Strategic Equality Plan 2020-2024

This is our third Strategic Equality Plan (SEP) 2020-24 which has been developed to describe how we will continue to aim to meet our commitment to equality and how we will meet legal obligations contained with the Equality Act 2010.

Section 1 Purpose of the Strategic Equality Plan

It builds upon the achievements made within our second SEP 2016-20, but has also been reviewed to embed our commitment to equality in the council's core business. There is a close correlation between the council's Corporate Plan and Well-being Objectives and the council's Strategic Equality Plan and Equality Objectives. A refreshed Corporate Plan will be published during 2020 / 21. There will be closer alignment between many of the steps to deliver both the council's Well-being and Equality objectives as we pursue integration, seek to improve well-being and strive towards a more equal Swansea and a more equal Wales.

Our current Corporate Plan 2018-2022, prioritises six well-being objectives:

Safeguarding people from harm - so that our citizens are free from harm and exploitation.
Improving Education and Skills - so that everyone in Swansea gains the skills and qualifications they need to succeed in life.
Transforming our Economy and Infrastructure - so that Swansea has a thriving mixed use City Centre and a local economy that will support the prosperity of our citizens.
Tackling Poverty - so that every person in Swansea can achieve his or her potential.
Maintaining and enhancing Swansea's Natural Resources and Biodiversity - so that we maintain and enhance biodiversity, reduce our carbon footprint, improve our knowledge and understanding of our natural environment and benefit health and well-being.
Transformation and Future council development - so that we and the services that we provide are sustainable and fit for the future.

The approach that we have taken to our Strategic Equality Plan (SEP) 2020-24 is to develop an equality lens to all of our core business and decision making, rather than the development of separate priorities, steps and actions. This aims to ensure equality is at the centre of everything we do. Our approach to equality has also been informed by our values - people focus, working together and innovation and our principles - sustainability and prevention, aiming to ensure that we focus on actions which can make a difference to people. We also have a key role to play in relation to equality as a council, but also in a community leadership role by supporting key partners to promote equality and eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

The Legislative Duty and Context

The Public Sector Equality Duty

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), introduced under the Equality Act 2010 ('the Act'), is made up of a general equality duty, supported by specific duties.

The General Equality Duty

The aim of the general equality duty is to ensure that public authorities and those carrying out a public function consider how they can positively contribute to a fairer society through advancing equality and good relations in their day-to-day activities. In exercising their functions, public bodies are required to have due regard to the need to

(i) Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited under the Act.

(ii) Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

(iii) Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

The Act explains that having due regard for advancing equality of opportunity in the second aim involves:

Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics.
Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected characteristic groups where these are different from other people.
Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

The Act describes fostering good relations in the third aim as tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Meeting the duty may involve treating some people more favourably than others. as long as this does not contravene other provisions within the Act.

The Specific Duties

In addition to meeting the general duty to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations, listed public bodies are required to meet very detailed specific duties to demonstrate compliance with the general duty.

The Welsh Government introduced the 'Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011 setting out the requirements for Wales as follows:

Setting Equality Objectives and publishing a Strategic Equality Plan.
Engaging with people in relation to the protected characteristics.
Collecting and publishing information relevant to compliance with the General Duty.
Carrying out Equality Impact Assessments of relevant policies and practices.
Annual publishing of employment monitoring information.
Promoting knowledge and understanding amongst employees of the Equality Act.
Addressing unfair pay differences.
Establishing relevant conditions to meet the general duty in procurement process.
Reviewing progress on the Strategic Equality Plan and associated Equality Objectives.

Who is protected under the Equality Act 2010?

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination, victimisation and harassment on the basis of the following characteristics:

Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion or belief (or non-belief)
Sex
Sexual orientation
Marriage and civil partnerships.

It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of their protected characteristic. This is the term used in the Equality Act 2010 to identify the types of things that affect how people are treated and can mean people may experience discrimination.

Intersectionality

Our approach to equality seeks to recognise the impact of intersectionality where people who share more than one protected characteristic are at risk of multiple disadvantage, inequity, discrimination, harassment and victimisation. The impact of intersectionality may vary and it is difficult to quantify, however it is important to recognise the concept in terms of developing policy and practice, promoting equality and addressing discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

Welsh Language

The promotion and use of the Welsh Language is not included within the Equality Act, and is instead covered by the requirements set out in the Welsh Language Measure 2011. The Welsh Language Measure 2011 places an obligation on public sector to conform to a set of 'Standards' and to treat the Welsh and English languages on the basis of equality. The Welsh Language Standards annual report will be maintained as a stand-alone document and subject to annual scrutiny to ensure outcomes are delivered. However, we have included a consideration of the Welsh Language alongside the wider protected characteristics in terms of our approach to equality. The impact on the Welsh Language is examined in our Equality Impact Assessments (EIA) used during the process of council decision making.

Socio-Economic (Poverty) Duty

The Welsh Government are currently consulting on the commencement of the socio-economic duty within the Equality Act (2010). This will require public bodies, when taking strategic decisions to have due regard to reducing the inequalities in outcome that result from socio-economic disadvantage. We have built upon our second SEP 2016-20. Tackling poverty continues to be one of our Corporate Well-being objectives and our Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) process has incorporated a number of equality-related issues such as poverty and social exclusion and children's rights.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

We are continuing to embed Children's Rights into key council policies, plans and practice. We became the first council to embed the UNCRC into our policy framework and have developed a Children and Young People's Rights Scheme, which sets out our arrangements to ensure compliance with the due regard duty. We have continued to incorporate the UNCRC within the Strategic Equality for Plan for Schools, Child and Family Services Participation Strategy, the Early Years Strategy, the Healthy and Sustainable Pre-School Scheme, the Play Sufficiency Assessment, Young People's Service plans and Swansea's Public Service Board's Well-Being Plan.

