Equality Scheme Action Plan Report 2016 - 2017

Equality Scheme Action Plan Report 2016 - 2017

Objective 1 To develop understanding and take action on environmental and health inequalities

Status Icon / Action / Due Date / Progress Bar / Responsible Group / Latest Note
/ EQ 1.01 Work with the County’s Real Nappy Adviser to deliver a minimum of 8 sessions to promote Reusable Nappies / 31-Mar-2017 / / Corporate Support Team / 06-Feb-2017 Nappy events that have happened so far.
15 August: NCT Bumps & Babes, Parkend
26 September: Bumps & Babes, River Children’s Centre, Lydney
13 June: Baby group, River Children's Centre
22 June: Bumps & Babes, Hilltop Children's Centre
18 July: NCT Park End and Bumps & Babes, River Children’s Centre
18 October: Bumps & Babes, Family Tree Children's Centre
7 November: (2 events)- NCT Parkend, Dean Field Study Centre, and Baby group, River Children's Centre.
22 November: Baby group, River Children's Centre
16 Jan 17 . Baby group, River Children's Centre, Lydney
/ EQ 1.02 Undertake recycled textile project with Gloucestershire College students / 31-Mar-2017 / / Corporate Support Team / 02-Feb-2017 Project not going ahead for this year
/ EQ 1.03 Work with Forest Sensory Services to promote the new weekly recycling service in their audio newsletter / 31-Jul-2016 / / Corporate Support Team
/ EQ 1.04 Organise a launch event for Forest of Dean Dementia Action Alliance / 31-Dec-2016 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 03-Feb-2017 Consultation and DAA launch delayed due to staff sickness and the opportunity to submit a bid into the DCLG for 69K for Dementia Enables which could have a huge impact on our forward plan, if successful. Bid submitted 11th January. Decision due Mid-February.
Consultation/engagement now:
Feb – set up (Surveymoney questionnaire, ad in review and forester so goes to housholds. Facebook update)
Activities happen end feb/early march, april, may (drop in in the 4 towns, Infobus, piggie back on existing – ie Sedbury memorycafe, littledean dip in, Meeting libraries on 10/2 to discuss their involvement. DAA Launch will be at the end with a you said, we did activity.
/ EQ 1.05 Dementia Board game - refresh cards so the board game can be used independently, reproduce for wider distribution using external funding secured, develop a methodology for use which ensure use and feedback within FoD and County / 31-Dec-2016 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 09-Dec-2016 Board game cards refreshed. Now working on getting the game reproduced for wider distribution
/ EQ 1.06 Maintain number of referrals from all locality GP surgeries and develop further opportunities for communities and pathways of specific exercise including Cancer rehabilitation. / 31-Mar-2017 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 03-Feb-2017 Referral numbers maintained/ increased. Cancer rehab pathway in place and continues in the district. We have also conduted joint meetings with other districts to standardise the approach across the county, where possible. Stroud have followed our lead and implemented a rehab class. We now have an established weekly group session and one to one support for those on referral.
/ EQ 1.07 Continued development of SP pathway including working with UWE uni of West England to evaluate the impact of the Social Prescribing Scheme. / 31-Mar-2017 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 03-Feb-2017 Social Prescribing (SP) continues to develop. The UWE evaluation was published in November and was very positive, resulting in confirmation of continuation of the service to June 2017. The contract for this work is currently out to tender. We have submitted our application and hope to continue the service beyond June.

Objective 2 To promote respect and tackle discrimination and hate crime

Status Icon / Action / Due Date / Progress Bar / Responsible Group / Latest Note
/ EQ 2.01 Organise and co-ordinate 6 FOD Community Safety Partnership meetings a year / 31-Mar-2017 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 03-Feb-2017 To date, 2 community safety meetings have taken place inside this quarter. Meetings are held every 2 months.
/ EQ 2.02 Develop and implement the Community Safety Partnership action plan until end of funding in March 2017 / 31-Mar-2017 / / 03-Feb-2017 Plan is in place and is updated at each CSP meeting.
/ EQ 2.03 Implement a Youth activity project linked to the PCC projects / 31-Mar-2017 / / 25-May-2017 Secondary/ more appropriate venue has been identified and project on hold until planning permission can be obtained/researched. PCC have extended the funding for further 6 months with review in September 2017.

