Our Vision

The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) works in partnership with a range of other organisations to provide services to achieve a long term Vision for the National Park. This Vision, below, was agreed by the Lake District National Park Partnership following public consultation in 2006.

“The Lake District National Park will be an inspirational example of sustainable development in action.”

It will be a place where a prosperous economy, world class visitor experiences and vibrant communities all come together to sustain the spectacular landscape, its wildlife and cultural heritage.

Local people, visitors and the many organisations working in the National Park or have a contribution to make to it, must be united in achieving this.

Our Business Plan

To achieve our vision the following key outcomes have been identified for the 2012 – 2015Business Plan:

Contributing to a prosperous economy – Entrepreneurial spirit will be nurtured across all sectors and traditional industries maintained to ensure a diverse economy. Businesses will locate in the National Park because they value the quality of opportunity, environment and lifestyle it offers – many will draw on a strong connection to the landscape.

Contributing to World Class Visitor Experiences – High quality and unique experiences for visitors within a stunning and globally significant landscape. Experiences that compete with the best in the international market.

Contributing to Vibrant Communities – People successfully living, learning, working and relaxingwithin upland, valley and lakeside places where distinctive local character is maintained and celebrated.

Contributing to aSpectacular Landscape, Wildlife and Cultural Heritage - A landscape which provides an irreplaceable source of inspiration, whose benefits to people and wildlife are valued and improved. A landscape whose natural and cultural resources are assets to be managed and used wisely for future generations.

Being an Excellent Organisation–People want to work with us because we are an excellence, high profile, organisation, with a strong reputation for delivery. We have a culture of continuous improvement that is ready to meet current and future challenges.

Our Values

Our values are central to the way we work and give a clear indication of what you can expect when working with us. Some of the values are aspirational and we are open to being challenged on them. This will help us to improve the services we provide and the decisions we make.

• We are passionate and proud of the Lake District.
• We are innovative and courageous.
• We are ethical and we care about our environment.
• We are approachable, receptive and respectful.
• We communicate and cooperate.
• We value people.
• We aim high and achieve success.

Our values were created through a series of workshops in 2009 that involved our staff, Members and Volunteers.

Our Approach toAdvancing Equality and Celebrating Diversity

We acknowledge the importance of strong leadership and commitment to celebrate diversity and advance throughout the organisation. Our approach follows three-strands:

• Mainstreaming equality and diversity goals with our business objectives;
• Change through engagement with strategic partners and relevant stakeholders;
• Championing equality by example, as an employer and service provider.

Mainstreaming - Our intention is toadvance equality and inclusion in everything we do. We are further ahead in mainstreaming in some areas than in others. For example we have developed a Procurement Tool kit which provides a guide for staff when buying products or services.We intend to use our buying power to advance equality and diversify in our supply chain.

We have identified the list of the functions and services that we provide in the JES, arranged in service areas, and this provides an at a glance picture of where we were at in 2011.

As part of the JES health check we have reviewed our progress and identified key focus areas to further advance equality and celebrate diversity in everything we do as detailed at page 5,6, and 7.

Change through engagement - We recognise the importance of our key partnerships in advancing equality and celebrating diversity. The Lake District National Park Partnership consists of 22stakeholder organisations including local and national government bodies, voluntary organisations, environment agencies and private sector organisations. We have significant involvement with communities through our distinctive area working approach.

We are committed to engaging and involving other relevant stakeholders in the way our Equality Scheme is devised, developed and implemented.

Championing equality as an employer and service provider - We are determined to champion excellence as an employer. We recognise that our workforce does not currently reflect the population we serve. The action plans include actions to develop and retain a more diverse workforce.

Joint Equality Scheme Health Check

Background

The Joint Equality Scheme was last updated in August 2012 and we have carried out a health check in July 2013 to ensure it is fit for purpose. We reviewed our action plan and updated the JES.

