Equalities Impact Assessments

We have hundreds of policies, plans and schemes in place that we must put into operation in order to deliver the wide range of services for which we are responsible, to everyone who wishes to access them.

To ensure that all of these take equalities and Welsh language issues into account, an 'Equalities Impact Assessment' must be carried out.

This means that any possible actions we would take are assessed from an equalities perspective to see what impact, if any, those actions have on the public. 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 guidelines on how we deal with the public are assessed to ensure that someone wishing to use British Sign Language could do so.

Since February 2012, all reports that are presented to the different committees, Cabinet and Full Council have had a new ‘Equalities Implications’ section included as part of the standard format.

Equalities Impact Assessments - 2016/17 Budget Proposals

At the council’s Cabinet meeting on 17 February 2016, a number of proposals were put forward where savings could be made for the 2016/17 financial year. These proposals amounted to approximately £11.1m.

Following an initial screening exercise, a number of these proposals did not require a full Equality Impact Assessment due to their nature being predominately ‘back office’ savings that would not have an impact on service users and/or the public.

These assessments provide additional information to support the decision- making process and outline details of the actions required to monitor and manage the impact of the proposed savings.