Agenda item

To seek approval for the Authority to become a signatory organisation to the Disability Employment Charter; and delegate the Director of Resources to take all necessary steps to implement the Charter.

Cabinet received a report which sought approval for the Authority to become a signatory organisation to the Disability Employment Charter.

The Disability Employment Charter (“the Charter”) was launched in October 2021 and founded by Disability Rights UK, Disability@Work, the University of Warwick, the DFN Charitable Foundation, Leonard Cheshire, Scope, Shaw Trust Foundation, and UNISON.

The Charter, which was appended to the report, outlined nine areas for the UK Government to consider which would improve disabled people’s employment outcomes.  The actions were set out to provide the Government with a road map for change as it developed the next phases of its National Disability Strategy.  The areas included in the Charter and the work the Authority was undertaking which already met the measures outlined in the Charter were summarised in the report under the following headings:

·       Employment and pay gap reporting

·       Supporting disabled people into employment

·       Reform of Access to Work

·       Reform of Disability Confident

·       Leveraging Government procurement

·       Workplace Adjustments

·       Working with disabled people and their representatives

·       Advice and support

·       National progress on disability employment

Objectives of the Charter were to increase employment opportunities and job satisfaction for disabled people, reduce disability pay gaps, benefit the taxpayer and support the UK’s post-pandemic recovery by providing employers with the widest possible talent pool to address skills shortages. 129 organisations within the public, private and voluntary sectors had become signatories to the Charter.  Public sector organisations who had signed up to the Charter included Adur & Worthing Councils, Kent Fire & Rescue Service, Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Trust and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals. To date there was no confirmation about if or when Government would consider the Charter from a national perspective.

The Authority had a set of corporate equality objectives that guided the Authority’s work on equality, diversity and inclusion, three of which aligned with the aims of the Charter:

Equality Objective 2 was to “Create a more inclusive colleague experience within the Authority”. Actions under this objective include the introduction of a Disability Policy, a review the Authority’s Attendance Management Procedure to ensure a wider focus on health and wellbeing, and a commitment to make the Authority’s workforce more representative of the borough’s population through a Workforce Development Plan, delivery of an Equality and Diversity Calendar of events and activities and the delivery  of an ‘Embedding Equality Programme’ to make equality and diversity “everyone’s business”, including the introduction of staff networks with one for staff with disabilities.

Equality Objective 4: “Improve the collection and use of workforce and external equality data”. The actions under this objective were to ensure a corporate approach to the collection, publication and use of employee, customer and resident equality data and to develop, monitor and report equality and diversity performance measures.

Equality Objective 5: “Ensure the Authority’s buildings, services and communications are accessible”, which includes to the implementation of an action plan based on AccessAble’s findings.

The actions under these objectives aligned with the aims of the Disability Employment Charter to support the objective of being a more inclusive employer.

Cabinet considered the following decision options: to approve the recommendations set out in paragraph 1.2 of the report; or alternatively, to not accept the recommendations.

Resolved that (1) the Authority becomes a signatory organisation to the Disability Employment Charter be agreed; and

(2) the Director of Resources be authorised to take all necessary steps to implement resolution (1) above.

(Reason for decision: It supports the Authority’s statutory duty under The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 and the reporting requirements imposed by the Regulations. It also helps to meet the Authority’s corporate equality objectives that guides the Authority’s work on equality, diversity and inclusion and its aim to be an inclusive workspace.)