Equality and diversity report

What we have achieved in 2022-23

Workforce diversity and inclusion

We recognise the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion, and the benefits a diverse workforce can bring to Gateshead Council. Creating an environment where differences are embraced allows for 'alternative ideas' and 'ways of thinking' to flourish, both of which are fundamental ingredients in ensuring we continue to deliver 'value for money' and 'exceptional services' in a way that connects with our customers.

Connecting with our customers is vital, therefore encouraging and increasing diversity will likely result in a workforce which is more representative of our customers, making our services more relatable, increasing customer engagement and overall customer satisfaction.

Our vision is to be an employer who embraces, and welcomes diversity, who is truly inclusive and who demonstrates equality for all. We'll go the extra mile so that our approach is representative of the communities we serve and each other. What we'll do will set us apart from others and we'll encourage others to follow our lead, because it's not just the right thing to do, or because the law requires us to, it makes for better outcomes for the Council, the community we serve and our people.

Our vision is about:

• Leading a culture where all our people are truly inspired, regardless of their characteristics because we respect individuality knowing that diverse talent brings creativity and innovation, which can only benefit us all
• Ensuring we have a working environment that if everyone expects more, they can achieve more
• Developing a work experience where people love coming to work knowing that being individual is something to be proud of
• Building a brand which is recognised by our future employees as an employer that wants them to bring their best selves to work, knowing that they'll feel valued and welcome, because what they do and how they do it is all that matters to us
• Ensuring we have an environment where our people feel able to be themselves, challenge poor behaviours and encourage everyone to be accepting, welcoming and at home at Gateshead Council
• Having inspirational leaders who role model what great looks like, being inclusive, treating everyone as equals and applauding diversity
• Establishing ways of working that ensures that our practices, process, systems, policies, and procedures support our ambition to be an exemplar for equality, diversity, and inclusion
• Providing opportunities for people to grow, learn, develop, and help others
• Ensuring that Gateshead Council is a great place to work where people want to come, and people want to stay
• Having a workforce which is representative of the community we serve
• Achieve significantly more diverse representation across each level of job role in our workforce
• Design ways of working that are aimed at improving opportunities for personal growth and progression
• Design ways of working that are aimed at removing unintended barriers which hinder and/or prevent individuals from challenged socio economic backgrounds from entering, retaining and progressing their employment
• Not only meeting our obligations in line with the Equality Framework for Local Government, but exceeding them
• Meeting our obligations, and complying with our Public Sector Equality duties

Inclusive strategies and policies

Workforce Strategy 2022-25

Cabinet approved a refreshed workforce strategy 2022-25 with the goal of being an 'employer of choice', with quality services delivered by a flexible workforce which is healthy, engaged, motivated and who thrive through work.

The themes within the Workforce Strategy encompass the entire employee life cycle, including; recruitment and retention, lifelong learning and development, wellbeing engagement and inclusion, leadership behaviours and performance and workforce design.

A work programme and five-year delivery plans have been developed in 2022-23, with a key purpose of underpinning employee wellbeing, equalities and engagement across all workforce activity, ensuring it becomes a fundamental consideration in 'all' decision making and change programmes.

We are developing a Workforce Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and work will commence in 2023 on an action plan to ensure that we reach level five of our maturity model which is to have a culture which is recognised as one where we are a role model to others, where everything we do is to enhance our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion, this is our business as usual approach and the impact on the employee experience, customer satisfaction and organisational performance is evident.

We've developed an inclusivity passport which is simply a way to share and record information that an employee wants the organisation to know about so that we can support and help our people be the best version of themselves at work.

It is a voluntary, supportive tool designed to provide a documented record of an individuals' needs, which will allow them to function to their full potential in a supportive and encouraging environment.

We'll develop an action plan to deliver the strategy once it's approved and we're investing in an EDI and wellbeing professional to join the HR team in delivering a positive difference.

Work has already commenced on the Apprenticeship Delivery Plan; embracing a health and safety culture; development of career pathways and succession plans; development and delivery of management development and leadership programmes; and embedding the hybrid working model.

Delivery of the strategy will have positive implications for employee equality and diversity, particularly the development of an 'employee wellbeing, inclusion and engagement framework.

Apprenticeship Strategy

Cabinet approved a new Apprenticeship Strategy 2021-24 and delivery action plan in October 2021. The Apprenticeship Strategy supports a strategic approach to how apprenticeships will help us to attract, retain and develop our workforce. The strategy sets out the positive action that we will take in our approach to apprenticeships. One of its aims is to develop workforce diversity and inclusivity.

Our Apprenticeship Co-ordinator, working in partnership with colleagues in Business, Employment & Skills, LearningSkills and others, continues to review our approach to attracting apprentices from a diverse background and breakdown role stereotypes. 

There were 80 new apprentices in the council in 2022-23. 48 of these were new hires and 32 were existing employees who were supported to upskill and develop via an apprenticeship.

The profile of the 80 new apprentices is:

No disability information has been specified, however, at least one of the new apprentices has a disability.

Tackling apprentice gender stereotypes;

We ensure that all publicity relating to the promotion of our apprenticeships on social media and web pages has gender inclusive photos. We ensure our job profiles, adverts and essential criteria are gender neutral and don't unnecessarily exclude a particular gender. We also circulate our vacancies as widely as possible across the community, schools and colleges. We will also be asking selection panels to be gender balanced going forward.

