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Equality Impact Assessment: East Locality – Refresh March 2010

The County Council definition of equality based on The Equalities Review (February 2007) is:

‘An equal society protects and promotes equal, real freedom and substantive opportunity to live in the ways people value and would choose, so that everyone can flourish.

An equal society recognises people’s different needs, situations and goals and removes the barriers that limit what people can do and can be.’

An Equality Impact Assessment is a review of the County Council’s functions to make sure that they work to this definition of an Equal society. Each Directorate has to make sure that its key functions are supported by an Equality Impact Assessment and that the actions feed into Service Plans and appraisals.

Equality Impact Assessments need to address impact across the following eight areas:

Ethnicity Religion/belief Gender Disability Sexuality Age Rurality Community Cohesion

As a Local Authority we have a legal obligation to carry out Equality Impact Assessments of all policies.

Directorate / Children’s Services
Unit / East Locality
Function/Strategy that this EIA is addressing / All Children’s Services provided in the locality
Policies and procedures affected by this EIA (list if relevant) / All E.g. Inclusive Cumbria, Aiming High,

Aims of policy or procedure being assessed

Purpose of the EIA / Provide understanding of equalities issues for East Cumbria locality within context of county.
Does the EIA support any of the National Indicator Set? / Yes
Does the EIA link to any strategies? / Yes
Who is intended to benefit from the EIA? / Children and families and wider community in East Cumbria
Scope of the EIA:
·  One directorate
·  Cross directorate
·  Outsourced organisation / Section of one directorate – Children’s Services

Phase 1: Gathering information

List examples of background information that you think are relevant. This may include official statistics such as Census or Household Survey information, or data held by the organisation, such as service uptake, workforce or complaints data.

Please include any findings from staff, community or stakeholder consultation that have a bearing on equalities.

Information from focus groups and consultation should also be included where you think it is relevant.

Type of information / Findings
A range of information is available across directorate. E.g. ICS, EMS, Cumbria observatory. Local consultation and evaluation of local activity. / Discussion with local managers and also at Local Planning Group (South Lakeland) regarding equalities noted that there is a wealth of data from difference sources – including qualitative information from consultations and community based events for the East that is not held in one place.
Having the voice of a range of children, young people and families is central to developing the understanding of how the equalities actions are impacting and can be strengthened in the East area. This has begun to emerge through the work of the Aiming

Phase 2 Screening for Impacts

From the evidence you have seen, please indicate where you think the policy impacts on a particular group. Please also indicate where you think the policy is having a good impact in promoting equality and diversity.

This is a first draft and based on meetings / discussions with local managers and their knowledge. East Locality only recently formed, so the capacity to locate and analyse data is limited at present.

All equality strands: Any issue that cuts across ethnicity, age, gender, disability, religion/belief, sexuality and rurality.

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact
Curriculum in schools
‘Have you crossed the line’ policy
Policies available on intra-net. / Negative impact
Lack of viable corporate CCC image – could do with posters along the lines of the 6 council themes on equalities. / Further action required?
y
Rurality / High amount of EBD
Special Schools / Opportunity for day placements for Cumbria children so don’t remove from home.
Location of locality teams in Kendal and Penrith from Barrow and Carlisle / Funding does not take into account rurality – therefore services are reduced c/f urban area due to costs of time / travel linked to the provision of these services. The net result is that communities with significant rurality have reduced levels of provision c/f same level of funding in urban areas.
E.g. where free school meals key to formula funding East has low incidence of need. Change the formula to one based on take up of family tax credits and the levels of need are more evident.
Negative interaction with village communities.
Travel time to deliver services(X5)
Lack of transport (X2) or over-reliance on own.
Distance e.g. 70miles return to PRU from Appleby (X2)
Access to wider services – CAMHS, PRU, Family Centre (X3)
No family centre – contact X3)
Distance for best evidence interviews.
No rural weighting in funding.
Having to move out of area for placement (X2)
Placement around large geographic area inhibits contact.
Affects school placements etc.
Children Looked After / “ / Formation of dedicated CLA team covering East area. / Lack of foster carers in Penrith.
Lack of available carers.
Lack of services.
No family centre.

Ethnicity: All ethnic groups recognised under the Race relations Act including Asian, Black, East Asian and white minority ethnic groups, including Eastern Europeans and Gypsy Travellers.

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact / Negative impact / Further action required?
Profile of staff due in 2009 via Midland Trent
Changing Population / Multi cultural society in Barrow (covers S.Lakes) (X2) / Population – hidden.
Limited foster carers.
Cultural resistance to integration of ethnic minorities.
Travellers / Kendal College – course on English as a second language. (X2)
Services in Barrow, Furness and Kendal.
Major UK event – Appleby Horse Fair in June each year with DCSF supported project ‘On the Hoof’ / Low recorded level of children from travellers families within Cumbria schools – reported by staff to be at a higher level
Language Support Services / Language Line.
Appointment to SATS of Teacher EOL / Limited experience of using language line.
Exclusions.
Nothing in place in Eden for large population of families from Eastern Europe.
Multi – cultural / Increasingly multi – cultural arts activity across Area – as evidenced in programmes from main arts organisations.
Partners supporting activity such as event for Polish Community organised by Impact / Barrow viewed as being more multi-cultural
Racism / Racist attacks in Penrith.
Bullying.

