Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2021 – 2023

Our equality, diversity and inclusion objectives reflect the cross-cutting themes in our Council Plan and People Strategy.

These five objectives relate to each aspect of the Council’s role as an employer, a provider of services and in our public sector equality duty in bringing communities together.

Narrowing the gap

We will improve outcomes for our residents, with a focus on narrowing the gap between different communities and seek to ensure that individuals have equal opportunity to fulfil their potential.

Why is this important?

The Council has duties and powers to provide a wide range of services. Many of these services can play a role in delivery equality of opportunity. The challenges we face need action by a range of stakeholders and the Council has a leading role to play in bringing together agencies across the private, public and voluntary sector to tackle inequalities and exclusion across the borough.

Community involvement

We will engage openly with our residents and service users, seeking to capture all points of view to make better informed decisions. Wherever possible, we will use the talents and skills within our communities to co-design and commission better services. We will work widely to involve local people and abide by the Council’s Charter for Public Participation.

Why is this important?

Empowering communities, involving them in decision making and listening to the lived experiences of all our residents is a key goal for the Council. We cannot tackle inequalities and exclusion without fostering good relations between people and understanding our diverse communities.

Prevention and early intervention

By focusing on prevention and early intervention, particularly in Adults; and Children’s Services, we can ensure that health and social care needs of the whole community are being addressed now and, in the future, for adults, children and families. Our approaches to prevention and early intervention have to be tailored to different communities and draw on the strengths of those communities.

Why is this important?

Early intervention means identifying and providing effective early support to those who are at risk of poor outcomes. Effective early intervention works to prevent problems occurring, or to tackle them head-on when they do, before problems get worse. It also helps to foster a whole set of personal strengths and skills that prepare a child for adult life.

Increasing diversity

We will aim to increase the diversity of our workforce at every level to more closely reflect our residents and service users and bring it closer to our communities. Having a workforce that is diverse in the widest possible sense and in which diversity of background and thought is valued.

Why is this important?

To achieve our vision, we must develop a culture that has inclusion and equality at the heart of everything we do. Having a diverse workforce brings a diversity of experiences and perspectives which will help us better meet the needs of residents. This is not just about the Council’s role as an employer but a genuinely inclusive and diverse organisation is the foundation of commissioning and delivering services that meet the needs of our diverse communities and treat citizens with respect.

Building an inclusive workforce and cohesive borough

To help attract, recruit and retain the best people for the job, we will develop an open, collaborative and inclusive working environment where the principles of fairness and wellbeing is promoted, and everyone is encouraged to reach their full potential.

Why is this important?

Creating a culture which embeds equality and inclusion across our activities, and adopting the right leadership model, structures and processes will enable us to achieve the high standards we have identified for ourselves. This means showing that we value diversity in how we all speak and behave every day, not just when we are talking about equality. To achieve our vision, we must develop a culture that has inclusion and equality at the heart of everything we do. Inclusive cultures do not just happen, our leaders, managers and all our employees must understand and model inclusive behaviours.

 

Delivering our objectives

We intend to deliver on our five objectives in the following ways:

Service delivery

We will involve our residents in shaping and delivering services that anticipate and respond appropriately to the needs of our diverse community. To do this, we will:

• Identify and remove barriers that may prevent certain groups from engaging with the Council, in order to shape the services that matter to them;
• Foster a culture of learning and continuous improvement, using evidence (data and feedback from our diverse service users) to inform our approach;
• Provide services that are fair, relevant and accessible to the communities we serve;
• Reaching out to and in to communities to learn what works well for them;
• Make all Council buildings accessible where practicable;
• Make all Council communications accessible, and provide interpretation and translation where appropriate;
• Provide relevant equality, diversity and inclusion training to all our employees to improve the way in which services are delivered to our diverse communities;
• Monitor and review services and policies to prevent unlawful or unjustified discrimination and aim to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relationships with our diverse communities.

Our workforce

We will recruit, develop and retain a workforce that reflects the diversity of our residents, and we will leverage that rich diversity to grow the skills, talent and innovative thinking needed to continuously improve the quality and delivery of our services. To do this, we will:

• Develop an inclusive and flexible working culture that values and respects difference;
• Work to build a workforce that at every level more closely reflects diverse service users and residents;
• Provide a safe and accessible workplace where differing needs are actively anticipated;
• Take action to ensure a working environment that is free from unlawful discrimination and harassment;
• Provide equal access to learning and development opportunities for all employees;
• Encourage and support all employees to be involved and reach their full potential;
• Establish recruitment processes that are fair, transparent and fully accessible;
• Establish an open and transparent equal pay policy.

Procurement, commissioning and supply chain

We will commission high quality services that respond effectively and sensitively to differing needs and, where possible, are provided by those who understand and reflect our service user demographics. To do this, we will:

• Set expectations through our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Procurement Policy, that contractors, suppliers and funded service providers abide by the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty by providing an effective and appropriate service to all communities on our behalf;
• Encourage locally owned and run businesses to bid for work, through market engagement, when advertising a contract.

Monitoring impact

We will continuously check and review the services we provide, learning from data and information we gather, alongside what our residents and employees tell us. To do this, we will:

• Monitor equality data to ensure that our services and employment opportunities are accessible to all;
• Use evidence to help us to design our services and ensure our workforce reflects the people we serve;
• Complete Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) to consider the impact that our policies and decisions may have on different groups;
• Where possible, collect diversity information about our residents and service users to inform our policies and services to effectively meet service user needs;
• Collect diversity information about our employees and use it to check that our employment policies and practices are fair, open and transparent and to help us build an accessible and inclusive working environment;
• Share best practice with our partners so that we can collaborate, learn from others and improve.

Making it happen

This strategy sets out want how we will put our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion into practice. We are committed to being a learning organisation, working to improve our practice and seeking to address inequality in Kensington and Chelsea.

We will publish information on an annual basis as part of the update to the Council Plan 2019-2023 explaining the progress we are making towards achieving our equality objectives and review how we are doing. We will also seek to listen to and understand the diverse needs of communities and improve how we collect information across different services so we can understand impact.

Everyone working for or representing the Council has a part to play in achieving the aims of this strategy. We want to be open and transparent about our progress, sharing information and learning from experience. We will review our equality objectives in line with the renewal of the Council Plan or more regularly where there has been a clear change of needs or significant new data.

Contact us

Information from this document can be made available in alternative formats and in different languages. 

If you require information in a different format or need additional assistance, please email us at [email protected].