South Bucks Disability Equality Scheme

Introduction
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, as amended by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 ('the Act'), requires Public Bodies, such as the South Bucks District Council, to produce a Disability Equality Scheme (DES).

The Act is intend-ed to drive forward positive change across the public sector and in doing so remove many of the barriers disabled people encounter in their daily lives.

The Act imposes a general duty on public authorities, when carrying out their public functions to have due regard to the need to:

• Promote equality of opportunity between disabled and other people;
• Eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the (1995) Act;
• Eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disabilities;
• Promote positive attitudes towards disabled people;
• Encourage participation by disabled people in public life; and
• Take steps to take account of disabled people's disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled people more favourably than other people.

In addition, South Bucks District Council is subject to a specific duty that requires the council to produce this Disability Equalities Scheme by December 2006.

This Scheme sets out the actions the Council intends to take in order to meet our general duty. We will be reporting on progress annually.

The Council has a long-standing commitment to equality with policies to challenge inequality and discrimination, in whatever form, including age, disability, gender, race, religious belief and sexual orientation.

This scheme represents an update on our actions on disability, within this evolving framework. It complements our other Equality Schemes as required in Statute. Together, these schemes recognise that 'multiple discrimination' is a reality for some people within our District.

South Bucks District Council believes that, within service provision and delivery, disability equality is fundamentally about good customer care.

This Disability Equality Scheme sets out the overall policy objectives for improving and addressing disability inequalities, the five core areas that we are concentrating on improving, and an action plan for delivering improvements to access and services.

The five core areas are incorporated into the action plan framework. These are:

• Buildings access and the built environment, including access to council premises and other facilities that the council provides such as country parksCommunications and Democratic participation, including how we
• communicate with our customers and staff and providing information in accessible formats, including encouraging and supporting disabled people to be able to take part in the democratic process.
• Training, ongoing targeted training and information for all staff so that we are able to provide a better service and ensure our staff fully understand their responsibilities in relation to the Disability Equality Scheme
• Service delivery, to include making better use of technology and to enable easier access for all.
• Employment, including recruitment and retention of disabled people and striving to become an employer of choice.

The action plans bring together in one place the work programme that will support equality for disabled people and an inclusive and accessible council.



South Bucks District Council
According to the 2001 Census, 13.13% of our residents have a long-term illness and 2.1% is permanently sick or disabled. The Council's Community Plan, defines our high level objectives for the District. These are:

• Falling crime and fear of crime
• Community pride and a sense of belonging
• A sustainable and thriving community
• Green space and the character of the District is preserved and enhanced
• Flexible public services meeting the diverse needs of the community
• Improved health and well-being, especially for those in deprived groups
• Reduced traffic congestion and enhanced road safety and public transport

These objectives are cascaded into our Corporate Strategy & Performance Plan - our high level strategic plans. The Council's aims and priorities for the next three years are listed in the Performance plan and can be seen below, these objectives directly translate into activities within our Service Plans. Through the active engagement of disabled people, we aim to improve the way services are delivered, and people are employed, for the benefit of all.

Council Aims and Priorities
Plan for a thriving and sustainable District, which protects the Green Belt and promotes appropriate development consistent with keeping the character and space for everyone to enjoy.

Priorities:

• Deliver a new Local Development Framework (LDF).
• Meet Development Control targets to give an improved service to customers.
• Support integrated approach to defend and strengthen the Green Belt.
• Improve provision of appropriate housing.
• Reduce the level and fear of crime and make our community a safer place to live, work and visit.

Priorities:

• Reduce high burglary and vehicle crime figures in working with our partners in the CDRP.
• Reduce fear of crime and anti-social behaviour.
• Mainstream Community Safety across all services.
• Work with partners to improve the provision of high quality services, suitable housing and other amenities.

Priorities:

• Provide quick, accurate, accessible homelessness and benefits services.
• Design leisure services that encourage access for all, improve health and provide support for older and younger people.
• Expand our capacity to meet needs by working with partners.
• Implement our Hard to Reach Group Strategy to achieve better community cohesion within the District.
• Improve access to and promotion of Council Services.

Make our environment measurably cleaner, healthier and managed in a way to preserve it for future generations

Priorities

• Continue to keep the District clean.
• Work to make our environment measurably healthier.
• Ensure the principles of sustainability are widely promoted and guide the District in its decision-making and service delivery.
• Deliver cost-effective services that are driven by customer and community needs.

