Equality Information Report 2021

Equality Information Report January 2021

During this year, which has brought us challenges like no other, there is one thing that has remained strong – and that is our compassion for each other. Everyone in Swindon has pulled together to provide practical assistance and emotional support in so many different and creative ways, some of which you will hear about later. On behalf of all our residents and the Council, I’d like to express our upmost gratitude for the efforts of our employees, community groups and volunteers, who have worked tirelessly to ensure that everyone in Swindon is safe and cared for. We are so proud and grateful for everything you are doing for us all.

While the recent months have shown us so many examples of community spirit and generosity, we also realise there will be longer-term implications of Covid-19 on our community, which we need to manage together. Covid-19 has been shown to exacerbate existing societal inequalities (Institute for Fiscal Studies). Therefore, it is even more important that we focus our efforts on promoting equality and inclusion in Swindon, to ensure that everyone, regardless of background or life experience, has the opportunity to flourish and achieve their full potential.

At Swindon Borough Council, our vision is: “Equality, diversity and inclusion is simply about the way we work. It supports our thinking and our actions; it is embedded into everything we do.” This principle still stands – but you, our residents, have rightly challenged us to go further. In our community equality event in February, you told us you wanted us to focus more on what brings us together – fostering our compassion, sense of community and learning from each other. We are listening.

In response to this, we are collectively refreshing our equality vision and our action plans, to reflect what you are asking from us. We are enhancing our community and employee engagement, so your voices shape our strategy. Please read more about how you can get involved in this report and, if you aren’t already, I personally invite you to join us in building a more equal and compassionate Swindon together.

As your Lead Member for Equalities, I am honoured to work with you in driving forward the equality agenda in Swindon, building on some of the fantastic work that has taken place over the last year.

Councillor Robert Jandy

‘By 2030, Swindon will have all of the positive characteristics of a British city with one of the UK’s most successful economies; a low-carbon environment with compelling cultural, retail and leisure opportunities and excellent infrastructure. It will be a model of well managed housing growth that supports and improves new and existing communities.

Swindon will be physically transformed with existing heritage and landmarks complemented by new ones that people who live, work and visit here would recognise and admire. It will remain, at heart, a place of fairness and opportunity where people can aspire to and achieve prosperity, supported by strong civic and community leadership.

Equality, diversity and inclusion principles run throughout everything we do as a council. This is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010, which legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), a key measure within the Act, ensures that public bodies consider the needs of all individuals in their day to day work – in shaping policy, in delivering services, and in relation to their own employees.

The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:

 Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act  Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not  Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The protected characteristics, covered within the Public Sector Equality Duty are:

Carers and current or former military personnel are protected under the Equality Act 2010 by ‘association’ and/or ‘perception’, rather than being protected characteristics in their own right.

Children in Care and Care Leavers

At Swindon Borough Council, we have added an additional category of Children in Care and Care Leavers for equality assessment purposes within our Diversity Impact Assessment process. While Children in Care and Care Leavers are not specifically covered within the Equality Act 2010, we wish for them to be considered as a protected group to ensure that additional attention is given, in all our projects and services, to how their needs can be met to provide greater opportunities and improve their outcomes.

Swindon Borough Council’s equality objectives are focused around two key commitments, which are:

1. Commitments for an inclusive workplace

Objective: To have the most diverse workforce we can

Objective: SBC is an inclusive employer which supports employee wellbeing

Objective: Continuing to meet our legal requirements in employment policy, practice and arrangements

2. Commitments for inclusive service delivery

Objective: Support the implementation of the policy with robust training

Objective: All employees are aware of the policy, strategy commitments and practical implementation

Next year, the Council will be updating its equality vision, objectives and action plans, with your support, to ensure that they reflect your priorities and needs. Many of you who attended our community engagement event in February have already shared with us your insights and reflections. We are very grateful for your feedback, which has already been shaping the work that has been taking place.

