Equalities

Our approach to Equalities and how we meet legal requirements under the Equality Act 2010 are explained on this page.

We recognise there are many effects of discrimination and inequality. These are experienced in various ways by different groups of people. We also recognise that some people may experience more than one type of inequality at the same time.

The council has adopted the statement below as an example of discrimination, although it is not intended to be absolutely definitive:

"Unfair or unequal treatment of people on the basis of race, colour, national and ethnic origin, culture or faith, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or gender identity, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, disability, physical, sensory or learning impairments, mental health problems, HIV status, income or age."

Our commitment

Southampton is a vibrant and diverse city. The council is committed to working towards the removal of discrimination and to achieving equality for residents and communities in the city. This is reflected in the Corporate Plan. We aim to put residents and customers at the heart of everything we do, while reflecting the city’s diversity.

We also have a Diversity & Inclusion Pledge that is visible on the Why work for us section of our recruitment webpages.

Within our Corporate Plan there are a number of areas of focus for the next two years that relate to equality. For example, "Improving health and wellbeing of all residents, with a focus on reducing health inequalities within Southampton" and "Deliver on the council’s Diversity and Inclusion Pledge, to promote and champion diversity throughout the organisation". View the outline of our specific equality objectives.

Equality Policy

Our Equality Policy confirms the council’s long standing commitment to work towards the elimination of discrimination. This is currently being reviewed and updated and the new version will be published when ready.

Public Sector Equality Duty

The public sector equality duty (PSED) is a requirement under the Equality Act 2010 that public bodies should consider equality across their work. It is supported by specific duty obligations, which require public bodies to publish equality information each year to demonstrate how they are meeting the requirements of the PSED.

Equalities Information

The Southampton Data Observatory publishes a lot of data on the demographics of the city, which comes from various sources including the Census and Southampton City Council data (such as the schools census). View population data on the Data Observatory website. There are other sources of information on our Statistics page that the population data is part of.

Internally, our monthly 'HR&OD Dashboard' is shared with managers, covering employee data for:

Gender
Ethnicity, culture and heritage
Age
Religion
Disability
Sexual orientation

It is broken down by service and is used for determining potential workforce issues, such as comparing gender and ethnicity at different levels in the organisation. This information can be found on the employee diversity and inclusion page. In addition, our Gender pay gap is published each year and is on the Government portal.

Equality and Safety Impact Assessments

We use Equality and Safety Impact Assessments (ESIA) to ensure that all the protected characteristics and other equality factors are considered when proposals are put forward and key decisions are made. We use these for change programmes and projects, service and structure re-design, budget proposals, and policy and strategy development and reviews. They are published alongside council meeting reports.

Appropriate information is used from the data mentioned above, as well as from council performance reports that service managers have access to but is not in the public domain. For example, age, gender and ethnicity of children in care.

Email: Policy&Strategy@southampton.gov.uk