Policy approved by: / Adults, Health & Community Wellbeing Management Team
Date Policy approved:
Implementation Date:
Review Date:
Status: / Draft / Version no: / 2
Adults, Health & Community Wellbeing
Document Control Sheet
Title of Document: / Putting People First Equality Impact AssessmentPurpose of Document: / To examine the impact of the Putting People First Policy Suite on the community of Essex County Council
Type of Document: / Equality Impact Assessment
Target Audience: / Interested parties
Implementation Date: / Not applicable
Action required: / Adoption of the points raised in the Equalities Impact Assessment and implementation of the associated action plan.
This policy supersedes: / Not applicable
This policy should be read alongside: / The entire Putting People First Policy Suite
Lead Director: / Liz Chidgey
Policy Lead / Author: / Gillian McDonald/David Williams
Project Team: / Karen Wright, Amanda Julian, David Williams, Gay Leggett, Helen Terry, Kate Burke, Rebecca Halpin, Ethan Tucker
Date: / October 2008
Draft Versions only:
Comments to: / Gillian McDonald
Deadline:
Equality Impact Assessment, Putting People First
1. Introduction
1.1 As a provider of key services, Essex County Council (the Council) recognises the need to remove barriers which make it impossible or unduly difficult for people to access services. The priority is therefore to remain committed to removing physical, attitudinal and communications barriers.
1.2 The Council has a legal duty to monitor its policies and practices to ensure that they continue to reflect its objectives in set out in the Corporate Equalities Strategy and to determine how successfully it is achieving those objectives. This duty is specified in the general and specific duties laid out in key equalities legislation.
1.3 An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is a tool to test the impact of new and existing policies and services on people in the community. The assessment will help us to find out if there is any: adverse / negative impact; discrimination; or unmet need or requirements. The key purpose of an EIA is to identify direct and indirect discrimination, institutional or otherwise, and any gaps in service provision. Assessments inform the Council’s decision making processes to ensure that they meet the needs of everyone living in our community. The EIA also identifies areas of unmet need where new services may need to be developed.
1.4 This EIA considers the impact of the proposals of the Putting People First policy suite. Putting People First is intended to benefit all the community in Essex. The Council has specified the groups to which this policy should have particular regard as:
· women
· Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people
· disabled people
· children and young people
· older people
· faith groups
· lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people
1.5 This assessment also aims to identify additional groups of people in our communities who may be disadvantaged by the policies set out or the way that our services are delivered, for example people living in rural areas or living on very low incomes.
1.6 Although published as a separate report, this EIA is an integral part of the Putting People First policy suite. The EIA aims to identify particularly problematic or contentious issues, and suggest alternatives or mitigation measures for dealing with these issues.
1.7 The actions from this equality impact assessment will support service improvement across the Adults, Health and Community Wellbeing (AHCW) directorate by highlighting the pivotal importance of equalities and diversity practice within the Putting People First programme.
2. Guiding Principles
2.1 Personalised care is about ensuring that people’s needs are fully understood and support plans are developed in partnership with the individual who can direct their own support. This principle is at the core of the Putting People First protocol which describes the vision and commitment for the transformation of adult social care.
2.2 This EIA fulfils the Council’s legal duty to promote equalities issues through requirements set out in relevant legislation, but is also being undertaken to:
· ensure that the Self-Directed Support (SDS) policy suite promotes personalised services to meet the needs of a diverse range of people
· highlight and increase understanding of the key issues for diverse groups of people using services
· share and implement good practice in equality and diversity matters by responding to service users’ feedback; and
· develop a plan of action to monitor equality and diversity practice.
This EIA has been carried out using the existing Essex County Council Equalities Impact Assessment Framework.
The policies covered by this EIA are as follows:
Policy Governance Framework
Self-Directed Support Strategic Policy
Non-Residential Charging Policy
SDS Resource Allocation System Policy
SDS Income collection and Debt Recovery Policy
Reablement Policy
Support Planning Policy
Carers Policy
Delivery of Personal Budgets Policy
Risk Enablement Policy
Validation of Support Plans and Personal Budgets Policy
3. Scope and exclusions
3.1 This EIA applies to all policies in the Putting People First Policy Suite. Its findings will apply to all users and prospective users of services within Essex County Council.
4. Regulatory and policy context
4.1 The Council is committed to achieving its vision for the county of achieving the best possible quality of life for all those who live and work in the county. This EIA will enhance the life chances of all those who live and work in the county by addressing persistent inequalities. These inequalities often relate to age, disability, gender, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation and other groups who may face disadvantage and discrimination related to socio-economic issues, such as Gypsies and travellers.
4.2 Equality Legislation, General and Specific Duties
This impact assessment brings together the requirements of the equality legislation and statutory codes of practice:
§ Equal Pay Act 1970
§ Sex Discrimination Act 1975
§ Race Relations Act 1976
§ Disability Discrimination Act 1995
§ Gender Reassignment Regulations 1999
§ Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
§ Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
§ Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003
§ Civil Partnership Act 2004
§ Disability Discrimination Act 2005
§ Equality Act 2006
§ Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006
§ Human Rights Act 1998
Through this exercise AHCW will:
· assess whether implementing the Putting People First Policy Suite is likely to have any adverse/negative effect on any service user group; and
· alert commissioners and service providers of health and social care of the need to monitor the identified impact on these groups and make changes to mitigate any inequality.
