Agenda, decisions and minutes

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 27 June 2023 be agreed as an accurate record.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 27 June 2023 be agreed as an accurate record.

None.

None.

RESOLVED

To recommend to the officers in attendance:

1.    The involvement and representation of more-junior staff in strategic discussions regarding equality, diversity and inclusion, including at the Corporate Equalities Board, be increased.

2.    The next Single Equalities Framework and new Corporate Equalities Board Terms of Reference contain more-purposeful and more-measurable objectives.

3.    The duration of the Disability Policy Officer role be reconsidered before the draft Lewisham Disabled People’s Commission response is submitted to Mayor and Cabinet.

4.    That equalities be measured and considered when evaluating service performance and the distribution of Council resources in the community.  

5.    Equality, diversity and inclusion considerations be built into staff appraisal and one-to-one processes.

6.    In the next Single Equalities Framework, the equalities prisms be more clearly defined.

Witnesses

Jennifer Daothong, Chief Executive
Pinaki Ghoshal, Executive Director for Children and Young People
Sherene Russel-Alexander, Director of People and Organisational Development
Helen Clarke, Director of Communications and Engagement
Alex Glanz, Head of the Chief Executive’s Office

David Weaver, DWC Consulting

Key points from discussion

3.1.         The Chief Executive and the Head of the Chief Executive’s Office introduced the reports. It was noted that the Council was not waiting for the appointment of officers to the new Equalities Advisor and Disability Policy Officer posts before beginning to implement the longer-term, strategic recommendations of the Lewisham Disabled People’s Commission (LDPC) and that new equalities objectives were to be published in early 2024.

Committee members asked preliminary questions. Key points raised included:

3.2.         The Director of Communications and Engagement was responsible for the Council’s relationship with the Lewisham Strategic Partnership, which included the Race and Equality Working Group chaired by Cllr Campbell. The Equalities Advisor would manage the Disability Policy Officer and report to the Director of Communications and Engagement directly to ensure internal communications and communications and engagement with partners were joined up with a strong line of accountability to the Chief Executive.

3.3.         The whole Council was responsible for delivering against the organisation’s equalities commitments; particular responsibility sat with the Mayor and Cabinet and the Chief Executive.

3.4.         It was difficult for Members to locate guidance on the Fairer Lewisham Duty.

3.5.         The Council’s equalities objectives had driven a lot of its strategic work, such as the Birmingham and Lewisham African and Caribbean Health Inequalities Review. The Council’s work increasingly related to the furtherance of the objectives.

3.6.         A preliminary review of the implementation of the recommendations of the Committee’s 2020 report How Lewisham Embeds Equalities Across its Service Provision had been undertaken in November 2021. Promoting and embedding the Single Equalities Framework (SEF) within the Council had been significantly hindered by the Covid-19 pandemic, on which organisational attention and capacity became focused shortly after the adoption of the SEF.

3.7.         Over the last ten years, the representativeness of the Council’s workforce in terms of ethnicity had improved significantly at all levels. The proportion of employees who were,

·       Asian had risen from 2.9% to 4.6%,

·       Black had risen from 30.7% to 37.2,

·       from Mixed and other ethnic backgrounds had risen from 3.4% to 4.8%,

·       White had fallen from 56% to 47%.

3.8.         The proportion of the workforce who did not disclose whether they have a disability had decreased from 50% to 7.5% over approximately five years, while the proportion of staff declaring a disability had risen from 3 or 4% to 7.5%. 

3.9.         Women comprised 68% of the Council’s workforce – although this would fall to 59% following the transfer of Lewisham Homes staff into the organisation.

3.10.     Since 2018, the proportion of Senior Leaders who were,

·       women had increased from 45% to 70%,

·       Asian had increased from 4.5% to 10%,

·       Black had increased from 4.5% to 20%,

·       disabled had increased from 0% to 10%.

3.11.     The Council’s gender  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Report to follow.

Not taken.

4.1.         The Director of People and Organisational Development informed the Committee that the new workforce profile would be completed in November.

RESOLVED

To remove unneeded PSPO, warm hub evaluation, and budget reduction items; move the Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy and Local Assemblies item to the November 2023 meeting; add Workforce Equalities to the January 2023 meeting; and to add for information briefings on the development of next single equalities framework.

RESOLVED

To remove unneeded PSPO, warm hub evaluation, and budget reduction items; move the Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy and Local Assemblies item to the November 2023 meeting; add Workforce Equalities to the January 2023 meeting; and to add for information briefings on the development of next single equalities framework.