Report of the Joint Director of Equality and Engagement - NHS GM Integrated Care (Manchester locality) and Manchester City Council.

This report explores the inequalities faced by ‘communities of identity’ within the city, and, through examples of community engagement, how specific groups access and are supported by Council services to improve their experience and outcomes.

The committee considered a report of the Joint Director of Equality and Engagement - NHS GM Integrated Care (Manchester locality) and Manchester City Council which detailed the inequalities faced by ‘communities of identity’ within the city and how specific groups accessed and were supported by Council services to improve their experience and outcomes.

Key points and themes within the report included:

• An introduction and background;
• The definition of ‘Communities of Identity’;
• The Council’s intersectional approach to inequality and insights into communities;
• Key learning and areas for development;
• The 3 equality objectives to support the city in becoming more progressive and equitable:
  • Knowing Manchester better
  • Improving life chances
  • Celebrating our diversity
• Examples of how these objectives were being delivered on.

Key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussion included:

• What work was being undertaken to support Bangladesh, Pakistan and African Muslim women to enter the workplace;
• How the Communities of Identity work would improve health outcomes;
• Noting the gap in education and employment opportunities for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and querying how the Council would try to reduce the stigma for this community;
• Noting that there was no mention of class as an intersectionality;
• How the learning from work on Communities of Identity would be utilised in the Council’s approach to Equality Impact Assessments;
• Requesting that further information on the SEND activities offered during the school holidays be provided;
• How confident officers were that those groups who work with Communities of Identity were being reached;
• Noting the stark median age at death of Asian/Asian British background males with profound and multiple learning disability and the higher mortality in pregnancy rate amongst Black and Asian women, and querying what could be done to improve this;
• Requesting that quantified data be clearer in future reports;
• Requesting that the financial and revenue implications of delivering this work be included in future reports; and
• Requesting that a benchmarking exercise be undertaken to quantify how well Manchester was doing in its work with Communities of Identity against other core cities.

The Deputy Leader stated that Communities of Identity was last reported on in 2016 and that this report aimed to explain how the Council understands and engages with communities.

The Joint Director of Equality and Engagement expressed her thanks to the University of Manchester, Lancaster University, the Assistant Chief Executive and his team, the Equalities Specialist and a number of Council departments who had contributed to the report. She explained that Communities of Identity referred to ‘people who share particular characteristics connected to their heritage, belief system or identities that contribute to their day-to-day lives’ and stated that the report focused on communities that experienced greater and more entrenched inequalities, such as those communities which experienced racial inequality, disabled people and older people. Other communities, such as LGBTQI people, were also recognised as having experience of entrenched inequalities and the committee was informed that a more detailed analysis of these experiences would be provided at the next meeting.

The Joint Director of Equality and Engagement highlighted some data sources, such as the recent Census, and noted that there was still work to be done to identify the impacts of inequalities in an intersectional manner and to remove some key barriers.

The Local Offer and Engagement Manager and the SEND Engagement and Young Carers Lead attended the meeting and provided an overview of their work to co-produce a summer activity offer with parents and carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

In response to the committee’s queries, the Joint Director of Equality and Engagement explained that work would be undertaken with the Work and Skills team to improve access to the workplace and that some work had already been undertaken to identify the barriers to employment faced by Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. A Joint Strategic Needs Analysis was also being undertaken for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community and an Inclusion Health Group had been established to improve engagement. It was noted, however, that more work was required to improve cohesion between Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and other communities.

Members were advised that Community Health Equity groups had completed a lot of work with particular communities and there was specific work being undertaken around breast screening with Pakistani women, as data indicated there was a lower uptake within this community. The Council was also working with BHA for Equality to assess experiences of primary care.

The Assistant Chief Executive explained that the Census had been a great resource for Communities of Identity and when looking at intersectionality. He highlighted that particular areas of interest could be reviewed in more detail to inform the committee and ongoing work. 

In response to a member’s query regarding how this learning would inform the Council’s approach to Equality Impact Assessments (EIA), the Joint Director of Equality and Engagement stated that a refresh of the approach to Equality Impact Assessments was underway and that this would include detailed guidance with case studies on best practice for completing these Assessments. The Equalities team would also provide support for colleagues undertaking an EIA.

The committee was informed that a lot of work was being undertaken around community engagement. It was acknowledged that communities changed frequently and that there were some established communities and some new and developing ones so there was a need to change and evolve engagement methods. This was a theme under Making Manchester Fairer and focused on building trust with communities to work together.

In answer to a member’s query regarding the greater breakdown of ethnicity, the Assistant Chief Executive explained that this was available for each ward through the Census and that this information would be provided outside of the meeting.

In respect of the Chair’s queries around health inequalities experienced by Asian, Asian British and Black men and women, the Joint Director of Equality and Engagement explained that the report remained a live document which could be updated to reflect the Council and local partners’ responses to issues. She noted that there were some significantly entrenched structural inequalities within health and that some partners were undertaking work around learning difficulties, including liaising with ethnic minorities with learning difficulties to identify how to better engage with this community.

Further clarity was sought on whether the health outcomes of Communities of Identity were within the remit of this committee or the Health Scrutiny Committee.

She further highlighted that several initiatives were underway across the health service to reduce mortality rates amongst Black and Asian pregnant women and that these figures were decreasing. Work needed to continue to reduce this, and it was highlighted that this would require changes in behaviour and attitude.

In response to the Chair’s query around how it would be ensured that delivery models for the Equality Objectives were placed into areas with the most need, the Assistant Chief Executive stated that this would need to be built into the Council’s Corporate Plan, business plan, and budget with a recognition that tackling inequalities was of high importance, which he stated the Council had done over the past years. He highlighted the Council’s cost-of-living support as an example of this, with granular evidence used to identity where need was greatest and to proportionately target resources to certain areas within Manchester.

The Chair wished officers good luck in their work to deliver the Equality Objectives and thanked guests for their attendance.

Decision:

That the committee

1. notes the progress made to date on delivering the Equality Objectives;
2. expresses their support for the approaches to working with communities and areas for further development outlined in the report;
3. requests further information on class as an intersectionality;
4. requests further information on the SEND activities on offer during school holidays within each ward;
5. requests a greater breakdown of information by ethnicity for each ward;
6. requests that quantified data be clearer in future reports;
7. requests that the financial and revenue implications of delivering this work be included in future reports;
8. recommends that Equality Implications be strengthened within committee reports to highlight how the sufficiency of service provisions within wards are taken into consideration for each report; and
9. requests that a benchmarking exercise be undertaken to quantify how well Manchester is doing in delivering the Equality Objectives against other core cities.