Issue - meetings

To consider the Annual Equality Workforce Monitoring Report.

The Board considered the Annual Equality Workforce Monitoring Report.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·         The annual report provided information on employees obtained from the Council’s monitoring processes and procedures, which allowed the Council to meet the reporting requirements outlined in the Equality Act 2010.  The report had been produced by the Employment Equalities Working Group and took account of both the Employment Tribunal Findings and the Tackling Racism at Work feedback.

·         Whilst the report was usually presented in July to the Personnel Board, it had been delayed because of Covid 19 and also to take account of learning from Black Lives Matter.

·         Councillor Weeks noted that 30% of staff had not declared whether they had a disability or not.  He commented that it was difficult for managers to support staff appropriately if they did not know that they had a disability, as some disabilities were hidden.  He questioned whether it should be a requirement of recruitment for the candidate to declare if they had a disability or not.  Sarah Swindley commented that candidates were asked whether they required reasonable adjustments for the interview process.

·         Councillor Ferris felt that the percentage of staff not declaring if they had a disability or not, was high, and questioned whether there were any links with the two cases against the Council.  Sarah Swindley indicated that there were no links between the two cases and that the percentage of staff declaring if they had a disability or not had increased year on year, albeit very slightly.

·         The Council wanted to improve on the number of staff entering their data into the Business World On System, and there was a real push to increase this.

·         Councillor Doran noted that there has been a significant increase in formal staff proceedings involving staff from ethnic minorities.  He asked what measures were being put in place to address this.  Sarah Swindley indicated that a thematic review of grievances had been carried out and that it had been found that they were across different directorates and for different reasons.  Discussions with UNISON were actively taking place and there was no hint of systemic racism.

·         Councillor Helliar Symons expressed concern regarding the number of leavers up to the age of 39.  Sarah Swindley commented that there were more starters than leavers in that age group, and that there were many reasons why people left the organisation, such as career expansion.

·         Councillor Helliar Symons asked whether exit interviews were conducted and was informed that there was a self-service toolkit that managers could use to undertake exit interviews.  Alternatively, staff could undertake an exit interview survey online, which was sent to HR.

RESOLVED:  That the 2020 - 2021 Annual Equality Workforce Monitoring Report be approved.