Equality outcome 7: The decisions by the council’s community engagement and participation mechanisms are influenced by the contributions of young people, women, BAME people and disabled people (General Duty advanced 1 2 and 3)

• 9 youth representatives have been identified and aligned to the 9 Community Boards;
• Community Board Members on-line Hub has equality and diversity section including assessing impacts, unconscious bias, barriers to inclusion helpful resources etc;
• Targeted council budget setting engagement sessions with equalities groups (Dec 2022) – led by corporate comms but linked to wider budget setting engagement process through community boards;
• £262,134 - 39% of total grant funding awarded to organisations meeting the needs of the public sector duty;
• Over 130 people attended the Council’s Black Lives Matter Community Conference;
• The recommendations from the research into the lived experience and future needs of North Lanarkshire’s BAME communities has been reported to the Community Planning Partners – Strategic Leadership Board – who will oversee the response to this work; and
• The Licensing Boards consultation on the regulation of licensing for Sex Entertainment venues received 522 responses.

2022 saw continued involvement of equalities groups in Community Board meetings, including Who Cares? Scotland, supporting Care Experienced Young People, the Voice of Experience Forum that enables older people to put forward opinions on local services and NL Disability Access Forum and Lanarkshire Muslim Women and Families Alliance. Work continues with targeted engagement plans to increase the opportunities to ensure voices of equalities groups are heard.

Work with young people threaded throughout LOIPs with Cumbernauld, Northern Corridor and Kilsyth, identifying work with young people as a specific standalone priority:

• In Airdrie plans are underway for Intergenerational events to tie in with Mental Health Week 2023;
• In Kilsyth Youth engagement and consultation has been carried out with approx. 41 children in Balmalloch and St Patrick’s Primary Schools around local LDP play project;
• In Cumbernauld a sub group has been progressed with links with local youth organisations. A Youth summit consultation event targeting approx. 30 young people from 3 secondary schools took place in Cumbernauld Town Hall. There are future actions to Identify further engagement necessary to identify gaps in information /services in relation to young people and Community Learning and Development (CL&D) are planning a second summit with young people in all Secondary schools in Quarter 3 and 4;
• In Northern Corridor engagement and consultation was carried out with approx. 35 children in Stepps and St Joseph’s Primary Schools around local LDP play project and there was an initial consultation carried out at the Pivot Centre on with approx. 20;
• In Motherwell a Local Youth Survey is being conducted to understand how safe young people feel across Motherwell to identify hot-spots and appropriate actions linked to the community board; and
• In Wishaw there has been engagement and consultation with young people in Newmains in relation to the development of a new play park and in Overtown similar work has been completed for the planned outdoor gym. Work to build the capacity of local youth initiative in Cleland and to support engagement in development of play opportunities in Cleland.

Thirty Years of Zero Tolerance: Looking Back Moving Forward: The Council and its Violence Against Women Partners held a conference to mark 16 Days of Activism to tackle violence against women. The conference looked back at 30 years of work to tackle violence against women in Scotland with the launch pad being the Zero Tolerance campaign of 1992.  Dr Lesley Orr explored why violence against women is a gendered phenomenon and Lily Greenan delved into the changing public and political awareness of violence against women in Scotland. This was followed by Police Scotland discussing the changes in policing domestic abuse over the last 30 years.

There were a number of workshops on the day to help the participants consider the work and priorities for the future including: prevention work, women with learning disabilities experience of Gender-Based violence, rape and sexual assault, forensic medical examination and aftercare services in Lanarkshire. Over 150 employees representing 30 organisations participated.

Equality outcome 8: North Lanarkshire communities, town centres, facilities, parks and open spaces are safe, inclusive and accessible to older people, disabled people, women, people of different faiths, LGBT people and BAME people (General Duty advanced 1, 2 and 3)

• 28 young people attending the multi-national Connect Youth Group an increase of 0.5% since April 2021, 6 people from the group have achieved Bronze Award in the Duke Of Edinburgh Award Scheme;
• 170 young people attend CLD youth work initiatives, this has grown from 94 in 2021;
• 3 LGBT young people’s groups are supported by CLD youth work providing a ‘safe space’ to be themselves;
• 17 Council employees have been trained to produce Easy Read information;
• 95% of Blue Badge applications were processed within 6 weeks meeting the targets for both 2021 and 2022;
• 87% of council buildings public areas are accessible to disabled people;
• Our community hubs are being developed through a trauma informed lens by people with lived experience;
• 200 devices and MiFi boxes allocated to elderly people in retirement complexes;
• 30 digital champions have been recruited from across the council;
• The Disability Access Panel meets 10 times a year and has been actively engaged on several developments at the design stage and in town centre audits;
• 22 of our Sports Development Coaches took part in disability inclusion training to enhance their skills surrounding inclusion-based activity;
• Weekly quiet sessions have been introduced at the Time Capsule Ice Rink to assist visitors who struggle with music and flashing lights;
• The new members of the Licensing Board have been trained in equality and diversity matters including the Public Sector Equality Duties and Gender Budgeting; and
• 64 workers (Children, Families and Justice) have completed the core Safe and Together training a child centred, survivor strength-based model which supports intervention in families impacted by domestic abuse and which centres around partnering with the non-abusing parent and addressing patterns of perpetrator behaviour.

