April 2014
Equality Impact Assessment
AVOW Contract
Department / CYP – Prevention and Social CareDepartmental reference number for this EIA [Please contact HoD secretary] / HCYP-EIA–2014-002
Responsible Officer / Tricia Jones
e-mail address /
Full job title / Project Manager
Title of Proposal or Policy / AVOW CYP Capacity Building Contract
Rationale:
Why is it being considered?
What need is being addressed? / To support the department to make the savings required to the meet the funding gap currently faced by the Council.
Aim:
What is the intended outcome of the proposal / policy? / To make a saving of £19K
How:
How will it be delivered, by whom and by when? / Head of Children & Young Peoples Services, within the next financial year (31 March 2015).
Who:
Who are the people likely to be affected by this proposal or policy?
How have you consulted with the people who are likely to be affected? / The main people affected would be third sector providers of CYP services and some young people.
Through an online questionnaire and three consultation events – one for young people, one for council officers and one for the third sector.
Measures:
How will you know you have achieved your aims?
What are your measures / indicators of success? / The targeted savings will be made and the department as a whole will operate within budget
Identify any other policy or decision [internal or external] that may affect your proposal.
Consider this in terms of:
- Statutory requirements; local policies e.g. WCBC Housing Policy;
- Regional decisions e.g. those made by cross county partnerships for your sector e.g. North Wales Chief Officers Board; and / or
- National policies e.g. Welfare Reforms
This proposal is also in line with the on-going Wrexham CBC Third Sector Review and the Wrexham CBC Third Sector Commissioning Guidance 2013
1
April 2014
Screening Tool
As part of our Annual Equality Return we have to evidence what we have actively done to support people with Protected Characteristics who receive our services. We also have to evidence what we are doing to reduce any negative impact.
Note: Poverty and Welsh language and culture are not protected characteristics but we have included them because they are important considerations.
Please place a ‘+’ or ‘-‘symbol in every box to indicate whether your proposal with have a positive or negative affect note: people may have one or more of the protected characteristics. If there is no impact at all place ‘n/a’. If there is a positive and negative effect indicate both i.e.. ‘+/-‘:
Carers / AgeCYP / Age
Adults / Disability / Gender / Sex / Pregnancy and Maternity / Race/ Ethnicity / Religion or Belief / Sexual Orientation / Marriage and Civil Partners-hip / Gender Reassign-ment / Poverty / Welsh language / culture
Q1
Would this proposal significantly affect how functions are delivered to any of these groups? / n/a / - / n/a / - / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a
Q2
Would this discriminate against any of these groups? / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a
Q3
Would this proposal advance the equality of opportunity for these groups? / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a
Q4
Would this promote good relations between these groups and the wider community? / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a / n/a
Where you have identified a positive impact (+) in the Screening Tool, please outline this briefly using bullet points:
Where you have identified no impact (n/a) in the Screening Tool, please outline this briefly using bullet points:
If you have indicated a possible negative effect on any Protected Characteristic within the screening tool, please complete therelevant sections of the Matrix below that correspond to that possible negative effect. You will need to consider:
- What is the likely scale of the impact and how this can be reduced?
- Who are the people that are likely to be affected by this proposal, could they experience multiple disadvantage e.g. if they are young and have a disability.
1
April 2014
EIA: Are we being fair?
Please complete the relevant sections of the Matrix below that correspond to any ‘-‘ symbols you have recorded in the screening tool / List what information you have used to identify these issues e.g. consultation, stakeholder involvement, reports, data … / Based on the information you have gathered give a summary of key issues that have been identified. / How will you mitigate these issues to improve the service? / Who is officer responsible for delivering the mitigation? / Which other departments will you work with to achieve this? / By when / Service Plan ReferenceAge CYP / Consultation with stakeholders – young people, third sector organisations and council officers. / Concerns re representation of the third sector
Children and young people do not seem to have a place in the new LSB partnerships structure and therefore there is nowhere for feedback from TSOs in the third sector CYP forum to go.
