Working for you

The equal opportunities forum is an elected member led group that meets on a quarterly basis. The group is chaired by Councillor Bert Thomson and receives annual reports from each resource on their equalities performance and work that they have carried out. The forum members are regularly updated on equality matters to ensure we have proper due regard to our equalities duties at all times. If you are involved in a piece of work that is equality related and you think may be worth highlighting to the forum please contact Alyson Bell, Personnel Officer on 01698 454143.

Each resource has a Diversity Liaison Officer who is there to provide advice and support to managers and employees with regards to recruitment and ongoing in work support such as Access to Work. They will treat all matters confidentially and can help by sourcing and arranging reasonable adjustments. These are often required to eliminate or reduce barriers faced by an individual in accessing or remaining in employment e.g. at the interview stage (Double Tick) or providing specialist equipment, translation or interpreting services.

Our equality and diversity working group meets on a six weekly basis and is there to share and develop good practice across the Council, as well as, advise and promote equality of opportunity in both employment and service delivery. The group is chaired by Gill Bhatti, Employee Development and Diversity Manager, and is made up of representatives from each resource who can raise or share matters of concern and interest. If you have a piece of work you would like to bring attention to please contact Alyson Bell, Personnel Officer on 01698 454143.

The Network gives you an opportunity to find out what is available to support you in your day-to-day lives so that you can balance work and home life. It is also your opportunity to have a say on the work the Council does to help it improve its practices and procedures. The Network has four themes: • Ethnicity Matters • Disability Matters • LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) Matters • Caring Matters

The disability smart toolkit is made up of publications that will help the Council deliver best practice on disability. The toolkit provides guidance on a variety of topics such as welcoming disabled customers, reasonable adjustments, mental health at work, advice on absence management and disability, understanding specific disabilities and applying the Equality Act 2010. The toolkit is divided into three areas of guidance: Disability awareness tools Line manager tools HR professional's tools - policy specific HR professional's tools - impairment specific The HR professional's tools will also be useful to line managers. These guides will help you to understand the roles, responsibilities and best practice principles around disability and reasonable adjustments from recruitment to retention through to promotion.

There are a number of internal policies in place which support our approach to equal opportunities and help us to be a fair, open and responsible employer. Examples include: Dignity at Work Discipline and Grievance Maximising Attendance