The Equality Act (external link) is a law to make sure everyone has the same opportunities. 

All public bodies must think about treating people from different groups fairly and equally. This is called the Equality Duty. Under the Equality Duty, in our functions as a local authority, we need to:

• Make sure that people are treated fairly and do not experience discrimination, harassment or victimisation; 
• Give special thought to make life more fair for everybody and ensure everyone has opportunities; and
• Help people who are different from one another to understand each other. 

There are some groups who are sometimes treated less fairly than most. These groups need special thought to make life fairer. These are defined as people with ‘protected characteristics’ (external link) within the Equality Act.

Public authorities have a duty under the Human Rights Act 1998 (external link) to not act incompatibly with the rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. 

The purpose of the Human Rights Act is to support a culture of respect for everyone’s human rights and a feature of everyday life. The convention rights include:

• Right to life 
• Prohibition of torture 
• Prohibition of slavery and forced labour 
• Right to liberty and security 
• Right to a fair trial 
• Right to respect for private and family life 
• Freedom of thought 
• Freedom of expression 
• Freedom of assembly and association 
• Right to marry 
• Right to an effective remedy 
• Prohibition of discrimination 
• Restriction on political activity of aliens 
• Protection of property 
• Right to education 
• Right to free elections 
• Abolition of the death penalty

Diversity is important and we want to maintain a workforce that has a wide range of skills, qualifications and experiences. 

We gather and analyse workforce information to help ensure that all our employment policies and practices for employees are fair, advance equality of outcomes, eliminate discrimination and foster good employee relations. 

We publish these monitoring reports annually and show comparisons over 3 years:

What does the report cover?

The report provides information on the various protected characteristics we are able to report on. The data relates to individuals directly employed by the council.

The council will be reporting on the following, where current systems will allow: 

• Employees of the council on 31 March annually by protected characteristic
• Employees by gender, broken down by: job, grade, pay, contract type and working pattern 
• Applicants for jobs with the council over the last year by protected characteristic*
• Employees who have applied to change position within the council, identifying how many were successful in their application and how many were not by protected characteristic* 
• Employees who have applied for training and how many succeeded in their application by protected characteristic* 
• Employees who completed the training by protected characteristic* 
• Employees involved in grievance procedures either as complainant or as a person against whom a complaint was made by protected characteristic*
• Employees subject to disciplinary procedures by protected characteristic 
• Employees who have left the council’s employment by protected characteristic 

*subject to further system development

The aim of an equality impact assessment (EIA) is to ensure that equality issues have been consciously considered throughout the decision making processes of the work we do.

An EIA focuses on identifying the different ways that different people might be affected by a proposal. As well as looking for ways to reduce negative impact, the assessment also provides scope to look for opportunities to create a more positive impact.

We strive to perform our functions to the best of our ability, taking account of the different needs of our diverse community.

Should we fail to live up to your expectations as a service provider or prospective employer, we have a corporate complaints and compliments procedure. You can find out about this procedure on our general complaints page.

Community cohesion describes the ability of our local communities to be inclusive and supportive towards people of all cultures, ethnicities, identities and beliefs. A cohesive community is a community where people get on well together.

Building cohesion within and between communities is an essential step towards improving people’s quality of life. Social inclusion creates happy, confident individuals, and empowers them to contribute to a vibrant, thriving economy.

At Wrexham Council we are committed to promoting community cohesion across the County Borough.

The North East Wales Regional Cohesion Team works with partners to develop community cohesion across Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire. To find out more about how they are doing this and to get involved you can contact the Regional Community Cohesion Team at onewrexham@wrexham.gov.uk.