Human Rights City and other United Nations Conventions on Rights

We are also continuing to explore steps towards Swansea becoming a Human Rights City and how we could embed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in the same way as with the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

We have also continued to raise awareness of the Human Rights Principles for Older Persons and the Human Rights Declaration more broadly. The Ageing Well Engagement Plan has incorporated human rights principles. The review of the 50+ Network to develop a Big Conversation forum for those that are 50+ has enabled us to make explicit links to human rights and ensure that citizens that are 50+ are engaged in a more meaningful mechanism to have a voice on issues that impact on their lives. We have also continued to implement the steps in Swansea's Well-being Plan action plan to meet one of our key partnership objectives - Live Well, Age Well and ensure activity is aligned to Ageing Well work. Swansea's Public Services Board have endorsed the principles and actions set out in the Dublin Declaration on Age-Friendly Cities and Communities in Europe and supports the development of a Human Rights City approach in Swansea.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs)

We continue to use our comprehensive Equality Impact Assessments (EIA) process, which not only takes into account the Welsh Language, poverty and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), but also the needs of carers and community cohesion. Our focus has been on ensuring that the process remains user-friendly, effective and workable for colleagues across the council.

Colleagues have access to a series of online tools and guidance from early screening of equality implications to completing a full EIA. The Access to Services Team continue to coordinate dedicated EIA. Our Equality and Engagement protocol (to ensure that EIAs are tracked and monitored through the council's reporting and decision making process) continues to be very useful in ensuring that equality issues are considered and addressed where needed.

Scrutiny Inquiry Panel - Equalities

Equality was identified as an important topic for scrutiny and was agreed as a topic for in-depth scrutiny by the Scrutiny Programme Committee. The primary focus for the inquiry was to examine how the council was meeting and embedding the requirements under the Equality Act 2010 (Public Sector Equality Duty for Wales) and to explore how the council was meeting its duties in terms of; eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act, advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not and fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The review was an in-depth process conducted over an 18 month period and included a comprehensive consultation process with people from protected characteristics and key stakeholders. Overall, the inquiry concluded that the council was meeting its duties under the Equality Act 2010 (and the Public Equality Duty for Wales 2011). Many areas of good practice were identified throughout the inquiry, but the Panel also identified a number of areas for improvement. The recommendations from this inquiry are built into our SEP 2020-24 and outlined in the steps and actions we will take.

Chwarae Teg's Fairplay Employer scheme

This year we were awarded a Silver Award by charity Chwarae Teg in their Fairplay Employer scheme: https://chwaraeteg.com/projects/fairplay/. We want Swansea Council to be a workplace where everybody is able to achieve their full potential regardless of their gender. We've been working on policies and initiatives to promote gender equality in partnership with leading gender equality charity Chwarae Teg. The Fairplay Employer benchmark will support us to deliver gender equality in our business, giving us the benefits of a truly balanced workforce.

The Well-being of Future Generations

In accordance with the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015, Swansea Council is committed to carrying out sustainable development in order to improve social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being in Swansea.

Applying the Sustainable Development Principle means we must 'act in a manner which seeks to ensure that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. The sustainable development principle is expressed through five ways of working. Swansea Council has used these ways of working to develop this Strategic Equality Plan.

1. Long term - The importance of balancing short-term needs with the need to safeguard long-term needs.

While the Strategic Equality Plan has a four-year focus. It is written taking into account the impact our actions will have on improving life and reducing inequalities experienced by future generations.

2. Prevention - How acting to prevent problems occurring or getting worse may help public bodies meet their objectives.

The Strategic Equality Objectives are intended to address priority areas in order to stop inequalities getting worse but also address root cause of unfairness so discrimination and inequality can be avoided in the future.

3. Integration - Considering how our well-being objectives may impact upon each of the well-being goals, on other objectives or the objectives of other public bodies.

We have avoided unnecessary duplication wherever possible and aimed to integrate and apply the findings and evidence of existing recent equalities work. There is a close correlation between the council's Well-being and Equality Objectives. There is close alignment between many of the steps to deliver both the council's Well-being and Equality Objectives as we pursue integration, seek to improve well-being and strive towards a more equal Swansea and a more equal Wales.

4. Collaboration - Acting in collaboration with any other person (or with other parts of the council) that could help us meet our well-being objectives.

We have engaged with services across the council and our partners to best use our skills and relationships to engage with a variety of audiences in different ways. In addition, we have aligned partnership working by involving PSB partners in the engagement process.

5. Involvement - The importance of involving people with an interest in achieving the well-being goals and ensuring that those people reflect the diversity of the area that the body serves.

We have tried to involve people that reflect the diversity of our community including those with protected characteristics. In particular we have applied the National Principles of Public Engagement and Children's participation Standards in planning and implementing engagement.

The Act also places a duty on Swansea Council to maximise its contribution to each of the national well-being goals (shown as the jigsaw pieces below). We do this by incorporating the goals into our corporate Well-being Objectives (show as the red segments below) and therefore into decision making throughout our organisation including the development of this Strategic Equality Plan.

Our Strategic Equality Objectives help to create a more equal, prosperous, healthier, globally responsible Swansea of cohesive communities with a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language.

Section 2 About us

Demographic profile

Swansea is the second largest city in Wales and the regional centre of South West Wales. Key statistics about people living in the City and County of Swansea are outlined below:

Swansea's population (as at June 2018) is 246,500, almost 8% of the population of Wales, with a population density of 638 people per sq. km.
Its population structure is relatively typical, but shows a pronounced spike in the 19-22 age groups, linked to the presence and intake of university students to Swansea.
Between 2005 and 2015, the population increased by 13,000 people (5.7%), with most of the recent growth via international migration.
Significant population growth over this decade recorded in the proportions aged 20-29 and upper age groups, with an additional 1,200 people (+23.7%) aged 85 and over.
Swansea's population is projected to grow by 21,600 (9.0%) by 2039, the third highest project growth rate in Wales, with an increase of 18,400 (+39.8%) in those aged 65 and over.
Life expectancy at birth in Swansea now stands at 78.0 years (males) and 82.4 (females). Over the last ten years, life expectancy has increased by around 2 years for both males and females.
105,300 households live in Swansea (2015), with an average household size of approximately 2.23 people. 36,500 (34.3%) are single adult households, increasing by 2,600 in the last five years.
Census estimates suggest a non-white ethnic population of around 14,300 - 6.0% of Swansea's total population (2011). Chinese and Bangladeshi are the largest non-white ethnic groups (total: 4,000).
The proportion (aged 3+) in Swansea able to speak Welsh decreased to 11.4% (26,300) in the ten years to 2011, but is increasing amongst under 16s.
Swansea has a key role within the South West Wales sub-region as a service sector-focused economy with a high proportion of public sector jobs.
Economic activity and employment in Swansea is close to equivalent Wales rates, but below UK rates.
A relatively high proportion of residents (aged 16-64) with higher level qualifications (NVQ 3+) live in Swansea, but also those with no qualifications.