Priorities:

• Further improve the organisation's customer focus.
• Improve Value for Money in service delivery.
• Further embed a performance driven, learning culture where staff are clear how they contribute to improving activities in line with Council Aims.
• Ensure effective people management where personnel have skills and competencies to achieve Council Aims.
• Design services based on a shared understanding of the diverse needs of residents.
• Effective Governance

Taking forward disability issues within the Council - Structure
The decision making process within the Council has a number of different layers. These include:

• The Cabinet.

The Leader of the Authority appoints and chairs this board, composed of Councillors. The Cabinet is where the most critical decisions are made and the direction for the Council is set. The Cabinet has an Equalities Champion to ensure disability issues are raised at the highest level.

• Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

Again composed of Councillors, this Committee hold the Cabinet and Officers of the Council to account. They also provide recommendations to the Cabinet.

• Management Team monitoring responsibilities

Composed of the Directors of the Council, led by the Chief Executive, Management Team makes operational decisions on the Council's activities. It also provides advice to the Cabinet. The Personnel & Training Unit acts as the Corporate Disabilities Champion and ensures relevant issues are addressed at Management Team level, where they will monitor and drive forward the scheme.

• Officer working groups.

The Disability Working Group comprises Officers from Specific Units of the Council. It has responsibility for developing this scheme and for overseeing its successful implementation. The Personnel & Training Services Unit chairs the group.

Members of the public can raise disability issues with their local Councillor, or they can contact officers of the relevant service by contacting our Customer Service Team on 01895 837200 and asking to speak with a member of the particular service, alternatively they can e-mail: sbdc@southbucks.gov.uk

Because of our ethos of continual improvement, we are very keen to hear what people think of the Council's services. Our Comments and Complaints scheme has been modified to track disability-related issues, ensuring the Authority can identify and root out persistent problems. Comments and Complaints can be made:

• by e-mail at feedback@southbucks.gov.uk
• by letter to South Bucks District Council, FREEPOST SL9630, Capswood, Oxford Road, Denham, Uxbridge. UB9 4BR
• by fax on 01895 832750;
• by telephone on 01895 837200
• by visiting the Council's main offices. Please telephone first, to check when the person that you need to see will be available.

Mechanisms are in place to ensure concerns over disability issues from members of staff are addressed. These are:

• The Equal Opportunities Policy
• Dignity at Work Policy
• Whistle-blowing Policy
• The Grievance Procedure
• Health and Safety Policy.

Concerns can also be raised through Joint Staff Consultative Group, or through the Trade Unions.

A staff panel has been arranged to consider disability issues within the Council and it's District. The panel will assist with the production of our annual report on progress in implementing this scheme.

How we can achieve real benefits for disabled people
The success of the Authority in addressing disability inequality must be judged by outcomes not processes. For this reason, our action plan (see Appendix A) is focussed on creating improved outcomes.

A number of processes have been put in place, because they are a necessary precondition for addressing inequality. The overall aim of the processes must be to ensure that disability and equality considerations are an integral part of not only the Council's policies and procedures, but also of our provision and delivery of services. Consideration of equalities must be 'mainstreamed' into every aspect of the Council's activities. This is being taken forward through our approaches to:

• Leadership
• Performance Planning
• Impact Assessments
• Policy Development
• Planning

Leadership
The Authority recognises the importance of leadership on a number of levels. Councillor Jennifer Woolveridge? is the Cabinet's Portfolio Holder for Health and Housing responsible for Health and Well-Being, Housing, Environmental Health and Building Control. Councillor Woolveridge acts as our Equalities Champion, she takes a close interest in the progress of issues raised by residents and staff.

As part of the process of improving outcomes for disabled people, the Council welcomes the disclosure of disability status. Many people will be familiar with this in relation to monitoring forms when making an application for employment or an annual update form for employees. The Council wants to extend this into the delivery of many functions and services. The purpose of this disclosure is to allow the Council to identify trends and then use this evidence to plan for improved outcomes for disabled people.

The Personnel & Training Manager is the corporate champion for disabilities. She ensures issues of disability are taken forward to Management Team. The Assistant Personnel Officer chairs the Disability Working Group - the officer group overseeing the development of this scheme and its successful implementation.