Our vision for advancing equality and celebrating diversity– where we want to be

We have reviewed our JES in the light of a benchmark developed and set out by the Joint Equality Group (JEG) in consultation with our stakeholders to assess where we are now.

• We value people – advancing equality, celebrating diversity and fostering good relations across our communities and partnerships
• We endeavour toeliminate discrimination, victimisation and harassment
• Our services and actions are flexible to meet the needs of our communities and stakeholders
• We know our customers and respond to feedback
• When we make changes to the way we do things we understand who is affected and what their needs are
• Our staff, members and volunteers endeavour to reflect society through who they are, their outlook, behaviour and actions, and recognize their responsibilities towards Equality and Diversity
• We work with partners to share and identify resources and learn from each other
• We inform people what we do, strengthening our brand
• We have a positive reputation, consistent across all our service users, communities and partnerships

What is working well?

The group identified some of the successes that we have achieved to advance equality and celebrate diversity.

• We are a progressive organisation, engaging and consulting with people to influence what we do. For instance, Rights of Way Improvement Plan, Planning Performance Agreements and the Brockhole redevelopment
• As a learning organisation, we are open to challenge and respond to any comments or complaints regarding discriminatory treatment or behaviour immediately and during the life time of this Equality Scheme we have no reported incidents.
• Our organisation genuinely cares about customers and meeting their needs as evidenced by being in the top six per cent for the Customer Service Excellence award.
• We have good systems in place to capture customers and staff feedback and to maintain corporate memory. On the basis of the feedback we received we have improved our website accessibility.
• We have policies in place and state what we expect from our workers in role profiles. Our staff, volunteers and members receive appropriate training and supervision to continuously improve their working practices. Equality and diversity training exists and is open to all
• As a group, we remain committed to ensuring we advance equality and celebrate diversity, building on what we have done so far. We test our approach with equality partners and we are open to challenge, working well together.
• We are innovative, for example in our approach to offering new skills and experiences for 16-25 year old through the Mosaic Youth Project.
• We listen to, value and work in partnership with the voluntary and community (VCS) sector
• We have a positive reputation, consistent across all our service users, communities and partnerships which is demonstrated through consistently achieving the Customer Service Excellence award during the life time of this Equality Scheme.

What can we do better?

The group identified some areas for improvement.

• Identify where equality impact assessments (EIAs) are needed most and ensure they are carried out at appropriate times and staff receive peer support and review to inform better outcomes for all.
• Promote and celebrate what we do more and communicate it widely
• Introduce an annual equality and diversity award for our staff, members and Volunteers to recognise their commitment and positive action in advancing equality.
• Consistently improve awareness on the diversity of needs of the people from all communities
• Understand the communities we serve and develop a greater awareness of their cultural and religious/belief needs
• Be more systematic when collecting quantitative and qualitativedata on our customers, particularly those with protected characteristics
• Capture and measure the customer experience to ensure services are delivered effectively
• Continue to look at ways of attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce. Our current workforce does not fully represent the communities we serve.
• Take positive action where necessary to support people with disability, especially when that disability may be hidden
• Recognise that some of our targets may need additional resources and reconcile our capacity issues accordingly
• Reduce the number of outstanding actions, focus on the most important issues
• Ensure all JES actions appear in service plans to avoid any confusion
• Share information between frontline staff

Key focus areas for action 2013/14 and 2014/15

• Embed equality impact assessments (EIAs), making sure they are prioritised and carried out in good time
• Communicate and celebrate our successes in delivering equality and diversity
• Understand the needs and experiences of our customers through data collection and analysis so we are better informed when developing our services

The Legal Framework

The main equality legislation relevant to the Lake District National Park Authority includes:

The Equality Act

The Equality Act 2010strengthens the law and simplifiesit by distilling over 100 pieces of legislation into a single Act.

The Act also creates a public sectorequality duty. This strengthens the requirements on public authorities to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation of those with Protected Characteristics.

