Promoting Equality, Fairness
and Good Community Relationsis about creating a Leeds where partners
work together to ensure that equality and fairness are at the heart of all
decision making and where conditions are created for good community relations
in all parts of the city and across all communities.
Context: All partners should ensure that,
through all our work, we seek to eliminate the causes of unfairness, including
discrimination on the grounds of: age, disability, faith or religion, gender,
race, sexual orientation, caring responsibilities, socio economic status and
any other areas of inequality.
All of these aspects of people’s
lives should be taken into account when making decisions, as should the
recognition that, for some people, reducing discrimination in only one area of
their life is not sufficient to prevent them from suffering inequality.
By supporting and encouraging
equal life chances for all, partners can ensure that everyone has the
opportunity to; be included, take up a service or contribute to decisions that
affect their lives.
By acting together partners can
guarantee that our collective impact on communities promotes inclusion and
creates conditions in which good relations can thrive.
Partners Commitments: Promoting equality,
fairness and good community relations
Use legal duties as a starting
point
All partners will:
- Abide by legal duties to promote
equality of opportunity both in work places and in the commissioning and
delivery of services in the statutory and third sectors.
- Seek and promote opportunities
beyond minimum legal requirements wherever possible to promote equal life
chances.
Assess the impact of decisions or
actions on different groups
All partners will:
- Put in place effective monitoring
systems which will enable them to understand the individuals and communities
they are reaching and serving and to analyse and track the impact and outcomes
of decisions and actions on particular groups and communities.
- Take into account the possibility
of disproportionate or negative impact on groups or communities defined by
gender, age, disability, sexuality, race or ethnicity, religion or belief or
gender identity. And to take into account in this process the potentially
different needs of people in terms of health, marital/partnership status,
legal, economic or nationality status as
well as issues associated with socio economic class and where people live.
- Analyse the common experiences of
excluded or under-represented groups and seek to eliminate the barriers to
inclusion or access.
- Undertake appropriate Equalities
Impact Assessments on key decisions or actions and address gaps and weaknesses
in evidence, engagement, services or outcomes n.b. see Compact Implementation Aid 3.
Working together
Partners will:
- Ensure that, wherever possible,
they promote good relationships between different communities.
- Work together in communities so
their work fosters inclusion and creates the conditions for good relations to
thrive.
- Share information and working
practices, wherever possible, in neighbourhoods and localities to avoid any
potential conflict between groups about the allocation of resources.
- Share good practice and routes to
specific communities.
- Ensure decisions relating to
funding of single-identity groups, or specialised services will be open, transparent
and clearly linked to needs and outcomes and wherever possible, any specialised
or ring fenced funding streams will signpost and make reference to mainstream
or other funding opportunities.
Embedding good community
relations in all activities
Partners will:
- Ensure that the foundations for
good community relations are embedded in the work we undertake.
- Embed empowerment, engagement and
volunteering opportunities in neighbourhood and locality activities where
possible.
- Encourage economic, ethnic and
wider demographic diversity in neighbourhoods and work places.
- Provide opportunities for
different groups in communities to come together to make decisions about their
shared places, spaces and services.
- Provide opportunities for safe
spaces for dialogue between different parts of communities when decisions are
being made that affect them.