Equalities and diversity

Our Diverse Community

Melton Borough is a community made up of many different groups and individuals.  The Council is aiming to foster an environment that allows everyone to live, work, and learn free from discrimination and harassment.  We all have the right to enjoy equal and fair treatment and to be accepted and respected for who we are.

We recognise that not everyone does experience equal treatment and there are many forms of discrimination that affect people's lives.  We all have an age, a gender, an ethnic origin, a sexual orientation, a religion, belief or non belief and some of us have a disability or will have in the future.  Discrimination can be on the basis of one or more of these characteristics and we know that people can also be excluded through class, poverty and other factors such as poor health, education.

Melton Borough Council believes that everyone in the  Borough deserves excellent services that are accessible  and reflect their individual needs and circumstances.  This involves, where appropriate, dealing with the specific needs of people with particular protected characteristics.  In some cases this may mean balancing different needs and treating some people differently in order that they receive the same service outcome.

Current Legislation

The following section gives a brief summary of the current legislation which covers creating a society that values and celebrates diversity, where every individual has the opportunity to achieve their potential, and where people are treated with dignity and respect.

More about current legislation

Why does the Council need to ask me personal questions?

You may wonder why we ask you so many personal questions.

The information you give us is very important as it can help us improve the services we deliver to residents, customers and you.  We monitor this information and if we find that certain groups of people aren't using particular services, we can address this to ensure that everyone gets fiar and equal access to our services - regardless of their age, disability, gender, race, religion/beleif or sexual orientation.

We may ask these questions during our contact with residents or customers over the phone, in person, or through written communication.  It is important to note that:

• information provided by you is confidential under Data Protection legislation.
• information is not passed on to anyone else and is not used to check citizenship status or nationality
• you are not obliged to provide this information... but the Council has a duty to ask all these questions

10 reasons to answer the questions about you on forms (PDF, 1.2MB)

Equality Framework for Local Government

What is the Equality Framework for Local Government?

The Equality Framework for Local Government (EFLG) replaced the Equality Standard for Local Government when it came into effect on 1 April 2009.  More about the Equality Framework

Equality Impact Assessments

Equality Impact Assessments or EIA's are a way of finding out whether the Council's services or policies will affect some communities or groups of people differently.

By carrying out these assessments it helps us to make sure that the needs of people are taken into account when we develop and implement a new policy or service or when we make a change to an existing policy or service.  By doing this assessment we minimise the potential for discrimination.

Recently published EIA's

Information about the Borough of Melton and its Citizens

Melton Borough Council is subject under the specific duties of the Equality Act 2010 to publish equality information that we use to help shape our services and policies.

The three main aims fo the Equality Act 2010 dutues are to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited under the Act.
• advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and
• foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

The following data is held by the Council and will be updated on a regular basis.

Council Piloting Data Collection to meet its equality duty.

Equality in Employment

As a employer, Melton Borough Council is committed to being a fair and equitable employer.

We will:

• work to create opportunities to employ a workforce that is reflective of the borough's population
• ensure that our recruitment and selection processes are open and fair
• work to ensure that all our employees have a fair and equitable access to learning and development opportunities
• work to ensure that all its employees are treated with respect and dignity.

The Council monitors its workforce in relation to ethnicity, disability and gender.

Jobs and careers at Melton Borough Council

Interpretation and Translation Services

As the local Council we know that for some people living, working or visiting the Borough, language is a significant barrier that may limit their ability to communicate with us and access our services and information we provide.

We aim to make communicating with all our customers and residents as easy and effective as possible.  We recognise that sometimes asking friends and family to act as interpreters may not be appropriate, especially if personal, confidential or technical issues are involved.

When a person is non-English speaking or wishes to communicate in a language they are more comfortable with, we will accommodate this quickly and with minimal inconvenience using professional translation services.

Documents prepared by the Council can be made available in large print, Braille, on audio cassette or computer disk.

We can also provide information in languages other than English.  The Council is registered with 'Language Line' to ensure our services are accessible to all our customers.

Please contact a member of our customer services team on 01664 502502 if you require this service.

Discrimination or harassment (Hate Crime Monitoring Project)

Hate incidents could be physical, verbal, or written abuse.  They take many forms but are essentially about soemone being targeted because they are believed to be different, this could be because of age, disability, gender identity, race, religion/belief or sexual orientation.

The Hate Incident Monitoring Project has been set up by Leicestershire County Council with partner agencies to encourage victims to speak out.

For more information or to report a hate crime visit Leicestershire County Council's website.

Leicestershire District Councils Equality and Diversity Partnership - Single Equality Scheme

To further progress the work of the Council in ensuring that services delivered are fair and accessible and that the council is meeting its legal responsibility, it joined with the other six district/borough councils in August 2010 to form the Leicestershire District Councils Equality and Diversity Partnership (the "Partnership").  

The aim of the Partnership is to share resources, share best practise and assist each partner council to meet the “Achieving Level of the Equality Framework” and ensure we comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty. The Council will be externally inspected in March 2012 in order to assess if it has met this target.

The Partnership put together a draft Single Equality Scheme which outlines how it will as a Partnership promote equality and diversity in everything that it does, from delivering fair and accessible services through to recruiting and employing staff.

The draft scheme was considered by all Partners and their staff prior to undergoing external consultation exercise between 1st July and 30^th August 2011. As part of the consultation process, the draft scheme was distributed to relevant Partners and made available to view and download from the Councils' web-pages and was available to download via all Partners web-sites.    Single Equality Scheme (PDF, 285KB)

Following both internal and extensive external consultation with local and regional groups the draft scheme was presented to this Council's Policy Finance and Administration Committee on the 28 September 2011 and Council on the 12 October 2011 for consideration and formal adoption.

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