NOTTINGHAM CITY HOMES

Transcription

1 ITEM: 7 NOTTINGHAM CITY HOMES THE BOARD REPORT OF EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY MANAGER 24 JULY 2014 EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY ANNUAL UPDATE 1 SUMMARY 1.1 This report provides the Board with an update on Equality and Diversity activity and work towards the Social Housing Equality Framework. 2 RECOMMENDATIONS It is recommended that the Board: 2.1 tes the contents of the report; and 2.2 Approve updates to the Equality & Diversity Strategy and Action Plan as detailed in Appendix 2. 3 REPORT 3.1 In October 2012 Board approved the company s Equality and Diversity Strategy, and a target to achieve the Excellent level of the Social Housing Equality Framework (SHEF) by December This report consists of an activity update, annually reported equality performance measures, an update on progress towards SHEF, and a note on updating of the Equality and Diversity Strategy and Action Plan While a range of positive steps have been taken, a number of gaps remain to be addressed and these will require a continued leadership focus on Equality and Diversity over the next year. 3.2 PROGRESS ON THE EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY STRATEGY E&D Strategy objective 1: Show through our actions we celebrate diversity and are demonstrably fair A wide variety of awareness raising and events activity took place during the year including a strong NCH presence at Carnival and Pride as well as Mela, St. George s Day and St. Patrick s Day. The company sponsored a local Dance Troupe who won the Judge s Special Award at the Carnival. These activities were used to promote key NCH services resulting in a large number of contacts relating to tenancy sustainment, recruitment as well as positive feedback about NCH s involvement A Positive Action Plan has been developed through workshops with employee representatives and senior managers, to build on the existing Aspire to Manage

2 programme which has achieved a diverse participant profile and support to the three employee equality forums. This Plan has led to an improved approach to secondments, and NCH-led work to develop a citywide Positive Action initiative which has achieved positive interest from partners A Recruitment workshop was held to increase employee equality forum members confidence in the application and recruitment process and staff have been supported to attend relevant networks and activities. The company s continuing work towards Stonewall this year resulted in NCH being ranked in the Top 100 organisations, one of only two organisations in the East Midlands to do so The Universal Roots project featuring NCH tenants which the company has supported was displayed at the Castle and Wollaton Hall, and won the TPAS Equality and Diversity Award A translations review has been carried out with involvement from the tenant Equality and Communications Panels and ACE inspectors, following which a revised translations approach and additional support has been introduced. A successful Diversity Week was held in October with an emphasis on identity and heritage supporting a drive to increase declaration rates for employee information such as disability and sexual orientation out of 15 actions are on track in this category. The following are overdue: All recruitment panel members to receive training that includes relevant Equality and Diversity issues although this has not taken place a Recruitment awareness session was provided. Complete the review of Human Resources (HR) policies in relation to equality and diversity (including LGBT inclusive language), carrying out Equality Impact Assessments as part of the reviews the timescale for these is subject to the Single Status process. Produce reasonable adjustment guidance and ensure all managers and employees are aware of it draft produced. Translations review complete but exceeded timescale to allow additional staff engagement. Extend housing outreach sessions to other minority communities cultural events and lunch clubs have been used for outreach, with additional activities planned. 3.3 E&D STRATEGY OBJECTIVE 2: MAKE EQUALITY PART OF OUR EVERYDAY DECISION MAKING The new Equality Panel is now in place and developing activities to engage a wider range of tenants while gaining views to inform company Equality Impact Assessments. Members have received training on several topics including from the experts who designed the Social Housing Equality Framework, and this has assisted them in carrying out a mock assessment of NCH. Employee equality representatives have been engaged in development of policy and employment initiatives through the Umbrella group, for example improving the Induction programme by creating staff-produced videos The company has carried out equality impact assessments of a range of key decisions following earlier changes to reporting processes, and managers are liaising with the Panel to gain their input for developments going forwards. This activity has shaped decisions, for example through the relocation support identified through the Decommissioning EIA, and the transitional support being

