Calderdale looks to take the lead over equality and be an example to businesses

Coun Ashley Evans (Lib Dem, Warley) said councillors needed to look at the issue of equality not just as an employer but also as a service commissioner.

The council’s Director of Public Services, Zohrah Zancudi, said the customer is at the heart of what the local authority does with people having different needs and challenges including accessing services – also as an employer assessing staff’s needs and how it responded to these.

The authority’s goals were to reduce inequalities, grow the economy and build a sustainable future, she said.

Jill Holbert, the council’s Assistant Director for Commissioning and Partnerships, said every new project that was commissioned had a comprehensive equality impact statement as part of the process.

Coun Evans, chairing the council’s Strategy and Performance Scrutiny Board which was debating progress towards equalities targets, hoped the council could take this to businesses across Calderdale too.

“It is important we use ourselves as an example and influence other businesses across Calderdale,” he said.

Experiences through the COVID-19 pandemic should also be harnessed by the council to be proactive rather than reactive, he said.

Ms Zancudi said the council was going to be as flexible as it could delivering services and it was not about “one size fits all”, she said.

Age, sex, ethnicity, religion and disability were among areas examined by aspects of the report.

Part of the report on its own staffing referred to turnover of employees.

Cabinet member for Resources, Coun Silvia Dacre (Lab, Todmorden) said retaining and attracting staff was an important issue – Calderdale could often not compete on salary so the council had to ensure there were benefits working for the authority that were not there at other councils.

Coun Steven Leigh (Con, Ryburn) agreed and said another area where the council was sometimes left vulnerable was when staff retired and their knowledge about particular processes had not been passed on so remaining staff were not left helpless.

Coun Evans agreed such provision should be made – in the mills it was known as “sitting by Nellie”, learning the job before she retired and this should be looked at.

Coun Susan Press (Lab, Todmorden) asked about age equality and whether the group of women affected by having the age at which they could draw their pension increased at short notice could benefit from discount services or have to wait until their new pension age.

Ms Zancudi said the Passport to Leisure scheme was available to people over 60.

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