Equality Members Champions Group Meeting

24th March 2011

14:00 – 16:00pm

Video Conference – Committee Room 4 The Courts and Video Conferencing Room County Hall Kendal

Minutes

In attendence:

Elizabeth Mallinson (ChairCumbriaCounty Council), EM

Norman Williamson (Copeland Borough Council), NW

Chris Gerrard (Allerdale Borough Council), CG

Hilary Stephenson (South Lakes District Council), HS

Jacqueline Geddes (Carlisle City Council), JG

Michael Lawton (Cumbria Equality and Diversity Partnership), ML

Joel Rasbash (Cumbria County Council)JR

ItemAction

1 / Welcome and apologies
Apologies from Barrow as David Marcus is in hospital. / EM to arrange card from the group
2 / Declarations of Interest / None
5 / Feedback from the Districts
Carlisle: Social inclusion has been taken out of the Equality Impact Assessments as it is no longer in the Equality Act, and the same may happen to rural exclusion.
South Lakes District Council: Work is underway towards the next level of the Equality Framework.
Allerdale: Disappointment about not getting assessed as Achieving, but working on a plan to be accredited over the next few weeks.
Copeland: Discussed work on Equality in relation to restructuring and scrutiny. / No actions
6 / Public Equality Duty – consultation
Discussed the Government Equality Office’s Consultation document on the Public Equality Duty.
Comments:
Hilary raised the concern about how Members and Officers could digest the implications when there is so many other Government Bills being produced.
Michael concerned that communities would lack the capacity to challenge Local Authority performance against the Public Duty.
Agreed: Joel, Liz and Michael would meet to develop a briefing on the implications for Cumbria and send it to the members of the group who will share it with the Officers with Equality responsibility and feedback to inform a countywide response to the Government Equality Office.
Deadline: 21 April 2011 / See below
JR, EM and ML
7 / Future of CIEP Achieving Equality project – discussion on future collaborative working
Joel reported back on report to CIEP Programme Board, where the expressed preference was for Options 1 and 2.
Liz suggested that Members take away the paper and feed back views to the next Member Equality Champions Group. / All
8 / North West Employers Organisation – item for information
Liz Mallinson fed back on potential opportunity for further funding for collaborative work through NWEO. / JR to investigate
9 / Promotion of achievements / Postponed to next meeting
10 / Feedback from Inclusive Mobility Roadshow / Postponed to next meeting
11 / Date of next Meeting –
All felt that video conferencing was a good idea but had not worked in practice. So the final items were postponed and another meeting will be scheduled for a countywide location in mid-April / Date and venue forthcoming

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23/09/2018 Member Equality Champions Group