Board 18 September 2012

Equality & Diversity Update Report by Chief Executive

For discussion

1. Background information

1.1 This paper discusses three elements of equality and diversity:

Single Equality Act 2010 and YHN’s obligations; Strategic Independent Advisory Group (‘SIAG’) Review; and Community Cohesion Update.

1.2 The paper also asks Board to consider the creation of a Time Limited Committee to consider various matters relating to equality and diversity.

2 Single Equality Act 2010 (‘the Act’) and YHN’s obligations

2.1 An overview of the Act:

The Act brings together for the first time all the legal requirements on equality that the private, public and voluntary sectors need to follow.

It replaces all the existing equality law including: The Equal Pay Act 1970; The Sex Discrimination Act 1975; The Race Relations Act 1976; and The Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Most of the new law is based on current legislation which has been streamlined but there are some important differences.

The Act introduces new provisions and ‘protected characteristics’. Section 149 of the Act introduces a new Single Equality Duty (the

General Duty) which requires public authorities to ‘have due regard’ to: eliminate unlawful discrimination; advance equality of opportunity; and foster good relations when exercising their functions.

The Act also sets out specific duties – this will help public organisations comply with the general duties.

2.2 Protected characteristics are covered by the Equality Act. The Equality Duty covers: age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. The duty to have due

regard to the need to eliminate discrimination also covers marriage and civil partnerships.

2.3 Specific Duties: The specific duties help public bodies perform the Equality Duty better. They do this by requiring public bodies to be transparent about how they are responding to the Equality Duty – requiring them to publish relevant, proportionate information showing compliance with the Equality Duty, and to set equality objectives.

2.4 All bodies that are applicable to the general and specific duties are listed in Schedule 19 of the Act.

2.5 As an ALMO is a freestanding legal entity distinct from the local authority ALMO’s do not fall under the bodies listed as covered by the ‘general duty’ in Schedule 19 of the Act or the ‘specific duties’. However, it is clear that ALMOs carry out public functions therefore whilst not applicable to the specific duties are subject to the general duties.

2.6 Meeting the general duty:

Our approach to equality and diversity goes beyond meeting legal obligations under equality legislation. We are committed to embedding equality and diversity throughout YHN to ensure that we are providing fair and equitable services that meet the needs of our customers without discriminating.

YHN’s Equality & Diversity Strategy sets out our 6 key strategic priorities for Equality & Diversity. These are:

Compliance with the Equality Act; Improving on good practice; Awareness raising and training; Demographic Information; A representative Workforce; and Commitment to Community Cohesion.

We publish the results of our Equality Impact and Needs Assessments (EINA’s), employment monitoring and our own annual report on equality and diversity. YHN’s Annual Report also includes key outcomes of our equality and diversity efforts.

The work that we have done over the past years in line with our Equality & Diversity Strategy, Equality Policy and the various codes of practice for example the CRE Code of Practice on Racial Equality in Housing and the Social Housing Equality Framework have helped us meet the requirements of the general duty.

2.7 Eliminating unlawful discrimination:

YHN has an Equality and Diversity Strategy and Equality Policy both of which set out how we are working hard to eliminate unlawful discrimination in three specific areas of delivering services that meet the needs of our customers, ensuring we have a diverse workforce and when procuring goods and services.

We work hard to ensure that we meet the needs of our customers by listening

to and acting on what they tell us. Our Customer Involvement Team has a community reflective database of involved tenants and a range of other activities that help us gain the information that ensures that we do not unwittingly discriminate against any of our customers.

We collect and analyse the demographic information of our tenants against the protected characteristics. By collecting the right information we can understand who our customers are and provide the right services that they need and want.

We believe that the culture of YHN is very important to us. We also believe that everyone should be valued for who they are. We are seeking to ensure that discrimination never occurs by continually offering training in Equality and Diversity. We offer a range of training methods to ensure that we meet the training needs of our staff. We are always prepared to listen, and by looking for opportunities to put in place adjustments which will enable us to meet individual needs.