4.3 Background
Equal and inclusive outcomes are enshrined within EssexWorks, the Council’s ambitions for the community. The Council is committed to tackling inequality and achieving social inclusion within the County, and will uphold its public duty to promote equality of opportunity. No member of the public, service user, elected member, employee, volunteer, agency worker, contractor or staff working with partner organisations will be unlawfully discriminated against because of their:
· race
· gender
· disability
· religion or belief
· sexual orientation
· age; or
· socio-economic status
4.4 The Council’s councillors and officers will work to:
· recognise and take account of people’s differences
· eliminate unlawful discrimination
· eliminate harassment
· promote good relations between different groups in the community
· promote equality of opportunity and inclusion; and
· remove barriers to accessing goods, facilities and services
4.5 All employees, commissioned services, contractors, partners and councillors are responsible for the promotion and delivery of our Corporate Equality Policy.
About Essex
4.6 Essex is a large county. It covers 1,300 square miles and is split into 12 Districts and Boroughs. The county is bordered to the north by Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire in the west and four London Boroughs in the south, with the unitary authorities of Southend and Thurrock in the South and South East. Stansted, London’s third airport, and the international seaport of Harwich provide vital transport links alongside a busy road and rail network.
4.7 Population growth in Essex is faster than the UK average. Growth is predicted to continue over the next 20 years. An additional 120,000 households are predicted over this timeframe. The current population is slightly older than the national average; more than a quarter of the population is predicted to be over 65 by then, compared to one in six people at present.
4.8 The county’s black and minority ethnic population (BME) is seen to be increasing in line with national trends; recent estimates suggest that 8.6% of Essex’s community are from BME communities, (compared to 2% in the 2001 Census). Essex hosts the largest Traveller site in Europe and has the highest concentration of Travellers nationally.
4.9 Women represent 46% of the population in Essex. Levels of disability in the county are lower than national averages. There are an estimated 11 million disabled adults in the United Kingdom (one in five of the total adult population) and 770,000 disabled children. Essex County has a population of 1,312,700, of which 137,150 (10.4 percent) stated they have a limiting long–term illness.[1] There are also 121,000 disabled working age adults in Essex[2].
4.10 There is a correlation between poor health and low income. For example, some of the more deprived areas of the County, Clacton, Basildon and Colchester have a high concentration of disabled people and people suffering from serious health problems.
4.11 The number of older people in Essex is growing faster than the UK average and this presents one of the Council’s most significant challenges[3]. The likelihood of developing a chronic disease or long-term condition increases with age and, as our population ages, levels of disability will increase sharply. Patterns of disability are also being affected as more premature babies survive and more children with complex and multiple disabilities live on into adulthood. However, the changes are not expected to occur uniformly across Essex as there are already considerable differences.
4.12 In the 20 years following the 2001 Census, Essex may experience a 45% increase in the over-65s and a 75% increase in the over-85s.
Other public health and social wellbeing issues affecting the Council’s work across the County include:
· By 2025, we can expect in the region of 50% increases in numbers of older residents with long-term conditions. For example, the number experiencing mobility problems is predicted to increase from 46,100 in 2001 to 68,400, and the number suffering from dementia is expected to increase from 22,300 to 33,500[4].
· Wide differences exist in the county’s mental health. For example, there is almost a 12-fold variation across the county in the rate of hospital admissions for mental illness.
· Levels of learning disability are significantly higher in north east Essex where former
residents of specialist hospitals have resettled locally.
· The increasing levels of disability – together with shifts in national and local policy towards independence and choice – will require radically different models of service delivery. We will need to make better use of technology, develop a wider range of supported housing options and give people greater control over the support they receive.
· For the majority of older people, staying in their own home and being cared for by members of their family is their preferred housing option. 74% are owner-occupiers but many cannot afford to adapt their home or keep it in good repair.
· Older people already make up more than 90% of users of housing-related support services. And around 80% of GP consultations involve people with long-term conditions.
· Almost 10% of our residents provide informal care to relatives, friends or neighbours. Approximately one third receive no support from either social services or the voluntary sector and just over a third are not satisfied with the support they get.
· Comparatively speaking, fewer people of working age will be available to care for and support older people; in Maldon the ratio is forecast to drop from nearly 4:1 to just over 2:1 over the next 25 years.
4.13 Essex features relatively high salaries when compared nationally, but seven areas in Essex are amongst the 10 percent most deprived, in terms of employment, in England. Slightly more of the working-age population have no formal qualifications when compared to the national average. In addition, 10 percent have a low level of literacy and nearly 50 percent have poor numeracy.
4.14 The County has identified, through its previous equalities work, three main themes that have emerged from working closely with disabled people, older and younger people and BME communities, not only through the information gathering exercise, but more specifically, from the ongoing consultation and relationship with service users. These themes are:
· making sure the views of Essex’s diverse communities are represented
· accessibility of Essex County Council information, services, buildings and job opportunities; and
· improving services to ensure they are more inclusive.
4.15 These themes will form an integral element of service improvement plans within relevant directorates.
SDS Strategic Policy Suite: Aims and Objectives
4.16 SDS is a new approach to the delivery of social care. It aims to deliver a more personalised system of care that better meets the challenges of the future and the assessed eligible needs of service users and their carers.
4.17 Giving service users and carers more choice and control over how they meet their eligible assessed needs in a competitive market will transform adult social care. It will encourage those services that best meet the needs of service users to thrive and promote better use of the resources available to meet support needs.
4.18 The policies that fall within this assessment are governed by the overarching SDS Strategic Policy document. Therefore for the purpose of this exercise the aims and objectives as identified in this document form the main basis of the assessment. This does not exclude the identification of negative impacts in the remainder of the policy suite which will also be highlighted as appropriate.