What do we know about people in Swansea with protected characteristics

Is Wales Fairer 2018? concluded that there were significant gaps in the data in Wales that make it difficult to understand the experiences of people sharing protected characteristics. Although there are gaps in the data, we can draw on information from the Census, the Annual Population Survey, Welsh Government statistics and local research and information to identify some key characteristics for groups of people sharing protected characteristics.

Disability

According to the Census 2011, almost a quarter of Swansea residents had a long term health problem or disability (day-to-day activities limited 'a lot' or 'a little'), at approximately 55,700 people or 23.3% of the total; slightly above the Wales average (22.7%). Amongst people of working age (16-64), around 27,000 in Swansea had a long-term health problem or disability, 17.4% of the working age population in 2011 (Wales 16.9%).
Economic activity is significantly lower for people who are disabled. In Swansea, the economic activity rate for working age people who are EA core (defined by the Equality Act 2010) or WL (work limiting) disabled (defined by Census) was 54.0% (March 2019), whilst for those not disabled the figure was 79.8%. The employment rate was also lower, at 48.7% for disabled people compared to 74.9% for those not disabled. The unemployment rate is higher for people aged 16-64 who are disabled (9.8%) than not disabled (6.1%).
The latest Welsh Government figures report that 1,220 people in Swansea were on registers with learning disabilities (March 2019), of whom 1,092 (89.5%) were living in community placements and 128 (10.5%) in residential establishments. For those in community settings, 57% of all people on registers were living with parents or family. At March 2019, 19.1% of all people registered with learning disabilities in Swansea were aged under 16, 72.3% were aged between 16 and 64, and 8.6% were aged 65 and over.
In Swansea, 2,547 people were registered with physical or sensory disabilities as at March 2019. Of this total around 56% were registered with a visual impairment, of whom 744 were severely sight impaired and 679 sight impaired. Of the remainder without visual disability, 510 people (45.4%) had a physical disability only, with 385 people hard of hearing and 229 deaf.

Race

The largest ethnic group in Swansea is White, with 94.0% of residents (224,700 people) belonging to this ethnic group (2011 Census) and the remaining 6.0% of residents from a non-white ethnic group. In 2011, the largest non-white ethnic groups in Swansea were Chinese (2,052 people, 0.9%) and Bangladeshi (1,944, 0.8%), followed by Other Asian, African and Arab.
More recent (2017) ONS research indicated that around 19,000 people in Swansea (approx. 8% of the total population) were from a non-white ethnic group in 2016. A further 7,000 people were in the category 'All Other White', therefore an estimated 26,000 people (around 11% of the Swansea population in 2016) were non-'White British'.
The Annual Population Survey (APS) 2018 estimates that 17,100 people aged 16+ in Swansea (8.4% of the total) were from an ethnic minority group (95% confidence interval: +/-2.3%-points).
In January 2019, 11.2% of the total number of pupils aged 5 or over at maintained schools in Swansea identified as non-White, which is higher than the equivalent figure in both the Census and previous research estimates. The highest proportions within this figure are Any Other Ethnic Group (including Arab, at 2.8% of all pupils in 2019) and Bangladeshi (2.0%).
2011 Census data also reveals that 77.7% of Swansea's population (approx. 185,700 people) were born in Wales, with 14.1% born in England and 1.0% born in Scotland or Northern Ireland. In 2011, around 17,200 Swansea residents (7.2% of the total) were born outside the UK, with individual country totals over a thousand being Poland (1,345), China (1,249) and India (1,105).

Marriage and civil partnership

The Census 2011 reported that almost 44% of adults (aged 16+) in Swansea were married, slightly below equivalent proportions in Wales and England and Wales, with corresponding higher proportions single. Figures for other categories are relatively close to the Wales average.
The latest survey-based estimates of marital status for 2018 suggest that 35.6% of adults in Wales are single (England and Wales 35.0%), with 48.2% of adults in Wales married (England and Wales 50.4%). An estimated 8.3% in Wales are divorced (England and Wales 8.0%) and 7.9% are widowed (England and Wales 6.4%). In both these categories, the proportions are higher for females than males.
From the data that is available (2014-2016), the number of opposite-sex marriages taking place in Swansea has averaged 1,226 per year. In 2014 (from March), 2015 and 2016, the annual number of same sex marriages occurring in Swansea was 25, 44 and 52 respectively.

Pregnancy and maternity

In 2018 there were 2,366 babies born to residents in Swansea, almost identical to the 2017 figure (+2). Swansea's Crude Birth Rate of 9.6 (live births per 1,000 people in 2018) is currently lower than that of Wales (10.0) and England and Wales (11.1). The pattern is broadly repeated in the General Fertility Rate, with 50.8 live births per 1,000 women in Swansea aged 15-44 in 2018 (Wales 56.3, England and Wales 59.1).