Impact Assessment
Impact assessments are a mechanism for identifying and addressing inequality. Each Service Unit has agreed to complete equality impact assessments of all their functions by the end of March 2007. Agreement has also been reached that existing policies will be impact assessed by April 2007. We see this as part of our customer focus. Impact Assessments carried out through service planning will enable the Council to recognise gaps in its performance and plan to remedy them as a matter of course.

Policy Development
We work to ensure that our policies complement our strategic aims (and those of our partner organisations). Our Head of Personnel & Training Services has this overall responsibility for internal policies and procedures and our PR & Communications Manager has responsibility for any external communications. Before implementation takes place there is always consultation with staff and user groups.

Planning
All our service delivery planning looks to improve outcomes for disabled people. The Council observes the Code of Practice issued by the Disability Rights Commission. It has consulted, and continues to consult, and evaluate what can be learnt from consultation.

The attached action plan has taken into account the results from our public consultation exercise, the staff opinion survey and the disability equality impact assessments carried out to date. The Performance & Improvement Unit will monitor some additional, small-scale actions that are specific to a particular department; the responsibility for delivering the actions will fall to the individual service unit.

The Council has formulated its arrangements for taking forward issues of disability; in a way that empowers action at the most appropriate level.

Performance
We intend to continuously improve. We believe that further increases in performance will need to recognise more explicitly the relevance of equality and disability. Consequently we will monitor what we do through customer research.

Differential performance. In the future when we monitor our customers and for example, 70% of people overall are satisfied with a service, but only 30% of disabled people are satisfied. The performance challenge is to address the 30%.

Enhanced performance. To achieve higher targets, issues of disability may have to be tackled head on. For example, more engagement with disabled people could help raise employment rates.

Suitable data collection methods can help identify weakness in performance that initially appears to be strong.

The Council's Best Value Performance Plan (BVPP) sets out a range of performance targets that we have to meet to show improvements for disabled people accessing services and employment. The main targets that everyone has to show improvements in are captured within the following Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI's).

• BVPI 2a Equality standard for local government
• BVPI 3 Overall public satisfaction (As part of the public satisfaction survey we undertake every three years, disabled people in the community will be asked how satisfied they are with the County Council's services.
• BVPI 15f Ill health retirements / staff
• BVPI 16b* Working age (18-65) disabled people (The percentage of local authority employees declaring they meet the disability discrimination act's 1995 disability definition, compared with the percentage of economically active disabled people in the authority area.
• BVPI 156 Buildings and facilities for disabled people
• Service focused performance indicators
  Services will have their own performance indicators which will provide information on how well we are serving disabled users.

Developing this scheme
The Council recognises that a successful scheme, must meet the needs and aspirations of disabled people, and must be developed in consultation with disabled people.

The Council works in partnership with service users and voluntary and community organisations. They have contributed their time and expertise to help refine and develop the scheme through a focus group process.

The key issues to emerge from our consultation based on the 5 themes were:

Buildings access and built environment - South Bucks was widely recognised as being compliant with Part M of the Building Regulations 2000, as amended in 2003. We will follow the guidelines for 'BS 8300 Design of Buildings' and use this approach to help meet the needs of disabled people. However this needed to be regularly reviewed and officers need to ensure that no disabled person is disadvantaged by access being blocked or repairs to buildings being needed.

Communication and Democratic Participation - Consultees drew attention to the lack of different formats of communication available to users disadvantaging some sectors of the community. It is recognised that Braille is a dying 'art' but there is no provision of information available in audio formats for example.

Training - Users believe that it is important for all staff to have disability awareness training based on the 'libraries model' this is where disabled people volunteer to take part in training so that staff can learn about different disabilities, how it affects the person and how an employee will have to compensate or make adjustment to behaviour or service provision in order to supply a quality service. It was also highlighted that training should be provided to managers about how to manage staff that have acquired a disability.

Service Delivery - It was acknowledged that South Bucks provides equality of service in service provision and delivery, however, it was felt that promotion the equality to users is poor, therefore some users may be unaware of the availability and may be disadvantaged by a service.

Employment - The recruitment website at South Bucks was praised for being 'clean' (non-cluttered) and informative with the vacancies being easily accessible, however there were areas of improvement highlighted with regards to advert placement, print being too small, little flexibility in approach to recruitment these elements are identified in the action plan.

In order for the Council to check that its proposals are in line with the views of disabled people, the draft version of this scheme has been circulated to our local organisations interested in issues of disability, placed on our website.

The Council will compile annual reports on progress in the implementation of this scheme and make these publicly available in the same way.