Suffolk Coastal is committed to equality of opportunity
including equality of access to employment and to the services we
provide. One of our core values is 'valuing all people' and our aim
is to ensure our services are accessible by all at the right place
and at the right time.
We have developed a Disability Equality Scheme as part of
this policy. The scheme explains our plans to make sure that we
take all reasonable steps to prevent persons with a disability,
whatever that disability might be, being disadvantaged in any way
when using our services or when employed by the Council or any of
its partners.
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 (new
window) sets out 5 general duties for public authorities such
as district councils. When we are carrying out our work we must
make sure we:
- Do not unlawfully discriminate against people.
- Promote equal opportunities.
- Promote positive attitudes toward disability and disabled
people.
- Encourage disabled people to take part in public life.
- Stop the harassment of disabled people.
Amendments to the DDA in 2005 gave us further responsibilities.
We also have to:
- Publish a Disability Equality Scheme by December 2006.
- Involve disabled people in the development of the scheme.
- Set up ways of gathering and using information.
- Report on progress every year.
- Review and revise the scheme every three years.
Taking your views into account
In order to ensure a realistic Disability Equality Scheme we
wanted to make sure that as wide a range of views were received and
taken into account as possible. We particularly wanted to hear from
people with any kind of disability.
One of the ways we did this was to publish a questionnaire in
the Council's magazine CoastLine and an online
version on this website. We would like to thank everyone who took
the time to complete the questionnaire. The answers we received
helped us understand what people consider to be the most important
things we can do to ensure our services are accessible to all and
have been used to help us prepare our scheme. The three most
important things to the people who completed the questionnaire
were:
- Training staff to be aware of all the issues relevant to
disabled people.
- Involving disabled people in making policy.
- Better access to and involvement in leisure and community
activities.
What happens next?
The decision to adopt the Disability Equality Scheme was taken
at the meeting of the Council's Cabinet on 5 December 2006. A link
to the approved document is given below:
Suffolk Coastal's Disability Equality Scheme
(new window PDF 71KB).
The scheme will be delivered through an action plan that closely
links with our three-year Services For All action plan. Essentially
the focus will be to ensure that providing Services For All is
integrated into the general management of the Council rather than a
separate initiative.
Services For All - Suffolk Coastal's equality
and diversity policy (new window PDF 31KB).
Follow this link for help with
downloading and opening PDF files.
We are now looking at ways to raise awareness of the scheme both
within the organisation and externally. We will publish an annual
report containing progress on the action plan, the results of any
customer surveys looking at how are meeting the needs of disabled
people and the results from our gathering of monitoring information
and what it tells us. The scheme will be revised at least every
three years.
If you would like more information about the Disability
Equality Scheme please contact us on 01394
444228 or email
personnel@suffolkcoastal.gov.uk
If you are hearing impaired and have a minicom
device you can contact us on 01394
444211.