A councillor's workbook on equality, diversity and inclusion

Challenge 1

Which of the following statements for each principle of the Act are incorrect? The answers can be found at the end of the workbook.

The characteristics of a diverse society:
a) cultural, religious and lifestyle differences are accepted
b) all decisions must be politically correct
c) everyone is individually recognised for their different abilities and skills.                                                                         

The characteristics of an equal society:  
a) Each person feels that their background, experiences and viewpoints have validity and are respected.
b) The experiences we have and viewpoints we express are part of who we are, regardless of age, sex, race, religion, belief (or lack of it), sexual orientation or the effects of any disability.
c) Everyone should be given the same opportunity to access products and services and to fulfil their potential as an individual.
d) Every individual, or group of individuals, is treated fairly and according to their needs.
e) Everyone should be treated in the same way.                                                                                                              

The characteristics of an inclusive society:     
a) everyone has access to the services they need
b) everyone is able to do everything they want in life, regardless of their ability
c) everyone feels that they belong to their community.

Challenge 2: how different people experience council services differently

Can you think of any times when disabled people might experience council services differently from non-disabled people? For example, lack of access to council premises due to lack of disabled access. Or the absence of a hearing loop in reception services. 

What about people with different religious beliefs? For example, some Jewish people may find it hard to make appointments or come to the council on a Friday afternoon in the winter if they are observing the Sabbath.

When might older people experience services differently? For example, they may struggle with taking wheelie bins to the end of a road for emptying.

What sort of services do men and women, or boys and girls, experience differently? For example, some groups of boys are achieving lower levels of educational attainment than many groups of girls; women and men tend to be homeless for different reasons, so the solutions to re-housing them will need to be different.

Guidance

“Diversity is having a seat at the table.
Inclusion is having a voice.
Belonging is having that voice heard.”

Liz Fosslien (Author)

Guidance

‘An inclusive society is a society that overrides differences of race, gender, class, generation, and geography, and ensures inclusion, equality of opportunity as well as capability of all members of the society to determine an agreed set of social institutions that govern social interaction.’ 

United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Promoting Social Integration, Helsinki, July 2008

Useful links

You can find out more about The Inclusion Club, the seven pillars of inclusion and Play by the Rules at the following links:

The Inclusion Club 
The 7 pillars of inclusion
Play by the Rules
 

Challenge 3: inclusion at your council

consider your own council in terms of the seven pillars of inclusion and the diversity of your community:

what ‘inclusive’ services and policies are you aware of within your council?

how inclusive do you think your council’s services are at the present time?

are there any disadvantaged groups that could benefit from greater social inclusion?

Hints and tips: community engagement

In your role as a councillor, you not only have a legal duty to comply with the law but also to foster and encourage the development of inclusive communities. Here are some tips for bringing the whole community together in community engagement.

Know your community
Understanding local demographics and networks will help you to design appropriate engagement activities and communicate effectively.

Be transparent about community input
Let people know how their input will be used and how it shaped the project in the end results.

Go to the people
Be creative about the best way to gather community input. Visit people in a community setting, like a coffee shop or community centre.

Have a communications strategy
Consider project branding and key messages, as well as which communication channels and time frames will be most effective for reaching your whole community.

Check understanding
Avoid using jargon or technical terms that people may not understand. To make sure you understand your community, encourage them to express their experiences and opinions in their own words.

Create a safe environment
Everyone should be able to participate in engagement activities feeling that they can share their views and concerns without fear.

Network and reciprocate
You may need to engage in activities provided by communities and originations which are not ones you are familiar with, to better understand their issues. Then you can link them with your own causes and projects.

Remove barriers
Try to remove as many barriers as possible that will prevent people from attending. Consider things like time, location, childcare and whether you will need translators.

Use technology
Modern technology provides a plethora of ways to facilitate activities, communicate with the community and gather information. 

Make it fun!
Community engagement activities bring together people from the community who may not usually meet, so try to make activities fun and get people engaging with one another too.

Useful links

The ICMA (International City/County Management Association) is the world’s leading association of professional city and county managers and other employees who serve local governments. You can read more about inclusive community engagement on their website.

Useful links

You can read more about the links between poverty and social exclusion

Challenge 4: how well do you know your community?
As a councillor it is important that you have a good understanding of the diversity of your community, so that you can look for ways of improving social inclusion ensuring that every community member is included in having the opportunity to shape local services and council decisions.

How well do you know your community? Can you answer the following questions?