3 put in place in relation to Pay Points out of 7 actions are on track in this category. The following is overdue: Involve tenants throughout development and implementation of the Independent Living Strategy a number of activities have taken place including linked to the modernisation programme and a further update is expected. Review employee Umbrella group and associated staff support arrangements this has been incorporated into a wider review of employee consultation and engagement resulting in changes to planned timescales and is also part of E & D Managers targets for E&D STRATEGY OBJECTIVE 3: HELP OLDER AND DISABLED PEOPLE As well as continued work on the Independent Living Modernisation programme and disability access improvements to communal areas, articles highlighting support services have been featured in News from NCH and a temperature strip with supporting guidance on keeping warm and fuel poverty was provided in the January edition Joint work has continued between ttinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Health and Safety team to target households at greatest risk for fire safety initiatives, resulting in a 23% decrease in incidents in NCH properties. A number of schemes have also received improvements in relation to storage of mobility scooters enabling residents to retain greater independence while promoting fire safety, and new build properties are being fitted with sprinkler systems, a key issue highlighted by older and disabled tenants Helping You Helps Me training sessions, developed and delivered by tenants with knowledge of disability, have been provided to front line teams and an audio CD version produced and distributed to repairs operatives receiving positive feedback. Staff completing the sessions rated them very highly and key learning points from the sessions including identification of opportunities to improve profiling and vulnerability flagging processes action on these issues is referred to later in the report (3.23 and 3.26) out of 10 actions are on track in this category. The following are overdue: Customer Profile Group to champion companywide collection and use of diversity profiling data to improve services this has been affected by the Business Improvement and Development team restructure. Agree information sharing protocol with partners this action has been absorbed into wider work with the Police and Fire service on joint approaches to vulnerability. Identify, design and deliver a relevant programme of Equality and Diversity Training and Develop and deliver training plan for refresher vulnerability and safeguarding training to front line officers an Equality training plan has been agreed, induction and other sessions have been provided, and other relevant courses are being identified. 3.5 E&D STRATEGY OBJECTIVE 4: TACKLE HATE CRIME AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Following an equality impact assessment to identify key actions from the company s earlier Hate Crime Conference, a range of activity has taken place including awareness talks for Tenancy and Estate Management teams by

4 Integritas mental health advocacy and support, Ending Gang and Youth violence, ttingham Fire Service, Framework, Disability Direct, and Age UK. These are improving services by ensuring staff have a wider awareness of key equality related issues and are able to provide a more personalised response to tenants experiencing antisocial behaviour and hate crime Work has continued with the Crime and Drugs Partnership to develop a shared approach to vulnerability and antisocial behaviour reporting and the company is working with a local social enterprise to support the Police and Crime Commissioner s Hate Crime reporting initiative out of 7 actions are on track in this category. The following is overdue: Use customer profile data in planning and implementation of service initiatives this is incorporated into the ASB Strategy Action Plan with a revised timescale. 3.6 E&D STRATEGY OBJECTIVE 5: HELP TENANTS PREPARE FOR WELFARE REFORM A range of activities have been carried out through the Tenancy Sustainment and Housing Options teams including a targeted Black or Minority Ethnic tenant survey, promotion of Mutual Exchange, Money Matters newsletters, and focussed support to achieve Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) outcomes for tenants. An advice session was provided to the Somali Women s Organisation resulting in tenants being identified for individual assistance The company entered partnership bids for additional funding for resilience activities and resources to support digital inclusion and employability linked to welfare reform; although these were unsuccessful the City Council has indicated they will inform the review of its Community Cohesion strategy out of 3 actions are on track in this category. The following are overdue: Promotion of Direct Debits now taking place but experienced a technical delay relating to paperless direct debits. Local Financial Inclusion events some activity has taken place including the BME survey, with further activity to be scoped through the Rents Equality Impact Assessment. 3.7 E&D STRATEGY OBJECTIVE 6: HELP TENANTS ACCESS WORK AND TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES A range of initiatives to engage young people, celebrate and develop their skills have taken place including an NCH-sponsored Young Achiever category at the Black Achieving Males (BAM) awards and the successful Arts for Your Area competition which awarded a professional recording session to the winner The Tenant Academy has provided a wide range of courses to tenants during the year including IT courses, Employability-based courses, and Equality and Diversity. Monitoring shows that a diverse range of participants have attended, with particular success in involving Black and Minority Ethnic tenants, and course evaluations indicate very high satisfaction rates A number of tenants are carrying out CIH Active Learning for Residents courses designed to equip them for future Involvement, Board or employment roles.