Gender Re-assignment

There are no official statistics on gender re-assignment at local or national level, from survey or administrative sources. However, EHRC research (2012) estimated that just under one percent of the population nationally would be part of this protected group.
The 2021 Census topic consultation in 2015 identified a need amongst a number of data users for information about gender identity for policy development and service planning (for example, for the provision of health services), and for information on those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment as set out in the Equality Act 2010.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) are now recommending the inclusion of a gender identity question in the 2021 Census that collects information on those whose gender is different from their sex assigned at birth. Research and testing has shown that it would be acceptable and would have minimal effect on overall response and respondent burden. The proposed question will be voluntary, only asked of persons aged 16 years and over and will include a 'prefer not to say' response option. The first outputs from the 2021 Census in England and Wales are due to be published in 2022.

Sexual orientation

Although there is some official data on sexual orientation or identity, there is no official local data (local authority level). In addition, although there are official sources produced by the UK government (ONS) there are some concerns about whether this data reflects the true size of the population as a result of under reporting or non-disclosure.
Research from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) 2017 suggests that over the last five years, the proportion of the UK population identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) has increased from 1.5% in 2012 to 2.0% in 2017. During this time period the proportion of the UK household population identifying as LGB has increased from 1.5% in 2012 to 2.0% in 2017 and the proportion in Wales increased by 0.7%.
Research from the ONS 2017 showed that the percentage of people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) in Wales was 2%, similar for England (2.1%), Scotland (1.9%), but higher than Northern Ireland 1.2%. The research also showed that males (2.3%) were more likely to identify as LGB than females (1.8%) and people aged 16 to 24 years were most likely to identify as LGB (4.2%) during the time period for the research.
In the Census White Paper, published December 2018, ONS recommended the inclusion of a sexual identity question in the 2021 Census with the following response categories: Heterosexual or straight; Gay or lesbian; Bisexual; Other sexual orientation (write in); Prefer not to say. The first outputs from the 2021 Census are due to be published in 2022.

Religion or belief

The only source of local data on religion is the 2011 Census. The Census question in England and Wales ('What is your religion?') asks about religious affiliation; that is how people connect or identify with a religion, irrespective of actual practice, belief or belonging. Therefore, in Census outputs and analysis, religion is a measure of identity rather than other aspects.
The Census 2011 shows that Christianity is the predominant religion in Swansea (131,451 people, representing 55.0% of the Census total population). The total number of people in Swansea with a non-Christian religion (Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Other religion) was 8,530; 3.6% of all people.
Of the listed religion categories, 5,415 people (2.3%) stated their religion as Muslim, making this the most common religion after Christianity. The only other minority religions with more than 500 people in Swansea in 2011 were Buddhist (856, 0.4%) and Hindu (780, 0.3%). The Census 2011 also showed that 34.0% held no religious beliefs and 7.5% did not answer or state a belief.
The total number of people in Swansea expressing Christian religious identity fell over that ten years by around 27,000 or 17%. Between the 2001 and 2011 Census, the estimated number of people in Swansea with a non-Christian religion increased from 3,758 (1.7% of the population) to 8,530; an overall increase of around 4,800 people (+127%).
The largest estimated increases in the population of minority religious groups between 2001 and 2011, albeit sometimes from a relatively low base, were Muslim (+3,248 people or 150%); Other religion (+595 or 133%); Hindu (+498 or 177%); Buddhist (+317 or 59%) and Sikh (+125 or 82%). However, once again these large increases can be viewed in the context of the potential 2001 Census undercount, with proportionately greater effects on some hard-to-count groups.

Section 3 How we developed our Equality Objectives

The engagement and consultation process involved all stakeholders at each stage of the Strategic Equality Plan's development. Full details of the feedback that shaped our Strategic Equality Objectives and the three stage methodology adopted can be read in our Engagement Report.

Stage 1

The process used the extensive engagement work undertaken as part of the Equalities Scrutiny Inquiry and its recommendations as a foundation for the involvement process. Pre-engagement evidence was used to draft broad objectives as a starting point for discussion.

Stage 2

The draft Strategic Equality Objectives were shared with the public so they could replace, remove, change and add so we could make sure the right objectives for Swansea were identified. The engagement between 4 November and 6 December 2019 also enabled more detailed information on actions relating to the objectives to be collected so that in line with the National Principles for Public Engagement people could be genuinely involved at the earliest stage and throughout the process.

Stage 3

The information gathered via formal consultation was used to draft the Stategic Equality Objectives and draft Strategic Equality Plan.

The document was then open to the public for a further 4 week period so that comments could be taken into account and improvements made.

Our Equality Objectives

Our Strategic Equality Objectives were informed by Is Wales Fairer 2018? and the wider evidence base about equality, local research and information, our consultation process and the findings from a review into equality by our Scrutiny Inquiry Panel.

In this section, we have outlined why the draft Strategic Equality Objectives have been selected, links to our Corporate Plan and Well-being Objectives and the steps we will consider to make a positive difference. A separate action plan will be produced to outline the actions we will take in taking steps to meet our Equality Objectives.

1. Education: Ensure an inclusive learning experience and that gaps in levels of attainment and other post-education outcomes are narrowed

Why is this a Strategic Equality Objective

Although gaps in attainment for boys, children on free school meals (FSM) and children with additional learning needs (ALN) have narrowed, we know from Is Wales Fairer 2018? that gaps in attainment for older children on FSM and children and young people with ALN persist. Attainment of children with some impairments such as a hearing impairment, has worsened. The research also shows that children and young people on FSM and children and young people with ALN are also more likely to experience higher rate of school exclusion. Children with ore than one protected characteristic such as ALN and experiencing other aspects of inequality such as living in poverty are at risk of multiple disadvantage and poor outcomes.

Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should ensure that there is adequate funding for schools and good levels of support for children and young people with ALN and children and young people who are looked after (LAC). Our consultation also suggested that we should work to address the impact of poverty in schools and other learning environments. Specific mention was made of reducing the cost of school uniforms and supporting families to feed their children in the school holidays.

Evidence from Is Wales Fairer 2018? also indicated that BME children are also more likely to experience lower levels of educational attainment than White British Children during their early years. The research also shows that ethnic minorities and disabled people are under-represented in apprenticeships. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should support the provision of more Apprenticeships / vocational and lifelong learning opportunities.