Objective 3 To provide better access to quality homes and supply of affordable housing

Status Icon / Action / Due Date / Progress Bar / Responsible Group / Latest Note
/ EQ 3.01 Enable 60 affordable properties to be built across the district / 31-Mar-2017 / / Planning, Housing & Regeneration Group / 15-Sep-2016 Unlikely to achieve target 16/17 as reduced properties on site and end of HCA funding for rented housing
/ EQ 3.02 Work with partners to retender the Gloucestershire Homeseekers service / 31-Oct-2016 / / Planning, Housing & Regeneration Group / 15-Sep-2016 Go live 7th September --completed
/ EQ 3.03 Work with partners to retender the Home Improvement Agency service / 31-Mar-2017 / / Planning, Housing & Regeneration Group / 15-Sep-2016 Countywide agreement to continue contract for 14 mths. but discussions still to be completed on whether to retender
/ EQ 3.04 Work with countywide partnership to identify up to 10 residential properties in the Forest to relocate Syrian Refugees by 2020 (2 per year) as part of the Government’s support programme / 31-Mar-2017 / / Planning, Housing & Regeneration Group / 15-Sep-2016 Partnership in place initial properties identified

Objective 4 To address barriers to employment and embed equality and diversity within our own organisation and the wider business community

Status Icon / Action / Due Date / Progress Bar / Responsible Group / Latest Note
/ EQ 4.01 Provide Equality Impact Assessment training for staff and Councillors / 31-Dec-2016 / / Corporate Support Team / 07-Feb-2017 The Corporate Support Officer has developed a new EIA template which is currently with the other equality officers for comment. Once this is agreed and in place we will seek to provide joint training for staff and councillors.
/ EQ 4.02 Put in place a pathway to recruit and train dementia links in the community who can support and train others / 31-Dec-2016 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 03-Feb-2017 A bid has been submitted to the DCLG (which took priority end of Dec/early Jan (69K) : this would significantly enable this work in the next financial year. Decision due mid-February.
If DCLG funding not successful a plan B is being developed for the next financial year.
Community dementia link training completed:
- 10 x Two Rivers Staff trained Now supporting them to develop and embed their action plan.
- 1 x volunteer trained in Cinderford
- 1 volunteer in Newent (3/4 complete)
To be arranged:
- 11 volunteers in Sedbury (linked to the new memory café) course currently being designed.
- 3 people volunteers in English Bicknor WI (course to be developed)
- 1 volunteer connected WI but also to Victim support.
/ EQ 4.03 Develop a ‘dementia friendly checklist’ which can be used to check whether public accessible spaces such as community buildings, halls etc and FODDC offices are ‘dementia friendly’ and encourage the use of this checklist with the community / 31-Dec-2016 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 03-Feb-2017 Checklist produced - interactive version so it can be used on an ipad and used in printed form.
Emailed to all parish/town and district councillors.
Links highlighted to emergency planning.
Document will be available via our website; and GCC and circulated via the Glos dementia education network.
FODDC toilets review : ¾ complete (summary done): Land and property now to complete independently checking Coleford and woolaston toilets plus FODDC Coleford building, cemeteries and play areas. This will give us feedback on the use of the document. Next stage will involve people living with dementia before remedial action taken. Information will then be posted on our website (and perhaps a press release).
2RH have started using to review their community accessible spaces.
Part of CEO forward plan and FODDAA.

