• The Equality Framework for Local Government – This is a key performance indicator. It is a self-assessment framework for delivering equality in service delivery and employment and helps us to ensure that equality and diversity issues are embedded in and promoted through every aspect of the work we do. Our performance against the standard has been externally assessed as reaching Level 2 – ‘Achieving’. This is the second of three levels within the framework. Our target is to move steadily towards reaching Level 3 – ‘Excellent’. This is the highest level which can be attained.

• Representing the people of East Sussex – Members of the Council are active in promoting equality. The Leader of the Council is lead member with responsibility for equality and diversity issues, and all Cabinet members have responsibility for ensuring that services are delivered effectively to everyone in the community. Councillors are expected by the Equality Scheme, and under the terms of the Code of Conduct for Members, to promote equality and good relations between everyone in the community.

• A group of Assistant Directors with corporate responsibility for Performance Management oversee the development and implementation of the council’s equality agenda, providing leadership to departments and integrating equality into mainstream activity and processes. They are also responsible for ensuring scrutiny and providing corporate and departmental quality assurance of Equality Impact Assessments.

• Consultation Communications and monitoring – through consultation and our contacts with the community we seek to understand how effective our services are at meeting the needs of the community, and with their support, we promote good relations between everyone in East Sussex.  We encourage our partners to share, and help us to shape, our principles and policies – we expect to learn from their experience of working in the community and we will help, where we can, to develop and make them sustainable.

• We monitor statistical information on the employment of staff and have extended this monitoring to include the collection of data in relation to sexual orientation and religion and belief. We use that information to assess the effectiveness of our equality and diversity policies and consider how to improve our performance. Statistical information is published on our website.

• Within the Council itself we also seek the views of our staff on the experience of working for the Council – we assess comments against all equalities strands and seek to address concerns and make the most of opportunities. Accordingly we recognise the value of full and constructive engagement with the Trade Unions and we also aim to support focus groups with particular interests in equality issues.

• Procurement and contracts – our influence extends to our responsibilities to ensure that organisations delivering services on our behalf, or from whom we purchase goods and services, do so in accordance with our policies. We expect all organisations with whom we have a contract to deliver services as required on policies that are compatible with ours.

• Delivering services – the Council is a significant service provider in the County. We aim to deliver those services effectively to all members of the community on the basis of equal access in recognition of the diverse needs of different members of the community. We assess the impact of new and existing processes, strategies and policies on our residents, communities and visitors to East Sussex. One of the ways in which we do this is through conducting Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) to ensure that equality of opportunity is central to our work and that any adverse effects on a particular group or groups are identified and addressed as required. We have developed a structured action plan to ensure that all EqIAs are conducted in a timely and prioritised way across all Council departments.

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