Is Wales Fairer 2018? also told us that traditional gender roles, norms and stereotypes are continuing to affect educational attainment and subject choices. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives also told us we should tackle gender stereotyping in sporting activities and provide more training and raise greater awareness of equality issues for both teachers and learners. Our Scrutiny Panel's Inquiry into equality recommended that we support teachers and learners to tackle issues around gender stereotyping in schools, particularly in relation to sporting activities. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives also told us that we should support a culture of listening, sharing and caring within learning environments.

Links to our Corporate Plan

Education and Skills, Economy and Infrastructure and Tackling Poverty.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective

Work with our Health partners to ensure that, through our Early Years Strategy and Flying Start, children in their early years and at Foundation Phase achieve their expected language, emotional, social and cognitive development and are ready for learning and for school.
Continue to narrow the gaps in attainment and well-being for all children and young people particularly for those on FSM, children and young people with ALN, LAC, from some BME groups and boys.
Raise vocational aspirations and skill levels in the workplace, contributing to the development of ambitious, skills young people and adults by providing apprenticeships.
Identify those young people who are most at risk of becoming NEET (not in employment, education or training) and provide them (and their families) with the personal support they require to remain engaged with education, employment and training.
Develop independent learning skills for lifelong learning to reflect the changing nature of work and to support well-being, creativity and reduce social isolation.
Continue to encourage schools to support the UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools initiative as part of our commitment to the UNCRC, develop young citizens to respect rights, understand responsibilities and to be globally aware and responsible citizens.
Work with teachers and learners to tackle issues around gender sterotyping in schools, particularly in relation to sporting activities.
Support schools and other learning environments to promote a greater awareness of equality and diversity issues in schools.
Transform the schools' estate to meet demand and respond to the developments set out within the local development plan (LDP) whilst ensuring community benefits from contracts, carbon reduction and progressive improvement to access to infrastructure in schools.

2. Work: Reduce pay gaps and create a more inclusive workforce that is more reflective of Swansea's diverse communities

Why is this a Strategic Equality Objective

We know from Is Wales Fairer 2018? that women continue to earn less than men on average. Gender pay gaps are narrower in Wales than in England mainly because average hourly earnings of male full-time employees are much lower in Wales. The research suggested that bullying and sexual harassment remain widespread in the workplace, although a lack of survey evidence means that it is difficult to quantify this. Research from Is Where Fairer 2018? also suggested that around 7 out of 10 mothers have had a negative, or possibly discriminatory experience during pregnancy or maternity leave, or on returning from maternity leave.

As a major employer in the area, we are continuing to work towards reducing our gender pay gap and recorded a reduction of 2% to 5.7% in April 2019, compared to the previous year. We are continuing to review our recruitment and employment policies, including work on the gender pay gap for senior management roles and the gender balance in the take-up of apprenticeship opportunities. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should continue to support work on reducing the gender pay gap and addressing gender inequality in the workplace as both a major employer in the area and in a community leadership role through partnership working.

Although unemployment rates have fallen in the UK, Wales and Swansea for young people aged 16-24 years, they still have one of the highest rates of unemployment. In Wales, the rate of youth unemployment in 2019 was 12.6%. Insecure employment is around twice as high as average for those aged 16-24 years and has increased for this age group.

Evidence from Is Wales Fairer 2018? also shows us that the employment rate and economic activity rate is significantly lower for disabled people. In Swansea, the economic activity rate for working age people who were disabled (defined by the Equality Act and the Census) was 54.0% in March 2019, compared to 79.8% who were not disabled. The employment rate for disabled people was 48.7% compared to 74.9% who were not disabled and the unemployment rate was 9.8% and 6.1% respectively. The research also suggested that disabled people were less likely to be in managerial and professional work than other people and were more likely to have lower incomes. Disabled people were also less likely than others to take up apprenticeships.

Our consultation on the Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should continue to review recruitment policies and seek to increase workforce diversity. Our consultation also told us that we should review pay, training and work experience consider a work life balance and the provision of mental health and staff support services. Our Scrutiny Panel's Inquiry into equality identified a number of recommendations that we should consider as an employer including; a review of our recruitment and selection policy, a review of training opportunities, improvement to ways in which we collect personal data about staff (including protected characteristics) and the provision of more training and other ways to challenge negative views and attitudes and promote positive messages to staff.

Links to our Corporate Plan

Economy and Infrastructure, Tackling Poverty and Transformation and Future Council.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective

In our role as an employer, complete the review of Recruitment and Selection Policy as a matter of urgency. This should include looking at better promotion of staff vacancies and apprenticeships to different groups, consider advertising these more carefully to promote representation of BME, disabled people, LGBT community, veterans and women in male dominated roles (and vice-versa).
Review training opportunities to ensure they are fit for purpose. Including:

a) Ensure better update of equality related training amongst staff, especially front facing staff.
b) Ensure middle managers have completed training and are encouraging staff to do so.
c) Developing training with equality groups where possible.
d) Ensure the opportunities to do these are repeated regularly particularly around unconscious bias, using alternative formats and making a reasonable adjustment.
e) Smarter working with others to meet our duty well by investigating sharing some training and consultation activities with other large organisations and / or procure jointly to improve economies of scales.

Collect better data on our workforce and develop better resource to encourage staff to give their personal data for example based upon a toolkit by Stonewall 'what it has got to do with you'. Report on 'pay gaps such as disability and BAME, as well as gender, in future.
Develop an Internal communications rolling programme led by the Equalities and Future Generations Policy Development Committee / Strategic Equality Group to promote training, challenge negative views or attitudes and provide positive messages to staff and Members.
Embed equality and diversity into service delivery through a network of Equality Representatives appointed in each service.
Continue to strengthen the Welsh language service and language services generally offered by the council by providing basic language training for front-line staff.

