Equality Analysis
|
Directorate: Community Wellbeing
|
Lead Officer: Marta Imig
Date completed: 29/01/2025
|
|
|
Service / Function / Policy / Procedure to be assessed:
Local Authority Housing Fund extension – round 3 |
||
|
Is this: New / Proposed Existing/Review Changing
|
þ q q |
Review date: n/a |
Part A – Initial Equality Analysis to determine if a full Equality Analysis is required.
What are the aims and objectives/purpose of this service, function, policy or procedure?
|
The aims of the fund are to deliver affordable housing as well as to relive the pressure on temporary housing demand and cost, hence the approach to fund both settled accommodation and temporary accommodation.
|
Please indicate its relevance to any of the equality duties (below) by selecting Yes or No?
|
|
Yes |
No |
|
Eliminating unlawful discrimination, victimisation and harassment |
ü |
|
|
Advancing equality of opportunity |
ü |
|
|
Fostering good community relations |
ü |
|
If not relevant to any of the three equality duties
and this is agreed by your Head of Service, the Equality Analysis is now complete -
please send a copy to NAMED
OFFICER. If relevant, a Full Equality Analysis
will need to be undertaken (PART B below).
PART B: Full Equality Analysis
Step 1 – Identifying outcomes and delivery mechanisms (in relation to what you are assessing)
|
What outcomes are sought and for whom?
|
To provide housing for the refugee families in Spelthorne and long term to boost general housing portfolio in Spelthorne. Also, to provide additional Temporary Accommodation units to assist the Council to manage the demand. |
|
Are there any associated policies, functions, services or procedures?
|
Refugee Scheme Policy Corporate Plan Health and Wellbeing Strategy Housing Strategy Homelessness Strategy
|
|
If partners (including external partners) are involved in delivering the service, who are they?
|
The properties are to be managed by the Council’s owned company, Knowle Green Estates Ltd (KGE). |
Step 2 – What does the information you have collected, or that you have available, tell you?
What evidence/data already exists about the service and its users? (in terms of its impact on the ‘equality strands’, i.e. race, disability, gender, gender identity, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, maternity/pregnancy, marriage/civil partnership and other socially excluded communities or groups) and what does the data tell you? e.g. are there any significant gaps?
|
General Spelthorne context According to the Indices of Deprivation 2019, the most deprived borough in Surrey is Spelthorne. Spelthorne has the highest number of lone parent families and the highest level of child poverty in Surrey; it also has the highest under-18 conception rate in the county. That said, residents are largely healthy, with life expectancy for both males and females slightly above the national average.
Spelthorne has a low rate of unemployment: 1.4% of those economically active aged 16 to 64, compared to the South East (2.2%) and UK as a whole (3.5%). Heathrow Airport is a significant local employer, with 8.3% of Spelthorne’s working population employed there. Significantly, 21.5% of those in work in Stanwell North are in low level employment compared to an average of 11.6% in Surrey. Average wages are slightly above regional averages at £630 per week for full-time employees.
Whilst house prices remain well above the national average, most residents are owner-occupiers (73%), followed by private rented (13%) and social rented (12%).
We’re awaiting the full release of the 2021 census data so existing data is based on the 2011 census. First realease of the new census data highlights a population increase in Spelthorne by 7.7%, from around 95,600 in 2011 to 103,000 in 2021. Spelthorne is the 14th most densely populated of the South East’s 64 local authority areas with 2,295 of residents per square kilometre. Initial data also provides updates to both categories of age and sex as outlined below.
Gender / gender identity Census data from 2021 shows that 50.9% of residents in Spelthorne were female, with the remaning 49.1% being male. There is no data known to be held in relation of other gender identities. Source: ONS Census, 2021 – Population and household estimates, England and Wales: Census 2021
A White Paper published in December 2018 (Help shape our future: the 2021 Census of population and housing in England and Wales) set out the ONS recommendation for what the census should contain and how it should operate. The White Paper recommended that the census in 2021 include a question about gender identity, asking respondents whether their gender is the same as the sex they were registered as at birth. The question is separate from the question about sex (i.e., whether the respondent is male or female), which is phrased in the same way as previous years. There is currently no official data about the size of the transgender population (the word ‘transgender’ is used here to describe people whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth). The Government Equalities Office (GEO) has said that there may be 200,000 to 500,000 transgender people in the UK, but stresses that we don’t know the true population because of the lack of robust data. The ONS has identified user need for official estimates in order to support policy-making and monitor equality duties and has added a voluntary question on gender identity for people age 16 years and over. The 2021 data set has not yet been published by the ONS. Source: https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8531
Age Spelthorne has a slightly lower population of under-30s (33%) compared to the rest of the country (36%), and a slightly higher population of 30-69 year olds (53%) compared with the national average of (51%), The number of 70+ is 14%, which is broadly in line with the rest of the nation. Source: ONCS Census, 2021 – Population and household estimates, England and Wales: Census 2021.
Ethnicity The ethnic make-up of Spelthorne is largely in line with the UK average, although we have more residents who identify as Asian and fewer residents who identify as Black than the national average.