AVOW may not have the capacity to manage matters specific to CYP TSOs (children and young people’s third sector organisations)without this post and information about and contact with CYP TSOs may be lost to the council.
Worries about a lack of a point of contact in AVOW for CYP services
As third sector representatives John Gallanders and Janet Radford rely on briefings from our officers who engage with the wider networks, without the work of the current Children and Young People’s Development Officer there will be little information gathered from the sector to inform our roles from the children, young people and family perspective.
There will be an issue with capacity with the loss of this full time post AVOW will no longer be able to provide a rapid response.
The CYP officer in AVOW was able to bring in funding for other projects. The added value in terms of increased investment in Wrexham through projects of this nature would be lost.
- Concerns regarding the CYP Forum
If the council run the forum, engagement of TSOs may drop; relationships (between the council and the third sector) are not strong at the moment.
Concerns about support for young people from third sector groups on the Senedd
Some third sector organisations are concerned about the ability of a council youth worker to get and keep in touch with smaller CYP TSOs, particularly if run by volunteers.
Whether there would be sufficient support for the Senedd.
To take the management of the process entirely in-house might well lead to a loss of independence (of the young people) and undue influence over its priorities. We would prefer to see the management of the youth participation remaining within a third sector organisation.
- Concerns about the administration of the small grants to TSOs working with youth, previously part of this role’s responsibility.
There would be less support for CYP TSOs to apply for the grants, especially if run by volunteers. / Representation of and support for the third sector
Support and information for third sector organisations wishing to deliver children and young people’s services and consultation with them should be provided through AVOW as part of its core activities, with support from the health and social care staff
This will now be carried out under PDB 1-3 by John Gallanders and Janet Radcliffe with other AVOW staff sitting on groups under this strand.
A youth worker will be employed by Life Long Learning (Wrexham Council Youth Service) as part of the participation team, but seconded to AVOW for 2 days a week to support the Senedd Yr Ifanc (Youth Parliament) and the Big P and act as a point of contact for young people, including disabled children.
- CYP Forum
- The CYP forum and the HSCWB forum have already been merged, with Health and wellbeing staff at AVOW facilitating.
A youth worker will be employed by Life Long Learning (Wrexham Council Youth Service) as part of the participation team, but seconded to AVOW for 2 days a week to support the Senedd Yr Ifanc (Youth Parliament) and the Big P.
Young people will be involved in the recruitment of the youth worker.
The new youth worker would have knowledge of the Senedd, the Voluntary Sector, youth work and disabled CYP and will create links with the AVOW youth worker
Youth Support grants
AVOW will be asked to administer the youth support grants
Make arrangements to ensure the youth worker is aware of the smaller CYP TSOs. / Susan Evans, Head of department for Prevention and Social Care / Life Long Learning / April 2015
Disability / Consultation with stakeholders / Support for CYP TSOs
Loss of links with TSOs working with disabled children
Concerns about support for young people from third sector groups on the Senedd
Concern that the representation of groups representing disabled children would be lost.
Concern that the new worker might not be familiar with the third sector, the Senedd and with young people with disabilities in particular. / A youth worker will be employed by Life Long Learning (as above)as part of the participation team, to support the Senedd Yr Ifanc and the Big P.
The new youth worker will be hosted at AVOW and will act as a point of contact for young people, including disabled children.
The new youth worker will be based in AVOW but be part of the Senedd management team and will therefore be familiar with the Voluntary Sector, youth work and disabled young people. / Susan Evans, Head of department for Prevention and Social Care / Life Long Learning / April 2015
Please respond to the following questions within 12 months of implementation of the proposal:
a) Was any mitigation applied or was the proposal delivered as originally planned prior to the Equality Impact Assessment?
b) Were the intended outcomes of the proposal achieved or were there other results?
c) Were the impacts confined to the people you initially thought would be effected, or were other people affected? How?
1