Increasing diversity, reducing inequality and ensuring Plymouth is a welcoming city for everyone are at the heart of new plans to be discussed at the Plymouth City Council Cabinet meeting in December.
The report considered by councillors follows a lengthy review of the council’s commitment to equality and diversity for both its workforce and people living in the city. The review included a series of workshops, surveys and interviews with staff, residents and stakeholders looking at the culture of the council, as well its community engagement and the way its services are delivered.
The Equality Act recognises that everyone is different and aims to ensure that everyone is treated fairly providing protection from discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Since the Equality Act was introduced in 2010 the council can point to a number of successes to help vulnerable people and celebrate diversity across the city including:
A commitment to accommodate families fleeing conflict in Syria under the Syrian Vulnerable Person Relocation Scheme.
We have set out voluntary guidance for developers in our Joint Local Plan to ensure that we have a good supply of accessible and wheelchair friendly houses in the city to meet the needs of our residents.
A city-wide ‘Safer Places Scheme’ where people with learning difficulties can go for support. This currently includes 195 buildings, with plans to increase this number in the future.
Supporting the organisers of the largest Plymouth Pride event on the Hoe in 2018, and making Holocaust Memorial Day an annual civic event.
We introduced Wellbeing Champions across the Council to help ‘break the silence’ on mental health. The Wellbeing Champions provide support, guidance and signposting and aim to tackle the perceived stigma around mental health issues.
Working with our partners BCHA to develop Pilgrim Court, an affordable housing development for people with learning disabilities which has recently won the Award for Excellence in Planning Delivery at the Royal Town Planning Institute’s South West Awards for Planning Excellence 2020.
However, while the review undertaken since the summer found that council staff and councillors are committed to equality and diversity and are working hard to reduce inequality in the city, there is still further work to do.
As part of the new Equality and Diversity Action Plan, a number of further measures have been proposed including further supporting victims of hate crime and encouraging them to report their experiences and exploring measures to foster community cohesion including a programme of events to celebrate Plymouth’s different communities and the development of a city wide Welcoming City Strategy.
Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Housing and Co-operative Development said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has really brought home the importance of reducing inequality across the city. We are committed to ensure that everyone in Plymouth is treated fairly whatever their culture or circumstance.
“We still have a lot to do but in the next year will be redoubling our efforts to ensure equality and diversity are embedded at the heart of our services and of our city in order to ensure that we are delivering for all our communities and celebrating the diversity that Plymouth contains.”