Last updated: 21 November 2023

Next review: 21 November 2024

Who we are and what we do

The Council recognises that everyone is different and has different needs. We aim to serve everyone in a fair, open and objective way.  The Council will aim to give everyone the same opportunity for employment, and promotion, without discriminating against individuals based on a protected characteristic as per the Equality Act 2010.  Where possible we will aim to eliminate/remove any barriers that may hinder equality of opportunity for our staff. We are continuously working towards creating a work environment that is more diverse and representative of the customers we serve.

The Council have developed a virtual dashboard that combines a wide range of HR metrics in one place. This data is drawn from SAP and HR records and then presented in an anonymous statistical dashboard.

The data has been used in the past on separate reports presented to managers and Management Board (MB), but this is the first time staff will be able to see a wide range of HR metrics in one place and filter down information regarding their directorate and service area.

The dashboard provides us with easily accessible and usable information to help us track some of the priority initiatives of the Council and measure our success.

Immediate opportunities to use the dashboard include:

  • To analyse and report on the progress of the People and Pay Gap Strategies.
  • To understand the evolution and distribution of the workforce and the impact of new initiatives.
  • To support us to identify trends or issues in equal opportunities across the council.
  • To support managers to develop talent from existing employees and provide opportunities to develop and progress individuals.
  • To provide an open and fair appraisal process.
  • To disseminate HR data in a timely, efficient manner and be transparent with trade unions.
  • Easily extract insights to understand our variances against other authorities based on other data sets.
  • Consider as part of the Equality Impact Assessment process and strategy alignments as part of staffing restructures.

The dashboard will be updated twice a year and reported to MB, Employee Networks, Trade Unions and widely to council managers.

We will share this data across the council, in order to keep transparency and communicate progress against our targets.

For further information please contact Human Resources team.

Email: HR@walthamforest.gov.uk

Information we hold about you

Diversity monitoring data is provided to us directly by you where you choose to provide it. Diversity monitoring data includes special category data under the UK GDPR.

The dashboard combines already existing HR data on:

  • age band
  • gender
  • ethnicity
  • sexual orientation
  • religion, disability
  • pay grade
  • contract type
  • directorate, division and service area (only a few metrics can be filtered down to division and service area level, to maintain the anonymity of the data in smaller teams)
  • Fairness at Work and Conduct reasons, reasons failed probation, staff sickness.

The dashboard data will not be linked to any names or emails addresses and every effort has been made to ensure that the data remains anonymous.

Why we need your information and how we use it

The data is collected and processed to allow the council to track its progress in some of its priority initiatives and measure its success.

In order to provide the best services for our workforce and ensure we are moving in the right direction, we need a place where we can combine that data and observe trends.

Immediate opportunities to use the dashboard include:

  • To analyse and report on the progress of the People and Pay Gap Strategies
  • To understand the evolution and distribution of the workforce and the impact of new initiatives
  • To support us to identify trends or issues in equal opportunities across the council
  • To support managers to develop talent from existing employees and provide opportunities to develop and progress individuals
  • To provide an open and fair appraisal process
  • To disseminate HR data in a timely, efficient manner and be transparent with trade unions
  • Easily extract insights to understand our variances against other authorities based on other data sets
  • Consider as part of the Equality Impact Assessment process and strategy alignments as part of staffing restructures

The dashboard will be updated twice a year and reported to MB, Employee Networks, Trade Unions and widely to council managers.

We will share this data across the council, in order to keep transparency and communicate progress against our targets.

The lawful basis for the processing

The Lawful basis for the processing is Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). 

Archiving, research and statistics with basis in Equality Act 2010  (Article 9 (j) GDPR) - Public Sector Equality Duty: From April 2011 (s.149 of the Equality Act 2010) public authorities are now required, in carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to achieve the objectives set out under s149 of the Equality Act 2010.

How long we will keep your information

The identifiable data is only retained for the periods prescribed in the Councils Data Retention Schedule for HR data (up to 7 years after the last day of service, depending on the type of data).

Anonymous information may be retained for longer for statistical or research purposes to allow the Council to observe trends over the years.

The data that feeds into the statistics will be separated and deleted as necessary.

Complaints and contact details

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Our Data Protection Officer

Our Data Protection Officer is Mark Hynes, you contact him by email at data.protectionofficer@walthamforest.gov.uk

Protecting your information

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Your information choice and rights

Please see the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Complaints and contact details

These are included in the relevant section of the Corporate Privacy Notice.

Information Commissioner’s Office

If we’re unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)