Welcome letter from the Director
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
strategy’s title, Inclusive by Design, reflects our
ambition for the coming years, despite the financial challenges we
currently face. It
sets out a framework for the actions we will take and the values we
will be guided by when transforming support and services to get the
best value for money, improve outcomes and reduce inequality for
residents.
The strategy builds on the successes and
learning from our previous Equality and Inclusion Strategy and is
designed to help us achieve our ‘What Matters to You’
plan to enable care, support and independence for adults across
East Sussex.
We are proud of the work we’ve done to
date, but we know there is more we can do to advance the EDI agenda
locally. As a leadership team, we are committed to championing this
work and taking action to deliver meaningful and sustainable change
for everyone.
We have set ourselves four EDI priorities for the next three years. This
strategy document provides background context, and explains how we
developed the priorities and the outcomes we would like to see for
each priority. It is supported by a detailed action plan setting
out what we will do.
Our success will be judged on whether we are
achieving our priorities of:
1)
Delivering
leadership on equality and demonstrating commitment
2)
Engaging
effectively with residents to make improvements
3)
Delivering quality services that reflect the diverse needs
of local people
4)
Building a diverse workforce with equality confidence,
knowledge and skills
We can only achieve our priorities if we
forge strong working relationships with our partners across the
system, from the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector
(VCSE) to NHS partners, providers and other public sector
organisations.
Together we can ensure that we are offering
inclusive care and support for everyone.
Mark Stainton
Director
Adult Social Care and Health
Vision: Our commitment
Our equality
diversity and inclusion ambition is to create fairer, safer,
accessible and inclusive care and support services for everyone,
where everyone feels they belong, have a voice and an equal
opportunity to thrive. Achieving this will contribute directly to
the vision set out in our Adult Social Care Strategy ‘What
Matters to You’.
Being truly
inclusive is not just about welcoming different contributions.
Inclusion also means actively tackling inequalities and advancing
greater equality, as well as fostering good relations between
different people. Inclusion means removing the barriers –
physical, economic, structural or social – that hold people
back, so we can ensure everyone in East Sussex is
included.
The Public Sector Equality Duty
The
Equality Act 2010 places certain duties on public authorities,
which includes Councils. Public authorities must, in the exercise
of their functions, have due regard to the need to:
·
Eliminate
discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct
prohibited by the act;
·
Advance
equality of opportunity between people who share a protected
characteristic and those who do not;
·
Foster good
relations between people who share a protected characteristic and
those who do not.
The
Equality Act 2010 further explains that having due regard for
advancing equality means public authorities should:
·
Remove or
minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected
characteristics;
·
Take steps
to meet the needs of people with protected characteristics, where
these are different from the needs of other people;
·
Encourage
people with protected characteristics to participate in public life
or in other activities where their participation is
disproportionately low.
Finally,
the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 places a
requirement on public authorities to publish, at least annually,
information to demonstrate compliance with the above duties. Public
Authorities with 150 employees or more are also obliged to publish,
at least annually, information concerning protected characteristics
in relation to their staff and other persons affected by its
policies and practices.
What are the benefits of the equality duty?
The Equality Act provides the legal
framework for statutory services, but this strategy seeks to go
beyond this statutory duty. We want to ensure all sectors and
communities take into account the needs of everyone who experiences
disadvantage and discrimination. This includes those with caring
responsibilities and those in care, homeless people, refugees and
people seeking asylum, people in and coming out of the criminal
justice system, people with substance misuse problems, and those
experiencing deprivation and poverty, as well as people we seldom
hear from. We want to ensure everyone has appropriate access, is
treated inclusively and can benefit from the same access to
opportunities.
Our Human Rights commitments
As well as the Equality Act 2010, the
council is subject to the provisions of the Human Rights Act 1998,
which sets out a framework for the basic rights and freedoms that
belong to every person from birth to death. The rights defined in
this act and international law are:
·
Right to life
·
Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment
·
Freedom from slavery and forced labour
·
Right to liberty and security
·
Right to a fair trial
·
No punishment without law (under which people’s rights can be
restricted if they break the law)
·
Respect for private and family life, home and correspondence
·
Freedom of thought, belief and religion
·
Freedom of expression
·
Freedom of assembly and association
·
Right to marry and start a family
·
Protection from discrimination in respect of these rights and
freedoms
·
Right to peaceful enjoyment of property
·
Right to education
·
Right to participate in free elections
We want to work to ensure people are aware
of their rights. We are taking steps to ensure that rights-based
conversations, with people who draw on care and support from us,
inform our strengths-based practices in provision of care and
support.
