Our equality objectives

As part of the Equality Act 2010, Public Sector Equality Duty, the Council is required to publish equality related information (see Facts and figures) and publish our equality objectives.

Equality Objective 1: Inclusive Leadership- Equality is everybody’s business

This objective is to ensure that senior leaders use their influence to promote equality, diversity and human rights and are effective in the delivery of this agenda across the Council and the CCG. Without senior managers showing consistent leadership, we will not see the changes we need.

Promotion of the message ‘Equality is Everybody’s Business’ will ensure that everyone takes ownership to promote equality in all aspects of service delivery. The strategy will be championed by Elected Members, the CCG Governing Body Members, Corporate and Senior Leadership Teams, as well as all managers and staff.

Success measures:

  • Uptake of training on mandatory Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) course ‘Equality as a Leader’
  • Uptake of training on mandatory EDI course, ‘Equality is Everybody’s Business for all staff
  • Uptake of training on Human Rights by CCG staff and CCG Governing Body
  • Uptake of mandatory training on EPIC Manager - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Equality Objective 2: Improving equality workforce data collection and improving the representativeness of our workforce

To embed effective equalities working practices in all our employment and service delivery.

To address the need to improve recruitment, selection, training and promotion opportunities for all protected groups, and in particular for the disabled and BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) members of our workforce.

The Council and the CCG are required to hold data on the protected characteristics of their workforces. Having complete and accurate information is vital if we are to understand inequalities within our workforce, and to take effective steps to address these.

We recognise that some members of staff have concerns about sharing this information, and so we need to do more to understand and allay these concerns. To this end we are raising awareness of the importance of this data through adverts on the staff intranet page and our staff networks and asking managers to encourage their staff teams to keep their equality profile information up-to-date and complete.

Success measures:

  • Increase in successful applicants from protected groups
  • Increase in uptake of mandatory equality and diversity in recruitment training for managers and directors
  • Increase in recording of all protected characteristics
  • Diversity in interview panels

Equality Objective 3: Reducing health inequalities

Addressing health inequalities is a key objective for the Council because of the large gap in life expectancy between residents living in different areas of Trafford. Life expectancy is the total number of years a person is predicted to live and is a key measure of a population’s health status. Inequality in life expectancy is therefore one of the foremost measures of health inequality.

As we emerge from the pandemic, we need to refocus on the risk factors that contribute to inequalities in life expectancy. Within Trafford, we know that some of the biggest impacts will be made by reducing smoking, alcohol use, physical inactivity, and obesity and by improving mental health amongst the population.

In Trafford, diseases associated with these risk factors contribute to most of the difference (76.9% in men and 73.6% women aged 40-79 years old) in life expectancy between the twenty percent most deprived and twenty percent least deprived of the population.

The overarching goal of Trafford’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy is to reduce Trafford’s inequality in healthy life expectancy, through education and work in the following priority areas:

  • To reduce the impact of poor mental health
  • To reduce physical inactivity
  • To reduce the number of people who smoke or use tobacco
  • To reduce harms from alcohol
  • To reduce the impact of poverty
  • To improve healthy weight
  • To tackle climate emergency
  • To tackle domestic violence.

Success measures in place for monitoring and reporting progress on the above are:

  • Accurate recording of protected characteristics by services (including primary care)
  • Narrowing the gap in uptake of key preventative services such as screening and immunisation
  • Reduced gap in premature mortality including for people with serious mental illness
  • Reduced gap in relation to smoking, physical activity and obesity.

Trafford’s Director of Public Health Annual Report (PHAR) 2021 recommends using the measures in the Corporate Plan and Poverty Strategy including setting targets which consider, for example: school readiness and educational attainment, smoking, physical activity, air pollution, and obesity.

Also aiming to reduce poverty through ensuring all workers receive a living wage and working with communities to lead service design so that services better meet the needs of the people who need them the most.

It is recommended that we explore how we can use measures such the uptake of screening or vaccination, or turn out at elections, as alternative measures of engagement and trust with people in the local communities.

Equality Objective 4: Reducing hate crime

Trafford has a diverse community, with many faiths and cultures across our borough. We have strong community relations, and Trafford is the safest borough in Greater Manchester.

However, we recognise that more could be done to improve social inclusion of isolated and vulnerable residents, reduce hate crime, prevent radicalisation, and ensure people with different faith and cultures live together positively and without fear.

Trafford’s Hate Crime Action Plan is aligned with the Greater Manchester Standing Together Plan with a local focus on the following priorities:

  • Keeping people safe - Partnership approach (working with Greater Manchester Police and the Voluntary Community Sector) to reduce hate crime incidents includes: awareness-raising in communities, promoting services to keep people safe, staff training and referrals for support.
  • Reducing harm and offending - Ensuring an effective responsive where hate crime occurs with victim support, early intervention with perpetrators to prevent escalation and swift enforcement where appropriate.
  • Strengthening communities and places - Community Cohesion work, support for grass roots community groups through grant funding, work with schools, supporting community and faith groups around the issue of hate crime.

Read more about the GM Standing Together Plan