LEICESTER CITY COUNCIL'S EQUALITY & DIVERSITY CHARTER

Here's the text of Leicester City Council's Equality & Diversity Charter, launched at a meeting in the Town Hall today. The charter confirms (and elaborates on) the city Council's commitment to its Public Sector Equality Duty, which came into force in England, Scotland and Wales on 11 April 2011, replacing previous duties in relation to disability, gender and race equality duties. This triune duty comprises the tasks set in bold immediately below.

Leicester City Council is committed to equality of opportunity, elimination of discrimination, and promotion of good relations between all people.

We are proud of, and celebrate, our city's diversity.

We recognise that people have differing needs.

When allocating resources we will be clear on how we have prioritised individual and community needs.

We will treat people with respect.

We will provide accessible information on our services, community activities and events we support.

We will aim to deliver services that are accessible and culturally appropriate to those using them.

when making important decisions about local public services we will engage with local residents and communities.

We will work with our employees to ensure that equality is embedded in the workplace.

We have developed an equality and diversity strategy which reflects this commitment.

If you are a member of the public who uses our services, you can find out more about our commitment to equality and diversity at leicester.gov.uk/equalityanddiversity

If you are a council employee, you can find out more about putting equality and diversity at the centre of what you do at insite/equalities

The charter is signed by Sir Peter Soulsby (City Mayor) and Cllr Manjula Sood MBE (Assistant City Mayor: Community Involvement, Partnerships and Equalities - and Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths)

WORLD FAITHS ADVISORY GROUP AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY, FEBRUARY 2013

A meeting of the World Faiths Advisory Group (WFAG) at the University of Leicester's Chaplaincy Centre (The Gatehouse, University Road) this lunchtime.

Present today are Rev Canon Dr Stephen Forster (Coordinating Chaplain), Ian Snaith (Chair, WFAG), Chris Sharp (Equalities Adviser to the University of Leicester) and Resham Singh Sandhu (Chair of the Sikh Cultural and Welfare Society, Vice Chair of Leicestershire Interfaith Forum and past-Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths).

With Chris present at today's meeting, it makes sense to talk about the World Faiths Advisory Group's relation to the University's management of equality issues. Under the terms of the Public Sector Equality Duty, the University of Leicester - like all public bodies - has to apply itself to three aims of the general duty:

• To eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. By removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics.
• To advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. By taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people.
• To foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. By encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

 

We discuss the possibility of establishing a Religion or Belief Forum, which would function alongside hose already operating at the university in relation to other Protected Characteristics as enumerated in the Equality Act 2010. If such a forum existed, it would free WFAG from having to be involved in governance issues and allow this group to make progress on issues that fall within its specific remit. I am able to speak to the meeting in support of this idea. It's been my experience that the Protected Characteristic of Religion or Belief is taken more seriously an treated with more respect when it is see in context with the other Protected Characteristics, rather than trying to stand alone outside the general scheme of things or to make special pleading on grounds of exceptionalism.