Our progress so far and the key challenges we face
As a department, we have achieved a
significant amount since 2021, including spearheading a focus on
EDI across East Sussex County Council. Key achievements from across
the department on the 2021-2024 Equality and Inclusion Strategy are
listed below:
1)
Knowing our communities and inclusivity at the heart of service
development
We
have continued to use and further strengthen ASCH’s existing
community engagement mechanisms to inform equality impact
assessments and co-produce policy and service improvements.
2) A
safe, fair, and inclusive workplace environment
Our Workforce
Programme is spearheading the change programme to ensure we are
investing in recruitment, retention, wellbeing and building
leadership for the future. All of this has been supported by the
Building Social Justice project which aims to create and maintain a
safe, fair and inclusive workplace for all staff.
3)
Data recording, sharing and analysis
We
have an improved data monitoring process and improved outcomes for
how we use that data.
Our Equality Impact Assessment processes use our equality
data to improve planning and commissioning of services.
4)
Strengthening ASCH staff practice and knowledge in all aspects
of equality and human rights as they connect with ASCH work
Overall, sessions were attended by 720 people across the
department. Feedback has been extremely positive and included staff
feeling that their practice was consequently more inclusive for
clients, carers and colleagues. The following training sessions
have been designed and are being delivered:
|
East Sussex
population
|
|
 Population aged
65+
East Sussex =
26%
England = 18%
26% of the adult population in East Sussex are
older people (65+), considerably higher than England where 18% of
the population is aged 65 and over.
|
 Additional households headed by
older people by 2035 = 37,700
By 2035, there will be 37,700 more households
headed by older people, aged 65 and over.
|
|
Fall in working age population
in next 20 years
Hastings = 5.6%
Eastbourne = 3.3%
The working age population in Hastings and
Eastbourne is expected to fall by a considerable amount in the next
20 years (5.6% and 3.3%, respectively).
|
 Working age adults by
gender
Male = 49% Female
= 51%
Older People by
gender
Male = 45% Female =
55%
As age increases the proportion of the
population that is female generally becomes higher.
|
|
 Population aged 66 and over
living alone = 30%
There are 41,304 one-person households aged 66
years or over, equating to 30% of the population aged 66 years or
over living alone. Within the county it ranges from 27% in Wealden
to 35% in Hastings.
|
Population aged 85+ by
2026
East Sussex = 4.3%
England = 2.5%
We currently have the highest percentage of
people aged 85 and over of any local authority area in England.
|
|
 BME
population = 11.1%
11.1% of the population in East Sussex is from
a black and ethnic minority background; this has increased from
8.0% in the 2011 Census.
|
 Residents
born outside UK = 9.9%
The 2021 Census showed around 53,820 residents
(9.9%) of East Sussex were born outside the UK, an increase of
10,970 (25.6%) since 2011.
|
|
 Rural
= 26%
Urban =
74%
Based on 2011 census classifications 74.0% of
the population lives in an urban area.
|
 Proportion
of people with a disability
East Sussex = 20.4%
England = 17.9%
South East = 15.7%
East Sussex has a higher proportion of total
people with a disability when compared to the South East and
England
|
|
|
|
This population profile means we have a higher proportion of the
population with multiple complex needs, a higher population than
average with dependency needs, and a lower working age population.
Additionally, our population is increasingly diversifying. This is
set against increased demand for services, financial pressures, and
workforce challenges.
In this strategy, we
are using our data to set targets and measures to improve our
practice and service delivery to clients to ensure accessibility
and inclusivity, and to demonstrate that to our residents and
others. This means equalities data and insight will be monitored
and considered within other work projects and learning mechanisms
including strengths-based assessments, reducing waiting times,
complaints and feedback and casefile audits.