5 Social impact research is being carried out to highlight the positive impact of this investment and emerging evidence suggests a number of tenants have improved their employment situation following Academy support. 3 out of 3 actions are on track in this category. 3.8 ANNUALLY REPORTED EQUALITY PERFORMANCE MEASURES These are attached as Appendix Positive progress has been achieved in relation to the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index in which the company reached the Top 100 Organisations this year; Tenant Academy provision (for which monitoring also highlights a diverse participant profile); work on Tenancy Sustainment helping to minimise impact on young male tenants particularly at risk of arrears and eviction Areas for improvement against the Strategy success measures include the need for renewed emphasis on workforce diversity initiatives, performance management of Equality and Diversity plan actions, and the Board profile which has been affected by several retirements in the past year. Action being taken in response includes delivery of the Positive Action Plan developed with the employee equality forums, Aspire to Manage programme, Board succession planning, and Senior Management Group oversight of E&D plan delivery. 3.9 PROGRESS TOWARDS SOCIAL HOUSING EQUALITY FRAMEWORK (SHEF) The company has set a target to achieve the highest level of the SHEF, Excellent, by December Excellent is a very demanding standard requiring evidence that equality priorities are being delivered across the whole company. It is assessed through external peer challenge In April, the tenant Equality Panel received in depth training on the SHEF and carried out a mock assessment of NCH. While not all areas could be covered in detail, the following key themes were identified with regard to achievement of the SHEF: Promotion of equality and participation Panel members were concerned that although the Involvement Review resulted in new Panels with a diverse membership, some individuals who had previously been involved were not now participating as regularly, and there was no longer a specific forum to give a voice to Independent Living residents although more engagement is now taking place at a local level. Customer profiling and responsive services more attention is needed to delivering this agenda and ensuring usable vulnerability information is provided to front line colleagues as the group that should be delivering this has not been convened. Workforce monitoring in part due to the lack of an East Midlands Shared Service reporting facility, employee forums expressed concern that casework monitoring and other HR data had not been regularly reported to them in recent months which reduced their ability to monitor the impact of procedures. Updated casework information and an annual workforce monitoring report have been provided recently.

6 3.9.3 The latest gap analysis against the recently revised SHEF requirements is summarised in Figure 1 below. The detailed assessment template is available on request. Figure 1. Summary of gap analysis against SHEF requirements, May 2014 Red Amber Green Knowing Your Communities 1 2 Leadership, Partnership and Organisational Commitment 3 7 Customer Engagement 1 3 Access, Responsive Services and Customer Care 3 2 Modern Diverse Workforce The company s Equality and Diversity Action Plan includes actions to deliver Excellent requirements. Since January, the Senior Management Group has been assigned specific responsibility for delivering the plan Key priorities and themes for the next 12 months will be: Ensuring there is a sustained leadership focus on Equality and Diversity including through Senior Management Group s role in delivery of the Equality and Diversity Action Plan and Equality and Diversity development activities for Board, managers and teams Using Diversity Profiling to tailor service delivery A renewed focus on customer profiling to ensure we have good data that informs service delivery strategically and at the point of customer contact, including through the new Customer Insight Strategy and Customer Relationship Management project Equality Impact Assessment activity at an operational level and involvement of equality forums delivery of planned and emerging Equality Impact Assessments with a central role for the Equality Panel including through community based activities to gain wider persectives, and support to our employee forums through involvement in HR policy development and delivery of Positive Action Plan activities.

7 3.10 UPDATING THE E&D STRATEGY AND PLAN Updates to the Strategy and Plan are proposed in order to align objectives with current company activity, update governance arrangements, and strengthen some actions relating to the achievement of SHEF Excellent by December A summary is attached as Appendix 2. 4 FINANCIAL, LEGAL AND RISK IMPLICATIONS 4.1 Financial Implications Activity set out in the E&D Strategy and Plan is delivered through existing budgets and services. 4.2 Legal Implications Work towards the E&D Strategy and SHEF and publication of equality information are important ways the company meets its Equality Act commitments. 4.3 Risk Implications Delivery of the E&D Strategy is an identified control for Corporate Risks 11 Failure to retain support and satisfaction of customers for the company and 12 Failure to maintain positive public image and identity of the company and is relevant to Corporate Risk 15 (Employee Relations). 5 IMPLICATIONS FOR NOTTINGHAM CITY HOMES OBJECTIVES 5.1 Corporate goal Objective To be a major player in transforming the quality of life in our neighbourhoods To be a great place to work, widely respected as an efficient and professional organisation 6 EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY IMPLICATIONS Celebrate the diversity of our communities and reduce inequalities Value the diversity of our employees, develop and support initiatives which address areas of under- representation in the workforce 6.1 Has the equality impact of these proposals been assessed? Yes (this report does not contain proposals which require an EIA)