What are the statistics for crime, poverty, and mental health in your area?

What are the minority groups in your area? Consider ethnicity, culture, religion, age, and social status. Do you have contacts for these groups?

Consider the percentage of refugee or migrant populations in your area. What does it tell you about your council’s response to the needs of these communities? And the way they might access council services. 

Which groups are most vulnerable and why? Are there services provided specifically for them and if so, are these well communicated?

Are you connected with your LGBTQAI+ community? Do they have any specific concerns, and do they feel included in the community? 

What are the top three concerns of people in your area? Is this relevant to all groups in your community?

Are you well connected with and have contacts for local businesses, voluntary organisations, and charity groups?

What community events are there? Are these well attended by all groups in your community?

Do you proactively seek feedback from everyone in your community? How do you ensure your consultation s and community engagements reach everyone in your community? Is there anything else you could be doing? 

What are the local interest groups in your community? Do you have contacts for them?

Think about where you might find some useful information about your community. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Office for National Statistics
reports from council department
voluntary and academic institutions
LGA’s LG Inform research data.

Challenge 5: equality, diversity and inclusion policies at your council

Make sure you know where to find your council’s policies relating to equality, diversity and inclusion and familiarise yourself with them.

Find out any equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives that your council is undertaking.

Consider any strategic partnerships your council is involved in: how are third party organisations demonstrating that they meet their equality, diversity and inclusion requirements?

Useful links

You can find out more about the LGA’s Equality Framework for Local Government 

Case study: Stepping Up Programme - Bristol City Council

Stepping Up is a diversity leadership talent pipeline for disabled, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities and women in Bristol and the South West region. The programme began in January 2018 and has won local and national awards and continues to improve the diversity landscape it aimed to shift. The Programme runs for one year, and culminates with an award to participants at the end of the programme.

Data driven strategic change

It was recognised that there was a need for a positive action intervention due to the strong evidence that there was lack of diversity at senior leadership levels across the public and private sectors, which was supported by the Baroness McGregor-Smith report. Bristol has been on a mission to create a culture where transformational change was needed to enable a fair and transparent workplace where diversity could flourish. It was agreed that systemic and transformational change was needed. 

The Programme was so successful in its second year it was decided that a spin off community-based programme for Somali women called Horumour would be launched. This programme created a pathway for Somali women into the workplace.

Breaking New Ground

The vision was to create a system where the private, public, and voluntary sectors worked together. The driving force was to shift the needle in terms of the adoption of equality and inclusion best practice and talent management in major organisations across the city of Bristol and the wider South West region.

View the full Stepping Up Programme case study

Case study: Tackling inequalities and disproportionality – Camden Council

Following reports highlighting the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on people from Black, Asian, and other ethnic backgrounds, Camden Council established a working group of voluntary and community organisations, leaders, public health officials, councillors, and others

The group embarked on a six-week programme during the 2020 Summer to investigate the wide-ranging impacts of COVID-19, shine a light on existing structural inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic, and gather evidence of disproportionate impact quickly to take immediate action to protect residents, and develop a call to action to make long-term, substantive changes.

This programme produced Building Equal Foundations Report and Building Equal Foundations Action Plan. The report summarises the group’s findings and the evidence collected, while the action plan sets out 140 concrete actions to tackle racial inequalities and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in Camden. At the time of writing, many of these actions were completed, and almost all remaining were in progress to embed this progress in the council’s long-term everyday activities and services.

In addition, Camden Council created a new Equalities and Disproportionality Service in Autumn 2020. The Equalities and Disproportionality service oversees, monitors and steers work across council services, spanning six core priorities: Justice for Young People, Equality in Education for Young People, Inclusive Workplace, Tackling Racial Inequalities in Health, Social Value in Commissioning, Procuring and Governance, and Pan-London, National and International Work. A three-tiered governance approach was developed to support cross-council delivery of strategic and operational actions under each priority, including the delivery of the actions outlined in the Building Equal Foundations report

View Camden Council's full case study

Case study: enabling easy registration for Muslim residents
Bath and North East Somerset Register Office worked with the local Muslim community to make sure their rights were protected, and that their faith and way of life was respected.

Discussions between the register office and the Imam of a local mosque highlighted two key needs of the Muslim community that were not being addressed.

Muslims needing to bury someone need to register their death within 24 hours according to the Muslim faith.

The register office recognised that to meet this requirement, they would have an ‘on call’ system. As a result, the council put in place a group of all managers working on a rotational basis on the weekends with an emergency number on their website which could be accessed at all times.

