Waltham Forest Council has achieved level four in the Equality Standard for local government. The Equality Standard is comprised of five levels and by achieving level four, Waltham Forest becomes one of only 7 London boroughs and in three per cent of all local authorities to have received the award.

Over the past year a range of work has been carried out to achieve level four of the Standard. This includes setting a clear list of priorities in a new Corporate Equality Plan, reforming each directorate’s Equality Board under the leadership of a Head of Service, and ensuring that every directorate has a clear equality action plan and is delivering it.

The Council has also succeeded in attracting a 27 per cent participation rate in Community Councils by disabled people. This has been achieved through the active promotion of accessible venues, and does the vital job of enabling disabled people to have their voices heard – a key disability equality priority for the Council.

During the next 18 months, the Council will work to achieve level five of the standard, which to date only one percent of local authorities have reached.

Equality outcomes for level four are listed below:

Adult and Community Services

Direct Payments (DP)

We currently have a good use of DP by people from BME communities. The percentage of BME people receiving DP has increased from 59 per cent in 2005/06 to 61 per cent in 2007. In addition to supporting race equality this outcome supports our DES priority of enabling disabled people to live independently.

Mental health

58 people with mental health problems have been helped into employment through partnership of RFES, within which over 50 per cent were BME and 57 per cent were women. This supports our DES priority of enabling disabled people to live independently and our corporate equality priorities of addressing current disadvantage by improving employment rates for BME people, lone parents and disabled people.

Housing

A community supported housing unit was set up with use of assisted technology to promote independence and safety for people with highly complex needs. The project was featured and praised for excellence and innovation by the House of Commons. This outcome supports our DES priority of enabling disabled people to live independently.

129 people with learning disabilities had been helped into paid work by the end of 2006/07 and many people had gained relevant qualification in their jobs.

Libraries

A reading group for our LGBT community at Walthamstow library was established - currently ten people are using the service. This increases access to library services for LGBT people and promotes LGBT equality and cohesion to the wider community. We also celebrated LGBT history in our libraries. We continue to successfully celebrate Black History Month and faith events in our libraries.

Health

Women only swimming sessions are getting popular and encourage more participants to benefit, in particular ethnic minority and Muslim women. We are helping to provide independent living skills for Asian women with learning disabilities through our day services, so far 17 women have learnt skills in 2007/08 (The Day Service for Asian Women was praised by the Prime Minister as a unique service provision for empowering Asian women across the UK).

Further encouragement for disability sports events - a girl’s team from Joseph Clark School, Chingford, came fourth in the regional Disability Sports Hall Athletics Final held at Lee Valley High School on 18 March.

Children and Young People Services

Schools

High profile work addressing homophobic bullying throughout schools has taken place. The delivery of the Tacade project (an organisation that promotes young peoples heath and well being) in three of our schools has been well received.

The delivery of the Minority Ethnic Achievement Project has helped raise the achievement levels of Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali and Turkish Heritage pupils.

In 2007/08 78 young people were assessed as requiring Section 140 assessments. These assessments are for young school leavers with learning difficulties and/or disabilities to go on to work-based learning or further education, the assessment identifies and details the type of support the young person will need to be successful in the future. 76 were within the agreed time frames.

Connexions

Connexions carried out 76 14+ Transition Reviews and 125 Annual Reviews with young people with learning disabilities in 2007/08.

Environment and Regeneration

Green Space

Implemented fully accessible play improvements in Abbots Park. This supports our Disability Equality Scheme (DES) objective of enabling disabled people (including children) to get out and about more easily.

Street Services

Following on from development work to the DES, further work was done with visually impaired residents to increase accessibility to our refuse collection and recycling service. The result of this is that during summer 2008 the Council will be launching and distributing stickers to visually impaired customers for use on their bins which will make the recycling service more accessible, increase recycling rates and meet the Council’s disability equality objective of enabling disabled people to live independently.

Consumer Protection Service

The Council has exceeded targets for ensuring the Customer Panel is representative of the community. This year saw 30 new members, including 11 black, minority and ethnic (BME) women, four BME men, four young people and three older women. This is an important achievement as one of the Council’s equality priorities is to enable everyone to get their voice heard and for gender equality in particular a key priority is to promote women’s involvement and participation.

Regeneration

Worklessness Strategy – Better Neighbourhood Initiative residents were engaged in employment and training support. Ten young people (previously not in education, employment or training), 24 lone parents and seven residents previously on incapacity benefit found employment through this strategy. This supports our DES priority of enabling disabled people to live independently and our corporate equality priorities of addressing current disadvantage by improving employment rates for young people, lone parents and disabled people.

Strategy and Resources

We have exceeded targets for the number of public accessible toilets for disabled people in the borough through the Community Toilet Scheme. As of February 2008 there were 25 members signed up to the scheme, 15 of which offer accessible toilets. Prior to the scheme there were only four accessible toilets available. This supports the Council’s disability equality scheme objective of enabling disabled people to get out and about more easily. The use of inclusive engagement and a robust EIA process in the development of the climate change strategy ensured that equalities were mainstreamed into its development and into the subsequent action plan. Our approach to equalities was commented on as exemplary, by Greater London Authority delegates at a stakeholder event.

Development management

Unitary Development Plan targets for provision of wheelchair units have been met on all relevant planning applications and accommodation meeting Access for All and Lifetime Homes standards. This supports our DES objective of enabling disabled people to live independently.

Community Safety

An increased number of hate crime reporting centres, which supports race, disability and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equalities have been established. The Domestic Violence Strategy works with victims and perpetrators, supporting gender equality and is showing a reduction in repeat victimisation.

Strategic Directorates - Governance and Law, Finance and People, Policy and Performance

Communications

An inclusive style guide for contractors providing services to the communications team has been produced, which ensures communications are accessible and the images used are diverse.

State of borough debate 2007 which focussed entirely on young people and introduced “Press Gang” to encourage complaints from young people in response to a recognition that they were under-represented.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs)

The Council has maximised political leadership in respect of EIAs and introduced new EIA guidance and training, which is improving the quality of decision-making and the inclusiveness of our policies and services. The SCS and Climate Change strategies are good examples of how the EIA process improved the final strategy.

Performance

The Council has introduced and is highlighting equality implications of under-performance in performance reports, which is improving understanding of the impact of under-performance and informing remedial action.

Emergency planning

Through assessing the needs of all service users, emergency planning and preparations for Emergency Rest Centres now meet the needs of all communities, faiths and disabilities where practicably possible, during major incidents and disasters. We have done this by:

  • Ensuring our identified rest centre buildings are Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant
  • Providing Quiet/Prayer rooms in our emergency rest centres
  • Ensuring the Council can provide adequate transportation for the disabled public
  • Identifying equalities, diversity and disabilities requirements in the emergency rest centre plans and training
  • Providing faith guidance in all our emergency rest centre packs to assist rest centre staff
  • Ensuring that rest centre staff have access to over the phone translation services

The Council is also ensuring that signage is understandable to all by using Makaton and Easy Read systems and information leaflets will be provided in the rest centres in a range of languages.

Facilities

The number of council buildings that are DDA accessible have increased.

Electoral Services

Completed research and outreach work to increase electoral registrations, and improved access to polling stations to support participation in democracy and contribute to the Council’s objective of enabling disabled people to get their voices heard.

Promoting and supporting the flourishing of diversity in the workplace

Establishing a successful LGBT group and being ranked 67 in the Stonewall equality index.

Waltham Forest Council was in the top quartile of the top five per cent of earners in respect of BME and gender.