Equality Impact Assessment Form

Equality Impact Assessment Form

Part 1: Initial Screening

1. Persons responsible for this assessment:

Name: Nic Davis / Telephone: 425446
Service: Strategic Planning and Policy / E-Mail:
Directorate: C&ACD / Date of Assessment: July 2010

2. Name of the policy, service, strategy, procedure or function:

Fairer Contributions
Is this new or an existing one? Existing amended

3. Briefly describe its aims and objectives

Sets out the framework for how people will make financial contributions towards their personal budget

4. Who is intended to benefit from it and in what way?

All service users because the new system will address an inequity in our current system that meant people were charged different amounts depending on what services they choose.
The Local Authority in that some in-house or council commissioned services were previously subsidised so the true cost of providing them was not known. This is a barrier to people making best value decisions when deciding what support they wanted.
The increased revenue raised will help ensure that we can provide services to all people that are eligible in the future.

What outcomes are expected?

Raise £422,000 Additional income which is an 8.1% rise in the total income of £5,173,731 already collected for non-residential social care services and would effectively mean that the Council will be realising the full potential of charging for non-residential social care services.

The cost of in house services will be known and can be considered, ongoing, when creating value for money solutions during the support planning process to meet the assessed needs of people.

6. Have you consulted on this policy, service, strategy, procedure or function?

Yes
Details of consultation

Service Users who will affected by the proposed changes to the way we charge for non-residential services - questionnaires

Health & Community Well-Being Strategy Group (Gloucestershire Assembly) – attendance at meeting
Cheltenham Bengali Centre – visit and discussion at the Bengali Centre
Carers’ Forum Meeting (1 day and 1 evening sessions) – presentation and workshop sessions
Carers Support Group – visit and discussion
Chinese Community Association- visit and discussion
Information broadcast to wider BME community via GFM

7. What evidence has been used for this assessment?

Information and feedback provided via consultation

8. Could a particular group be affected differently in either a negative or positive way?

Please evidence that you have used the Consultation toolkit and planning template

Negative / Positive / Neutral / Evidence
Age /  /  /  / The contributions some people make will increase. This will mean they will be financially worse off. But it is one of the ways to ensure that people who develop needs in the future are able to be provided with the support they are assessed as needing.
Disability /  /  / 
Gender including Transgender /  /  / 
Race including Gypsy and Traveller /  /  / 

Religion or Belief

/  /  / 
Sexual orientation /  /  / 
Other groups
Carers /  /  / Increases in the money someone will have to pay for the support they need may lead to some people refusing services and putting more pressure on informal carers.

Community cohesion

/ Describe how the proposed activity, policy, strategy, service, procedure or functions will contribute to Community Cohesion.
You will need to consider;

is there equality between those who will and won’t benefit from the proposal
are there strong relationships between groups and communities in the area affected and will the proposed action promote positive relationships
does the proposal bring groups/ communities into increased contact with each other

/ This policy will help to ameliorate the inequity between people who have chosen in-house day services or LA commissioned domiciliary care services (whose service choices have been subsidised via charge capping) and those who have chosen other ways of meeting their needs. Remembering that direct payments are the main route to people being able to commission a personalised service.

9. If you have identified a negative impact in Question 8 complete this section

Are there any other policies, services, strategies, procedures or functions that need to be assessed alongside this screening?
Yes – in particular the combined impact of this alongside a personal budget that has been “deflated” by the resource allocation process.
If Yes, please identify which groups are affected
All
Should the policy, service, strategy, procedure or function proceed to a full Equality Impact Assessment?
Yes – but as part of mainstreaming the self directed support process and with local monitoring of the impact on all groups.
If the answer is no please give reasons for this decision
Date by which full Equality Impact Assessment is to be completed
March 2011

Declaration

We are satisfied that an initial screening has been carried out on this policy, service, strategy, procedure or function * (delete those which do not apply) and a full Equality Impact Assessment is / is not required.

We understand that the Equality Impact Assessment is required by the County Council and that we take responsibility for the completion and quality of this assessment

Completed by: Nic Davis / Date: 24/10/2010

Role: Principal Planning & Policy Officer

Countersigned by Head of ServiceDate:

Date for Review: March 2011

Please forward an electronic copy to the Equalities Team by emailing

The original signed hard copy and electronic copy should be kept with your team for audit purposes.

Part 2: Full Assessment

10. Summarise the negative impacts for each group(s) identified in section 8:

Use the Consultation planning template and database to help you to complete this section

Merge 11 What previous consultation has taken place or will take place with each equality group either externally or internally?

12. Who was consulted and/or what research was carried out?

13. What does the consultation indicate about the negative impact?

14. Age

What changes do you propose to make to the policy, service, strategy, procedure or function as a result of research and/or consultation?