Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Margaret Greer (Vice-Chair), Peter George (Director of Development), Ben Ingbor (Chief Executive Officer, Age UK Enfield), Chandra Bhatia (Enfield Racial Equality Council) Mustafa-Berk Ak, (Young Mayor). Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Mustafa Cetinkaya and Nick McDonald (Enfield Faith Forum).

Councillor Nicki Adeleke was substituting for Councillor Greer.

Members of the Board are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevant to the items on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest registered in respect of any items on the agenda.

The Chair to introduce the purpose of the meeting.

The Chair, Cllr Ergin Erbil provided a brief update on the remit and Terms of Reference of the Equalities Board.

He advised that the Equalities Board was a relatively new Board which had already made great strides towards improving equality policies throughout the borough. He went on to explain that the purpose of this meeting was to receive details of priorities for the coming Municipal Year including key issues and then for the members to discuss and agree the Equalities Board work programme for 2022/2023.

To agree the minutes from the Equalities Board meeting on 8 February 2022.

AGREED the minutes of the meeting held on 8 February 2022.

Board Members will hear from the Officers outlining priorities including an update on the Fairer Enfield Policy.

Harriet Potemkin, Head of Strategy & Policy and Lucy Nasby, Strategy & Policy Manager delivered a presentation on the Fairer Enfield: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy 2021-2025, highlighting the following:

·         The Public Sector Equality Duty requires one or more specific and measurable equalities objectives to be published every four years that demonstrate areas where we are tackling inequality.

·         In Fairer Enfield 2021-25, eight objectives were identified to reduce inequality, which affect specific groups in Enfield.

·         To identify these objectives, we analysed local data on the experiences of different groups in our community, analysed national research on inequality and considered, discussed and responded to the views and experience of staff, voluntary and community sector groups and partners.

·         The presentation set out the equality’s principles and eight objectives and a summary was provided of the key activities and projects that the Council has focused on over the last year to deliver them.

·         Members were encouraged to use the information provided to set and agree the Equalities Board Work Programme for 2022/23.

·         The Draft Equalities Annual Report 2021/22 would be circulated to members within the next couple of days. Members were advised that they would then have two weeks to provide their comments before it became a public report and therefore their feedback was welcomed.

Following the presentation discussions took place and the following points were highlighted:

(i)            The presentation included the number of staff from ethnic minorities backgrounds in comparison to the borough’s population. This can be broken down by grade and this is documented in the Ethnicity Pay Gap report.

(ii)          Has there been any feedback as to why the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine has been low in certain community groups? It was confirmed that a lot of engagement and outreach work, led by Enfield’s Public Health Team had taken place to find out the reasons and understand the hesitancy of certain communities. During the pandemic extensive work took place within community centres and grass root organisations and there were many reasons for different communities not taking up the vaccine, so it was important not to generalise. The Annual Equalities Report does include a case study that Public Health carried out with the Bulgarian and Roma community and provides more detail on this matter.

(iii)         With regards to the Enfield Town Schools Community Patrol, are there any plans to promote this model across the borough and with other community groups? Officers noted that this could be discussed with relevant officers in a future Board meeting, if this is something Board members would like to explore further.

Action: Harriet Potemkin/Lucy Nasby

(iv)         What can be done to raise awareness of hate crime and what it constitutes? It was confirmed that communications work is already taking place around this objective to promote safer and stronger communities by encouraging the reporting of hate crime and reducing repeat incidents. Members agreed that this issue should be included on the Board’s agenda for the coming year.

Action: Harriet Potemkin/Lucy Nasby

(v)          There was a discussion on why  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To agree and prioritise items for the new Work Programme 2022/23.

The Chair advised that there are three further Board meetings for the financial year and today is to discuss items for these meetings so that a forward plan can be developed by officers.

Officers summarised the suggestions made so far in regard to future topics the Board may want to include on their forward plan. They explained that we can invite external speakers from other organisations to present, as well as Council Officers.

After further discussions the following topics were suggested for the Equalities Board Work Programme 2022/23:

·         Review of school police officers, safeguarding protocols and training, following the learning from the Child Q case review in Hackney.

·         Tackling hate crime.

·         Equality of opportunity/Economic inequality and closing the gap in schools.

·         Work to address the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and young peoples’ attainment.

·         Support for the deaf community in Enfield, following the disbandment of Enfield’s Deaf Forum.

·         Update on Meridian water.

·         Implementation of the Sustainable and Ethnic Procurement Policy.

·         Community grants and the support and capacity building available to Enfield voluntary and community sector.

·         It was agreed that a maximum of two topics would be included for each meeting which would mean that not all the above topics could be covered during this financial year, but that the discussion would be used to support the Chair to develop a forward plan for the year.

To note for information the attached Terms of Reference for the Equalities Board.

NOTED the Terms of Reference for the Equalities Board.

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

·         Wednesday 19 October 2022

·         Tuesday 17 January 2023

·         Thursday 30 March 2023

NOTED the dates of future meetings as follows:

·         Wednesday 19 October 2022

·         Tuesday 17 January 2023

·         Thursday 30 March 2023