How we defined our priorities and
actions
The priorities set in
this strategy have been aligned to our council-wide Equality
Objectives. However, the department-specific actions and objectives
have been co-developed while working with a range of partners. We
have been holding community engagement meetings with our Voluntary
Community Service and Enterprises (VCSE) partners since June
2023.
We have held planned
engagement and consultation on these priorities and activities with
a range of forums, including those representing people who draw on
our care and support options, our staff groups, our VCSE partners,
and our ICS partners, as well as other public sector partners.
What people said to us was:
1. They want
visible leadership on EDI issues.
2. They want
the feedback loop to be closed so they know how their feedback has
been used.
3. Engagement
and consultation should not only be cyclical but also a continuous
conversation so we are not starting from scratch every time we
engage on a new plan or service.
4. They want
staff to be trained on EDI issues and for everyone to receive the
same training so that there is no disparity in the services they
receive.
5. They want
comissioning of services and care and support options to be
transparent and informed by Equality Act considerations.
6. They want
to understand how data monitoring has been utilised to improve
services.
7. Staff
should feel safe, included, valued and supported in the work they
do.
This feedback and other actions from our ASC Strategy, ‘What
matters to you’, and the report and recommendations on seldom
heard people and communities has helped us create our action plan
for this strategy.
Set
out below are our four priorities and our action plan.
Our four
priorities
Leadership is key to establishing a strong
vision for equity and improving equality outcomes laid out in this
strategy. Our handling of equality and inclusion through visible
leadership, strong organisational culture and partnerships will
reach the high standards we expect of ourselves and others will
look to us as a source of good practice.
Our strategic leadership will continue to
play a central role in ensuring that equality issues are integral
to our performance and strategic aims and continue to promote a
culture where positive relationships are built and people are
supported, valued, and respected for who they are.
Objectives
Priority
2:
Engage effectively
to make improvements
We want to continue to
understand the diverse needs of our communities and how to meet
them effectively. To do this, we will actively engage, encourage
and support local people, groups and organisations to participate
in the work we do to improve opportunity and inclusion. We are committed to co-producing
services with people with lived experience, recognising the
improved quality, relevance and efficacy of services where the
voice of people who are experts in their own lives has been central
to the design and commissioning process.
We will strengthen our existing forums and create
new forums for engagement, including on race and ethnicity, faith
and religion and LGBTQ+. We will also enhance our engagement with
our older population to ensure we are carefully thinking about
intersectionalities and the impact on people from different
backgrounds.
Objectives
Priority 3:
Quality services taking into
account diverse needs of local people
Recommendations for the seldom
heard communities and people review committed us to an equality,
diversity and inclusion reset of all our work. We would like to dig
down deeper into the data on who uses services and where the gaps
are. This is increasingly possible now that we have made
improvements in data recording over the last three
years.
We
will make sure we support and promote inclusive behaviour with
residents and service users by setting and maintaining clear
expectations, ensuring that we are role models for this behaviour
ourselves in all interactions with our community. We will co-produce, where we can, and provide
inclusive and accessible services that improve outcomes for our
diverse local population, particularly for our seldom heard people
and communities.
Objectives
Priority 4:
Diverse workforce with equality
confidence, knowledge and skills
We want an
engaged and diverse workforce. We know that workplace diversity
brings different perspectives on how to approach tasks, creating a
wealth of ideas. We will work to create an inclusive environment
for a diverse range of people to work in, valuing their health and
wellbeing. Linking with the workforce programme and HR initiatives
will help identify our priorities to ensure that the recruitment,
retention and wellbeing of our staff has inclusion at its
core.
Objectives
How will we know
this strategy is making a difference?
This strategy has an annual EDI action plan which was
co-developed with help from a range of internal and external
stakeholders including our partners, residents and our staff. The
action plan sets out actions against each of our equality
priorities contained in this document. It includes baseline
measures and will be used to monitor progress and evaluate whether
outcomes are on track and delivered. The action plan will be
monitored throughout the year by our Performance Board and progress
will be published annually on our intranet and external
webpages.
Getting
in touch
If you have any feedback, or want to find out
anything more about this strategy and the accompanying Action and
Implementation Plan, please do get in touch with the Equality and
Inclusion Team at ASC.EqualityTeam@eastsussex.gov.uk
or phone
number.
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