The Act lists the protected characteristics as:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender Reassignment
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race – this includes ethnic or national origins, colour and nationality
• Religion or Belief
• Sex (Gender)
• Sexual orientation

General and Public Sector duties

The general equality duty is set out in the Equality Act 2010. In summary, those subject to the equality duty must, in the exercise of their functions, have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

These are sometimes referred to as the three aims or arms of the general equality duty. The Act helpfully explains that having due regard for advancing equality involves:

• Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics.
• Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people.
• Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

There is also a Public Sector Equality Duty with specific duties which applies to the National Park Authority, we are required to:

• Publish information to demonstrate its compliance with the general equality duty across its functions. By 31 July 2011, and at least annually after that, from the first date of publication.

This information must include, in particular:

• Information on the effect that its policies and practices have had on people who share a relevant protected characteristic, to demonstrate the extent to which it furthered the aims of the general equality duty for its employees and for others with an interest in the way it performs its functions.

All public authorities have to publish the following information:

• Evidence of analysis that they have undertaken to establish whether their policies and practices have (or would) further the aims of the general equality duty.
• Details of the information that they considered in carrying out this analysis.
• Details of engagement that they undertook with people whom they consider to have an interest in furthering the aims of the general equality duty.

Equality Objectives

We have published our overall equality objectives as part of our Joint Equality Scheme and we set out how progress will be measured. The JES is available at

We have measured the progress as part of the review of our JES health check, see above.

We comply with the above by publishing our Joint Equality Scheme on our website and updating the information in the Scheme annually. This contains our staff demographic information and lists the actions we will take over the next one year to address specific equality issues. We also publish the minutes of our Joint Equality Group Meetings. JEG monitors the progress on the delivery of Equality Scheme actions and any emerging issues. Please see the minutes of Joint Equality Group (JEG) available at:

Implementation and Governance

The following arrangementsare in place to effectivelyadvance,manage and monitor equality and promotediversity across the organisation.

The Authorityhas approved the scheme and the annual review will be agreed by the Executive Board.

The Joint EqualityGroup is a group of volunteers from different service areas including the Director of Corporate Services as Chair, a Champion from each Directorate, a Volunteer, and Trade Union and /or Staff Representative. Its role is to provide challenge, advice and guidance including monitoring and scrutiny of Equality Impact Assessments and action plans, sharing best practice and promoting equality and diversity issues internally. The Joint Equality Group is supported by partners from Outreach Cumbria, AWAZ Cumbria and the Cumbria Disability Network.

Assessing Impact on Equality

We carried out an EqIA for each of our service areas as part of the 2012-13 service planning process. Each EqIA was considered by the Joint Equality Group on a rolling programme to ensure consistency and provide challenge and support. After consideration by the Group, the impact assessment action plan was made available to the public through our website:

In 2013 the Joint Equality Group reviewed our approach to undertaking EqIAs and agreed the following:

1. In future we will not equality impact assess entire service plans
2. In preparing service plans we will undertake an initial screening to identify the actions that will require will require an EqIA. This will generally be when a new service is being introduced, where a service is being revised or where a service is being removed. The decision on when an EqIA is required will be based on management judgement. In our forthcoming review of service planning we will build in prompts to aid decision making.
3. We will build EqIAs into our project management processes, again with appropriate prompts.
4. Each year we will equality impact assess our ‘business as usual’ – one or two elements per service per year.
5. We will embed the EqIA process through our developing competency framework.

We have a programme to revise all of our HR policies and all new HR policies will be subject to a full Equality Impact Assessment. New policies and existing strategies that require Authority approval will be subject to an impact assessment if the policy is a major one in terms of scale or significance for our activities, or there is a clear indication that the policy would have an impact on a diverse group in terms of numbers affected or the extent of the impact.

Annex 1

Our Human Resource and Community Profiles

Human Resource Profile Lake District NP Profile

Internal Survey August 2012Census 2011

Annex 2