Equality in Northumberland 
We are committed to making Northumberland County Council an
accessible and inclusive organisation that welcomes and respects
the diversity of all people who live and work in the County, its
employees, elected members, and visitors to Northumberland.
This section of our website tells you what we are doing to
promote equality in Northumberland and how we are meeting our new
duties under the Equality Act 2010 to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
- Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a
characteristic and those who do not;
- Foster good relations between people who share a characteristic
and those who do not.
We have set out our commitment to equality in our Council
Equality and Diversity Policy. Click
here to read our Policy.
The Equality Act and the Protected Characteristics
The Equality Act 2010 covers nine protected characteristics,
which cannot be used as a reason to treat people unfairly. Every
person has one or more of the protected characteristics, so the Act
protects all of us against unfair treatment.
The protected characteristics are:
- Age
- Disability
- Race
- Sex
- Gender reassignment
- Sexual orientation
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Religion or belief
- Marriage and civil partnership
The Equality Act sets out the different ways in which it is
unlawful to treat someone, such as direct and indirect
discrimination, harassment, victimisation and failing to make a
reasonable adjustment for a disabled person. This applies both in
providing services and in employment.
For more information on the Equality Act, please visit the Equality
and Human Rights Commission website by clicking here.
Our Equality Information
As a public sector organisation, Northumberland County Council
has a legal duty to consider the effects of our services and
practices on equality across people of all protected
characteristics. This helps us to check if the way we do things has
any unintended consequences for some groups, and to make sure they
will be fully effective for all target groups. It can help us to
identify any practical steps to tackle any negative effects or
discrimination, and to promote equality and foster good relations
between different groups.
The Council first published its Equality Information in January
2012 and has since updated this for 2013.
Our information includes lots of information relating to people who
share a protected characteristic who are either: our employees or
who are people affected by our services. This shows what we feel
the key equality issues are for different groups, what we have in
place already to address these issues, and what else we feel we
need to do.
Click here
to read our Main Report. (For our previous 2012 report -
click here)
Click here
for our Easier Read Summary
The main report gives a summary of these main issues, and each
of the Appendices give more detail about this for each Council
Group.
Appendix 1:
Detailed Information About our Workforce
Appendix 2:
Group Equality Analysis – Adult Services and Housing
Appendix 3:
Group Equality Analysis – Children’s Services
Appendix 4:
Group Equality Analysis – Public Health and Public
Protection
Appendix 5:
Group Equality Analysis – Finance
Appendix 6:
Group Equality Analysis - Local Services
Appendix 7:
Group Equality Analysis - Transformation
Appendix 8:
Group Equality Analysis – Fire and Rescue
If you need this information in Large Print; Braille; Audio or
in another format or language please contact us:
- Telephone 0845 600 6400
- Fax 01670 511 413
- Textphone 01670 542 521
- Typetalk 18001 0845 600 6400
- Email ask@northumberland.gov.uk
Our Equality Objectives
As part of our duties under the Equality Act 2010, the
Council was required to prepare and publish one or more
equality objective by April 2012. The aim of this was to help
the Council focus on the important equality issues for
Northumberland and deliver improvements in policy making, service
delivery, and employment.
In setting our Equality Objectives, it was important that we
engage with lots of different people and groups to make sure the
objectives we set were the right ones. We asked lots of
different groups of people what they think through meetings, forums
and surveys. We are also took account of previous consultations and
engagement work with different groups used to inform our former
Single Equality Scheme.
The Main Report, follows on from our 2012 Equality Information
report and sets out our key Equality Objectives.
Appendix 1 gives more detail about our engagement with local
individuals and groups.
Main Report:
Advancing Equality in Northumberland - Part 2: Our Equality
Objectives
Appendix 1:
Our Equality Objectives Engagement Report
Accessibility
Information
We are committed to making sure our information is clear and
accessible to all members of our community. If you need particular
Council information in Large Print; Braille; Audio or in another
format or language please contact us:
- Telephone 0845 600 6400
- Fax 01670 511 413
- Textphone 01670 542 521
- Typetalk 18001 0845 600 6400
- Email ask@northumberland.gov.uk
We have produced some guidance for people involved in developing
information to help make sure it is accessible to everyone.
Click here to
read a copy of the guidance.
disabled Go
disabled Go We have worked in partnership with disabledGo and
local disability organisations to produce an access guide to 1,000
places in Northumberland. This aims to provide disabled people and
their families with the information they need on whether places are
accessible for their individual needs. The guide will make it
easier to find information on places to visit and Council buildings
and will help more disabled people take part in local activities.
The guide also aims to promote awareness of the needs of disabled
people and encourages organisations to become more inclusive by
improving access to their buildings and services.
Click here to visit the disabledGo
website.
Equality Impact Assessments
The Council has a legislative duty to consider the impact of
decisions that it takes, including decisions about budget savings,
on people who share a protected characteristic. To help us with
this, we have an Equality Impact Assessment tool that we use when
key decisions that might have an impact on equality are being made.
Click
here to find out more information about our Equality Impact
Assessments. All Council Groups also complete an annual
Strategic Equality Analysis focussing specifically on their
functions and services. This is included in our annual Equality
Information that the Council publishes.
Hate Crime in Northumberland
Hate crime is an extreme manifestation of prejudice and
discrimination. It can have a devastating effect on victims and on
whole communities. Northumberland County Council works closely in
partnership with the police and other agencies to prevent all forms
of hate crime, take action against perpetrators, and support and
protect victims.
