Equality Framework for Local Government: 'Achieving' Level - Self Assessment
Report Type: Model Assessments Report
Report Author: Admin (JP) Allerdale
Generated on: 20 October 2010
2 ACHIEVING
OVERALL SECTION SCORE / 3.3
Knowing your community and equality mapping
Score / 3.33
2.01 Relevant and appropriate information is gathered
efficiently using a range of techniques, across the local community, to inform the authorities; corporate policy and strategy, the sustainable community strategy, local area agreements and to identify key equality gaps. / Question score / Supporting Evidence Response
4 / How was this done? / Relevant and appropriate information has been gathered from a number of sources which have been listed below. This information is used to inform the development of Allerdale's departmental service plans and informs strategic plans including the Corporate Plan, the Sustainable Community Strategy and the Local Development Framework.
Statistical information (quantitative) is gathered from the following sources:
Office of National Statistics (ONS) Census 2001
ONS Mid year estimates
CuPS Community Safety information
Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) - published by DCLG
Quality of Life 2006
Cumbria Intelligence Observatory
Defra Data Interchange Hub
CACI Paycheck and ACorn Socio-economic profiling
CIPFA Research and Statistics
Allerdale Atlas
Neighbourhood Management Quality of Life Survey 2007
Perception information (qualitative) is gathered from the following sources:
Place Survey 2008
Place Survey Tracker 2009
Cumbria Attitudes Survey 2007 - Public attitudes towards race, diversity and neighbourhood
Quality of Life Survey 2006
Citizens Panel
Transformation Programme
Corporate Plan development
Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership
Comprehensive Area Assessment
The Comprehensive Area Assessment looks at how well local public services are delivering better results for people in Cumbria. A plethora of evidence is used to come to conclusions or judgements about the current position and whether they will get better or worse in the future. The area assessments concentrate on the issues that are most important to each local area. The assessment also includes two Organisational Assessments, Managing Performance and Use of Resources which are undertaken separately for each individual local authority within the county. These assessments will directly influence service and strategic planning. Both the full report and a summary report are attached for each, as you will see these reports do identify any current equality issues either positive or negative and includes any current actions or proposed recommendations which would tackle the identified inequalities.
Sustainable Community Strategy
The Cumbria Strategic Partnership is responsible for developing a Sustainable Community Strategy and for developing and implementing the Local Area Agreement. The Cumbria Community Strategy sets out the partnership aspirations for the county over the next twenty years. This plan identifies the key challenges in improving the quality of life for people in Cumbria and sets out a vision under five themes covering community safety and cohesion, health and wellbeing, the economy and skills, access and communications, and the environment. The Partnership understands that countywide averages mask differences between groups and areas, and is committed to tackling inequalities for all groups. It will follow an inclusive concept of “narrowing the gap” and improve the quality of life for all in the county. The partnership states it will excel in both its statutory duty to promote race, disability and gender and in its commitment to ensure everyone in Cumbria has a high standard of living and an equal chance to succeed in life. This strategy directly influences Allerdale's Corporate Plan.
Corporate Plan
The Councils first Corporate Plan was launched in April 2006; this involved a very exhaustive process, part of which included engaging with communities and listening to a wide range of views and opinions to ensure that the key priorities were in line with local aspirations. Opinions were sought from various communities including staff, Councillors, the general public and Communities of Interest including local youth groups. Existing mechanisms were also used such as the citizen’s panel and neighbourhood forums. The plan was refreshed on an annual basis to monitor the agreed actions and indicators and to ensure the priorities were being met.
In light of the reductions to service delivery due to the Transformation programme the authority was required to develop a new corporate plan in line with those outcomes. The Corporate Plan includes those actions and areas of activity that are considered critical to delivery of the vision and priorities. The plan is a working document and will be updated annually to reflect changes to priorities, policies or services. This Corporate Plan is mindful of other strategic ‘spatial’ and ‘community’ planning plans and strategies. Allerdale Borough Council has helped to shape these documents, which detail shared objectives to which partner organisations have signed up. This provides a framework for collaboration amongst agencies to achieve outcomes that benefit local communities.
