Equality and diversity

The Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) team provides advice, support, and guidance in relation to equalities for all. Our aim is to ensure that the Council is meeting its statutory responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010, in providing fair and accessible services for everyone.

We have been promoting awareness and understanding across the nine protected characteristics. These include, age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

This is an exciting time for EDI at Sandwell Council and our residents and communities! We are designing an ambitious EDI Strategy which will be an integral component of the Council's commitment to promoting EDI. Our EDI strategy will align with the LGA Equality Framework which is intended to help Councils:

• Deliver accessible, inclusive, and responsive services to customers and residents in their communities including those from under- represented groups.
• Employ a workforce that reflects the diversity of the area they are serving.
• Provide equality of opportunity for all staff.
• Meet the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty and support any aspirations to exceed these.

It seeks to do this by:

• Identifying the areas of activity that councils need to address to deliver good equality outcomes.
• Helping councils to understand how they can build equality into processes and practices.
• Supporting organisations to become inclusive employers.
• Enabling councils to informally self-assess their progress on the equality improvement journey and determine where and how they need to improve.

Visit the LGA framework for more information.