Councillors have welcomed the progress made against a four-year Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy.
The progress report, which was scrutinised by councillors at a meeting of the Communities, Social Mobility and Inclusion Committee yesterday (Thursday, 16 October), provided an update on the comprehensive action plan associated with the 2023-27 EDI Strategy.
The action plan looks at improvements the council can make for the benefit of our workforce, our communities and our service users. Councillors heard about recent progress, including:
- Launching a ‘reasonable adjustment’ online learning course to help ensure that adjustments are made that prevent disabled employees or applicants from experiencing a substantial disadvantage.
- Committing to the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standard a program that identifies and addresses racial inequalities in the social care workforce.
- Awarding of seed-funding to develop new community-led services and activities, to empower local communities through 5 place-based teams across the county.
- Introducing guaranteed interviews for care experienced applicants. The council recognised care experience as a protected characteristic in May 2023.
- Launching neurodiversity at work awareness training which aims to educate about neurodiversity and its associated strengths and challenges, in order to promote a more supportive and collaborative environment.
This is in addition to becoming the second county council to achieve Council of Sanctuary status and gaining accreditation as a Disability Confident Leader, both of which have already been announced separately, earlier this year.
Cllr Alison Whelan, Chair of the Communities, Social Mobility and Inclusion Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “Our EDI Strategy brings a sense of focus and purpose to our efforts to ensure that all Cambridgeshire residents, and County Council employees, feel welcome, included and valued – and empowered to be the best that they can be.
“It was great to hear today about some of the excellent progress that’s been made in recent months against our action plan but we must also recognise that there remains a lot of work to do – with initiatives like National Hate Crime Awareness Week, which we are marking this week, still very much needed.
“I look forward to receiving future progress reports as we continue to take targeted action to reduce inequality, strengthen community relations, and challenge discrimination, in order to deliver meaningful and sustainable change.”
The public sector Equality Duty (part of the Equality Act 2010) requires all public bodies to set themselves specific, measurable equality objectives every four years.
The council’s current EDI Strategy was approved at Full Council on 18 July 2023 and the supporting action plan was approved on 11 January 2024 by the Communities, Social Mobility and Inclusion Committee.
Yesterday’s committee meeting occurred during National Hate Crime Awareness Week 2025. Hate crimes are any crimes that are targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
In Cambridgeshire, all libraries are Hate Crime Reporting Centres. Hate crimes can also be reported directly to the police, and reported online. Raising awareness of hate crimes, and how they can be reported – aligns closely with the aims of EDI Strategy, which seeks to create a more caring Cambridgeshire where diverse communities feel safer, welcomed and respected.
