Equality Impact Assessment: Services
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APPENDIX 2 Equality Impact Assessment: Services A reduction in the opening hours of Leicestershire County Council’s libraries, Title of service being assessed: Donington le Heath Manor House, Melton Carnegie Museum and the Record office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland Adults And Communities Department Department and Section: Communities and Wellbeing Section Nigel Thomas-Service Delivery Manager Names and roles of office completing Debbie Richards-Museum Sites and Standards this assessment. manager Jenny Moran-Keeper: Access and Information NT 0116 305 7379 Contact Telephone Numbers: DR 0116 305 5620 JM 0116 305 2559 Date assessment completed: Defining the service 1. What are the aims, objectives or purpose of the service? Are these reflected in the relevant service plan? The aims, objectives and purpose of the libraries, museums and record office service are outlined in the service plans for each service. All of the services are part of the Communities and Well Being section of the Adults and Communities department of the County Council. The Service Objectives of Communities and Well Being are : A. Ensure that people in Leicestershire have access to high quality integrated, cultural services, both online and through the provision of a network of Libraries, Museums, Record Office and arts services B. Ensure that people in Leicestershire are able to gain access to culture through a range of outreach activities in community based, learning, and other social venues. C. Ensure that children, young people and adults are able to achieve more by reading and learning in a range of settings by providing high quality reading and learning activities in schools, museums, libraries and other formal and informal venues. D. Contribute to the development of skills amongst vulnerable groups through programmes including volunteer development, work based programmes and positive activities in partnership with schools, Multi-Access Centres, FE and HE organisations. - 1 - APPENDIX 2 E. Ensure that people are able to participate in a dynamic creative economy as consumers, audiences and workers by providing business support for small to medium sized creative industries businesses F. Provide care and stewardship of the county’s many heritage assets so that these can be used now and in the future to enhance understanding of the history of Leicestershire and its communities. G. Ensure that people in Leicestershire are well informed by providing relevant, accurate and timely information for all people and specifically those most vulnerable in society. H. Ensure the financial sustainability of Communities and Wellbeing services by assuring value for money and by increasing income from commercial / business opportunities and external funding I. Ensure that people in Leicestershire have access to cultural activities that support and promote health and wellbeing 2. What outcomes does the service want to achieve and for whom? How have these been determined? Please also list any relevant performance indicators. This EIA is to determine the impact on equality streams of a proposal to reduce opening hours across all three services as part of a package of service efficiencies and reductions outlined in Leicestershire County Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). The outcome of the proposal will be an overall reduction in opening hours and a saving of £443,000 from the budget of Communities and Wellbeing. These savings will be derived from • 54 local libraries. • Donington le Heath Manor House Museum. • Melton Carnegie Museum. • Records Office for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (ROLLR) Detailed analysis has taken place of the daily, weekly and monthly usage of the services and this has informed the decision to reduce opening hours. A commitment has been made by the council not to close any libraries, museums or the record office and to maintain access within current budget constraints. A public consultation exercise has been undertaken asking members of the public to “fine tune” the proposals for opening hours. 3. Who is responsible for delivering the service? Are any other organisations involved? If other organisations are involved are they fully compliant with the Council’s Equality Policy? Responsibility for service delivery lies principally with the Senior Management Team of the Communities and Wellbeing section, and then through service operational teams. This is subject to a review of management structures during 2011-12 Libraries are managed through a management team and two operational areas. In addition, - 2 - APPENDIX 2 there are district based Area Community Managers who promote libraries in their respective district designations. The library service supports the Huncote partnership library which is managed by a volunteer committee, and has a variety of relationships with community groups who impact on the development of library services. ROLLR is run in partnership through a formal joint arrangement with Leicester City Council and Rutland County Council. The Chief Archivist and record office management team deliver the service within the Communities and Well-being portfolio. Of the two Museums under consideration, at Melton Carnegie Museum there is a formal agreement with the Museum of Hunting Trust relating to the 2003 refurbishment of the site. Donington-le-Heath Manor House has no formal partnership agreements but has a very supportive Friends group. The museums management team ensure service delivery at the two sites. The service areas are compliant with Leicestershire County Council’s Equality Policy. 