Disability: All forms of disability recognised under the Disability Discrimination Act including sensory impairment, mental health, learning disabilities, mobility related conditions, conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma.

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact / Negative impact / Further action required?
Accessibility / Yes / Some examples of excellent new architecture E.G Eden Leisure Centre in terms of physically accessible buildings / facilities. / Poor in CCC premises (X3)
Would have limited space for employing staff (no disabled staff so everyone uses it).
No disabled parking in Penrith (X3)
No lift in Kendal Condor Block and Busher House (X2).
Very hard to re-align use of Busher House, Kendal for disabled staff to work effectively there due to presence of Made in Cumbria. Organisation refusing to re-locate cupboard storage to elsewhere on site so space can be turned into a ground floor office for blue badge holder staff.
Local Planning Groups / YES / Need to form Disabilities task group for Eden LPG / Group in place for South Lakes and looking to work more closely with Aiming High group
Disability Profile of staff due in 2009 via Midland Trent
Support Services / N/A. / Difficult to assess as these services spread across many varying locations.

Gender: including men, women and transgender people.

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact / Negative impact / Further action required?
Accessibility / N. / No gents’ toilet in Busher House only shared disabled.
Gender Profile of staff due in 2009 via Midland Trent
Services for babies / Y & N / Ground floors good in most areas. / Nothing beyond reception areas.

Sexuality: including heterosexual, gay, lesbian and bisexual people

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact / Negative impact / Further action required?
Sexuality / Y / Some work by partners for young people via youth services. / Low profile and therefore less attention paid to facilitating for GLBT.

Age: Where a person is at risk of unfair treatment because of their age group

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact / Negative impact / Further action required?
Age profile of staff due in 2009 via Midland Trent
Y / Establishment of LSP with sub groups for Children and young people / East has a particularly high ageing profile for Cumbria.
Perception that young people not valued / prioritised within some sections of community.
Young Carers / Y / Close working relationship with Eden Young Carers. / Lack of take up of services by vulnerable families in East results thought to be part of reason for numbers of known young carers.
No presence in Kendal – long reach from Carlisle to Penrith; Barrow to Kendal.

Religion/belief: all faiths including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and non religious beliefs such as Humanism

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact / Negative impact / Further action required?
Religion/belief / Y / Development of schools curriculum – for all children. / Schools haven’t responded to anticipated increase in migrant workers.

Rurality: People who experience disadvantage or deprivation because they live in a rural community.

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact / Negative impact / Further action required?

Community Cohesion: This is where a decision or a change to services may risk creating tensions between community groups in a local area. An example may be the impact of a school closure on relations between different neighbourhoods in the catchment area, or where a strategy or a service creates segregation between young and old people, or people from different ethnic communities.

Issue / Impact
Yes
No
Potential / Positive Impact / Negative impact / Further action required?
Family centre development / East has schools with low numbers in rural communities and any changes to school organisation impacts hugely on communities
Y / Levels of reported race incidents to police in Windermere and Milnthorpe need exploring further.

Phase 3: Action Planning

The action plan needs to feed into Performance Plus and be reviewed by the Directorate Equality Lead Officer.

Area for further action / Actions proposed / Lead officer / When / Resource implications / Outcome
Look at EIA (versoin 08 12 18) more closely within East area / Discussion of EIA at Q3 East area performance review day / P Norris / 28th Jan 2009 / none / Improved data and understanding
Discussion at Local Planning Groups / P Norris / 13th Jan 2009 Eden; 14th Jan South Lakes / none / Improved data and understanding across LPG for Eden and South Lakes
Consultation with staff in East Area / Circulation to staff for comments / P Norris / January 2009 / non / Improved data and understanding
Improve sharing /synthesis of equalities information / Discuss at locality project steering group and with equalities officer / Tbd but includes senior East locality managers / During 2009 / Yes – staffing and ICT / Up to date, widely endorsed and comprehensive understanding of equalities that informs provision of services
Profile of staff / To draw information from Midland Trent system when up and running in 2009 / A Kerrigan / Inform succession planning and staff development and recruitment strategies
Documents appended to the Equality Impact Assessment: None

Quality Assurance and EIA completion

Date completed / 18th Dec 2008
Lead officer / Pat Norris
EIA taken through Directorate Equality Group / No
Has staff been involved in developing the EIA? / Yes
Have AWAZ, Cumbria Disability Network and Outreach Cumbria been involved in the EIA? / No
Date of latest update of EIA / 18th Dec 2008

Cumbria County Council Equality Impact Assessment Proforma

Page 1 of 10 Version 2 March 2010