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Welcome to North Lanarkshire Council's first Gender Equality Scheme. The Equality Act 2006 places a duty on the Council to produce a Gender Equality Scheme. We believe that this duty gives us an ideal opportunity to bring together and prioritise issues important for women, men, girls and boys.
North Lanarkshire Council is fully committed to eliminating gender inequality and promoting equality between women and men (girls and boys). We recognise that there are gender differences in people's life chances, what services they gain access to, the types of jobs they do and how well pupils achieve at school. We also know that other equality issues such as race, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age also affect people's lives and that a "one size fits all" approach is not the answer.
Our Mission is 'To maximise the benefits of North Lanarkshire's location creating prosperity, achieving social justice and meeting local needs by providing best value quality services'. Later sections outline our priorities in more detail.
The Council has recently undertaken reorganisation with a view to delivering better services across five integrated Services. We have adopted a mainstreaming approach to equalities, working to integrate equalities considerations into all our policies, functions and service areas.
We recognise that to meet the three main obligations under the gender equality duty, we need to make sure that there is no discrimination or harassment in the way that we work – this means as a service provider and as an employer. We recognise the need to actively promote gender equality in the design and delivery of services and within our workforce.
Employment
Extensive consultation has taken place through the recognised trade unions since 1999 on the council's pay model for implementing Job Evaluation results and the proposed harmonised core conditions of service.
The council has listened to the feedback from across the organisation and every employee covered by the conditions of service for Local Government Employees has been advised of their new grade and pay rates, which came into effect from 6 November 2006. Employees were also given information on the council's Job Evaluation Appeals process that also started on 6 November 2006.
The proposed harmonised core conditions of service have yet to be implemented, but the council remain firmly committed to seeking a collective agreement for the introduction of new standard conditions of service and negotiations are continuing with this
The council is conscious of the need to fulfil its legal obligations under the Equality Act 2006 in relation to producing a Gender Equality Scheme by identifying our gender equality goals and actions to meet them, in consultation with employees and stakeholders. We are committed to continuing to monitor and analyse pay between men and women to maintain the integrity of the newly evaluated job grades and to keep the pay structure under review.
Our Approach to Developing the Scheme
Drawing on our learning from developing the disability equality scheme, a reference group on equalities and diversity met to develop the gender equality scheme with short- term support from a consultant to build our capacity.
Consultation
The priorities for action within this Scheme reflect considerable internal and external consultation, notably in respect of pay and employment policies and also in respect of establishing our priorities
Throughout July and August 2007 a draft of our Gender Equality Scheme went out to approximately 120 organisations including Trade Unions, projects that support women and men and community council's and community forums for consultation along with our draft Equal Pay Statement.
Focussed consultation was also undertaken in relation to the priorities set within our scheme based around the themes of Leisure Time, Care, Housing, Education and Violence against Women. The feedback from all of this consultation has been incorporated into the scheme. Our approach is to mainstream gender equality in all our procedures and processes and in the design and delivery of services.
Data Gathering
The council recognises the requirement to collect gender-disaggregated data. Our current processes are highlighted throughout the scheme and our action for further collection or analysis is highlighted within the Access to Services and Employment sections and in the Action Plan.
This Scheme has been produced by using evidence from data collected by the Council in service areas, employment practice as well as priorities set within the Council's Corporate Plan. The purpose of this Scheme is to:
The contents of the scheme :
1. The Gender Equality Duty
2. The North Lanarkshire Context
3. Our Priorities
3.2 Partnership Working - North Lanarkshire Partnership
3.2 Partnership Working - North Lanarkshire Domestic Abuse Working Group (DAWG)
4. Access to Services
4.2 Finance and Customer Services
4.3 Learning and Leisure Services
4.3.1 Education
4.4 Housing and Social Work Services
4.5 Environmental Services
5. Employment - Improving diversity and increasing representation
6. Equality Impact assessments
7. Monitoring of the scheme
8. Appendix A - Action Plan
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