It also became apparent that the Muslim community needed to recognise the importance of registering any Muslim marriages which take place in this country under English law, as Muslim marriage taking place in Britain is currently not legally recognised in this country.

The council registrars felt it was important to protect the rights of all citizens by assisting the imam in licensing the mosque for civil marriages.

The register office worked alongside the imam to gain a licence for civil marriages. Once in place, this gave all citizens the option of having a marriage under English law alongside their Muslim marriage.

Once licensing of civil marriages is achieved, the register office will work alongside the imam to inform all Muslim people throughout the region that they may register their marriage under English law within the mosque.

Case study: assessing disabled people’s requirements
Leicester City Council found that by reviewing their planning practices they not only made improvements for their disabled residents, but they also benefited by saving money and improving their reputation on future projects. (Source: Leicester City Council officials. See Equality Diversity Forum, 2013: ‘Submission to the Government’s Equality Duty Review'.

Between 2006 and 2008 a number of changes were made to Leicester city centre. The council assessed the impact of these changes and found that a number had an adverse effect on people with disabilities - for example, increased walking distances to the shops and loss of blue badge parking spaces.

To resolve these issues and to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future, Leicester City Council worked with voluntary sector organisations to listen to the experiences of blind and partially sighted people who used the city centre.

They also set up an Inclusive Design Advisory Panel (IDAP), with the purpose of advising council planners about the implications of their plans for disabled people. The panel is chaired by a councillor with an interest in inclusive design, and disabled people and disabled groups are involved in running it. To ensure that the needs of disabled people (such as parking) are met in the future, all planning and design projects now come through the panel.

This approach has proven to be cost-effective to the organisation. Before the panel’s existence, disabled people’s requirements in respect to access were often picked up too late, when projects were completed. Problems were then costly to rectify and bad for the council's reputation.

Case study: tackling gender-based violence
Lambeth Council aims to increase the number of women they support each year who are victims of violence.

Violence against women was considered to be a significant issue in Lambeth. Lambeth ranked as the highest volume borough in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) for serious violence against women and had the fifth highest volume of reported domestic violence offences out of the 15 most similar boroughs.

Existing services to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG) often duplicated one another and the services did not properly meet the needs of all service users, particularly younger women, and girls.

Lambeth published its first partnership VAWG strategy in 2011 which was supported by detailed qualitative research with survivors of violence in the borough. A major component and commitment of the strategy was the re-commissioning of the Gaia Centre, which is run by Refuge and brings together all services relating to VAWG under one roof to provide a better, more responsive, and more appropriate service for users. 

In recognition of the increase in concern and prevalence of VAWG affecting younger women and girls, the service specification for the Gaia Centre also contained a requirement for the provider to deliver a young women’s advocacy service. 

The service undertakes outreach work in schools, youth settings and colleges, to address the links between serious youth violence, gangs and the exploitation of young women and girls. Young women and girls who are at risk of gender-based violence, including risk from gang involvement and/or gang exploitation, are provided with a support service at the Gaia Centre.

The service aims to support around 1,200 women per year, an increase of 50 per cent on the previous provision.

You can find out more from Lambeth Council facts and figures

Case study: supporting schools to be LGBT-inclusive
Shropshire Council undertook an awareness and educational campaign to ensure schools understand the issues relevant to LGBT youths and how to support them effectively.

LGBT is the second highest hate crime in areas of Shropshire. Young LGTB people are recognised as particularly vulnerable, experiencing bullying, discrimination, and prejudice, with high levels of self-harm and suicidal ideation and attempts. They also have higher rates of non-attendance and under achievement at school, and participation in harmful, risky sexual behaviour and drug and alcohol use.

Strategic support for schools has been established and strong partnership working is in place with the voluntary sector. During 2016/17 schools in Shropshire received training on LGBT-inclusive relationships and sex education training (RSE), delivered by the Sex Education Forum and funded by the Government’s Equalities Unit.

A year later, funding was provided by the Shropshire Safer Partnership to enable every school to receive a book called ‘How to be a LGBT-friendly school or college’. The book advocates a whole school approach to recognising, celebrating and supporting diversity in relation to sexuality and gender identity.

In 2018, the Shropshire transgender guidance for schools and colleges was developed to complement the Respect Yourself curriculum, with the support of national expertise, head teachers, safeguarding and PSHE leads and in consultation with young people and members of the LGBT youth group, XYZ, run by the Shropshire Youth Association.

