The council's equality and inclusion commitment to you

The Equality Act 2010 replaced previous legislation and created a single legal framework, providing clearer, streamlined law that is more effective at tackling disadvantage and discrimination.  This Act protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.

Protected characteristics

The Act protects us from being treated less favourably because of certain characteristics. These are known as protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Sex
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or Belief
• Sexual Orientation

The Act provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.

The Public Sector Equality Duty, which is set out in the Equality Act 2010, requires us to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• advance equality of opportunity between different groups
• foster good relations between people from different groups

It describes fostering good relations as tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups.

The Equality Act also says that public bodies must pay 'due regard' to equality. This means that we must:

• remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics
• take steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people

The Act also states that meeting different needs involves taking steps to take account of disabled people’s disabilities.

It states that compliance with the duty may involve treating some people more favourably than others.

Undertaking Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) on new and/or revised policies or services is an effective way of identifying any positive or negative impact that the change may have on different people, according to their protected characteristics. This enables us to demonstrate that we have paid 'due regard' in coming to our decisions.

The law does not mean that no changes can be made, even if they have a negative effect on people. However, we must demonstrate that we have considered the impact that could happen and what steps we have put in place to mitigate against any negative impacts.

Our EIAs are available on our Policies and Procedures database by searching for Equality Impact Assessments.

The Equality Act 2010 requires us to publish our equality information on an annual basis. This includes demonstrating to you how we are delivering against our corporate equality objectives. We reviewed our equality objectives in January 2022 and between now and 2026 we will:

1. Deliver on the Race Equality Plan
2. Embed the Public Sector Equality Duty principles into our service delivery, commissioning and contract management processes
3. Continue to promote a culture of inclusion within SCC and to increase inclusion in service provision and evidence improved impact on service users with protected characteristics

You can read the Council’s EDI vision statement below:

SCC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Statement 

2022-2026 

Suffolk County Council is committed to being an inclusive organisation, supporting everyone so that they can reach their full potential.  We value the things that make us the same as well as the things that are different about us and we will promote a culture of inclusion, recognising and celebrating difference and acknowledging the benefits achieved by having a diverse workforce.Every individual recognises they have a responsibility to embed equality into everything we do, making our services and our places of work inclusive.  We are committed to the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion and to delivering our duties under the Equality Act 2010 and our WE ASPIRE Values.  We recognise that discrimination can occur and we will work together to eliminate it.We hold ourselves accountable for making positive change through commissioning and co-producing with communities in Suffolk, ensuring their voices are heard and valued.  We are committed to undertaking activities and reporting progress that demonstrate how SCC is addressing the barriers to inclusivity, tackling inequality and promoting inclusion.

Strategic Equality and Inclusion Board (SEIB) Meeting Update – September 2023

The SEIB meets quarterly to oversee the implementation of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) vision and objectives. Councillor Bobby Bennett chairs the meeting and all political groups are represented along with the Directorate EDI Champions, the Staff Network leads, the EDI and Race Equality Team and Union representatives.

At our last meeting in July, we:

• Reviewed the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) process which helps SCC meet our Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)
• Reported on how we used South Asian Heritage Month to provide resources for staff to learn more about the geography, history, and inequalities faced by members of this community as well as share local links with the community in Suffolk.
• Received a report from the d(D)eaf and Hearing Loss Network who are creating a new staff training module. 1 in 5 people (12 million) in the UK have a form of hearing loss or tinnitus and so it is essential that we learn how to better communicate with this group of staff and our service users.
• Received a report from the Women’s Network which is running monthly Menopause Cafes and has helped develop a training session for managers so that they can be more confident in providing support to their staff.
• The Health Forum initially started out to cover topics such as period health and products, but has branched out into other areas including Cervical Cancer Prevention, Bowel Cancer Screening and Endometriosis. A session on Men’s health was held in July and in the future there will be session for all on awareness and management of those at risk of, or who have family members with, diabetes.

Equality reports

Our published equality reports provide information about the: 

• profile of our workforce
• activities that have been undertaken across the organisation in the last year to support our equality objectives and embed equalities into all areas of work

Download our equality reports:

• Workforce Equality Report 2023 (PDF, 2MB)

Accessibility

Read about how we make the information on our website as accessible as possible. 

Interpreting and translating services

Suffolk County Council use INTRAN to provide our translation and interpreting services.

We use interpreters or translate information where someone would be at risk if they are unable to understand English. In other situations we will do so where appropriate and in response to identified need.

For any queries, or for more information, please contact

Adria Pittock, SCC Equality Lead:
adria.pittock@suffolk.gov.uk

Shelly Darwin, SCC Race Equality Lead:
shelly.darwin@suffolk.gov.uk