Report of the Joint Director of Equality, Inclusion and Engagement.

This report provides an overview of the requirement for Manchester City Council to publish an annual Public Sector Equality Duty report. The draft report is appended for comment prior to publication in March 2024.

The committee considered a report of the Joint Director of Equality, Inclusion and Engagement which provided the draft Public Sector Equality Duty report prior to publication in March 2024 and provided an overview of the requirement for Manchester City Council to publish this. 

Key points and themes within the report included: 

·       The Council’s 3 Equality Objectives for 2020-2024; 

o   Knowing Manchester Better 

o   Improving Life Chances 

o   Celebrating Our Diversity 

·       Progress made against these objectives through leadership and accountability’ systems and structures; governance and reporting; people, culture and behaviours; digital, knowledge and insight; and measures and motivators; 

·       The need for an intersectional approach to analysing and acting upon data; 

·       Previous reports to the committee on Communities of Identity and the LGBTQIA+ Deep Dive; 

·       How the Council’s equality objectives and plans were governed through the Corporate Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Group; and 

·       The work of Making Manchester Fairer and Community Health Equity Manchester (CHEM). 

Some of the key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussion included: 

·       Requesting clarification on statistics in the report relating to the percentage of households with at least one person who can speak English as their main language and the LGBT+ population in Manchester; 

·       The need for tangible case studies of how barriers were being tackled with marginalised groups such as black, Asian and minority ethnicities (BAME) and disabled people; and  

·       Welcoming the recognition of those experiencing homelessness, carers, care leavers, armed forces personnel and those living in poverty.  

The Strategic Lead: Health Equity and Inclusion, Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, stated that the report provided an overview of what had been delivered by the Council and other stakeholders against the statutory equality duties. She highlighted how equality, diversity and inclusion had been embedded across the Council’s work. She stated that good progress had been made and recognised that there was a scale and need that would be set out in new equality objectives for 2024-2028 to provide greater focus.  

The Chair invited a member of the public to make representations to the committee. The member of the public requested clarification on how structural policies, processes and procedures that excluded sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, and that denies a person’s identity, would be dismantled and where responsibility lay for compliance to the Public Sector Equality Duty when Council services were contracted out, with particular reference to GLL. They also highlighted the importance of wording, definitions, data integrity and monitoring. A full response would be provided outside of the meeting.  

In response to a point raised by the Chair regarding statistics in the report, members were advised that this should read that English was not the main language for 97,192 residents. Of these, 75,760 (77.9%) could speak English well or very well, and 21,432 (22.1%) said they cannot. Further clarification on the LGBT+ population would be provided following the meeting.  

The Strategic Lead: Health Equity and Inclusion, Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, stated that the Census was a useful source of information but that it had drawbacks. She highlighted that responses to some questions were not mandatory and that the Census took place at a time when students were not in the city. She stated that approximately 30,000 people were thought to be missing from the Census and commented that deep dives, like what the committee had recently undertaken into the LGBTQ+ community in Manchester, were useful in providing insights and lived experiences that the Census could not highlight.  

In response to a query regarding case studies, the committee was informed that the report referred to the work of Making Manchester Fairer (MMF) and Community Health Equity Manchester (CHEM). The Strategic Lead: Health Equity and Inclusion, Manchester Integrated Care Partnership explained that Sounding Boards with BAME and disabled representatives had been established through CHEM to feed into programmes of work where inequalities of access, experiences and outcomes existed. It was stated that examples of the work of Sounding Boards could be shared with the committee.  

Decision: 

That the committee 

1.     notes the report, and  

2.     looks forward to receiving a further update on progress against the equality objectives in the new municipal year.