There were protests in response to the RSE teaching. In response, a joint leadership statement of support for the work was sent to all schools from the director of children’s services, lead councillor, Shropshire Safer Communities chair and chief police inspector. Schools also received information and contacts for staff, pupils, and parent support.

Read about the case study Shropshire Council: supporting schools to be LGBT inclusive

Case study: understanding more about the BAME community

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council took steps to improve the way it works with and supports Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals and communities.

As part of its corporate strategy, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council is committed to engaging with its diverse communities. In response to the killing of George Floyd by police in the USA, and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests in the UK, the Council’s Strategic Equality Leadership Group (SELG) established a new Equality Action Commission in 2020.

The commission has representation from councillors, community leaders and the Trade Union Congress. There are also representatives from the administration and opposition groups, as well as independent community representatives specifically from BAME communities. It meets quarterly and updates are given at each of the quarterly meetings of the Strategic Equality Leadership Group.

Although the commission’s starting point is BAME issues, it does recognise intersectionality and will move onto focusing on other disadvantaged groups defined under the Equality Act 2010, and has the flexibility to adapt its membership as appropriate.

The council believes that the commission is vital to help it understand more about the BAME community. Its first objective is to help guide the council to build trust amongst BAME residents, as well improving representation of BAME people in the council’s public profile and messaging.

The aims of the Equality Action Commission are to:

• review BCP Council’s current practices and what it could do to improve its understanding of the needs and vulnerabilities of BAME communities and individuals
• review and understand the impact of the council’s public profile and how it can encourage BAME communities and their representatives to engage with the council
• understand the experiences of BAME communities to enable the council to take appropriate actions which increase participation and representation and reduce marginalisation.

The commission is expected to address issues including:

• increasing BAME representation in senior management grades
• enhancing the range of images used in internal and external communications so that they are more representative of the communities served across the towns of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and reflective of the people employed across BCP Council and visitors to the area
• increasing trust and confidence from BAME residents/service users
• improving recognition of BAME people amongst recognised community leaders. 

Examples: types of discrimination

Direct discrimination
A promotion comes up at work. The employer believes that people’s memories get worse as they get older, so he does not tell his older employees about it, assuming that they will not be able to do the job.

Indirect discrimination
A council is planning to redevelop some of its housing and decides to hold consultation events in the evening. Many of the female residents complain that they cannot attend these meetings because of childcare responsibilities.

Discrimination by association
A job candidate attending an interview has clearly visible tattoos. The interviewer associates these with disruptive behaviour and does not want to hire them.

Discrimination by perception
A job applicant is overlooked because their name ‘sounds’ like it they might be from a particular racial or ethnic group.

Example: harassment in the workplace

The following example takes place in the workplace. However, you could also come across harassment as a community leader, either directly yourself or if one of your local residents has a protected characteristic and is being harassed.

New job application
Jane works for a company that has a flexible working policy. She works ‘normal office hours’, which are 9.30am-5.00pm, and she works from home for two days a week.

She applies for a new position in the company. Before applying, she checks that her terms of employment, i.e., her contracted days and hours, will remain the same, and that the only change will be in the work she carries out.

Agreement to continue with the same work pattern
During the interview, Jane explains that she is not able to work outside of her contracted hours due to her childcare arrangements. She is told that she can continue with the same work hours and her two days working from home, and she double checks this before accepting the position.

Out-of-hours workload
Soon after starting her new job, Jane’s manager starts giving her work to do which requires her to work outside of her contracted hours, sometimes including an overnight stay.

Even though Jane’s contract does not require her to work evenings and weekends, and that she was told her work pattern would not change, her manager implies that what he is asking is part of the role.

Jane explains to her manager that she mentioned at interview that she could not work outside of her contracted hours, and that this had been accepted when she took the role. She is within her rights to say this because according to her terms of employment she works normal office hours.

Harassment by manager and colleagues
Over the next six months, Jane believes that her manager subjects her work to a higher level of scrutiny and analysis than her colleagues’ work. He also starts to call her at 4.55pm on the days that she works from home, and she feels he is checking up on her.

In the office, Jane’s manager starts to make comments questioning her commitment to the role. In an appraisal, he criticises her for minor issues relating to her performance but nothing specific in terms of examples.

Jane’s colleagues also start to make comments that mirror the comments made by her manager. They also exclude her from conversations and no longer invite her to social gatherings.