This is an ongoing piece of work, so if you would still like to contribute, your involvement is very welcome! There will be further opportunities to be involved, particularly through the work of the Swindon Equality Coalition – we’d like to hear from you! Contact Swindon Equality Coalition at [email protected]

This year has provided the Council with the opportunity to review its working model and structures for equality, diversity and inclusion, to ensure they are fit for purpose. We have shifted to a more dynamic and empowering model, with a focus on community and employee voices to shape our priorities and actions, as below:

Equality Advisory Group Strategic level (Cabinet Member Advisory Group)

Swindon Service Area Altogether Equality Operational/tactical level reps Coalition

SBC Employees Community Insights and contributions

Membership of the Equality Advisory Group has also been revisited, with a new approach of having more flexible community representation at meetings, based on the topics and themes being discussed. This enables greater participation and a wider range of perspectives to be shared.

A Diversity Impact Assessment (DIA) is a tool used to ensure all decisions and actions made by the council are considered through an equality lens and that “due regard” is given to all nine protected characteristics. Through systematically reviewing evidence, data and best practice, opportunities are identified to further promote equality, as well as to mitigate for potential negative impact and prevent unlawful discrimination. Diversity Impact Assessments for Cabinet decisions are published on the council’s website.

This year, we’ve established a pool of trained, volunteer Community DIA Reviewers, who are kindly giving up their time and expertise to ensure that our DIAs are high quality, evidence-based and that all equality considerations have been made. Their involvement has highlighted new information and feedback, which has been incorporated into process or service changes to further promote equality of opportunity and inclusion across everything we do as a council. A huge thank you to our DIA reviewers! If you’d like to support this activity yourself by becoming a Community DIA reviewer, please contact [email protected].

The collection and analysis of equality information is vital to ensure we are providing inclusive, accessible services for all our residents. This data is used to understand needs, inform evidence-based decision-making for services and in reviewing our performance. This statistical data is used alongside pro-active engagement within our community, with residents and service-users to understand experiences and gain direct feedback on proposals.

Census data captures equality information across Swindon and can be geographically broken down into areas of approximately 500 households, to gain a greater understanding of local needs. There has been significant population growth since the last census and not all protected characteristics are covered; therefore this data is used alongside other national and local sources held within service areas.

Census March 2021 – we need you!

The census is a survey that happens once per decade

and gives us a picture of all the people and households

in England and Wales. All kinds of organisations, from

the council to charities, use the information to help provide the services we all need, including transport, education and healthcare. Without the census information, it would be much more difficult to do this.

This year, the census will be digital and accessible on any device. The Office for National Statistics will be in touch nearer the time to let you know what you need to do. If you need any support to access or complete the census, this is available online, over the phone or in person. The census categories have also been broadened this year, so that everyone can identify as they wish. Some questions are

voluntary; however the more information you can provide, the more it will help our local organisations

to design services and allocate funding to meet needs.

By taking part in the census, you’ll be helping make sure you and our community of Swindon get the services needed now and in the future. Thank you!

As an organisation we capture equality information about our employees when they join the Council. Employees can add-to or update this personal information held on the system during their time in employment. We have provided some graphical illustrations of the data we hold below this section.

While we have comprehensive data for employees’ sex and age, a significant proportion of employees have chosen to not disclose additional personal equality information. This can limit our ability to meaningfully analyse the data, particularly for disability, sexual orientation and religion or belief where declaration rates are lower.

Rather than continue to push for this additional personal equality information through campaigns, the council is taking a different approach, focusing on raising awareness and supporting cultural change. Through facilitating greater engagement with equality and diversity across all sections of our workforce – through training, workshops, discussions and communications – we will create an environment where there is greater trust, openness and understanding of the importance of this data to support evidence-based recommendations.

While this awareness raising will be an ongoing process, it is envisaged that within 12-18 months, the organisation will be more receptive to responding to employee equality information requests, as they will be viewed as supporting the broader culture change around equality, diversity and inclusion.

