Equality Impact Assessment – Decommissioning Laundry Services

  1. Management of the EqIA

Lead – Anna McEwen, Commissioning Manager, Adult Services

Contributions from –

Bola Atanda–Commissioning team administrator

Amanda Hill – Review team manager

Older People’s Reference Group

Disability Reps Forum

Date: 3 January 2012

Linked Papers:

  • SMT briefing – Meals and Laundry
  • Meals & Laundry business case
  • Meals & Laundry project plan
  1. Identification of policy aims, objectives and purpose

Over the past decade Newham has worked to increase choice, rights and inclusion for people with social care support needs in line with government policy and legislation. This has been achieved through a range of approaches including the introduction of personal budgets and the redesign of services.

As Newham has no statutory duty or responsibility to provide laundry services there is a proposal to end our current contracts with the providers and decommission these services.

The proposal is not to re-commission or fund this service in the same way in the future but rather to find individual solutions for people in their local community that they can choose to purchase as they wish.

For individuals using the laundry service this will include:

  • Providing information about local laundries who will provide collection and delivery services.
  • Supporting people to use their personal budgets in different ways so that use some of their support to do their own laundry at home.
  1. Scope / focus of the EqIA

This EqIA has been completed to identify the affects of decommissioning the laundry service on individuals from the protected characteristics group. The laundry service is currently offered to older or disabled people so the change will directly affect people from the protected characteristics groups.

Full regard has been had to the requirements of the Equalities Act 2010 and proper regard has been had to the nature and extent of the duties owed by it.

The EqIA is a way of estimating the likely equality/diversity implications of the possibledecommissioning of the laundry service. It will determine whether or not the impact or effect has a negative, neutral or positive impact on some groups or individuals

  1. Could it affect some groups differently?
  2. Could it advance equality?
  3. Could it foster good relations?

Protected Characteristic / Assessment of relevance
High, Medium, Low / If Low you must provide evidence.
Age / High
Disability / High
Transgender / Low / No specific issues relating to transgender group from this decommission, people in this group may be affected but we do not have data relating to this protected characteristic.
Pregnancy and maternity / Low / Laundry services are not specifically provided to people in this group
Race / Medium
Religion / belief / Low / No specific issues relating to religion from this decommission although people from this group will be affected.
Sexual orientation / Low / No specific issues relating to individual’s sexual orientation from this decommission, people in this group may be affected but we do not have data relating to this protected characteristic.
Sex / Medium
Class or socio-economic disadvantage / High
  1. Relevant data, research and consultation
  2. Provide sources of data you have used

In order to carry out this EqIA, consultations have been held with the following groups:

  • Older people’s reference group
  • Disability forum

In addition, all the individuals using the laundry service will receive a review with a Social Worker to ascertain current level of need and what is needed if the laundry service is no longer provided by LBN.

A detailed review of laundry services was carried out prior to any recommendations being made about the future of the service. This included contract monitoring information, financial information, value for money, investigated similar services in other authorities and service user feedback about the service.

Currently individuals using this service pay the full laundry costs while LBN pay the cost of the collection/delivery of their laundry items.

The review indicated that other local authorities do not provide laundry services to individuals with social care support needs.

The decommissioning of this service will affect a relatively small number of people, currently less than 100 people use this service.

Comments made during the consultation process highlighted that disabled people feel that the laundry service should continue to be provided by the local authority and that by decommissioning the service the council is penalising the most vulnerable people in society. Disabled and older people were angry that many other services and events are provided in Newham at no cost to residents, many of which they are not able to access, and that it is unfair to be charging people for social care services and withdrawing some of these services.

The issues raised will be mitigated within the action plan by ensuring that people who need this level of support with laundry are given information about alternative providers who they can contract with directly, or by amending an individual’s support plan to reflect this support need which may then allow a Personal Assistant (PA) to support the person with their laundry.

  1. Set context of findings e.g. figures for LBN demographics, service user statistics

Currently 92 people are using the laundry service compromising:

sex
Female / 51
Male / 41
Age
Under 49
50-59
60-69
70-79
80+
Ethnicity
White British / 62
Pakistani / 1
Carribean / 16
Indian / 4
Asian / 1
African / 2
White Irish / 1
White other / 1
Unknown / 1
  1. Assessment of Impact and outcomes

Protected characteristics / Issues taken from evidence / Judgement + / - / Recommendations
Age / People in this group will be directly affected by the decommissioning of this service as the majority of people currently using laundry services are older people (77% of users are aged over 70 years).
Older people commented in the consultation that they do not want this service to be taken away and that they are unhappy with the proposed changes. / Negative impact / -Social work review of all current service users to identify needs and plan future support accordingly.
-Adapt support plans to allow individuals to have a Personal Assistant to support them with laundry tasks.
-Refer individuals to enablement where appropriate for support to enable them to do own laundry and be more independent.
Disability / 73disabled people currently use this service (60 – physical impairment, 8 – Mental Health, 5 – sensory impairment). However, disabled people have also reported that the services provider lacks skills in communicating with disabled people. / Positive impact – more choice for disabled people / Ensure individuals are given information on choice of providers in formats they can understand.
Race / 62 of people using the laundry service are white British, 16 Carribean, 4 Indian, 2 African, 1 Pakistani, 7 other ethnic group / Neutral impact / - Ensure good communication strategy to foster good relations between groups.
Sex / 51females and 41 males are currently using the laundry service. / Neutral impact
Class or socio-economic disadvantage / Newham is the 6th most deprived area in England and Wales and the 3rd most deprived in London. Residents have the lowest average gross annual income of all London residents, with an average income of £24,958, compared to £37,622 for London. The distribution of income across the borough is skewed heavily towards low incomes. 40% of residents earn less than £20,000 and 50% less than £25,000.
Individuals using the laundry service have always paid the full laundry cost but LBN have covered the delivery costs. The decommissioning of this service will result in individuals having to potentially pay more for their laundry in future. / Negative / This will be mitigated by identifying individuals who are unable to complete laundry tasks themselves and altering support plans to provide support with laundry tasks as necessary and also mitigated by sourcing alternative laundry options that provide better value for money.
Equality Impact Assessment Action Plan for decommissioning Laundry services
Issues identified and groups affected / Actions to be taken / Timescales of actions / Who is responsible for delivery / Intended outcomes / Performance measures / Reference to service or other plans
Lack of information re alternative options / Source information of alternatives for individuals / October 2011 – January 2012 / Anna McEwen / To provide current service users with alternative options / Increase in information based on baseline info in October 2011 / Laundry project plan
Lack of information for individuals / Information re alternatives to be added to IAG and produced in leaflet format / January – March 2012 / Anna McEwen
Comms
IAG administrator / To provide current and future service users with information re options to support with laundry / Increase in available information based on baseline in October 2011 / Laundry project plan
Potential risks / safeguarding issues for individuals when service is decommissioned / All current service users to receive a review with a SW / October 2011–March 2012 / Review team
Anna McEwen
Additional SW resource / To safeguard individuals against risk of withdrawing service / All service users review completed / Laundry project plan
  1. Formal agreement
  2. Grainne Siggins / David Hodgkins
  3. Publication of results
  4. EqIA published on Council website (full or summary version)
  5. Monitoring and review
  6. To be reviewed every 3 months during implementation period by Anna McEwen (as stated in project plan).

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London Borough of Newham