We are committed to attracting a wide range of applicants from diverse backgrounds and we firmly believe that a diverse workforce enables us to draw upon the widest possible range of views, experiences and opinions. This in turn enables us to better meet and understand the needs of the diverse communities which we service.

We subscribe and participate within the Disability Two Tick campaign and Stonewall’s Diversity Champion Programme. This allows us to display within our recruitment advertising the logos of both of these organisations. In doing so this signals to the communities that we are a disability and Sexual Orientation friendly organisation.

We build Equality and Diversity into our procurement processes by including a standard equality clause in standard documentation on all major contracts for services and works. This requires contractors to comply with relevant equality legislation and codes of practice and to provide evidence that they are working to promote equality. We ask equality questions in all YHN Pre Qualification Questionnaires relating to Human Rights and the protected characteristics. This enables us to assess the arrangements of potential contractors for ensuring that they adopt fair employment practices which comply with relevant equalities legislation

Our Corporate Procurement Strategy Appendix 6 Equality and Diversity sets out our approach to Equality and Diversity in a procurement context. Within the Strategy we acknowledge our responsiblities under the general equality duty within the Equality Act 2010 across all the protected characteristics. This duty requires us not only to avoid discriminating but to actively promote equality and to tackle discrimination when carrying out our procurement functions.

EINA’s are conducted when formulating or reviewing, new policies, strategies or procedures. Conducting an EINA is a way to make sure YHN’s service areas think carefully about the likely impact of policies or procedures,

strategies, functions and services, to identify any unmet needs, and to provide a basis for action to improve services where appropriate. Carrying out an EINA systematically assesses and records the actual, potential or likely impact of a service. Consequently, policies, strategies and procedures for the protected characteristics are analysed and anticipated so that, as far as possible, any negative consequences can be eliminated or minimised and opportunities for ensuring equality can be maximised.

In order to ensure that equality impacts have been a consideration when agreeing recommendations in Committee and Board Reports, all reports include an Equality & Diversity implications section. This section of the report indicates that an EINA has been carried out, and if not why not, the issues identified and relevant action that has been either taken to eliminate the negative impact or the actions that will be taken to address the impact identified.

2.8 Advance equality of opportunity:

It is important to YHN that we attract the most diverse range of employees and potential employees. We will encourage diversity in our workforce by promoting career opportunities in publications and in locations that reach minority groups. We advertise our employment opportunities through a range of mediums including Equality Britain, (an organisation which focuses on promoting opportunities for everyone regardless of which protected characteristic individuals belong to). We implement a robust means of monitoring the progression of all staff groups into and through YHN from application right through to exit and produce an annual report of these findings. We update all personal HR information records for all existing staff including demographic information. The analysis of the monitoring report enables us to more readily identify any areas where we need to take further action to facilitate opportunities or remove any barriers that prevent staff from progressing their career within YHN.

Our Disability Access Plan Statements (DAPS) (access audits) for our customer facing premises have been completed and continue to be reviewed. This has resulted in greater access to our services for our customers.

Good progress has been made against equality actions since 2005 with core equality and diversity objectives delivered. For example all of the equality actions 2011/12 within our Equality & Diversity Strategy were completed. Additionally a number of equality & diversity actions across the whole organisation were achieved.

2.9 Foster good relations:

YHN produced its first Community Cohesion Strategy in 2011. The objectives of the strategy are to increase our organisational focus and to integrate and embed our work around community cohesion across all areas of our business activity, as a service provider as a significant employer and through our role as an organisation purchasing goods and services from others. Progress has been good achieving 32 of 33 actions contained within the action plan.