Further information about Swindon’s population can be found on our website https://www.swindon.gov.uk/downloads/file/5286/swindon_population_estimate_by_equality_groups

Workforce - Gender and Full-time/Part-time status 5%

34% 31%

30% Full-time Female Part-time Female Full-time Male Part-time Male

Workforce age profile 35 29.7 30 25.1 25

20 19.0 14.4 15 10.4 10

5 0.3 1.2 0 0-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70+ Age bands

Ethnicity - Swindon Population vs SBC Employees 15% employees undeclared 90 84.7 85.6 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 15.3 14.4 10 0 White British BAME Swindon 2011 SBC 2020

Ethnicity - Swindon Population vs SBC Employees 15% employees undeclared 90 84.785.4 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5.2 6.7 5.9 2 1.7 3.1 1.4 2.5 0.8 0.5 0 White British White (non- Mixed Asian Black Chinese/Other British) heritage Swindon 2011 SBC 2020

Disability - Swindon Population vs SBC Employees

90 84.6 80 70 66.4 60 50 40 30 26.8 20 15.4 10 6.8 0 0 No disability Disability Not declared Swindon 2011 SBC 2020

Sexuality - UK ONS Data vs SBC Employees 100 93.4 90 80 70 62.6 60 50 37.4 40 30 20 10 2.5 2.3 4.1 0 Hetrosexual Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Not declared Other UK SBC 2020

Religion - Swindon Population vs SBC Employees 70

60 57.5

40 36.5 31 28.6 30.8 30

10 6.8 3 3.5 1.7 0.5 0 None Christian Muslim Other Not declared Swindon 2011 SBC 2020

Percentage of workforce who declare as having a disability, LGBTQ+ or BAME (N.B. - only includes data from employees who have disclosed) 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Disability LGBTQ+ BAME

We are pleased to report that Swindon Borough Council’s gender pay gap continues to be minimal at all levels, with a mean overall hourly pay gap of 1.73% and median of 1.58%. This compares favourably with other local authorities and is another slight reduction from previous years.

As our residents, your voices shape everything we do – and we are listening.

In February, we hosted the first Voice of Swindon Equality Workshop. This was an open event attended by forty-four community representatives and volunteers, who came to share their feedback, experiences and ideas, to input into a refreshed organisational equality, diversity and inclusion strategy. Thank you to everyone who was involved!

While there were a wide range of viewpoints and experiences, there were common themes running through all the feedback, which were:

- The importance of awareness and education, including learning from each other; - Promoting and celebrating kindness and compassion within our community.

While these action points were not taken forwards in quite the way we had anticipated this year, due to wider global events, our communities and colleagues have nevertheless delivered and continue to build on this, moving into next year. Please find out more about this below, including how you can take part.

Keen to have your say and get involved? Join the Swindon Equality Coalition.

The coalition promotes and supports equality, diversity and inclusion throughout Swindon, aiming to ensure Swindon is a beacon for equality of access and opportunity for all. The Swindon Equality Coalition was formed in 2010 and has this year been expanded and developed with a new core group, co-ordinated by Voluntary Action Swindon. With a seat at the council’s Equality Advisory Group, the coalition provides the voice of the community and voluntary sector, highlighting positive change and good practice, as well as challenging and raising issues where problems are identified.

The coalition can be contacted via the web, social media, phone and post – www.vas-swindon.org/equality

Through a partnership campaign between the council, Voluntary Action Swindon and the Swindon Volunteer Centre, we now have almost a hundred Swindon Circles volunteers who have found new ways of staying in contact with their Swindon Circles friends. Hundreds of telephone calls, doorstep cakes and meals and chats at open windows have been the norm as we all realised we had to do things differently. Gestures like this ensured that our lonely residents had someone to support them.

As a result of the pandemic we recognised a need for Telephone Befrienders and now have a Telephone Befriender scheme with forty-nine volunteers calling over ninety isolated and lonely residents. We’re also in the process of launching a pen-pal befriender scheme and already have five volunteers eager to write to a lonely resident.

During the pandemic over 3,200 hours were spent volunteering by our cohort of volunteers, with wellbeing calls, prescription pick-ups and shopping. Forty-three volunteers who newly joined as part of Compassionate Swindon have chosen to continue volunteering and have registered to volunteer with the council. Good news stories to lift the spirits!