Impact
Jane’s manager kept changing work guidelines that had been agreed and accepted by both parties before Jane took the job, creating an environment she found extremely unpleasant and stressful. Jane felt she had been unfairly subjected to high levels of scrutiny, intimidated by her manager with phone calls and undocumented criticism, and isolated by her colleagues, who appear to have been influenced by her manager.

This example shows how harassment is often subtle and highly complex. However, it is a situation that can arise easily and if not countered effectively is at least bullying in the workplace; if it is proven to be harassment then it is illegal.

Example: victimisation in the workplace

The following example takes place in the workplace. However, you could also come across victimisation as a community leader, either directly yourself or if one of your local residents has a protected characteristic and is being victimised.

Support for a colleague raising a grievance
Joe raised a grievance about homophobic bullying at work. His colleague, Lucy, provides a witness statement to support him.

Their manager thinks both of them are being over-sensitive and rejects the grievance and a subsequent appeal.

Application for a promotion
A few months later, Lucy applies for a promotion. Her application is turned down, even though she can show that she has the necessary skills and experience.

Lucy’s manager says she is a troublemaker because she helped her colleague and therefore should not be promoted.

Victimisation
Making a claim or complaint under the Equality Act, such as Joe’s grievance about homophobic bullying, is a protected act. This means that Lucy’s witness statement in support of Joe’s grievance is also a protected act, so her manager’s response would be victimisation and she could take action under the Equality Act.

Example: when harassment becomes victimisation

In an earlier example, Jane was feeling harassed in the workplace when her manager kept changing previously agreed work guidelines. Victimisation might occur here if she acted on that perception, for example if she took out a grievance procedure against her manager and/or her colleagues, and as a result the line manager is reprimanded. The harassment might become victimisation if, as a result, she was subjected to further unfair treatment or being ostracised.

Challenge 6: first impressions

Consider the people below. What are your first impressions? What would you expect them to do for a living, or what kind of hobbies would you expect them to have?  What gives you this impression? You can find out more about these people at the end of the workbook.

When you first meet Anita, she appears quietly confident and easy-going. She is immaculately dressed in what look like designer clothes and jewellery.

When you first meet John, he looks very stern and has a gruff manner about him.

When you first meet Angela, she is very softly spoken and appears quite shy. Physically she is petite and dressed in casual clothes.

When you first meet Bhavna, she appears to be energetic and enthusiastic. She is wearing traditional Indian dress in vibrant colours.

Case studies: encouraging diversity in the fire service

The fire and rescue service is shaking off its outdated image in a major drive to change the public's perception of firefighters. The traditional image of firefighters is that this has been a role done by men. However, the impression that the role requires a physical strength not possessed by women is one which has become increasingly outdated. In the last three years 80 per cent of fire and rescue services in England have planned recruitment initiatives to encourage greater diversity in their workforce. 

Whilst the role of firefighters has changed dramatically in the last few years, many potential recruits are deterred by outdated perceptions of the job. As the number of fires has more than halved over the past decade, the 21st century firefighter's role has focused on community safety and harm prevention, with home safety visits - expanded to become safe and well visits in several areas - going beyond fire risk to address social care issues such as falls prevention or alcohol use.

The fire service is increasingly working in tandem with health partners, other emergency services and councils on issues such as modern slavery and co-responding with the ambulance service. Therefore, the fire and rescue service has set about challenging existing stereotypes of who can be a firefighter and what the job involves. Not to do so is regarded as missing out on an enormous pool of talent. No business would expect to thrive by doing this, so the fire and rescue service is taking steps to address this impression.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service

Between 2000 and 2013 Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service conducted only one wholetime recruitment campaign, resulting in 12 firefighter appointments. Wholetime recruitment campaigns have been held annually since.

In preparation for a wholetime recruitment campaign in 2015, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service developed a media and social media campaign plan. This included holding ‘have a go' sessions for female journalists and one aimed specifically at women; using paid for advertising on social media to target women, including a video on YouTube; profiling firefighters on the Service's website including women and staff who identify as BAME; holding information sessions in community centres where there is ethnic and cultural diversity; and advertising through Women in the Fire Service and Asian Fire Service Association Networks, and LGBT magazine "Fynetimes".

A total of 221 applications were received, of which 13 per cent were women (compared to 7 per cent in 2014); 6 per cent identified as being of a Black or minority ethnic group (compared to 4 per cent in 2014); 5 per cent requested reasonable adjustments; and 3 per cent identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Of the successful recruits, 29 per cent were women and 10 per cent identify as BME - the highest percentage of both women and BME the Service has ever had in one intake. The campaign was repeated in 2016.