4. Consider the answers given in questions 1, 2 and 3 and assess whether your service results, or could result in adverse impact on or discrimination against different groups of people. If you consider that there is adverse impact or discrimination, or the potential for either, please outline below and state whether is it justifiable or legitimate and give your reasons for this. (See examples in Section 6) Reductions in opening hours will impact on access to the services that are offered through libraries, museums and the record office. The purpose of this EIA is to determine whether there would be any disproportionate impact on communities for the equality themes. This might be caused by: • Reduction of opening hours that lie outside weekday and office hours e.g. weekends • A month’s closure for Melton Carnegie Museum and a two month closure for Donington Le Heath Manor House: concerns have been raised that community groups will have greatly reduced access: this may have a particular effect on age and increase social exclusion. • Seasonal closures for museums may have an adverse effect on commerce and tourism. • Reduction in opening hours may need to delays in access to information. A period of public consultation over proposed schedules of opening hours was undertaken by LHA services between April and June 2011. consultation took the form of: • Printed survey available at all LHA sites • Online Survey • Letters to Stakeholders including stakeholders that represented equality communities. A list of these can be found in Appendix 1 • An analysis of library transactions to determine if any of the 5 equality strands of demographic groups would be affected by changes to opening hours. - 3 - APPENDIX 2 Libraries Museums and Record Office Gender Males 32% Males 41% Females 68% Females 60% Disability or long Yes 17% Yes 18% term limiting illness Ethnicity White 95% White 98% Mixed 0.5% Mixed -- Asian/Asian British 3% Asian/Asian British 1% Black/Black British 0.8% Black/Black British -- Other 0.7% Other 1% Religion None 27% None 32.5% Christian (all) 68% Christian (all) 64% Buddhist 0.6% Buddhist 0.5% Hindu 1% Hindu -- Jewish 0.2% Jewish 0.5% Muslim 0.7% Muslim 0.5% Sikh 0.4% Sikh -- Other religions 2% Other religions 2% Sexual orientation Bisexual 1% Bisexual 3% Gay 0.5% Gay 2% Heterosexual 95% Heterosexual 91% Lesbian 0.5% Lesbian 1% Other 2% Other 3% Libraries Museums and Record Office Age Under 16 3% Under 16 1% 16-19 1% 16-19 1% 20-29 4% 20-29 6% 30-44 20% 30-44 13% 45-59 23% 45-59 29% 60-74 33% 60-74 46% Over 75 16% Over 75 7% Table 1: responses to public questionnaire Analysis of affected demographic groups Table 1 shows the response rates from the public questionnaire from respondees. Libraries An analysis was undertaken to determine whether any particular demographic groups within the identified equality strands of Leicestershire Library users were disproportionately affected by the proposed reduction in opening hours. Residents had to have a residential postcode within Leicestershire, and have at least one transaction (loan) at their home library site during 2010. - 4 - APPENDIX 2 Analysis was undertaken on 89,834 borrowers who completed 1,882,497 transactions within 2010. To be completely affected by the proposed changes, groups had to have had at least 4 transactions within 2010, all falling outside of the proposed opening hours. To be partly affected , groups had to have at least 4 transactions within 2010, and at least one but not all of these transactions falling outside of the proposed opening hours. To be not affected groups had to have at least 4 transactions within 2010 with none of their transactions falling outside of the proposed opening hours, OR have had less than four transactions within 2010. The results of the analysis showed that only 2% of borrowers would be fully affected by the changes proposed and 34% partially affected. Affected Borrowers: Equality Strands For the purposes of analysing the equality strands the number and proportion of borrowers affected has been analysed by combined those borrowers fully affected and those partly affected. This is due to the small number of borrowers being fully affected. Age: Borrowers aged between 5 and 15 years and over 45 years are more likely to be affected by the proposed changes to opening hours compared to other age groups. Gender: Females are more likely to be affected by the changes compared to males.