3. Living standards: Tackle poverty and help support independent living

Why this is a Strategic Equality Objective

We know from Is Wales Fairer 2018? that poverty in Wales has increased; a quarter of adults and a third of children in Wales are now living in poverty. Poverty and deprivation are both higher in Wales than in other nations in the UK. The research also tells us that welfare reforms have also placed more people at risk of poverty, particularly women, some ethnic minorities and disabled people. Disabled people, lone parents and some ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty and experience severe material deprivation than non-disabled people. Welfare reform, benefit sanctions and the delay in the payment of universal credit has also increased the number of people in absolute poverty, homelessness and a reliance on food banks. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should review the support for disabled people (including people with hidden disabilities) and ensure that they have equal opportunities. Our Scrutiny Panel's Inquiry into equality recommended that we explore supporting more opportunities for disabled adults, including the development of our social enterprise base.

The latest Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD 2019) was published by the Welsh Government in November 2019. In Swansea, the WIMD 2019 shows that Swansea has an above average proportion of its Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) featuring in the most deprived 10% in Wales, with 17 (11.5%) of its 148 LSOAs in the 191 (10%) most deprived. Although the number of LSOAs in Swansea with the 10% most deprived LSOAs in Wales has fallen slightly from 18 in 2014 to 17 in 2019, the proportion of Swansea LSOAs in the most deprived 30% in Wales has increased to over 30% (46 of its 148 LSOAs). Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should continue our work to tackle poverty and mitigate the impacts of poverty by supporting greater community engagement and capacity building.

Evidence from Is Wales Fairer 2019? also tells us that problems dealing with rough sleeping and the 'hidden homeless' for example, people sleeping on friends sofas are also increasing. We also know from the research that there is a shortage in the number of accessible and adaptable homes available for disabled people and delays in getting existing homes adapted. The research also tells us that data from local authorities about accessible and adaptable housing is generally poor. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should explore how we make other places in the community more accessible and make it easier for disabled people and older people to get around. Our consultation also suggested that we should review our support for homeless people and explore ways to increase the number of affordable homes.

We also know from Is Wales Fairer 2018? that there is an increasing number of unpaid carers who are experiencing difficulties with their caring responsibilities. The research shows that caring responsibilities are disproportionately falling on women and it is usually unpaid. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives also suggested that we should explore ways in which we can support carers and our Scrutiny Panel's Inquiry into equality recommended that we complete our Carers strategy as a matter of urgency.

Links to our Corporate Plan

Economy and Infrastructure, Tackling Poverty and Transformation and Future Council.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective

Continue to implement the revised Poverty Strategy and ensure that tackling poverty is everybody's business. To focus on utilising data to target support, employability and financial inclusion.
Support the establishment of a Poverty Truth Commission to bring together key decision makers with people who have direct lived experience of poverty to work together to bring about change.
Create employment and training opportunities for the long-term unemployed and economically inactive through community benefit clauses in contracts.
Support individuals to overcome their barriers to employment through coordinated person-centred employability support.
Support our most vulnerable adults to remain safe and independent at home, by implementing the Adult Service model and rebalancing our service offer to focus on prevention, reablement, and recovery.
Through a Getting It Right for Every Child programme, implement a new whole system, integrated approach to focus early help and prevention services to improve well-being for children and young people, and support to families.
Invest to improve housing and build more energy efficient council homes and support the building of affordable housing to help meet housing need, reduce fuel bills, regenerate estates and bring wider well-being and economic and employment benefits.
Prevent homelessness and support people to maintain their tenancies to help provide stability and security for families and communities by implementing the council's Homelessness Strategy 2018-22.
Explore creating our own energy venture to provide low-cost energy to homes helping to tackle high domestic fuel bills and fuel poverty.
Support tackling climate change and help eradicate fuel poverty and boost economic development through energy efficiency measures in social housing.
Work with others to provide sustainable, accessible and low carbon transport and infrastructure providing improved and cheaper connectivity and mobility.
Implement the local development plan (LDP) that supports the regeneration of Swansea and promotes sustainable communities.
Promote Digital Inclusion and access online services by providing citizens with lifelong learning opportunities to undertake free computer courses and training.
Help to address the impacts of Welfare reform, such as supporting people to claim the full benefits they are entitled to so that they are able to maximise their income and promote access to affordable credit.
Review the council's approach to procurement to secure local economic and community benefits, in line with sustainable development principles.
Provide a range of preventative and family support services, such as the Families First programme.
Raise awareness of the availability of Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) particularly in terms of disabled children and young people.
Complete the Carers Strategy as a matter of urgency.
Develop further opportunities for disabled adults, including looking at expanding our social enterprise base.

4. Health: Seek to promote good physical and mental health and reduce health inequalities through the provision of sport, culture and leisure opportunities and a healthy built and natural environment

Why this is a Strategic Equality Objective

We know from Is Wales Fairer 2018? that there is a lower average life expectancy of people living in deprived areas, particularly for men. In Swansea, the life expectancy of men living in the most deprived areas is 12 years lower than the life expectancy of men living in the most affluent areas of Swansea. The gap is even greater in relation to living in good health, free from disability or a life limiting illness. The research also shows us that there are also inequalities in relation to mental health as men in Wales were over four times more likely than women to die by suicide.

The evidence from Is Wales Fairer 2018? tells us that disabled people experience more difficulty accessing health and mental health services than others. The research also identifies barriers to accessing health services for people from ethnic minorities or from whom English is an additional language Gypsy, Roma and Traveller families continue to experience difficulties in accessing quality health services.

Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should support the improvement of mental health services, inclusion within leisure opportunities (including affordable leisure opportunities) and removing barriers to participation. Our consultation also suggested we should explore ways to promote community well-being, keeping fit and healthy and using the natural environment to promote health and wellbeing.

Participation in family and community life is a key determinant of health and well-being. We know from Is Wales Fairer 2018? that loneliness, isolation and a reduced sense of belonging are some of the most significant issues facing particular groups, including older people, disabled people, carers, new parents, lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people, and people from some ethnic minorities (this list is not exhaustive).