 A local plumber kindly volunteered to offer her skills free of charge to some of our most vulnerable residents - on one occasion she turned up and found an ancient Victorian pull chain lavatory needing unblocking!

 Just before the pandemic we had a volunteer coffee morning and two of the volunteers recognised each other. It turned out that the older lady babysat the younger lady when their families were in the forces. The ladies are now in their 60s and 70s. They have stayed in touch throughout the pandemic.

 One man who our volunteers were shopping for is into his 80s and very active! He puts his good health down to white grapefruits and his volunteer shopper scoured the shops to ensure he didn’t go without his daily white grapefruit.

 Our Swindon Cards for the Community campaign brought in a whopping 880 cards! That meant that all our care home residents and all our children in care received a special card, made with love, this year. Here’s just a little sample of the beautiful creations below…

To all our amazing volunteers, community supporters and key workers… a huge…

Swindon Public Health and 12 partners have worked together to create a local Time to Change Hub, which has worked with the Time to Change National Charity - https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/ - to reduce stigma and discrimination around mental health.

The Hub has been operational since March 2019 and has run six joint mental health awareness campaigns including; mental health awareness week, world mental health day and suicide prevention day. Following the national Time to Change charity concluding in March 2021, the local partnership is looking to continue in some way under a new name.

Since the pandemic we have moved to local need and most recently produced this campaign aimed at redundancy alongside SBC- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL8l7Hhh-q8&t=13s

Altogether is the internal, employee-led Swindon Council equality movement for any employee who wants to stand up for the rights and opportunities of every employee and resident in Swindon. We believe everyone should have the support to reach their full potential and to flourish in both work and life, regardless of background, culture or individual characteristics. We want to work Altogether to make that happen!

Everyone is welcome – equality is about every single one of us.

The core group established informally in the summer and have already been delivering workshops on equality topics; hosting discussions; sharing communications; advising business areas around service changes and formulating future plans. The movement now has corporate endorsement and will launch formally in the New Year, under the banner of Altogether.

To ensure Swindon Borough Council maintained contacts with our tenants, including those who were unable to leave their homes due to Covid-19, we set up virtual cafes on Facebook and invited guests on a wide range of topics from loan sharks, heating your home, domestic abuse and also hosted quizzes and other activity sessions.

We have around eighty tenants attending each of the twice weekly cafes. This also supports people who may not be able to leave their home because of mental health or physical health issues.

E-training was also developed by the Housing Tenant Academy and tablets with wifi made available to ensure all learners can access the training modules.

Swindon Borough Council designed and delivered a new fully-accessible and inclusive sports complex at Swindon County Ground for the ‘Swindon Town programme’. The scheme comprises a pavilion, a 3G playing pitch and the enhancement of an existing athletics track. Every space within the buildings and wider facility was designed to be fully accessible for players, spectators and users.

The Swindon Town programme endeavours to increase participation in sport for people of all ages. Under the guidance of the English Football League Trust they deliver to meet the four key themes of Sports Participation, Education, Social Inclusion and Health. The Trust is currently delivering football and multi sports based programmes to over 2,500 participants on a weekly basis. The Social Inclusion and Disability Programmes are just two pieces of the jigsaw which contributes to the whole picture, encompassing people within their local professional football club.

Swindon Borough Council has received praise for its stance against anti-LGBT bigotry in Poland. The council has said it is “watching” its Polish twin town Torun and is ready to cut ties if the city introduces a measure declaring itself an LGBT-free zone – like one hundred towns, covering about a third of the country.

Cabinet member with responsibility for equalities, Robert Jandy, wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging the government to condemn the action:

“This has seen the creation of ‘hostile spaces’ across huge swathes of the country, serving to alienate and discriminate against the LGBT community and making intolerance official. I ask that the government and particularly you as our prime minister, urge the Polish government and its authorities to condemn these recent acts and to revoke all resolutions attacking LGBT rights. The government must show solidarity with all LGBT citizens and amplify the call to respect and protect LGBT rights across the globe.”