•  1 x female Construction Design and build technician
• Of the 24 new school-based Apprentices, 4 are male
• Of the 6 new Social Work Apprentices, 3 are male

Apprenticeships for Looked after Children

Our Apprenticeship Strategy supports the Council's responsibility as a corporate parent and aims to ensure that young people leaving care have the opportunity of an apprenticeship within the Council.

Work is on-going with the Employment, Education and Training (EET) panel and Corporate Parenting EET workstream to develop appropriate processes and strategies to support looked after children and care leavers to access apprenticeships.

Looked after children and care leavers who meet the essential criteria for an apprenticeship are guaranteed an interview.

To date we have offered 3 traineeships to Looked After Children/Young Care Leavers, with one being taken up and successfully completed.

Work Placements / Supported Internships

We are working with Learning and Skills and others across the Council to develop a formal work placement arrangement to support more Young People with additional needs to have greater choice and control over their future, opening up opportunities that prepare them for adult life and independent living and to break down barriers to employment. To achieve this, young people who live and learn in Gateshead will be supported to access appropriate work placements to give them a better chance of finding meaningful employment.

As part of this proposal, Learning and Skills, will work in partnership with the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi), to increase the quality and availability of Supported Internships for Young People with additional needs.

A formal work placement arrangement will be developed within the Council that is available to people looking for work experience or skills development including young people, older people returning to work or those looking for a change in career.

The new arrangements will be tested with a one-year pilot project for young people accessing Traineeships, Study Programmes, Supported Internship, or Employability programmes with us who are at a disadvantage, have additional educational needs or live complex lives. The pilot will be aimed at young people who have missed out on work experience opportunities due to the pandemic, have more complex needs, or who need a higher level of support to find suitable work opportunities or have their aspirations realised.

To meet this commitment, every Service within the Council will consider the benefits of work placements and makes a commitment to providing at least one work placement (of at least 1
week) to a young person in the first year.

Collecting, analysing and publishing workforce data

Gender Pay Gap Gateshead

Gateshead Council gender pay gap data for 2022-23 reporting year (opens new window)

The data for this exercise was taken from the March 2022 payroll which includes the snapshot date of 31 March 2022.

• The mean hourly rate of pay for all male full-pay relevant employees is £15.55. The mean hourly rate of pay for all female full-pay relevant employees is £14.84
• The mean gender pay gap therefore equated to 4.56%, which is a decrease from 6.70% in 2021
• The median hourly rate of pay for all male full-pay relevant employees is £14.18. The median hourly rate of pay for all female full-pay relevant employees is £13.43.
• The median gender pay gap therefore equates to 5.28%, which is a decrease from 5.78% in 2021.

Since reporting against the gender pay gap began in 2017, the Council have demonstrated a trend reduction in the gender pay gap. The Council is a diverse organisation employing people across all grades in a wide variety of job roles and across a range of professions, providing a range of services.

In April 2021, the Gateshead Housing Company was dissolved, and its functions and staff transferred back to the Council, increasing the headcount for both male and female employees.
We employ almost twice as many females than males.

It should be noted that gender pay gap differs from equal pay. Whilst equal pay concerns with the differences in pay between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs, or work of equal value; gender pay gap reporting shows the differences in the average pay between men and women. If women do more of the less well-paid jobs within an organisation than men, the pay gap is usually bigger. We use job evaluation to address equal pay; however, it can still be the case that there is a gender pay gap due to our employee profile.

Council Workforce Data

As part of the Equality Act, we are required under the public sector equality duty to show how we are meeting our responsibilities as an employer, including a requirement to publish information regarding our workforce.

Our workforce information for all council employees (excluding Local Authority maintained schools) is published in Appendix 1 to this report. The workforce data is a snapshot of employee headcount (not posts) taken on 31 March 2022.

We do not include employees working in local authority maintained schools in this workforce data, as there are separate arrangements for schools publishing information under the specific duties of the Equality Act 2010.

We recognise that our workforce diversity could be improved. We have included a comparison for 2023 data with the Gateshead population overall diversity, where known, from Census 2021 published data. Implementing our Workforce Strategy and our developing Workforce EDI strategy will help us to improve the diversity of our employees.

We recognise that we have an ageing workforce with actions being implemented to support succession planning and issues relating to this employee profile. These include a range of services developing apprenticeship programmes and trainee roles.

A comprehensive review of the Council's approach to our employee experience is underway with positive changes being implemented across the employee lifecycle, in line with the five-year plan. Some of the work completed so far includes, but is not limited to; Apprentice awards, Leadership keeping in touch sessions, creation and rollout of the Smart Working Framework, launch of the cost free employee benefits platform - VIVUP, the development of a policy review schedule to update current key people policies and develop new ones, a new modern approach to the layout of job descriptions, the launch of the new learning system - Learning Hub, changes to safety culture and skills gap and multi-skilling framework, the opening of the new learning venue - Kingsmeadow, changes to low pay, corporate induction refresh and the jobs fair at the Gateshead International Stadium.

Learning, development and progression

Workforce development training delivered

Health and Wellbeing

Our workforce strategy sets out our commitment to employee health and wellbeing. We have worked in partnership with Public Health to identify ways in which health, health inequalities and wellbeing are considered for the people we employ and the community we serve.

We have recently launched our new benefits platform 'VIVUP' which also provides access to tips and guidance for personal wellbeing and financial wellbeing.

As we move through 2023 and into 2024 we will be developing our employee health and wellbeing strategy and action plan which will underpin the Council's Health and Wellbeing Strategy so our workforce can Thrive and so help our community to Thrive.