On 1^st December 2020 the Council’s Executive approved a new Equality Action Plan and instructed officers to report progress against the Plan to Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee on a regular basis. The report of the Interim Assistant Director, Office of the Chief Executive, (Document “M”) sets out the key actions and activities undertaken to date to progress delivery of the Council’s Equalities Plan and the priorities for the year ahead that will ensure on-going delivery against objectives.

Members are requested to consider the progress reported in Document “M” and the next steps set out in the Equity Plan.

(Khalida Ashrafi – 07816082796)

Members heard the on 1 December 2020, the Council’s Executive approved a new Equality Action Plan and instructed officers to report progress against the Plan to Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The report also covered the key actions and activities undertaken to date to progress delivery of the Council’s Equalities Plan and the priorities for the year ahead.

Members wanted to know if the Hate Crime Scrutiny Review recommendations, were taking into consideration.

In response officers indicated that they had taken into consideration the Hate Crime Scrutiny Review recommendations.

Members of the Committee stated that there had been a lack of leadership and not actually representing the ethnic minority communities that the District serves, as well as the language used in the report was still the same in terms of activities that were going to happen and when was something actually going to be delivered.  Moreover, members indicated that in future, they wanted quarterly performance reports in relation to Equalities to be presented to the committee.

In response, officers indicated that they were looking at wider participation in recruitment and had seen an increase in diversity in ethnicity and a little increase in senior roles.  As well as this officers also stated that they were looking at where posts were advertised and also considering development opportunities from within the Council.

Moreover, members of the Committee stated that equality objectives should not be really needed as they should be a part of peoples jobs and that they were concerned that this was not the case already.

Further to this members of Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee were very keen to explore further the financial implications and processes at a future meeting, in relation to the Stonewall Quality Standard.

Continuing on, members of the Committee highlighted that it appeared that a lot of work had been undertaking in this important area, however, there were still no clear outcomes as to how this work would actually benefit the Councils staff and the diverse communities that Bradford Council serves.

Officers responded by saying that they would be creating Equality Champions from staff, to address this.

Councillors said that Bradford Council never really attracted people form South Asian backgrounds into the very senior leadership roles and enquired as to whether they applied and received an interview.  Members felt that this was very important and that the Councils workforce needed to reflect the communities that it served.

In response officers from Bradford Councils Human Resources stated that they did not have a good understanding at what stopped people from applying for such jobs and that they tended to use the services of Head Hunting Organisations, that reach a very diverse background.

Resolved –

1.    This Committee requests that the delivery of the outcomes, in relation to the Equality Action Plan be presented to this Committee in February 2021.

2.    That quarterly performance reports be presented to this Committee.

3.    This Committee requests that a report be presented to this Committee in February 2022, in relation to the Stonewall Quality Standard and the process and costs associated with this.

(Khalida Ashrafi – 07816 082796)