Evereth Willis gave an overview of the approach to refreshing the Equality Diversity an Inclusion strategy.

Merton has a statutory duty to produce equality objectives (Equality act 2010) every four years. It is proposed to rename the new strategy, calling it an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy.  This aligns with the Administration’s current priorities and will incorporate actions that contribute positively to community cohesion in the borough.

An Equality Charter will be adopted that will be developed alongside the strategy, but will be a standalone document.

The refreshed strategy will outline 5-10 objectives.  Each objective has equalities outcomes that are linked to service plans. This approach enables equalities outcomes to be aligned with departmental service plans and is the approach taken for the current strategy that has worked well.

It is proposed that the strategy be informed by:

1.            Evidence of existing inequalities in the borough and opportunities to continue to narrow the gap in outcomes for disadvantaged residents.

2.            The findings from the Your Merton engagement that will provide analysis of residents’ experience of life in Merton, their experience of the pandemic and their aspirations for the future.

3.            .Learning from the Covid-19 pandemic that has highlighted issues such as:

a.            Health inequalities

b.            Digital exclusion

c.            Food poverty

4.            Findings from the research commissioned by the Health and Wellbeing   Board looking at the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on protected groups, in particular ethnicity, age and disability.

5.            Issues raised through the Black Lives Matter protests

6.            Implementing the Local Outbreak Management Plan

7.            The learning and recommendations of the Workforce Race Equality   Standards pilot

8.            The work of the Transforming How We Work With Communities project to increase community resilience and delay / prevent demand for acute services.

It is proposed to change the scope of the Equality Strategy slightly with a focus on equalities, diversity and inclusion which is in keeping with the priorities of the administration.  This removes the focus on community cohesion but equality, diversity and inclusion are key drivers for a cohesive community.  Equality, diversity and inclusion are terms that are clearly understood and align with our own in-house approach.

The strategy will be monitored by the Corporate Equality Steering Group, Corporate Management Team, Departmental Management Teams, an annual update to the JCC and to the Overview and Scrutiny Commission.

Q: How is the responsibility being shared so that it does not all sit with Evereth.

A: Evereth will be working with the departmental representatives of the Corporate Equality Steering Group. The representative act as equality champions and will be working with Departmental Management Teams to identify equality priorities to include in the strategy.

Q:Can councillors help to spread awareness?

A: Councillors can promote the public consultation.

Q: We need to have conversations about Cultural Awareness and competency.  Some people don’t seem comfortable with the term ‘Unconscious Bias’. What is happening within Merton and within the strategy to create a level playing field.

A: Head of Learning and Developent and Organisational Development has been meeting with the Race Equality Network to develop training in Anti-racist and Cultural competency training. Also London Councils is working to develop Leadership standards and a tool kit to support councils to be culturally competent. The strategy will include something about recruitment.

Q: How will be demographics be worked out? Does the data include Eastern European a BAME.

A: The data analysts in the borough are working to improve the quality of available data that maybe used to inform policy development. We have a sizeable Eastern European population and locally we consider Eastern European as being part of the BAME community (however, nationally they are counted as White Other).

Q: Are you going to look at the Europeans with Settled Status?

A: Don’t think the strategy will need that much detail but we will use the data that shows the sizeable population. The most up to date data will be used and referenced in the strategy.

Q:Things don’t filter up to the top, could we look at that. There is a lot of filtering of information before it gets to the top. How do we stop the messages  being watered down? The

A: Perhaps regular direct meetings with the community leader and senior staff is the only way for messages not to be watered down.