Councillor Jandy said: “It’s particularly important to hear from people in Poland itself that they understand they are not alone in the dark, that there is a light being shone on what’s going on there.”

Closer to home, while the PRIDE festival may have been cancelled this year, the PRIDE spirit was definitely still with us in Swindon! There was a rainbow road trip with a shop display competition, rainbow lit central library and Greenbridge roundabout. There was also discussion groups, workshops and online events – and discussions are underway about how we make 2021’s celebration bigger, better and prouder than ever!

Alongside the spotlight case studies, here is just a sample of other initiatives and ongoing activities within the equality and diversity space at or supported by Swindon Borough Council:

- Continuing outreach work within our diverse communities, ensuring that everyone who needs a service knows what is available and feels welcomed – particular focus areas this year have been foster carer engagement and promoting our local support charities

- Focus analysis around disparities in Covid-19 rates and engagement with representatives from different nationalities and cultural groups within Swindon for tailored prevention and support work

- Continuing to celebrate our community volunteers through the Pride of Swindon Awards, with winners names being shown permanently on a plaque at the central library

- Unconscious Bias and Conscious Inclusion training for our Councillors, with over fifty attending and positive feedback received

- Optimising our agile working policy to support working parents and carers during the pandemic, enabling greater flexibility to manage work alongside caring responsibilities

- Social work team being recognised in Community Care magazine for best practice in supporting staff living with a disability

- Maintaining our Disability Confident, Mindful Employer and Carer Award status, including participating in local employer networks to share knowledge and best practice

- Updated equality and diversity e-learning, with a fresh focus on understanding and overcoming personal unconscious bias

- Offering care leaver apprenticeships, work experience and supported employment placements

- Leadership programmes, development courses and coaching that are open to all staff

Over the next year we are going to focus on formalising and embedding the changes that have been made this year, specifically around building community voices and compassion in Swindon by:

- Analysing and addressing the longer-term impacts of Covid-19 on inequality, starting with a project looking at increasing co-ordination around our local response to food security; - Promoting and developing our new community and employee engagement platforms, to reach more residents and ensure all voices are heard; - Expanding peer-led awareness and education to foster understanding and inclusion; - Continuing to support and celebrate the amazing efforts of our volunteers and residents in creating a more compassionate Swindon

I am pleased to say that our progress around equality has continued during a challenging year. None of us could have anticipated how much our lives changed so suddenly and dramatically after our community equality event in February. Our communities have rallied together and truly demonstrated compassion for all, under the most challenging of circumstances. It is heartening to see so many stories of friendship, kindness and understanding coming through.

As we all know, we are on a journey with equality and inclusion. We are heading in the right direction and we will continue to do so knowing we have your support. This year has tested us all, but it has also clarified what really matters – and that is each other. Working together, we can make Swindon a community leader for equality, diversity and inclusion!

Thank you, and take care of yourselves and each other

This document forms part of Swindon Borough Council’s demonstration of its legal compliance against the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) which is part of the Equality Act (2010). The document will inform the ongoing work of the Council’s Equality Objective action plan, and any future review of the objectives.

A range of documents are referred to within this report. Unless otherwise identified, these are available at www.swindon.gov.uk. This information about Swindon Borough Council’s response to the Public Sector Equality Duty can be made available in a range of formats and languages by email [email protected] or phone 01793 445500.

More information is available on the SBC website www.swindon.gov.uk including:

Equality Action Plan

Equality Act 2010 Summary

Population estimate 2011

Glossary of Equality and Diversity terminology

Housing Register Equality Information 2016

Language use in Swindon 2016

Adult Services Equality Summary 2015 to 2016

Children, Families and Community Health Equality Summary 2015-2016

Swindon Borough Council Staff profile and information 2016

Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (Health and Wellbeing)

Contact details:

The Learning & Development Team, Swindon Borough Council, Civic Offices, Euclid St, Swindon SN1 2JH [email protected]