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The Equality Standard for Local Government

In  2004 Cabinet adopted the Equality Standard for Local Government (the Standard). The Standard has been developed as tool to enable local authorities to mainstream disability, gender and race equality into equality policy, practice and procedure at all levels. The Standard offers a level by level approach with key processes under each of the five levels for building equalities into all aspects of policy making, service delivery and employment.

In September 2004 the Council adopted a revised Equality and Diversity Policy, which is now on the Council's website.

Revised Equality and Diversity Policy

Read the results of the feedback received during the consultation process Consultation Feedback  (284.23 KB)

The Council has been through levels 1 and 2 and had prepared itself to meet level 3. which involved having an assessment carried out by assessors from other authorities. This process is called a Peer Challenge.

The Improvement and Development Agency’s (IDeA) Peer Challenge for level 3 of the Equality Standard has been introduced to support the progress of local councils in mainstreaming equality and diversity in employment and service delivery. The Peer Challenge assessment framework is based on the Equality Standard and provides a basis from which authorities can progress to levels 4 and 5 of the Standard. It has been developed with the assistance of a number of councils and tested in a series of pilot assessments.

We at  Worcestershire County Council have self assessed at Level 3.

To achieve level 3 of the Equality Standard, a Council will have to demonstrate:

• That it has implemented a strategy for participation of designated community, staff and stakeholder groups in setting objectives of employment and service delivery
• That it has set equality objectives throughout the council for race, gender and disability for employment, pay and service delivery based on impact assessments and the participation strategy
• By March 2009, that it has set equality objectives throughout the council for sexual orientation, age, religion or belief for employment, pay and service delivery based on impact assessment and the participation strategy
• That equality objectives have been translated into action plans with specific targets
• That it is developing information and monitoring systems that allow it to assess progress in achieving targets
• That action on achieving targets has started
• That progress has been verified through self-assessment and scrutiny and has been validated externally through an accredited assessor. In doing this the council should be able to show that it has fully embedded levels 1 and 2 of the Equality Standard.

The peer assessors have now completed their assessment and we are pleased to announce that  we have successfully achieved level 3.

This Standard is now changing its framework and so there will be only 3 levels – these will be Emerging, Achieving and Excellent. Work done to date on the Equality Standard for Local Government (ESLG) will automatically count towards the new ESLG. If you are currently at Level 1 or 2 you can automatically claim to be at the Emerging level. If you are at Level 3 you can claim to be at the Achieving level. If you are at Level 4 you can claim to be ‘Moving towards Excellence’ and those at level 5 can claim to be Excellent

If you are interested to find out more about the Equality Standard and our progress please contact Rukhsana Koser; Corporate Diversity Manager on 01905 766938.