Equality and diversity

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy is a key cross-cutting strategy. It helps us achieve our vision for a greener, fairer and more caring Cambridgeshire. We aim to serve diverse communities in ways that are suitable for everyone.

This strategy builds on the successes and learning from our 2018-2022 Single Equality Strategy. It sets out our approach and objectives moving forward. We have made great progress to advance our EDI agenda. We must be open and honest about our journey and we recognise that there is still a lot of work to do. We are truly committed to:

• leading this work
• reducing inequality
• strengthening and developing good community relations
• challenging discrimination.

We must take targeted action to deliver meaningful and sustainable change.

To drive this work forward, the strategy sets out three themes:

1. Our workforce: Foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment. We want to attract and keep diverse people who feel valued, respected, and empowered.
2. Our communities: Further understand and work with our diverse communities across Cambridgeshire. We want to develop local solutions which address the needs of our communities.
3. Our services: Ensure people who use our services and residents have good quality public services that meet the diverse needs of our communities.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2023-2027

Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2023-2027 - Easy Read

If you have any questions about equality, diversity and inclusion at Cambridgeshire County Council please email EDI.Team@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

The Equality Act 2010 The Act refers to a series of protected characteristics. We ensure that we consider those groups who share the protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are Age, Disability, Gender reassignment, Marriage and civil partnership, Pregnancy and maternity, Race, Religion and belief, Sex, and Sexual orientation.

We know that there are other groups in our population who also suffer disadvantages and we will be mindful of their needs. Poverty, rural isolation and care experience are extra categories for priority set by CCC. They are not protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

The PSED applies to public bodies delivering public services. It was introduced to ensure that public bodies contribute to a fairer society by addressing discrimination and providing equal opportunities for all. The Equality Duty has three aims which are:

- Requiring public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act.

- Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

- Fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

Cambridgeshire County Council has committed to implementing the Socio-economic Inequalities duty within the Public Sector Equality duty which means we:

“…must, when making strategic decisions about how to carry out its functions, must consider the importance of reducing outcome inequalities from socio-economic disadvantage.”

Workforce Equality Profile

We value our diverse workforce and the contribution all our colleagues make to the success of our organisation. We know that having a diverse workforce means we reflect the people in the communities we serve. It also helps us to improve our efficiency and effectiveness.

We have an active Equality and Diversity Network. This group is for colleagues and Members who have protected characteristics and / or have interest in supporting people with protected characteristics. The Network holds regular meetings, runs awareness events for colleagues, and provides valuable feedback on how we can continue to improve our support for our diverse workforce.

We have a number of processes in place to support the recruitment, retention, promotion and engagement of colleagues with protected characteristics.

2023 - Workforce Diversity Profile June 2023 | Cambridgeshire Insight Open Data

2022 - Cambridgeshire County Council 2021 Workforce Diversity Profile | Cambridgeshire Insight Open Data

2021 - Cambridgeshire County Council 2021 Workforce Diversity Profile | Cambridgeshire Insight Open Data

Our Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap - Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap | Cambridgeshire Insight Open Data

Equality Impact Assessments

Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) are a tool we use to make evidence-based decisions about how we work. This includes when we are writing

• strategies
• policies and procedures
• designing services
• running procurement processes
• producing business cases
• writing committee reports

Carrying out an EqIA helps us meet the commitments in our EDI Strategy and our legal duties under relevant EDI legislation.

We would like to explicitly highlight our commitment to anti-racism. To us, being anti-racist means actively identifying and opposing racism, being consciously and visibly anti-racist. We do not accept any forms of bullying, harassment, discrimination or any other unacceptable behaviours in our communities and workplace. We can, and must, do better and we have a responsibility to take action against all aspects of overt and systemic racism.

UNISON Anti-racism Charter 

On 24 May 2022, Cambridgeshire County Council joined in partnership with the trade union UNISON to commit to becoming an anti-racist organisation. This committed the Council to a range of pledges designed to prevent racial bias.

Our services

We provide a wide range of services, used by people from all backgrounds who have a wide variety of experiences, preferences and aims.

We work hard to meet the needs of all our customers, service users and members of the public. However, we know that it is always possible to improve how we do things. So, we’re making changes to our systems so they are even better at helping our services to meet the needs of all the people who use them.

We want to support managers and colleagues to improve how they think about equality and diversity when making decisions about our services. We are currently working to put in place the following changes to improve our equality and diversity performance:

• Updating our equality impact assessment process to make it more robust
• Enhancing the system of checks and balances we use to ensure that assessments are carried out effectively, and are properly documented

Our communities

Since our Single Equality Strategy came into force in 2018, we have completed two major pieces of work to support the communities we serve.

AccessAble Cambridgeshire

AccessAble provides information on the accessibility arrangements at places members of the public visit. Accessibility arrangements are things put in place to support disabled visitors, people with long-term health conditions/impairments etc.

We commissioned AccessAble to review 200 venues in Cambridgeshire. AccessAble selected the venues they assessed, following research and consultation with disabled people.

You can find out more about the Cambridgeshire AccessAble project in this video.

You can see all AccessAble’s reviews for Cambridgeshire venues on their website.

White Ribbon Campaign

We have achieved White Ribbon accreditation. The mission of White Ribbon is to end male violence against women, once and for all by working with men and boys to challenge those male cultures that lead to harassment, abuse and violence.

You can learn more about the White Ribbon Campaign on their website.

Migrant and Asylum Seekers

Cambridgeshire County Council:

• promotes the principles of dignity and respect for all migrants and asylum seekers.
• has a compassionate and welcoming response to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants, including our Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in care.
• will play a key role in supporting asylum seekers, including Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC), as well as migrant residents more broadly - from providing direct services to signposting to specialist organisations and agencies.
• provide a Place of Safety for migrants and Asylum seekers