Links to our Corporate Plan

Safeguarding, Tackling Poverty, Natural Resources and Bio-Diversity and Transformation and Future Council.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective

Address social isolation and enhance quality of life of older people, within supportive communities by extending local area coordination and the range of support and preventative opportunities.
Improve, expand and diversify leisure, cultural and heritage facilities and infrastructure to help boost the economy, promote tourism to improve health and well-being, promote community cohesion and provide economic benefits.
Manage and protect Swansea's green spaces, coastline, beaches and parks for recreation and play, to encourage tourism, protect the environment and support health and well-being.
Build on the legacy of Swansea's bid to be UK City of Culture by active participation in Culture 21 Pilot programme. This will include using culture to promote intercultural dialogue and respect for cultural diversity and help address key challenges.
Provide art, culture and heritage opportunities in order to boost skills, confidence, self-esteem, aspiration and health and well-being.
Support initiatives that will increase Swansea's urban tree cover, improve awareness and understanding of our environment (including opportunities for schoolchildren) to improve access and learning about the natural environment in order to promote health and well-being.
Improve access to and maintain the quality of our parks and greenspaces. Continue with the delivery of wild flower planting and management and engage with local communities to encourage volunteering and to support them with enhancing and maintaining their local greenspaces and wildlife sites to improve health and well-being.
Develop policies and plans to improve green infrastructure in deprived areas as a health equality action.
Continue with Active Young People Interventions across all schools / communities in order to increase participation in sport and physical activity, included targeted interventions to those in areas of deprivation.
Undertake a range of equality-focused activities at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea Museum, Dylan Thomas Centre and Swansea's libraries working with groups such as children and young people, disabled people, BME and LGBT communities.
Continue with the Passport to Leisure scheme, which allows for discounted entry / tickets at our venues (including the Freedom Leisure sites and Plantasia) and some external ones too.
Raise awareness of Cultural Services and identify any barriers to participation via engagement with key equality groups, such as the BME Sports Forum.
Support improvements to access public transport by bus for disabled and older people, as well as families with young children.
Improve access to the infrastructure around pavements, roads and parking provision for disabled and older people, as well as families with young children. Review current consultation with local access groups to improve physical access to buildings and services.

5. Fairness, dignity and respect: Ensure that people and communities have their rights respected and feel safe from violence and abuse

Why this is a Strategic Equality Objective

We know from Is Wales Fairer 2018? that women and girls are continuing to experience high levels of violence and discrimination, including sexual harassment in the work place and sexist bullying in schools. The research also tells us that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and ethnic minority children are also at risk of bullying. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives suggested that we should continue to support the prevention of violence, discrimination and bullying. Feedback from the consultation also suggested that we explore ways in which community cohesion can be increased and the use of other community safety measures to address the problem. Mentions were also made of raising awareness of promoting Human Rights and organisational commitments to eradicate discrimination, harassment and bullying in the work place and wider communities. Our Scrutiny Panel's Inquiry into equality also recommended that we explore leading positive campaigns celebrating Swansea's diversity and zero tolerance for discrimination.

Links to our Corporate Plan

Safeguarding, Transformation and Future Council.

The steps we will take to meet this well-being objective

Continue to ensure that safeguarding is 'everyone's business' across the council, within schools, with partners, and through West Glamorgan Safeguarding Board. Undertake a range of work focused on hate crime, modern slavery, protection of vulnerable people, radicalisation and extremism and wider, emerging issues, such as County Lines, Modern Slavery, Human Trafficking, Bullying in schools, Hate Crimes and the Prevent strategy.
Work with partners to raise awareness around Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) and put in place effective and timely interventions and support.
Continue to implement the Community Cohesion Delivery Plan to promote cohesive and inclusive communities in Swansea.
Continue to implement a Hate Crime Strategy and increase understanding of hate crime and awareness of how to report it amongst staff and key partners.
Lead positive campaigns celebrating Swansea's diversity and zero tolerance for discrimination.

6. Participation: Improve how we engage with and involve people and communities in matters that are important to them and decisions that we make

Why this is a Strategic Equality Objective

Is Wales Fairer 2018? tells us more people with protected characteristics need to be involved in matters which are important to them and decisions that the council make. The research indicates that there are clear data gaps that make it difficult to understand the experiences of people sharing all protected characteristics. Councils also need to improve the data they collect about people with protected characteristics who participate in local decision making. Our consultation on our Strategic Equality Objectives also suggested that we need to improve our reach and process of involving people in decision making including young people and those people with protected characteristics. The consultation also suggested that we should explore a range of community engagement approaches and consultation, including co-production.

Our Scrutiny Panel's Inquiry into equality identified a number of recommendations about how we could improve the way in which we engage with and involve people in decision making. The recommendations included establishing a high level cross council Strategic Equality Group, improving our equality forums, developing the role of Councillor Champions for equality and developing the role of our Staff Equality representatives. Recommendations also included supporting the development of community hubs across the council, reviewing and developing the council's website to make it more accessible, developing more easy-read and plain English resources and building upon our Co-production Strategic Framework and piloting a corporate approach to co-production. The Scrutiny Panel also recommended that we explore becoming a Human Rights city and how we could embed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in the same way as with the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Ensure these Conventions are reflected in the council's new SEP 2020.

Links to our Corporate Plan

Transformation and Future Council.

