Council strategies and plans

Watford Borough Council is committed to championing equality and embracing diversity and inclusion in everything we do, including our future planning and all our day-to-day activities.

We see this commitment as going beyond our statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty so that we understand the community we serve and are working with them, to make sure everyone in Watford feels part of our town and can access and enjoy all that it has to offer.

Our Equality, Inclusion and Diversity Policy

Our policy includes our objectives, which cover:

As community leader our objectives are to:

• Work with our partners to implement the Council Plan, which seeks to improve the social, economic and environment aspects of the borough
• Lead by example by modelling good practices of equality, diversity and inclusion as a service provider, commissioner and employer
• Maintain good relations between communities through our communications and promote cultural diversity
• Celebrate the inclusiveness of our borough, making Watford an accessible and safe borough for all

As a service provider our objectives are to:

• Deliver services that are accessible to all and that are responsive to the diverse and changing needs of our community
• Demonstrate behaviours in line with the Employee Code of Conduct. Employees are expected to promote equality by not discriminating against anyone and by treating members of the public, colleagues, and elected members with respect
• Engage with all groups in our community when making decisions about our services; and purposeful engagement with those groups where involvement is low
• Consistently collect and monitor relevant equalities data from our service users so that we can understand how effective our services are at reaching and improving outcomes for our diverse communities. This helps us to understand the needs of our different residents and design policies and services to meet those needs
• Embed the EIA process more thoroughly to support effective decision-making
• Ensure that commissioning and procurement arrangements comply with equalities standards and add social value to the borough.

As an employer our objectives are to:

• Provide appropriate and on-going equality training and support to enable employees and councillors to manage and/or work within a diverse workforce
• Increase equalities disclosure on recruitment and workforce monitoring information to support our aim for a diverse workforce, reflecting our community
• Raise the profile of our Staff Ambassador, Mental Health, Career Coaches, and Wellbeing groups and support their work
• Promote a working environment that promotes dignity and respect where individual differences, and the contributions are recognised and valued
• Demonstrate zero tolerance of any unfair and unacceptable treatment in the workplace, and to discipline those that breach this policy

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion annual report

To demonstrate our progress against our EDI policy and delivery plan we will produce and publish an annual report.

Equality Impact Assessments
As part of the decision-making process when developing new, or significantly changing our policies, procedures or services Watford Borough Council carries out an Equality Impact Analysis (EIA). This is to assess possible negative or positive impacts on any section of the community in terms of equality, and to include measures to avoid or minimise any discriminatory consequences.
These are published as part of the agendas for the relevant council meeting.