Clear read-through from the Corporate Plan upwards, to the LAA and sustainable communities strategy, and downwards, to the Council’s group and individual work plans, ensures Allerdale Borough Council focuses its action and resources on local priorities.
Transformation Programme
The Council’s revenue position was such that substantial reductions in operating costs were required for the financial year 2010-11 and thereafter and there was a need to undertake a comprehensive review and prioritise the Council’s service delivery to meet the financial deficit.
This was an extensive programme which involved all services identifying potential savings by reducing the non-statutory services they provide. As part of this review a substantial consultation process was undertaken which involved staff, Members and the general public through questionnaires, focus groups and workshops. There were various consultation and community engagement activities undertaken and Equality Impact Assessments were completed for each potential saving that was identified, this was to ensure that the potential cuts would not adversely affect the general public, minority groups or Communities of Interest (COI), there were COI including Outreach Cumbria directly involved with the EIA process. The suggested 'potential savings' went through a rigorous process before final decisions were made by the Transformation Task Group (which is made up of members of the Councils' Executive Committee) and Full Council on which services would now be delivered. An obvious outcome of this programme was the need to develop a new Corporate Plan.
Place survey
Until the new coalition government came into office earlier this year the Place Survey was a statutory requirement which all local authorities had to conduct every two years, this has now been abolished although the information is at currently still very relevant. The Place Survey itself was intended to contribute to the new set of national indicators which in turn forms part of the National Performance Framework. It asks local residents for their views and perceptions on their local area rather than their views about the Local Authority.
In 2008 Allerdale carried out two additional 'boosts' to the recommended sample size within our Localities and Deprived wards. The reason for this was to gather more robust information and increase the confidence levels of the results; the total number of responses was 2,835 (44%) A non-statutory tracker survey was also carried out in 2009.
Information from the survey has been disaggregated by gender, age, disability, ethnicity, housing tenure, deprivation and economic status; this will allow us to better understand the opinions of different groups within our community.
In light of the current Governments decision to cease the Place Survey, consideration is currently being given to continue with an annual perceptions survey which will substitute the Place Survey and hence keep the authority informed of the public’s views, perceptions and needs, information which will subsequently be used to advise the service planning and corporate planning process.
To assist the service managers in the service planning development process the Corporate Improvement Team put together 'mini reports' from the Place survey results (example attached) these were beneficial in informing the managers directly of the services people were satisfied with and where there were issues which the public felt needed addressed/improved. This data is available by locality, deprived wards and other demographics.
Citizens Panel
The citizens panel was originally created in 1999 and was re-launched in 2003 as 'Community Voice', the panel consists of approximately 3000 residents who are representative of the population of Cumbria. The panel is the responsibility of the 'Cumbria Consultation Steering Group' (CCSG) which is made up of representatives from Cumbria County Council, all Cumbrian Local Authorities, Cumbria Constabulary and the NHS.
The working arrangements and processes of the CCSG were again reviewed in 2009 and a new framework was agreed to ensure a more streamlined approach to Consultation and Community Engagement. The panel are asked to complete 4 surveys per year which are themed as follows: 1. Planning, Transport, Housing & Environment 2. Health & Wellbeing 3.Community Safety 4. Sustainable Economy. Questions from the Place survey are also included within these surveys so that regular monitoring of the Councils key indicators and priorities can take place. This information is again used to inform the Corporate Plan. Also, as with the Place survey the results can also be disaggregated by various demographics. Feedback from these surveys is given to the panel in the form of a newsletter which is included with the next survey that is circulated, this will detail the results in a 'We asked, You said, We did' format. In addition to this they are also invited to take part in focus groups, telephone surveys as well as other methods where necessary.