Disability As of July 2019 there were around 2,020 PIP claimants in Spelthorne constituency. In comparison, there was an average of 2,500 claimants per constituency across the South East. Within Spelthorne, psychiatric disorders were the most common reason for claiming PIP. They accounted for 37% of awards, compared to 36% in Great Britain. ‘Psychiatric disorders’ include anxiety and depression, learning disabilities and autism. The second most common reason for awards was musculoskeletal disease (general), which accounted for 17% of awards within the constituency and 21% in Great Britain. Musculoskeletal disease (general) includes osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis and chronic pain syndromes.
Religion Residents of Spelthorne predominately identify themselves as either Christian or having no religion. There is a smaller Muslim population compared with the national average, but a larger Hindu and Sikh population.
Source: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/home-affairs/communities/constituency-data-religion/
Sexual orientation There is no accurate dataset which can be used to reflect solely Spelthorne. The White Paper recommends asking a new question about sexual orientation. The ONS has identified a user need for better data on sexual orientation – particularly for small areas – to inform policy-making and service provision, as well as monitoring equality duties. The ONS has previously used the Annual Population Survey (APS) to estimate the size of the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) population in the UK. According to these estimates, just over 1 million people identified as LGB in 2016 (around 2% of the population). However, the sample population used in the APS isn’t big enough to provide robust estimates of the LGB population in smaller areas. Source: https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-8531
Marriage / Civil Partnership More people in Spelthorne are married compared to the rest of England and Wales, and fewer people identify as single.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Has there been any consultation with, or input from, customers / service users or other stakeholders? If so, with whom, how were they consulted and what did they say? If you haven’t consulted yet and are intending to do so, please list which specific groups or communities you are going to consult with and when.
|
n/a |
Are there any complaints, compliments, satisfaction surveys or customer feedback that could help inform this assessment? If yes, what do these tell you?
|
n/a |
Step 3 – Identifying the negative impact.
- Is there any negative impact on individuals or groups in the community?
|
Barriers:
What are the potential or known barriers/impacts for the different ‘equality strands’ set out below? Consider:
· Where you provide your service, e.g. the facilities/premises; · Who provides it, e.g. are staff trained and representative of the local population/users? · How it is provided, e.g. do people come to you or do you go to them? Do any rules or requirements prevent certain people accessing the service? · When it is provided, e.g. opening hours? · What is provided, e.g. does the service meet everyone’s needs? How do you know?
* Some barriers are justified, e.g. for health or safety reasons, or might actually be designed to promote equality, e.g. single sex swimming/exercise sessions, or cannot be removed without excessive cost. If you believe any of the barriers identified to be justified then please indicate which they are and why.
Solutions:
What can be done to minimise or remove these barriers to make sure everyone has equal access to the service or to reduce adverse impact? Consider:
· Other arrangements that can be made to ensure people’s diverse needs are met; · How your actions might help to promote good relations between communities; · How you might prevent any unintentional future discrimination.
|
||
|
Equality Themes |
Barriers/Impacts identified
|
Solutions (ways in which you could mitigate the impact) |
|
Age (including children, young people and older people) |
Significant number of children staying in the Temporary Accommodation for a long period of time. The uncertainty of living situation have detrimental impact on children’s development. |
The provision of settled accommodation would improve children’s wellbeing. The additional Temporary Accommodation, will provide opportunity for independent living with access to private kitchen and bathroom, which will improve the quality of the accommodation offered and assist in supporting children’s development. |
|
Disability (including carers) |
Anecdotally we know that physically disabled people accessing settled accommodation in Spelthorne have much more limited options available to them due to property adaptation requirements. |
This programme would enable access to the settled accommodation for disabled families, without the need to compete for properties on privately rented market. |
|
Gender (men and women) |
No restrictions on gender are identified. |
Access to property under this programme is enabled for both male and female. |
|
Race (including Gypsies &Travellers and Asylum Seekers) |
Recent surveys show that people face discrimination on the basis of their race when renting a property on a private rented market. Our experience in supporting Afghan refugees into privately rented sector unfortunately also confirms the same. |
The properties acquired under this programme will be allocated fairly by the Council. |
|
Religion or belief (including people of no religion or belief) |
No restrictions identified |
n/a |
|
Gender Re-assignment (those that are going through transition: male to female or female to male) |
No restrictions identified |
n/a |
|
Pregnancy and Maternity |
No restrictions, but the seize of the property will need to be considered to meet the need of the expecting family. |
n/a |
|
Sexual orientation (including gay, lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual) |
No negative impacts identified |
n/a |
Step 4 – Changes or mitigating actions proposed or adopted
Having undertaken the assessment are there any changes necessary to the existing service, policy, function or procedure? What changes or mitigating actions are proposed?
|
No changes required.
|
Step 5 – Monitoring
How are you going to monitor the existing service, function, policy or procedure ?
|
The delivery of the programme will be monitored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government at regular intervals until the completion. |
Part C - Action Plan
|
Barrier/s or improvement/s identified |
Action Required |
Lead Officer |
Timescale |
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
Equality Analysis approved by:
|
Group Head:
|
Date: |