Equality and diversity

Bedfordshire County Council recognises that its purpose is to deliver a range of services to its customers in a manner that meets their individual needs and provides consistent value for money.  These services must be relevant, inclusive, well delivered and cost effective.  In order to deliver such services the Council must transform the shape of its services by “engaging” its customers in service design and in the way that services are delivered.  

This involves “putting the customer at the heart of everything the Council does”, meeting real needs and not assuming that customers should ‘fit’ with existing service provision.  Improving the level of involvement of local people and other key stakeholders is a major part of the government’s agenda to modernise public services. Legislation and guidance increasingly emphasises the importance of public consultation and service user involvement in developing and evaluating services and local policy. 

All sections of the Community including hard to reach, vulnerable and minority groups must be involved. The Council must:

• recognise the diversity of all its customer's
• responds to their needs and
• provide services which are appropriate both in content and in terms of the ways they are delivered. 

Customer engagement must include:-

• Customer Consultation – asking customers what services are required, how they should be designed and delivered
• Customer Access – ensuring that customers are able to access services in a manner that suits their individual needs
• Culture – creating a professional and supportive environment which empowers employees to put the customer at the heart of everything they do
• Communication – how the Council provides information to customers that will support and develop their understanding of the services and opportunities that are available to them.

The Council understands that Equality and Diversity is integral to everything it does, and has created a corporate Equality and Diversity framework to drive its overall plan. The Council’s overall approach is summarised in the Equality and Diversity Policy Statement:

Bedfordshire County Council will help Bedfordshire become a place that provides people with the opportunity to reach their full potential by:

• Delivering high quality, accessible services that meet the needs of all our customers. 
• Understandingissues relating to disability, gender, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, age, and sexual orientation.
• Engaging with service users, local communities, staff, stakeholders and contractors to identify and implement improvements
• Tackling barriers which restrict access to services (e.g. inaccessible buildings, poorly publicised services and lack of employee understanding about the needs of particular groups)

The Council is committed to following the guidance provided in the Equality Standard for Local Government because this provides the best mechanism for:-

• Systematically improving practice across the whole organisation
• Tackling all forms of institutionalised discrimination
• Improving performance
• Meeting legal obligations

A number of other policy documents are linked to the Corporate Equality Plan and Policy including the Council’s Race, Disability and Gender Equality Schemes.  These documents set out the Council’s approach to promoting equality of opportunity and addressing issues of discrimination experienced by specific groups of people.

Publications

 Comprehensive Equality and Diversity Policy |(pdf document opens in new window 186kb)

 Corporate Equality and Diversity Plan |(pdf document opens in new window138 kb)