Equality and diversity report 2023
Contents
- Introduction
- Leadership, partnership and organisational commitment
- Understanding and working with your communities
- Responsive services and customer care
- Diverse and engaged workforce
- Appendix 1: Gateshead Council equalities data
- Appendix 2: Equalities profile of Gateshead (January 2023)
Introduction
We use the Local Government Association's Equality Framework (2021) to structure how we develop and report progress against our corporate Equality and Diversity work programme.
The equality framework helps councils to:
- deliver accessible, inclusive and responsive services to customers and residents in their communities including those from under-represented groups
- employ a workforce that reflects the diversity of the area they are serving
- provide equality of opportunity for all staff; and
- meet the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and support any aspirations to exceed these
The themes within the Equality Framework are:
Understanding and working with your communities
Leadership, Partnership and Organisational Commitment
Responsive Services and Customer Care
Diverse and Engaged Workforce
Strategic context
The Equality Act 2010 requires us, along with other public sector organisations, to comply with the Equality Duty, which came into force in April 2011.
The duty covers nine protected characteristics:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- race
- religion and belief
- pregnancy and maternity
- sex
- sexual orientation
The General Duty requires us to have due regard to the need to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
- foster good relations - including tackling prejudice and promoting understanding, between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
The Specific Duties require us to:
- publish information annually to demonstrate its compliance with the general equality duty
- publish and prepare one or more objectives that we think we need to achieve to further any of the aims of the general equality duty - this must be done at least every four years
We have developed our approach to tackling inequality and this report sets out how we are promoting equality in Gateshead.
Our annual report publishes information against what we have delivered in 2022-23 against the equality framework themes and what our areas of focus for each area will be for 2023-24. It also publishes our workforce information as Appendix 1 to the report, to meet the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty.