Equality and Diversity
Equality is relevant to us all. Addressing discrimination and promoting equality are everyone's core business.
Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single act. The aim of the Act is to provide a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. It provides Britain with a discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society in employment, and as users of private and public services based on the following nine protected characteristics
- age,
- disability,
- gender reassignment,
- marriage and civil partnership,
- pregnancy and maternity,
- race,
- religion or belief,
- sex,
- sexual orientation.
Equality Outcomes
The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 requires public bodies to develop and publish an equality outcomes and mainstreaming report every four years and to report on progress against that report every two years.
The general equality duty is intended to accelerate progress towards equality for all, by placing a responsibility on bodies subject to the duty to consider how they can work to tackle systemic discrimination and disadvantage affecting people with particular protected characteristics.
The duty in particular reflects this by requiring relevant bodies to have due regard to the need to minimise or remove disadvantages, to take steps to meet the different needs of people with different protected characteristics and by encouraging participation in activities by those whose participation is disproportionately low.
The council has developed, in partnership, a new Equality and Diversity Framework 2021 -25 that includes eight Corporate, Education and Licensing equality outcomes and mainstreaming actions which are intended to address the most significant inequalities emerging from local evidence and involvement activities that could have the greatest positive impact.
The council is committed to tackling discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and promoting good relations both within our workforce and the wider community. Mainstreaming equality is the process by which we will work towards achieving this as an organisation.
Our objective in mainstreaming equality is to integrate an equality perspective into the everyday work of the council, involving managers and policy makers across all council services, as well as equality specialists and community planning partners.
Equality mainstreaming is a long term approach that aims to make sure that policy making within the council is fully sensitive to the diverse needs and experiences of everyone affected. The approach will help to provide better information, transparency and openness in the way we make decisions about our services and resources.
Our equality outcomes (and mainstreaming actions) and progress reports are available from the downloads section at the bottom of this page.
If you would like a summary version or easy read of the reports below, please can you contact by email.
