Wychavon impresses inspection team

Wychavon has been awarded achieving status in the new Equality Framework for Local Government, so say an independent team. The team, made up of two officers and one Members from other councils, decided to give the award after reading a self-assessment and spending 2 days interviewing over 60 people made up of officers, Members, partners, voluntary and community groups about the councils work on equalities.

Cllr Mike Quigley MBE, Team Leader said he found many strengths “Wychavon has a good knowledge of the whole community, vulnerable groups and strong self-awareness as an organisation. Wychavon is one of the few councils to have all buildings fully accessible to those with disabilities.”

Cllr Audrey Steel member for equalities and diversity said “We’re really pleased to get this status for our work with communities. Our job is to meet the different needs of all our residents as best we can. We’re proud of the work we’ve done with young people at the youth zone, with migrant workers and gypsy and travellers for example. The peers offered helpful suggestions to improve – we’re already improving our website with the County Council for those with poor sight, and they want us to do more work on assessing the impact on our diverse communities – called impact assessments.”

Fiona Narburgh, Head of Strategy and Communications said “We have avoided a tick box exercise and our submission to our peers was full of the practical things we do everyday from parks, play areas, health care to disabled facilities grants that help make equalities part of the day job here. Peers have reassured us we are on the right track and given us ideas for the future like further training for staff and making sure our workforce fully reflects the community.”

An action plan will be drawn up to tackle further improvements.