8 7 BACKGROUND MATERIAL AND PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN COMPILING THIS REPORT 7.1 Social Housing Equality Framework requirements (updated May 2014) Contact officers: Date: 17 July 2014 George Pashley, Company Secretary 14 Hounds Gate, ttingham NG1 7BA Vincent Bryce, Equality & Diversity Manager 14 Hounds Gate, ttingham NG1 7BA

9 Annual Equality & Diversity Information APPENDIX 1 Progress against Equality and Diversity Action Plan Percentage of new tenancies lasting 12 months or more: Male tenants aged Vision management survey: satisfaction with ASB service (Black or Minority Ethnic tenants) Satisfaction with the repairs service: BME tenants Age Disabled tenants Harassment & Discrimination/Grievance: representation of different groups Level of Social Housing Equality Framework Percentage of tenants who feel they belong to their neighbourhood Tenant Academy: Courses awarded Disability access to public areas of housing offices Percentage of Board members who are Black or Minority Ethnic Percentage of Board members who are women Percentage of Board members who declare a disability Percentage of Board members aged Percentage of senior managers who are Black or Minority Ethnic Percentage of senior managers who are Baseline 2012 Actual 2013/14 New PI 71% on target [32/45] 87.26% 87.91% [80/91 tenancies] Targets 2013/ / /16 100% of 100% of 100% of actions on actions on actions on target target target Increase Increase Increase New PI / / / / 10 New PI New PI 8.55/ / / / / / 10 Developi Achieving Achieving Achieving Excellent ng 60% 57% Increase Increase 80% New PI 296 Increase Increase Increase 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 25% 7.7% [1/13] 25% 53.9% [7/13] New PI 16.7% [2/12] 8.3% 7.7% [1/13] 12.5% 16% 1 [2/12] 40% 25% 1 [3/12] 23.8% 23.8% 23.8% 33% 33% 50% 12.3% 12.3% 12.3% 8.3% 16.6% 16.6% 14% 15.5% 17% 41% [4.9/12] 43% [5.2/12] 45% [5.4/12] 1 Cumulative annual figures as of 31/12/13 (repairs) and 30/6/13 (ASB)

10 women Percentage of senior managers who declare a disability Percentage of employees who are Black or Minority Ethnic Percentage of employees who are LGBT Percentage of employees declaring a disability % of construction apprentices who are BME % of construction apprentices who are female Baseline % 8% 2 Actual 2013/14 [1/12] 16.84% 14.93% 3 [149/998] Targets 2013/ / /16 12% [1.4/12] 17% [170/998] 14% [1.7/12] 18% [180/998] 16% [1.9/12] 19% [190/998] 6% New PI 2.53% 6% 6% [11/434] 4 [26/434] [26/434] [26/434] 11.19% 9.52% 13% 15% 17% [95/998] [130/998] [150/998] [170/998] 37.5% 36% 40% 40% 40% [10/28] 4.2% 3.6% 5% 7.5% 10% [1/28] Stonewall rating 166th 86 th Top 150 Top 100 Top 100 Percentage of employees who would recommend NCH as a good employer to work for; protected group New PI 5 2 Estimate based on Employee Engagement Survey Excludes White Other and White Irish, figure including these groups is 17.43% 4 Based on employees with sexual orientation declared 5 Analysis of survey identified no statistically. Results discussed with employee equality forums and used to inform Positive Action Plan and training activity.

11 APPENDIX 2 Proposed updates to Equality & Diversity Strategy and Plan Strategy p10 and p13 Equality and Diversity reporting update to reference new Senior Management Group role. p12 Forums update to reflect progress in establishing Umbrella Group and Equality Panel. p12 Partnership Group and p14 Resources update to refer to revised city partnership arrangements. p13 Accountability add references to Executive Management Team champion roles, Senior Management Group, and EMT s role. p13 Add Risks section Action Plan Objective 1 update employment actions to refer to Positive Action Plan and add further activity relating to Stonewall Objective 2 update Equality Panel action to refer to its ongoing work in relation to the NCH Equality Impact Assessment programme Objective 2 extend the leadership development action Objective 2 update Equality Panel action to include more specific outcomes in relation to engagement of different groups and link to Independent Living Objective 3 merge the action on information sharing with the Objective 5 action on joint vulnerability profiling Objective 6 extend the Procurement action to cover work with Social Enterprises and a supplier accreditation programme Targets updates to workforce targets to reflect latest Census and tenant profile figures and add LGBT measure for Board diversity