The steps we will take to meet this objective

Continue to implement a whole council approach to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), to meet our commitments contained within the Children and Young People's Rights Scheme.
Continue to involve children and young people in their education and community through Schools Councils and Big Conversation engagement events. By continuing to encourage schools to become UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools as part of our commitment to the UNCRC, develop young citizens to respect rights, understand responsibilities and to be globally aware and responsible citizens.
Review work with communities, organisations and 'friends' groups to encourage and enable greater community ownership of assets and services and to ensure their long-term sustainability.
Support the establishment of a Poverty Truth Commission to bring together key decision makers with people who have direct lived experience of poverty to work together to bring about change.
Continue to modernise public engagement in local democracy and council decision making through accessible meeting times, web broadcasting, electronic voting and e-petitions.
Continue to strengthen the Welsh language service and language services generally offered by the council by providing basic language training for front-line staff.
Make community budgets available so that local people can decide together with their representatives what their local priorities are.
Provide the opportunity for local citizens to influence how policies are written and services are delivered through a revised Consultation and Engagement Strategy, ensuring that consultation and engagement is inclusive and undertake awareness raising activities.
Build upon the development of a Corporate Co-production Strategy with inclusion of a Toolkit for use by staff across the authority.
Progress the Live Well, Age Well Forum and focus on priorities identified for exploration and discussion as matters that are important to those ageing well within Swansea.
Promote 'SMART' working with our equality forums, ensuring they all have clear terms of reference, work plans and schedules. Ensure better engagement with council departments and Councillor Champions. Facilitate the establishing of Women's and Inter-Faith Consultative Forums.
Clarify and further promote the role of Councillor Champions, ensure better engagement with consultative forms and establish links with the Strategic Equality Group.
Clarify the Equality Staff Representative role, including the expectations of them in their role, ensuring those nominated are able to regularly take part in co-ordinating meetings and training and that they are linked to a wider knowledge base / support network for advice, guidance and support.
Support the continued development of community hubs across the council area ensure that all staff involved have full equalities training.
Address the significant issues with the council website, key aspects should be developed co-productively. Consider use of more 'hover over' facilities for key words where pictures are shown. Be mindful of problems with PDFs / tables for screen readers.
Develop more easy read and plain English resources.
Continue steps towards Swansea becoming a Human Rights City; explore how we could embed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in the same way as with the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Section 4 Sources informing the Strategic Equality Plan

We began by drawing together existing evidence, reviewing best practice from across Wales and applying recent learning from Swansea to draft Strategic Equality Objectives. To prepare initial draft equality objectives many sources were taken into account. These included:

Equality and Human Rights Commission - Making Wales Fairer Report. This October 2018 report aimed to assess how Wales was performing on Equality and Human Rights. The report provides valuable data and evidence across six domains including; education, health, living standards; justice and security, work; and participation and compared outcomes for groups in areas such as pay gaps, educational attainment, and experiences of hate crime. It offered a framework for analysis that helped us identify draft Strategic Equality Objectives.
Swansea Council Equalities Scrutiny Inquiry. This landmark review aimed to understand how the council could better implement its equalities duties in Swansea. An extensive engagement programme collected evidence between October 2018 and March 2019. The evidence gathering activities undertaken included:

a) Overview of subject and Question and Answer with Cabinet Member for Better Communities (People) and Chief Legal Officer.
b) Consideration of relevant key policies, strategies and documentation including Swansea's Equality Plan and the Equality Impact Assessment screening process.
c) Question and Answer session with individual directors and the Strategic Organisational Development and Human Resources Manager.
d) Departmental staff representatives.
e) Equality and Human Rights Commission.
f) Equalities Community / Partner Groups including Carers, BME Forum, Young People through the Big Conversation, LGBT Forum, Disability Liaison Group, Joining the Jots Team, Veterans and 50+ Forum.
g) Survey of council staff.

The report's recommendations were accepted at Cabinet on October 2019, as a result, it would make sense to consolidate these recommendations within the SEP subject to further engagement. It has been widely suggested by participants that this recent extensive engagement exercise is utilised as a foundation for engagement regarding the Strategic Equality to avoid duplicating information and respect the views so recently expressed by key stakeholders.

Swansea Council's Corporate (Well-being) Plan. This document sets out Swansea Council's Well-being Objectives and the steps we will take to achieve them. Many of these steps already address equality and diversity issues.
Swansea Public Services Board Local Well-being Plan. This document sets out local Well-being objectives such as Stronger Communities with a sense of pride and belonging with steps that align with equality and diversity priorities for Swansea.
Previous Strategic Equality Plans and Reviews. We looked at what worked and what could be improved in previous Strategic Equality Plans and Reviews.
The Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015. Swansea Council applied the sustainable development principle's five ways of working to develop a Strategic Equality Plan that helps create a more equal, prosperous, healthier Swansea of cohesive communities with a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language.
The Social Services and Well-being Act (2014). This legislation seeks to improve the well-being of people who need care and support and carers who need support. The West Glamorgan Regional Partnership's Area plan and Population Assessment has influenced the development of the Strategic Equality Objectives.
The Foundational Economy Approach. Swansea Council is committed to exploring opportunities for prosperity offered by the Foundational Economy and ensuring all groups in society benefit from Wales becoming the first country in the world to embrace the foundational economy approach. This focuses on developing the local provision and procurement of the goods and services that we all need. Swansea is the first local authority in Wales to have successfully bid for Welsh Government's 'Foundational Economy Challenge Fund' to improve local supplier development.
Swansea Equalities Statistics Review 2020. Swansea Council's Strategic Delivery Unit has collated an evidence base of statistical information relating to protected characteristics in a Swansea context. The commentary and analysis helps us understand the diversity of Swansea's population, how it has changed and (as far as possible) how it may develop in the future.
Children's Commissioner. We are continuing to work with the Children's Commissioner to promote Children's Rights and provide opportunities for children and young people to participate in decision making and ensuring that their voices are heard.
Older People's Commissioner. We are also continuing to work closely with the Older Person's Commissioners Office and Swansea University to develop participation and engagements opportunities for people aged 50 years and support on-going work and campaigns such as #EverydayAgeism etc.

Section 5 Monitoring and Evaluation

Following council adoption and publication of the SEP 2020, the next steps will involve working with services across the council to identify the actions which will be taken to implement the steps within the plan. The delivery of the SEP 2020 will be assessed on an annual basis through an Annual Review of Equality and Diversity. The delivery of the SEP 2020 will also be assessed through the Scrutiny Process and the Equality and Future Generations Policy Development Committee which will identify areas for policy review and development.