Diversity and Equality
Our Diverse Community
We deliver a wide range of services within a cosmopolitan city. We are proud to serve and engage the diverse communities that make up our group of residents.
Diversity Monitoring
As part of our commitment to equality and diversity we include diversity monitoring questions on questionnaires, recruitment forms, and other paperwork. The different groups that we ask information about reflect the characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010.
These are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex (gender) and sexual orientation. Asking about these areas helps us to make sure we are engaging with all sections of the community. We can't change things without your help.
Equality Analysis
We use our Equality Policy to help us improve our services. We make sure that we do not discriminate against any sections of our community as far as possible, minimise any negative consequences and maximise opportunities for promoting cohesion between local communities.
By understanding and meeting the needs of different people we can better meet our residents’ needs and offer more effective services.
The Equality Act 2010 identifies nine 'protected groups'. These are:
- Race
- Sex
- Gender reassignment
- Disability
- Age
- Sexual orientation
- Religion or Belief
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Marriage and civil partnership
We use an equality analysis in many ways including:
- helping to meet our residents’ needs
- making fair financial decisions in redesigning services
- taking into account the needs, circumstances and experiences of those who are affected by our policies and practice
- identifying actual and potential inequalities of outcomes
- identifying whether we are excluding certain groups and individuals from any of our services and helping identify both direct and indirect discrimination
- mainstream equality in our policies and practices
We welcome feedback as an opportunity to change and improve.
LGBTQ+
We want to celebrate our diverse workforce and the brilliance of individuality. We want to empower our residents and staff, by being even more inclusive and increase our diversity as an organisation.
Southend City Council have an LGBT forum called OUTreach which reaches out to LGBTQ+ staff, allies, other forums, external sites, other organisations and community groups, to engage with and learn from the experiences of similar groups from around the borough and beyond. The forum has also supported the Council's Stonewall Workplace Equality Index submission and continues to support ongoing work to enhance LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace and borough.
If you want to find out more about Pride and supporting the LGBTQ+ community, there are lots of resources online.
Visit www.livewellsouthend.com
Check out www.southendpride.org.uk for details of local events.