Agenda and minutes

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Sub-Committee;

(b)               all other Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared during the course of the meeting:

Agenda Item 8 – Corporate Equalities Objectives

Councillor Sue Anderson declared a disclosable pecuniary interest in part of the above item when public health matters were considered as she was employed by NHS Harrow.  She left the room whilst the matter was considered and the Vice-Chairman took the Chair.

Councillor Sue Anderson declared a non pecuniary interest in that her son was not in employment, education or training (NEET).  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered. 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 September 2012 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 September 2012 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

To receive questions (if any) from local residents/organisations under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 17 (Part 4B of the Constitution).

RESOLVED: To note that no public questions were put, or petitions received.

To receive any references from Council and/or other Committees or Panels.

None received.

Report of the Divisional Director Strategic Commissioning.

The Sub-Committee received a report which set out issues considered by the Chair since the last meeting of the Performance and Finance Scrutiny Sub?Committee.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Report of the Divisional Director Strategic Commissioning.

An officer introduced a report which updated the Sub-Committee on the development of Equalities polices in response to changes in legislation and best practice over recent years.  The report advised on the progress made in addressing the underlying issues and described the next steps on embedding equalities practice.  The Sub-Committee were updated on the Council’s ambition to seek external accreditation against the Equality Framework for Local Government.  The officer made the following comments:

·                     the Single Equalities Scheme (SES) had been agreed by Cabinet on 15 December 2010 and this placed certain requirements on the Council.  As a part of the SES a three year action plan for six key objectives was agreed;

·                     a three year programme of Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) was developed and directorates were asked to develop annual EqIA programmes which aligned with their Service Plan.  EqIAs were required for all key decisions;

·                     the Equality Act 2012 introduced a new Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) which placed 2 specific requirements on public authorities.  The new PSED covered 9 protected characteristics.  One of the requirements of the PSED was to publish by 31 January 2012, and annually thereafter, information to demonstrate compliance with the general equality duty.  The Council was commended for the document and data it provided, ‘Our Harrow, Our Story’.  The second requirement was to prepare and publish by 6 April 2012, and at least every 4 years thereafter one or more equality objectives.  The Council consulted on its equality objectives and 8 were adopted by Cabinet.  The performance indicators for the objectives were taken from each directorates scorecard to help embed equalities within the organisation and to prevent duplication;

·                     the Corporate Equality Group would receive 6-monthly reports on the progress on achieving the objectives and annual reports would be submitted to the Corporate Strategy Board (CSB) and to a scrutiny committee meeting.  Each of the directorates would produce quarterly progress reports against their scorecards for the Improvement Boards;

·                     a new performance and improvement framework for equalities, Equality Framework for Local Government (EFLG) replaced the Equality Standard for Local Government (ESLG).  The Council was currently at the ‘achieving’ level under the EFLG and had committed to achieving the ‘excellent’ level;

·                     the EFLG had been reviewed in March 2012 and the London Equality Group had carried out some research to ascertain which authorities would be seeking external accreditation.  The accreditation was only being sought by one authority.  The majority of authorities were adopting the framework for use as a tool to measure improvements;

·                     a Cabinet decision would be required to adopt the approach of not seeking external accreditation and following the alternative option of using the framework to measure improvements.  There were significant resource implications in seeking the external accreditation.

The Performance, Customer Services and Corporate Services Portfolio Holder attended the meeting and commented that the Council was doing well with regard to equalities and supported the alternative option to seeking external accreditation.

A Member asked about staff support groups and whether these were still active.  The officer  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103.