Agenda item

5.1     Timothy Andrew (Principal Policy Officer) introduced the report to the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·      The 2010 Equality Act amalgamated different legislation around equalities. The Act introduced more protected characteristics. It introduced the obligation for public bodies to have due regard in their work for the impact on groups with protected characteristics.

·      The Council developed five enduring objectives in response to the introduction of the Equality Act, listed in paragraph 4.4 of the report.

·      The Council’s current Comprehensive Equalities Scheme (CES) finished in March 2016. The data presented to the Committee demonstrates the work in developing the Comprehensive Equalities Scheme for 2016-2020.

·      One important thing to note was that the monitoring of data on ethnicity is generally done in big chunks, so there is a richness of diversity within communities as well that isn’t necessarily captured.

·      People’s lived experiences are diverse and not bound to the categories of protected characteristics. People’s lived experiences can vary to a significant degree depending on which parts of the borough they live in, whether or not they are disabled, their socio-economic status, their faith or belief, their gender identity and their sexual orientation.

·      The Council needs to consider how the provision of supportive services might change the environment for people in protected groups.

·      The priorities for improving health outcomes in the borough are set out in the Health and Wellbeing Board priorities. The Children and Young People Plan sets out the priorities for children and young people in the borough, and the plan for 2015-18 was going through scrutiny and to Mayor and Cabinet. The Work and Skills strategy outlines the Council approach to increasing education levels and employment rates in the borough. The key objectives for the Council in this area are laid out in the Housing Strategy 2015-2020.

·      In the area of housing there had been significant changes in demand. When instances of hate crime and domestic violence increase, there is the question of whether this happens because people feel more comfortable reporting these crimes or whether more of the crimes have happened.

5.2     Timothy Andrew, Paul Aladenika and Aileen Buckton answered questions from the Committee. The following key points were noted:

·      There was a suggestion in the last parliament to include socio-economic class as a protected characteristic but this was rejected by the last government.

·      Data on deprivation, socio-economic class and employment wasn’t included in the Comprehensive Equalities Scheme for 2010-2016.

·      The CES links to other strategies of the Council that are used as the delivery models to improve equalities across Lewisham. All areas of the Council have access to the detailed data underpinning the development of the CES.

·      Deprivation, socio-economic class and employment data were not included in the CES in 2010.

5.3     The Committee commented that:

·      It seemed that the borough was becoming more split in terms of equality. Some areas seem to do well while others are doing less well. One question was how to counteract or avoid that.

·      Socio-economic class can have a big influence on for instance educational outcomes. When the educational performance of different ethnic groups is split out by socio-economic background it becomes possible to identify that certain parts of ethnic group actually underperform, although the data for the ethnic group as whole would indicate children from that group doing well on average.

·      Other select committees as well as partnership boards would benefit from this information. It would be helpful to highlight areas where the Council has to ability to influence outcomes directly and areas where it has little to no impact.

5.4     RESOLVED: that the Committee note the report.