Our priority is to create a community fit for all through increasing community participation and understanding.

Waltham Forest Council and its partners have an ambitious equality vision for the Borough. The vision is of a proud and prosperous place to live, where all have equal opportunity to participate and receive services according to their needs, individuals are respected and their contributions valued, people are proud to live, work and visit and where cultural diversity is celebrated.

Gender Equality Scheme

The Council's progress report on the second year of it's Gender Equality Scheme is now online.

Read more on Gender Equality Scheme (106KB Word file)

Top ranking for high earning minority staff

Waltham Forest is proud to be one of the leaders in the proportion of highest paid council officers who come from ethnic minorities, coming second to Hackney, in a ranking of 33 London boroughs.

» Read more on high earning minority staff

Council receives national recognition for working with its communities

Waltham Forest Council and the Borough’s police have been awarded Beacon status for their work in building Cohesive and Resilient Communities.

» Read more on community cohesion

Achieving Equality

Waltham Forest Council is delighted to announce that it is now one of seven Councils in London to achieve level four of the Equality Standard.

The standard addresses the six equality strands; age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation, over five levels of development ranging from having an equality policy (level one) to making significant progress in achieving equal employment and service provision with regard to equality (level five).

» More on the Equality Standard

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2008

Waltham Forest Council's performance keeps going from strength to strength and this includes our performance in delivering improved equality outcomes for our residents and staff.

The Annual Report gives a taste of some of the things we are doing to promote equality and community cohesion, and to close equality gaps.

» Download the Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2008 (764KB PDF file)

» Download the Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2008 (141KB Word file)

Corporate Equality Plan 2007/10

The Corporate Equality Plan contributes to making our vision for 2012 a reality by translating the London Borough of Waltham Forest’s equalities policy into action. Through these actions we aim to play our part by providing fair, appropriate and accessible services to all our users and by becoming a representative employer that positively values the contribution of all its employees.

» Download the Corporate Equality Plan 2007-2010 (141KB Word file)