In the past few years, focus has been placed on recruiting a more diverse team of retained firefighters, which has resulted in a 103 per cent rise in applications (122 applicants in 2012 to 248 in 2013) and an 89 per cent increase in the numbers of female applicants, from nine to 17.  Appointments of women to on-call operational roles have increased as well and in the last three years this amounted to seven compared to three in the previous three years. 

Ethnic diversity in applicants has increased from 4 per cent in 2012/13 to 7 per cent in 2015/16. Other activities include unconscious bias training, attending selected career events at schools and colleges, particularly in diverse areas, and in partnership with the police holding quarterly "Insight to Blue Light" sessions - aimed specifically at people from BME backgrounds - to inform people about employment opportunities in emergency services.

Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service 

Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service held a recruitment drive for wholetime firefighters which aimed to encourage under-represented female and minority ethnic applicants. The communication strategy moved away from ‘tokenistic' gestures traditionally associated with equality and recruitment campaigns and applications were limited to within 20 miles of Gloucestershire's borders to ensure it attracted those most likely to have an intimate interest in the area and the communities they would serve.

Direct engagement with mosque leaders, local councillors, LGBT representatives, sports facilities, schools, community groups, ethnic-hair dressers and fast food outlets established relationships well before any recruitment drive, added credibility to the campaign and helped to promote it. A set of "Frequently Asked Questions" was drafted to answer any concerns on how the service actively welcomed cultural and religious diversity explaining that considerations around keeping beards, fasting, prayers, dreadlocks, etc, were managed entirely within the context of maintaining firefighter safety. Advertising to a range of women's organisations and groups took place through social media and publicity material was designed to visually reflect BME communities. 

Valuable local community radio exposure generated through a live interview was followed by adverts produced by an experienced Black crew manager. The campaign resulted in some significant success in attracting applications from BAME communities with the proportion of minority applicants (5.1 per cent) only marginally less than the county's overall population of 6.2 per cent.

London Fire Brigade

In 2016 London Fire Brigade developed a new and ambitious 10-year Inclusion Strategy: ‘Safer Together'- to attract a more diverse and inclusive workforce. When the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, published details of the pay gap between men and women working within the Greater London Authority's ‘functional bodies' last year, London Fire Brigade was the only member with no gender pay gap among operational staff.

Recent recruitment campaigns have involved placing adverts in the Facebook newsfeed of women aged 18-40 in London who were interested in fitness and sports which require a great deal of upper body strength, which has generated the highest percentage of women applicants over these campaign periods. The Service has also specifically targeted women's rugby clubs.

Cornwall Fire, Rescue and Community Safety Service 

Cornwall Fire, Rescue and Community Safety Service has a Community Engagement Equality Diversity (CEED) Strategic Lead for sexual orientation and gender self-identify.

As well as operational firefighters, a key outlook of the Service - which gained the Excellent level of the Fire and Rescue Service Equality Framework - is on staff as community health, safety and wellbeing advocates who help the community to live independently, reduce risk and improve community resilience.

The Service mainstreamed CEED and linked it to competencies, promotional assessments, case studies for management practices, community engagement work and linked it to objectives within everyone's PDRs. It also has "CEED Champions" who provide strategic direction and support for the protected characteristics. These are useful for targeted events and where the service needs to focus on an area for a particular reason.

Example: occupational requirement
A charity running a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic violence and abuse advertises for a refuge support worker. The advert says that women and children depending on the refuge want to be able to turn to a woman experienced in the work. It also explains that, consequently, the charity can only consider applications from women and that it is allowed to do this as an ’occupational requirement’ under the Equality Act.

Challenge 1: correct answers

The characteristics of a diverse society:
b) all decisions must be politically correct
The characteristics of an equal society:
e) everyone should be treated in the same way

The characteristics of an inclusive society:
b) everyone is able to do everything they want in life, regardless of their ability

Challenge 6: first impressions

Anita is retired and runs a local art group. When she worked as a Crown prosecutor, she had a reputation for being ruthless with her questioning in the court room.

John is an award-winning hair stylist. He is also a tutor at the local college, where his down-to-earth attitude has made him a popular tutor with the students.

Angela is a gardener. She is also a keep fit enthusiast and enjoys rock climbing.

Bhavna is a special constable as well as a mother to two young children. She has strong family values, and her spare time revolves around family and her children.