Objective 5 To work with and strengthen our understanding of local communities and their changing needs

Status Icon / Action / Due Date / Progress Bar / Responsible Group / Latest Note
/ EQ 5.01 Develop a schedule of Equality Impact Assessment’s and agree with the relevant managers/officers / 30-Sep-2016 / / Corporate Support Team / 07-Feb-2017 The schedule is in place and being monitored by the Officer Group
/ EQ 5.02 Undertake the Equality Impact Assessments as identified in the EIA Schedule / 31-Mar-2017 / / Corporate Support Team
/ EQ 5.03 Review the Equality Impact Assessment template / 31-Mar-2017 / / Corporate Support Team / 05-Jun-2017 The EIA template and guidance has been reviewed and updated jointly with Chelt, West Ox and Cotswold. Out for comment with other officers.

Objective 6 To improve access to our services and opportunities to influence them

Status Icon / Action / Due Date / Progress Bar / Responsible Group / Latest Note
/ EQ 6.01 Organise 4 Community Transport forums – October 2016 and a further 4 by March 2017 / 31-Mar-2017 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 03-Feb-2017 16 forums booked in Two Rivers housing venues in partnership with Healthy Lifestyles, CT partners and Two Rivers officers for Jan – March 2017
/ EQ 6.02 Review and update Marketing and Volunteer Strategy and implement identified changes / 31-Mar-2017 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 25-Nov-2016 Marketing strategy updated (version 1.2). Volunteer strategy updated (version 2.0). Project engagement officer working on recruiting volunteers more locally. Also looking at how the project can recruit volunteers from local businesses, in particular those coming up to retirement.
/ EQ 6.03 Evaluate the year on year increase in the number of young, older and vulnerable people using Community Transport since the start of the project / 31-Oct-2016 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 25-Nov-2016 Each transport partner maintains their own user information. Additional equality questions are purposely not asked due to the vulnerable nature of users. Drive data (number of passengers and new members) is maintained by the project. This programme targets everyone who does not have regular access to other forms of transport, being equitable and targeting everyone district-wide.
up and running. Working with GCC on the Total Transport project – a one-stop transport website for the county.
/ EQ 6.04 Implement a new internet site / 31-Dec-2016 / / ICT, Change and Customer Services Shared Service / 28-Nov-2016 Project on track. Will be moving onto content testing phase using scripts in the next week or so. Whole site testing is a huge task with website on track at present to go live end Jan 17.
Status Icon / Action / Due Date / Progress Bar / Responsible Group / Latest Note
/ EQ 6.05 Involve young people age 11-19 (and up to age 25 with additional needs) in the decision making process for the Youth Activities Fund 2016-17, to ensure young people influence grant allocations. / 31-Mar-2017 / / Community, Client and Commercial Group / 25-Nov-2016 An online survey has been used district wide by young people from a variety of groups, clubs and projects. Young people from several groups will also be involved directly at their club by participating in dot voting activities. Round 2 of the funding has been allocated. Consultation took place with almost 600 responses giving us feedback on what should be funded. 230 of these ‘youth’ responses were face to face by directly visiting youth groups to talk about their needs and getting them to vote for their top 3 projects. The remainder of responses were though survey monkey and paper replies.

Objective 7 To regularly monitor, review and report on progress of the scheme

Status Icon / Action / Due Date / Progress Bar / Responsible Group / Latest Note
/ EQ 7.01 Develop the Equality Action Plan and load on to Covalent / 23-Sep-2016 / / Corporate Support Team / 16-Sep-2016 Action plan compiled and loaded into covalent.
/ EQ 7.02 Hold Corporate Equality Officer Group meetings around every two months as required / 31-Mar-2017 / / Corporate Support Team
/ EQ 7.03 Liaise with the Equality Member Champion on a regular basis raising issues as necessary / 31-Mar-2017 / / Corporate Support Team
/ EQ 7.04 Liaise with the Chelthenham, West Oxfordshire and Cotswolds officers responsible for equalities to investigate opportunities to collaborate. / 31-Mar-2017 / / Corporate Support Team / 07-Feb-2017 We have developed a joint equality policy to be approved by Cabinets Mar/Apr. The Corporate Support Officer is currently working joint underpinning documents to support the policy.