YHN have good links within communities to assess tensions. We have 8 community Housing Offices across the city with staff out on estates talking to customers on a daily basis. Housing staff attend meetings of tenants and residents associations. We have very good links with Newcastle Tenants Federation who feed in issues and share intelligence of tensions in communities. YHN staff attend local agency meetings specifically set up to monitor anti social behaviour and assess community tensions e.g. SNAPS (Safe Neighbourhood Action and Problems Solving) meetings set up by the Safe Newcastle at a local level to assess issues including community tensions. YHN staff play a key role in the agencies against Racism Crime and Harassment (ARCH) Operational Support Group which monitor community tensions through reports of racist incidents. In addition YHN staff have taken advantage of training offered by ARCH on ‘Conflict Resolution and Community Cohesion’.

Additionally, a number of our services contribute to ensuring that support and care to communities helps us foster good relations. A selection of our current services include:

Community Care Alarm Service (CCAS) Advice and Support to help our tenants stay in their homes by providing

help, support and advice about money and benefits. Pathways Team – support service which aims to give vulnerable people

“Pathways” into independent living and prevent homelessness Young People’s Service providing practical and emotional support for

under 25’s in housing crises and recruiting and training community volunteers to support young people within the North East Open College Network.

Furniture & Gardening Care Services – help our tenants settle into their homes by providing some essential items of furniture whilst our gardening service keeps our tenants gardens and local environment tendered and tidy.

As a social housing provider the rights of our tenants are undoubtedly at the heart of everything we do. This includes providing services that are tailored to our tenants needs and take into account any special requirements they may have, for example if they are disabled, and they need us to respond quickly to repairs or problems in their home.

By utilising our customer insight information, we are also able to offer services that acknowledge the cultural and religious needs that our tenants may have. For example we do not make visits on Holy Days or visit the Jewish community Friday afternoons.

YHN’s customer profiling has been analysed against satisfaction surveys issued by the various services within YHN i.e. Furniture Service, Sheltered Housing, NFS Child Safety. Across all these services satisfaction is high.

To help staff have a better understanding of different cultures we have facilitated visits to local places of worship for example Jewish synagogue and the Hindu Temple. Feedback from these events was very positive with staff feeling more confident when responding to BME customer’s needs.

Additionally, we have a Strategic Advisory Group. This group provides a ‘critical friend’ for YHN in appraising our approach to equalities and diversity, especially at strategic level on all new or significantly changed policies, procedures, housing services and functions.

Membership of the SIAG is based on individual’s experience and knowledge of a wide range of diversity issues and not necessarily on the basis of being a formal representative of a particular community, faith or religious group.

The SIAG over the years has proved to be a useful option for complementing our consultation with our communities and influencing our strategic thinking.

3 Strategic Independent Advisory Group Review

3.1 In May 2007, YHN created its Strategic Independent Advisory Group (‘SIAG’). Since that time the SIAG has contributed to many activities within YHN. Although some original members have come and gone, the group has attracted new members which has resulted in a dedicated membership, committed to assisting YHN fulfil its equality objectives.

3.2 YHN is reviewing its Board Structures and although independent of Board it was felt that it was the right time to review SIAG

3.3 A full review of SIAG considered three options:

1. Remain as is – do nothing2. Retain the SIAG - with changes to be made3. Disband SIAG

Coming out of the review the preferred option is option 2 to keep SIAG in a modified form.

3.4 Later in the report it will be recommended that a Time Limited Committee is established to consider how equality and diversity feeds into YHN’s overall governance structure. A key task of the Time Limited Committee will be to review the outcomes of the recently undertaken SIAG review and to consider the outcomes proposed from that review.

4 Community Cohesion Update

4.1. The Board received an update on Community Cohesion at its May 2012 meeting. Board at that time identified that even though actions had been completed it did not necessarily determine whether the not the Strategy had been effective and impacted on Community Cohesion.

It was further discussed that in order to progress the Strategy thought should perhaps be given about YHN’s overall approach to Community Cohesion and how success can be best measured.

4.2 A meeting is to be set up to discuss Newcastle City Council’s approach to Community Cohesion and this information will be used to inform the next steps that YHN should consider.

