Our commitment
Equality, diversity and inclusion are an integral part of everyday life for us at South Derbyshire District Council, as an employer, in the services we provide and the communities we serve. We are committed to putting these issues at the centre of our decision-making processes to ensure we best meet the needs of our residents.
Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion is championed at all levels of leadership. Our Members, Leadership Team, and senior managers consistently prioritise and consider equality, diversity and inclusion in strategic, leadership, and operational meetings. This unified focus underscores our dedication to embedding equality, diversity and inclusion into the Council’s culture and practices.
Equality, diversity and inclusion principles are embedded into our corporate and operational plans, ensuring they underpin and support the delivery of all our services. This reinforces our commitment to creating equitable outcomes for the communities we serve. We complete Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) to inform and identify opportunities and challenges when making service and budgetary decisions. These assessments ensure that equality considerations are integrated into all aspects of resources and financial allocation.
We directly employ 427 people in full, part time and temporary posts across a range of occupations and works with other partners to deliver services. It is important that we are an inclusive employer, and we attract, appoint and retain the best workforce, that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. We monitor our workforce to find out whether it broadly reflects our community and to ensure our employment practices are free from discrimination and accessible and fair to all. We take positive action to support perspective and current employees to access opportunities to develop their career and achieve an appropriate balance between their working and personal lives to support their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
We are committed to eliminating discrimination and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, both as a provider of services and as an employer. We and our partners want to ensure that individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds, cultures, lifestyles and experiences can fully participate in the social, cultural and economic activities of the District.
Community cohesion
Community cohesion is what brings members of different communities together. In South Derbyshire we have many examples of the strength of community spirit. We actively organise and promote events and activities designed to bring people from different backgrounds together including Area Forums, Business Breakfasts, the Festival of Leisure and Liberation Day. Examples can be seen in our Equalities Annual Report (pdf, 1.3mb).
We want to continually build and develop our actions around equality, diversity and inclusion and welcomes all feedback and views.
