Leader of the Council retains responsibility for Equality

We are very pleased that following the elections in May, the new Leader of Monmouthshire County Council, County Councillor Peter Fox, has assumed the mantle of responsibility for Equality into his portfolio.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

Did you know that with effect from 1st October 2007 the EHRC assumed responsibility for providing guidance on equality and human rights matters.

It is intended that the primary responsibility of the EHRC will be to promote equality and tackle discrimination in relation to gender, disability, sexual orientation, race, gender assignment, religion or belief and age and to promote human rights.

If you are interested in learning more about the EHRC, you may wish to visit their website. Please click on the EHRC link in the useful information section opposite to take you there.

A Framework for Fairness - A Single Equality Bill

This is a green paper that sets out the government's proposal to replace the variety of existing equalities legislation with a single equality bill.

Consultation on this paper ended on 4th September 2007. If you would be interested in learning more, please click on the Framework for Fairness link in the useful contacts section.

Gender Equality Duty

Monmouthshire County Council have published our first Gender Equality Scheme. The scheme sets out our commitment to gender equality and what we intend to do as a local authority to address the requirements of the gender equality duty.

If you are interested in learning more about our scheme, please click on the Gender Equality Duty link on the left hand side of the page.

Consultation on our draft gender equality scheme is closed but we welcome any comments you may have that will help us develop the scheme further and make it relevant to the citizens and staff of Monmouthshire.

An on-line survey can be found on the Gender Equality Duty page. Taking just a few minutes to complete, survey responses will help us develop the scheme and action plan and make it relevant to you.

Equality Improvement Framework

The Equality Improvement Framework for Wales has been developed as a management framework to assure the effective management of equality and secure positive outcomes that promote equal opportunity within local authority services.  It has been designed to ‘talk’ to local authority approaches to the Wales Programme for Improvement (WPI) and can be used as a self-assessment tool, as suggested in the Welsh Assembly Government’s WPI guidance for local authorities (Circular 28/2205).  By working with existing systems for management it encourages the enhancement and development of these systems to support effective equalities management and continuous improvement.  The aim of the EIF is to promote real equality outcomes through a performance management system that supports the development of equal opportunity as a value throughout local government and throughout the community.

Race Equality

We are in the process of producing our third Race Equality Scheme.  The scheme will build upon the work already undertaken since our first scheme was published in 2002.  We look forward to continuing our excellent working relationships with the South East Wales Racial Equality Council (SEWREC) and with our colleagues in the South East Wales Equality Network (SEWEN) as well as representatives of our communities.