The Wealden Equality Scheme 2005-2008
Equality Principles and Values
The Council promotes equality of opportunity and good race relations for all individuals and communities in Wealden.
We comply with all relevant legislation to ensure that our services and employment opportunities are provided fairly to everyone.
We know that there are many forms of prejudice and discrimination, for example on the grounds of ethnic background, gender, age, marital status, disability, religion or sexual orientation.
We are working to ensure equality and diversity and will continue to work with others in the community to promote and achieve this.
Equality Scheme
Our aim is that every person who has contact with the Council receives equality of service and is treated with courtesy and respect.
Our Equality Scheme sets out what we are doing to:
Ensure Equal Access To Services
We aim to ensure everyone can use our services. We do this by engaging all sectors of the community and auditing our services to make sure we promote equality.
Assess The Impact Of New Policies
We assess proposed new policies to see if there will be an impact on race relations or equal opportunities and to prevent unfair discrimination.
Ensure Complaints Are Dealt With Fairly
We will investigate complaints about discrimination and harassment in accordance with clear written procedures.
Train Our Staff And Councillors
We are training our staff and councillors to raise their awareness of equality and diversity issues and to make sure everyone understands our expectation that colleagues, prospective colleagues, and the public will be treated fairly and with courtesy.
Ensure Equality And Diversity In Recruitment
We want a skilled and diverse workforce and so we work hard to ensure equality in how we recruit and treat our staff. Decisions are based on objective criteria and benefits are applied fairly.
In order to attract applications from the whole community, we work with local advocacy groups, advertise widely, participate in recruitment events and promote flexible working.
Monitor Our Progress And Publish The Results
We collect and monitor employment information by ethnic background, gender, age, marital status and disability. The results are included as an annex to the Equality Scheme.
We are also developing ways of monitoring use of and satisfaction with our services by ethnic background and disability to ensure there are no differences in the way those groups are treated.
If you require a written copy of this document (in normal or large print) please telephone 01892 602743.