5 Taking Equality & Diversity forward strategically – possible approaches

5.1 Current arrangements are that key strategic aspects of equality and diversity are presented to Board. In addition various YHN Committees have certain aspects of equality and diversity reported to them for example Performance Committee receives reports on customer satisfaction, repairs etc. Customer and Service Delivery Committee receives reports on Demographic Monitoring rent arrears, new tenancies etc. and the Finance & Resources Committee receives reports on Demographic Monitoring on YHN employees etc.

5.2 Consequently, is it becoming unclear as to what aspects and level of equality and diversity should be reported to Board. There is also the view starting to emerge that the profile of strategic issues facing equality and diversity needs to be raised and that there should be a closer working/scrutiny by Board of equality and diversity actions and outcomes.

5.3. To address these issues and following on from the Committee Review it is proposed to establish a Time Limited Committee, which will be supported by the Diversity Manager and the Board Support Officer. The Time Limited Committee would ideally comprise of a small number of Board Members (3 or 4 members) who would meet over a two month period. As mentioned at clause 3.4 the Time Limited Committee would review the outcomes of the recent SIAG Review and make recommendations about the Board’s preferred approach to equality and diversity matters at the December 2012 Board meeting.

6 The Business Implications

6.1 Mission and Strategic Objectives: Progressing through the Equality & Diversity workload will address all 4 aspects of our mission and strategic Objectives:

Support and Care to Communities; Three Star Excellent Services; A Quality Workforce; and Refurbishing and Building Homes.

6.2 Value for money/efficiencies: There are no immediate implications for Value for Money. However in using the information contained in this report through the business planning cycle YHN can ensure we provide relevant and effective services.

6.3 Resources (financial, property, technological or human): Completion of team targets and or actions will require the commitment of staff time and in some instances may require dedicated funding. Resources will where possible be identified from existing budget heads or built into the annual business and financial planning process adopted by YHN.

6.4 Impact on services/performance: All teams and services within YHN will need to consider equality and diversity aspects when setting service and team targets and when delivering services.

6.5 Outcomes for tenants/leaseholders: We put a great deal of effort into ensuring that as many people as possible can access our services in the way they want to. We recognise that our services can always improve and develop to reflect the different needs that different communities have, therefore the implementation of this workload will result in YHN providing services that are relevant to our customers needs.

6.6 Risk (reputation, relationship): The failure to address or progress this area of work would have adverse implications for YHNs reputation in the area of Equality and Diversity.

6.7 Environmental: At this stage there are no identifiable environmental implications identified.

6.8 Legal: YHN as a public sector body has a general duty to comply with The Equality Act 2010 a result of providing the Housing Management service on behalf of Newcastle City Council. In addition the Equality Act promotes fairness and equality of opportunity, tackling disadvantage and discrimination. The Act modernises and strengthens existing legislation making it fit for the challenges that society face today and in the future.

6.9 Equality and Diversity and Community Cohesion: This is the subject area of this report. The work detailed will:

Raise the profile of E & D within YHN; Embed E & D in policy and practice; and Ensure improvements are achieved in all aspects of E & D throughout

YHN.

6.10 Stakeholder Involvement/consultation: It is anticipated that several Service/Team actions will require stakeholder involvement/consultation.

7 Recommendations

7.1 The Board are asked to:

note the contents of this report;

agree to the creation of a Time Limited Committee;

nominate Members to sit on the Time Limited Committee; and

agree to receive a further report on this matter in December 2012.

8 Next Steps

8.1 Work on Equality and Diversity will continue across the organisation. Time limited Committee will be set up. Meeting to be set up with NCC to discuss YHN’s approach to

Community Cohesion.

Contact Officer: If you have any questions about this report that you would like clarifying before the meeting, you can contact Simone Doyle, Diversity Manager by telephone on 0191 2784390 or email simone.doyle@yhn.org.uk