Workforce Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

Skip to:

Statement of commitment

The Council:

  • Values the diversity of its communities and therefore believe Equality, Diversity and Inclusion underpins everything we do;
  • Aims to harness the strength in our diverse workforce by promoting equality of opportunity to enable our workforce to thrive and maximise their full potential;
  • Aims to create a workplace where people feel valued, everyone works together harmoniously, and respects each other;
  • Aims to ensure the diversity within the organisation, so that both our council and our borough are places where diversity is celebrated, people have equal opportunities and inequality is actively tackled;
  • Recognises that being truly inclusive is not just about welcoming different perspectives and contributions. Inclusion also means actively tackling inequalities and advancing greater equality, as well as fostering good relations in the workplace;
  • Continues to promote Dignity at Work and will not tolerate unlawful discrimination in any form, bullying, harassment, and victimisation of any kind. Such behaviour will be regarded as misconduct which may lead to disciplinary action, including dismissal when appropriate (for example, where breaches amount to gross misconduct); and
  • Commits to fulfilling both the letter and the spirit of its legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and any other relevant legislation;

Scope

  • This statement directly applies to all employees working for Barnet Council and covers all employees, apprentices, placement students, and casual workers, except those working in community schools under the direction of a Governing Body.
  • The Council expects members, consultants, agency temporary staff, those working for community schools and/or partner organisations to align with its commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.

Responsibilities

Barnet Council will:

  • Strive to proactively ensure our workforce is diverse;
  • Provide an inclusive, and accessible safe spaces for all our employees;
  • Provide a safe, inclusive and an accessible environment for all employees;
  • Use Equality Impact Assessments to ensure that all our policies remain in line with our commitment to equality and diversity;
  • Ensure inclusion is embedded in all our people management policies and practices;
  • Care for our employees, learn to improve our practice, and to address new issues collaboratively as they arise;
  • Provide development and opportunities for progression for underrepresented staff groups;
  • Actively promote and champion equality, diversity & inclusion in the workplace;
  • Use insight to investigate inequality and unlawful discrimination, we will therefore encourage employees to complete their Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion profile on our HR systems for effective monitoring; and
  • Seek to identify and eliminate structural inequality wherever it exists, including where possible, looking beyond the nine protected characteristics of the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Leaders and Managers will:

  • Listen, learn, share, and give everyone an opportunity to do the same in shaping better outcomes for both staff, and service users;
  • Recognise and respect everyone’s contribution regardless of their perspective, personality, ability, identity, experiences, or background;
  • Engage, develop, and actively progress positive actions in a range of measures lawful under the Equality Act 2010 in your hiring decisions and performance conversations;
  • Ensure management approach, behaviour, conversations, and decision made, are acceptable and do not intentionally or unintentionally discriminate, or alienate any individual, or a group of people;
  • Take ownership for the Dignity at Work at work policy in ensuring an environment where employees are free from unlawful discrimination, bulling, harassment, and victimisation;
  • Address complaints of unlawful discrimination, bullying, harassment, and victimisation promptly and fairly;
  • Proactively lead and engage in development opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills in managing Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in the workplace;

Employees will:

  • Be encouraged colleagues to have those discussions and express, share, and challenge viewpoints respectfully on disability awareness, LGBTQ+ inclusion, racial and gender issues (relevant resources are available on the staff EDI Hub);
  • Proactively promote inclusion in the workplace through a range of activities such as joining staff network groups, attending relevant learning events, understand the policies and take appropriate action where they believe that there has been any breach of Council policies which may negatively impact on them as individuals or on others;
  • Be an active ally. The Barnet Equalities Allies have been actively promoting and ensuring an inclusive workplace, promoting change, and supporting staff with a range of staff networks and allies. These include:
  1. Anti-Racism Resource and Action Group (ARRG).
  2. Black staff Resource & Action Group (BRAG).
  3. Community Informed Resource Group- CIRG.
  4. Cultural Diversity Group.
  5. LGBTQ+ Network.
  6. Staff Disability Network.
  7. The Women's Network

Review, monitoring, and reporting

Performance will be monitored through:

  • Annual Equalities Report, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan, EDI Steering group, and Equality Impact Assessments (EqIA);
  • Annual workforce profile data including completion rates using the EDI dashboard;
  • Employee Engagement Survey;
  • Barnet Equalities Allies and the network groups;
  • Gender pay-gap reports;
  • Ethnicity pay-gap reports; and
  • Benchmarking with other Local Authorities.

Further information and definitions

Section 149 Public Sector Equality Duty The Council is bound by The Public Sector Equality Duty as set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, which is a duty on public authorities to consider how their policies and decisions affect stakeholders and the public at large. Latest version of the Public Sector Equality Duty can be found here.

Definitions

Protected Characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 identifies nine protected characteristics, and the Act provides protection from unlawful discrimination in respect of these characteristics. The characteristics are:

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

Bullying

Bullying is offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, and/or an  abuse or misuse of power that undermines, humiliates, or injures the person  on the receiving end.

Harassment

Harassment within the employment context is defined as unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic (as per the Equality Act definition mentioned above) which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual.

It is important to note that harassment may also amount to a criminal offence, and that perpetrators can be personally liable and/or convicted for harassing others.

Unlawful discrimination

It is unlawful to discriminate against someone based on one or more (actual or perceived) ‘protected characteristics’ as defined in the Equality Act 2010.

Victimisation

Victimisation takes place when a person suffers a detriment because they have complained [whether formally or otherwise] that someone has been engaging in inappropriate conduct [whether against the individual suffering the detriment or someone else] or supported someone in making a complaint or given evidence in relation to a complaint. While the statutory definition of victimisation is technically distinct from the legal protections afforded to trade union activity, any allegations of detriments linked to trade union membership (or non-membership) and/or activity will be investigated as victimisation complaints