The Connect Group meets every Thursday at Coatbridge Community Centre and is for young people whose first language is not English. They are from various countries including, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan and Ukraine.  The group provides an opportunity for young people to socialise and engage with other people of similar ages. Supported by the Community Learning and Development (CLD) Adult Learning and Resettlement team, the young people are learning new skills and participating in a variety of activities. One example of this is the visit they made to Cumbernauld Theatre for the play ‘Enough of Him’. This was the first visit to a theatre for many of the group and was an opportunity for them to practice their English with others in the local community.

Three members of the group were presented with their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) awards at the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Night in Motherwell Concert Hall in November 2022. Two of the young people who have resettled in North Lanarkshire through the Syrian Resettlement Programme, spoke about their inspirational personal journeys and how they broke down barriers and overcame obstacles to achieve their awards.

In 2022 an opportunity arose for a new project that was developed in partnership with the Driving Digital Locally Framework and colleagues from Housing Solutions.  This project was built on the progress already being made in Kerr Grieve Court to encourage residents of retirement complexes to adopt technology to help with loneliness and social isolation and improve their overall happiness and mental health.   

We were successful in gaining 200 devices and MiFi boxes through the Connecting Scotland Fast track round of funding and allocated them to elderly tenants in retirement complexes across the area. Part of the project was to marry the tenants up with a digital champion to provide support and training to them for at least six months, following a recruitment drive we got the support from 30 champions across all services in the council.  This role of the digital champion was to make initial contact with the tenant, find out their interests, then set it up the devices for them.  They supported them with setting up emails, social media, downloading apps, video calling and general digital skills. 

Following the huge success of this project, we wanted to take the training further and worked with colleagues in Education to develop an intergenerational project.  The aim of the project was to educate older people about digital through one-to-one training with younger people. Both older and younger people learn new skills, appreciate what they have in common, foster good relations and respect each other. 

Disability Access Panel NL has continued its partnership with the Council to improve access to the built and environment and open spaces for disabled people and others. Recent work as reported at the Panels AGM in February 2023 has included:

• Working towards concluding outstanding access issues at Drumpellier Country Park;
• Working with the Transport Department to successfully apply for funding for a pilot project to upgrade some pedestrian crossings to “Sm@art Crossings” which allows the crossing to be operated by swiping the hand across the control box (without touching) or using an App on a Smart Phone;
• Assisted external companies by offering advice on making reasonable adjustments to make their premises accessible to disabled people;
• Discussions with NLC re new schools and NHS re the new Monklands Hospital and new health centre with joint campus access with a new nursery;
• Investigating customer complaint regarding disabled parking at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Centre;
• Town Centre Audits which were paused during the pandemic have resumed.  The audit of Bellshill town centre has been concluded, other towns are being arranged;
• Liaised with property managers at Cumbernauld Retail Park to resolve access issues for wheelchair users following request on behalf of pupil at St Maurice’s High School; and
• Ongoing work in relation to the development of Motherwell Train Station.

Equality outcome 9: Young, BAME, Disabled, LGBT and female employees are provided opportunities to work for, thrive and progress in their employment with the council (General Duty advanced 1, 2 and 3)

• The % of council employees in top 5% of earners that are females has increased from 53.2% to 62.1% since 2021;
• The numbers of disabled people and BAME people working for the Council has increased since 2021;
• There has been an increase in both the numbers of and % of total employees who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual despite an increase in the number of people not recording in this category;
• 1/3 of our BAME employees took part in a survey to understand their experiences of working with NLC. The results have formed part of a BAME action plan for employment;
• 13 SVQ3 MAs commenced employment in August 2022. All have been placed in ASN schools or LCSCs to enhance the experience of working with a wider range of children and opportunities to develop their skill set. MAs are placed in pairs to provide an informal buddy system;
• 526 employees undertook equality and diversity training equating to 583.5 hours;
• 23 schools completed training in recruitment and selection;
• Approximately 130 employees across all council services completed training in recruitment and selection including unconscious bias training;
• The Employee Equality Forum hosted 3 workshops on mental health in 2022, each attended by 20-25 employees;
• Council is developing a Leadership Pathway targeted at BAME employees;
• Council was reaccredited as a Disability Confident Leader in March 2023;
• Council has achieved Equally safe at Work Bronze Standard; and
• We have introduced an anonymous job application process through iTrent recruitment which aims to eliminate any bias in the recruitment process to interview stage.

Menopause peer support sessions have been taking place in partnership with NHS Lanarkshire for female workers who are living with the menopause. Work Well NL resources are also available for employees to access. 

Following the success of the first support session, another one was arranged and took place in February 2023.  NHSL information/fact sheets were provided and others emailed to the group and additional resources were distributed as part of International Women’s Day. 

Employment Action Plans: We have developed action plans to advance race, disability and gender equality in our workforce which has been the subject of consultation with the Employee Equality Forum and our BAME employees. These plans will also be monitored and reviewed by employees they are designed to support as well as by the Equalities Board.

Employee Equality Forum: The EEF initiated, planned and hosted three workshops in 2022 covering different aspects of mental health.

• Promoting positive mental health;
• Challenging stigma; and
• Suicide prevention;

The aim of the sessions is to provide employees with opportunities to talk about mental health issues, how people are affected by these and how to access support and resources.

Over 70 employees attended over the 3 sessions.