Walsall Council’s commitment and plan to ensure the borough is inclusive for all is to be detailed in a new draft Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy.
The strategy, which will be presented to Cabinet on Wednesday 17 July 2024, sets out four clear objectives which aim to promote equity across all services, the workforce, and communities.
These objectives are:
Communities Objective: To work in partnership with our communities to build a borough where people belong and thrive.
Leadership Objective: To embed equitable and inclusive policy and decision making at the heart of the organisation.
Services Objective: To design and deliver accessible services that meet the needs of our diverse population.
Workforce Objective: To be an inclusive organisation, with staff at all levels who represent the diversity of our borough.
Councillor Garry Perry, Leader of Walsall Council, said, “This strategy has been developed alongside the refresh of our Council Plan 2025-2029.
“Ensuring equity is an underlying principle in the draft Council Plan, identified as being an essential consideration that will allow us to deliver our corporate vision and ambitions.
“The strategy has been developed from extensive feedback from council staff, Walsall For All community workshops and best practice knowledge from across Local Government.”
Councillor Edward Lee, Portfolio Holder for Internal Resources, said, “This strategy is a very important piece of work for both the council and the borough, with the title, ‘Ensuring Equity’, aligning with the aims set out in our Council Plan refresh.
“It hopes to build on the great work that has already taken place, including programmes and activities which have strengthened EDI across the Council.
“Following agreement from Cabinet, the strategy will be circulated to partners across the borough for comment and feedback.”
The draft strategy notes strides made across the workforce, policy, services and community in recent years; while outlining nine statutory characteristics which the council must consider when designing services and implementing policy. These characteristics are age, sex, gender reassignment, race, disability, pregnancy/maternity, sexual orientation, religion or belief, and marriage/civil partnership.
A recommendation will be put to Cabinet to agree to the inclusion of ‘Armed Forces’ as a local characteristic, adding to the existing local characteristic for care leavers.
Walsall Council’s Cabinet members will be asked to approve the strategy on Wednesday 17 July 2024. A link to the meeting and the report can be accessed via: https://cmispublic.walsall.gov.uk/cmis/Meetings/tabid/70/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/397/Meeting/3932/Committee/514/Default.aspx
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