The council has hundreds of policies, plans and schemes in place that it must put into operation in order to deliver the wide range of services it is responsible for, to everyone who wishes to access them.
To ensure that all of these policies, plans and schemes take equalities issues into account, an Equalities Impact Assessment must be carried out. This means that any possible actions the council would take are assessed to see what impact, if any, it has on the public from an equalities perspective.
For example, a policy about renovating buildings would be assessed to ensure that any work would provide full access to people with disabilities. Or it could be that any guidelines on how the council deals with the public is assessed to ensure that someone wishing to use British Sign Language could do so.
Below is a copy of the blank template currently used.
Equalities Impact Assessment blank template (PDF 118kb)
Since February 2012, all reports that are presented to the different committees, the council's Cabinet and Full Council have had a new Equalities Implications section included as part of the standard format.
Training and awareness sessions as well as practical help when preparing reports has ensured that the level of consideration of equalities and Welsh language issues in the council's everyday work has risen considerably during 2012.
Below is a pdf document listing every report or policy from February 2012 to date that has had an assessment, or has had consultation comments included in the final version.
EqIA and Consultation Comments List (PDF 109kb)