The Corporate Equality Plan report explains how Monmouthshire County Council is working towards ensuring its services and employment practices are treating every member of the public, and potential and existing employees, equally and fairly.

The report is a strategy for improving the way we achieve equality and fairness within the national framework known as the 'Equality Standard for Local Government'.

The Equality Standard provides a framework for ensuring that equality is embedded into all Council activities and sets out a series of benchmarks to measure progress in relation to employment and service delivery. 

The broad equality issues of race, disability, gender and the Welsh language are brought together in this framework.  We also seek to include sexuality, age and religion within our equalities work.

One of the recommendations of the Equality Standard is that local authorities develop a 'Corporate Equality Plan' (CEP).  The purpose of the CEP is to turn the council's equality policies into practical objectives and actions.

The Corporate Equality Plan tackles a wide range of equality issues with the aim of identifying and removing any discriminatory practices in the council's services and employment practices.  It aims to address the under-representation of minority groups within the workplace, ensure that service provision takes account of the diverse needs of the local population and improve the way we consult with the wider community.

The Corporate Equality Action Plan covers a two-year period, by the end of which we hope to have reached Level 2 of the Standard.

Launched in February 2008, the Equality Improvement Framework (EIF) replaced the Equality Standard for Local Government.  With broadly similar aims it is hoped that the EIF process will make it easier for locas authorities to mainstream equalities into their policies and practices and will produce real and measurable results.