In partnership, the Council encourages anyone who is the victim
of, or witness to, hate crime to report it immediately. This is
vital to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice. Hate
crime will not be tolerated in Northumberland. What is a hate
crime? Hate crime is any criminal offence where anyone believes the
victim has been targeted because of their race/ethnicity,
religion/belief, gender/gender identity, disability, age, sexual
orientation or any other actual or perceived characteristic.
Hate incidents are incidents that do not constitute a criminal
offence but cause alarm, distress or harassment where anyone
believes the victim has been targeted because of their
race/ethnicity, religion/belief, gender/gender identity,
disability, age, sexual orientation or any other actual or
perceived difference. Hate crimes and incidents can also be
directed at whole communities – for example desecration of
graveyards, vandalism of places of worship, offensive graffiti in
public places, or acts of terrorism.
Hate crime can include verbal abuse, threatening behaviour,
offensive graffiti, harassment, malicious communications, damage to
property and violence. This includes incidents committed on the
grounds of:
- Disability
- Race or ethnic identity
- Religion / belief
- Gender or gender identity
- Sexual orientation
- Age
- Immigration status or nationality.
Homophobia and Homophobic Bullying and
Harassment
Homophobia is an irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination
against people who are gay and homosexuality.
Homophobic bullying and harassment can be described as any
hostile or offensive action against lesbians, gay males, bisexual
or transgender people, or those perceived to be lesbian, gay,
bisexual or transgender.
These actions might be:
• verbal, physical, or emotional (social exclusion)
harassment, insulting or degrading comments, name calling,
gestures, taunts, insults, threats or 'jokes'
• offensive graffiti
• humiliating, excluding, tormenting, ridiculing or
threatening refusing to work or co-operate with others because of
their sexual orientation or identity.
Reporting hate crime
Why report a hate crime?
Only if hate crime is reported can we, together, take action to
deal with it. No one has the right to harass, threaten or assault
anyone because of who they are. How to report a hate crime? If
there is an emergency call the Police on 999 – particularly if an
incident is still happening or has just happened. Callers have the
option of reporting an incident anonymously. We encourage victims
to provide personal details, which will help us to investigate the
incident more thoroughly.
If you do not wish to report to the Police, you can report an
incident to Northumberland County Council by:
- Email ask@northumberland.gov.uk
- Call Northumberland County Council on 0845 600 6400
- Report at your local housing office if you are a council or
Registered Social Landlord (RSL) tenant.
When you contact the Council you will be referred to someone who
can help you. A form can be sent out to you to complete. All
information is treated in the strictest confidence. We need your
help to stop discrimination and harassment.
Working for Us
We are committed to making sure that our recruitment and
selection processes are fair and accessible to all people who may
wish to work within the Council. The Council is committed to the
‘Two Ticks’ Disability Symbol. This means that all applicants who
have a disability will be offered an interview if they meet the
minimum essential criteria outlined in the person specification. In
addition, reasonable adjustments can be made during the
application, interview and assessment processes.
Click here to view current
vacancies within the Council.
Information for Staff Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
(LGBT) Staff Network
The Council is a Stonewall Diversity Champion
which means it is part of a best practice forum for employers on
sexual orientation. As part of this, the Council has been working
together with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to
improve the experience of LGBT staff in the workplace. We have a
staff group that meets regularly to talk about how things can be
improved, provide support, and to work on making things better. The
group is open to LGBT and non LGBT staff who have an interest in
making our workplace more inclusive to all staff. For more
information about the group contact the LGBT Champion, Patrick
Price at: Patrick.Price@nhct.nhs.uk
For more information visit the LGBT Staff
Network webpage.
To access the Council's Gender Reassignment Policy please
click
here
Equality Monitoring in the Workforce
It is important to us to understand how representative our
workforce is of our wider community and to check that our processes
and practices are accessible and fair to all staff. We also have a
legal duty to collect and publish data on this. Therefore, the
questions in the staff monitoring form are intended to help us
gather this information, and we are asking all our staff to help us
by filling in this form.
Click here to access an electronic copy of the monitoring
form.
Equality Monitoring in our services
It is also important for us in some situations to collect
equality monitoring data about the people who use our services so
that we can make sure our services are accessible to all groups of
people. We have produced guidance for services on how and when to
do this in an appropriate way.
Click here to
read to guidance on equality monitoring in services.
Equality and Non-Council Services
Under the Equality Act 2010 Northumberland County Council does
not have any powers to make other businesses make adjustments to
their premises unless they make an application under the building
regulations to extend or refurbish their building or in some cases
apply for licenses.
The Council is trying to encourage good practice and has provided
an online access guide called DisabledGo, this provides
information to disabled people and encourages businesses to improve
access. Complaints about failure to make a reasonable adjustment to
premises have to be made by the person who has been discriminated
against (or their representative) they can choose to do this in a
number of ways.
Click here to read guidance from the Equality and Human
Rights Commission outlining people's rights and how they can
enforce them.
This guide tells you about how you can expect a business to behave
towards you to avoid all the different types of unlawful
discrimination. The guide gives you an overview of how equality law
applies to all businesses, and then goes on to look at particular
issues that businesses providing goods, facilities and services in
different sectors may need to think about when considering what
equality law tells them to do. The guide will explain what action
you can take if you feel you have been discriminated against.