Cumbria Intelligence Observatory
The aim of the Cumbria Intelligence Observatory (CIO) is to bring together existing research and analysis resources throughout Cumbria, working jointly with various partners to provide information and intelligence for Cumbria. The observatory has a plethora of information on the Census, Population and People, Consultation and research, Crime & Disorder, Deprivation, Economy, Education, Environment, Health, Housing & Households, Poverty in Cumbria, Tourism and Transport, as well as Ethnicity & Minority Groups, Community Area Profiles, and Acorn Socio-economic profiles. The updating and management of the observatory is an ongoing process.
http://www.cumbriaobservatory.org.uk/
Allerdale Evidence Base
The new Local Development Framework process puts a heavy emphasis on ensuring that plans and proposals are supported by a robust evidence base. It is hoped that comprehensive data on the current state of the borough will allow the Council to put forward the most suitable ideas regarding future development within the local area. The Allerdale Atlas is a collection of information and data for the borough covering a wide range of spatial planning themes including housing, employment, retail, environment, heritage, health, crime, transport, accessibility and climate change. It is being used to help identify the key issues and strengths for various localities across the borough.
A range of data within the Evidence Base has been disaggregated using a number of demographics. The Evidence Base was used to inform the Corporate Plan, Sustainable Community Strategy and the Local Development Framework and is used by all Services when considering development or improvement for their own areas.
http://www.allerdale.gov.uk/planning-and-buildings/planning/planning-policy/local-development-framework/evidence-base.aspx
Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership (MRWS)
The aim of the Partnership is "to make recommendations to Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council on whether they should participate or not in the Geological Disposal Facility siting process, without commitment to eventually host a facility".
The Partnership has been set up by the relevant Local Authorities in response to the Government's search for a final home for the country's higher activity radioactive wastes. The Partnership has access to funding from central Government to enable community representatives to meet; commission independent research; and organise community events on behalf of the wider community in West Cumbria. A key role of the Partnership is to represent the views of people living in or near West Cumbria in these discussions with Government; this information was gathered via various methods from information displays, community meetings, and stakeholder organisation workshops, targeted telephone surveys with a representative sample of the area and surveys to the Community Voice panel. The results of these surveys have been disaggregated by gender, age, ethnicity, employment status, socio-economic groupings, disability and household location/composition.
http://westcumbriamrws.org.uk/
Allerdale Borough Council is currently in the process of developing a new post for a Community Engagement officer. At the moment we do have access to the CE officer at Cumbria County Council as well as the expert knowledge and advice from the Cumbria Consultation Steering Group if and when required.
What do others say? / In the Use of Resources Assessment, under KLOE 2.2: The organisation understands the needs of its decision makers and provides them with information that is fit for purpose and is used to support decision making. The Council is currently performing adequately and now working towards a level 3.
Any information which the Corporate Improvement Team provides to Members, managers and staff is greatly valued especially the results of the Place Survey as it can directly influence the improvement of service delivery. It allows staff to see how their work affects the satisfaction levels of their customers and it allows the decision makers to target main areas for improvement. The results are presented to staff and Members and the public through various communication methods including staff briefings, manager & member workshops, Intranet, Internet, Allerdale Outlook, the Annual report, Members bulletins as well as the mini reports which are sent directly to the relevant service managers. A specific workshop was arranged for the development of the new Corporate Plan, at which the results of the Place Survey were again presented to help inform the development of the document. A presentation was also given on Equality Impact Assessments and explained to staff how to complete EIA's as well as Risk Assessments. Feedback documents were distributed to all attendees to gauge opinions of various aspects of the workshop.
What Difference will this make? / Ongoing collection of effective and accurate information allows us to understand our community’s needs and set objectives based on this information. Both internal and external data sharing remains vital when striving towards continuous improved service delivery.
Evidence / Com Voice Oct 06 CIP Refresh Exec sum.doc
West Cumbria- MRWS leaflet_.pdf
MRWS white-paper-final[1].pdf