Gender Equality Policy of Sheffield City Council - Case Study Example

Introduction Diversity is the acceptance, understanding, valuing and celebration of differences among people. These differences may be with referenceto gender, race, age, religion, disability and sexual orientation. Diversity brings about differences in the way people perceive others within an organization; the same applies to Sheffield Council. It is quite essential for any organisation worth its salt to embrace diversity within their institutions and policies. This is especially with regards to some priority groups. (Best, 2005) Policies in Sheffield Council have been geared towards promotion of equality especially in the field of Gender. These policies were influenced by Legislation and Government Policies, Commissions and other groups dealing with gender related issues. Importance of dealing with Gender Policy instead of the other remaining diversity strands like age, race, sexual orientation, disability and religion The Council has chosen to deal with the issue of gender specifically because there have been many cases of sexual discrimination in the country and other surrounding areas. This has been witnessed in both provisions of services and also during employment practices. It is also essential for the Council to address the needs of specific groups within the organisation. By placing gender into the policy framework of the Council, it is demonstrating that it does not consider all members of the Council as a homogenous group. It recognises that there are distinct groups who have different characteristics, behaviours and even needs. Sheffield Council is currently implementing this policy from the year 2007 to 2010. It is therefore imperative to analyse it because it is already an issue that has been employed. Besides this, Sheffield Council believes that providing gender equality will contribute towards an eradication of discrimination from the organisation. The gender equality policy is also very useful to the provision of services by the Council. This is because the policy facilitates equal opportunities during service provision. On top of that, it also prevents harassment and discrimination of women and men during the delivery of services. This also applies to members of the public who may be applying for a job or those who may already be working within the organisation. In this sense, gender equality will make the Council more effective by doing the following for the organisation; enforcing equality in policy making enforcing equality in delivery of services enforcing equality in regulation of employment practice enforcing equality in enforcement of employment practice Gender equality will therefore make the Council more efficient. (Egan and Lofhjelm, 2001) It is crucial to remember that most of the laws that have been put in place like the Sex discrimination Act may not be entirely effective. The act deals with sexual discrimination in two sectors that is; within an organisation and also with regard to provision of services and goods. In spite of that, the law will only be enforced after an act of sexual discrimination has taken place. In so doing, the act will not protect its victims. Victims are supposed to take their cases to court and ensure that they get the legal system to work for them. But there are a lot of insecurities that arise in the minds of victims when considering the legal system. It is possible that one may loose the case after dedicating a large portion of their resources and time. Most people have also realised that there may be likelihoods of loosing their sources of employments. One must also not forget the psychological stresses that come from reliving the horrendous experiences. All these factors serve as a deterrent for people who have been victimised on the basis of their gender. But incorporating gender into the policies of the Council will help tackling the issue from its roots. This is because the policy will prevent acts of harassment from occurring. Lastly, the government has placed responsibility on all bodies dealing with the public. They are required to make it a priority in their policy making. This is in contrast to what used to happen in the past when there were plenty of cases dealing with discrimination but most of them were left to particular individuals to deal with. The government realised that there was a need for public organisations to put this kind of scheme in place with regard to all the needs that men and women have. It also requires incorporation of gender goals within the policy framework of any public organisation. However, one should note that the responsibility placed on organisations does not again push for positive discrimination especially for women. It simply addresses the issue of gender equity. (Best, 2005) What brought about the policy The policy was brought about by the fact that the government has placed a gender duty on organisations that are public in nature. By doing so, the duty will allow Sheffield Council to focus more on some of the equality policies it has put in place before. It will also give the Council a clearer basis for revising their equality policies. The government requires such institutions to take up the responsibility of protecting their members of staff or other parties that come in contact with them from sexual harassment. This implies that gender duties implemented by public organisations must be geared to the following issues; Providing improved services to clients and other consumers, utilising all the talent available within an organisation (discrimination acts a barrier to the achievement of such a goal since it is does not allow for equal opportunities to all), a focus on what consumers require and lastly redirecting resources in the right manner. By placing a duty on public organisations, the government has realised that there are some inequalities that exist and something needs to be done about it. These legislations are a guiding factor in the road to equality.(Flannery, 2007) The Council was also triggered to implement this policy due to the fact that there have been some inequalities in the past that affect certain genders. For example, it has been shown that in certain industries including where the Council falls, women get les pay for doing similar work to men. This means that something needs to be done in this area. The Council was also moved to implement gender equality because there are still some sectors that face a lot of inequality and chances are some genders are faced with more problems than others. For example women are the ones who are most likely going to face issues of being excluded socially and also they are the ones that are confronted wit situation of poverty more than men. The Council realised that during its regeneration schemes, there was a need to incorporate the aspect of gender. This would apply to issues such as planning housing participation transport representation access to services This will go along way in improvement of service delivery and hence the efficiency of the Council as a whole. (Egan and Lofhjelm, 2001) The policy was also necessary because there was a need to include more women in decision making organs of organisations. Most people may think that equality has already been achieved in the country but this is still not the case. This is because legislations have set the pace for equality but implementation down at the grass roots is yet to become equal. This means that organisations like Sheffield should take it upon themselves to implement such schemes to facilitate the improvement of equality at the grass roots. What are the policies The council will engage in gender awareness. It will do this through a number of avenues. First of all, there will be more equality during retention and recruitment. This will be achieved through increasing representation of women in services that are not typical of them and also increasing their numbers in management positions. This will be a duty assigned to the Development, Environment and Leisure Equality group. The Council will also incorporate the issue of staff awareness in its development plans. They will inform them about gender issues through the use of news media. This will target specific topics such as work life balance and flexible parenting agreements. The Council also plans on conducting an impact assessment of genders as a portion of the equality assessment programme. Besides this, the Council will also set targets for specific issues related to gender like children and families, safety, planning and good practice. This will mean that the Council will be responding to specific needs of a given gender. Such needs include incorporating child care and need for flexible working hours. The Council also plans on working with some devilment partners like KIER. The two groups will engage in extensive consultations about their services in relation to gender issues and it will implement some of those suggestions obtained. The Council will also support schools that have in place a gender duty. This will be achieved by coming upon with an Equality scheme that will act as a guide to these institutions. This will be a duty assigned to the directorate for Children and Young People's. The Council will also implement gender policy in the process of employment and recruitment. This will be achieved through increasing the women who earn the most within the council. This will apply to the top 5%. They plan on making about 43.75% of women to fall under this bracket. This will be facilitated by conducting pilot schemes and also through the use of mentoring programmes to motivate these women. This will contribute towards balance within the organisation especially at senior management. On top of that, there will be no discrimination when it comes to pay. This will be achieved through the use of job evaluation schemes and through the implementation of the outcomes that will be obtained form the job evaluation. This will be a duty that will be assigned to the Chief Executives Directorate. The Council will also incorporate the training and job improvement strategies adopted by their development partners. This will be a duty assigned to the Neighbourhoods and community Directorate. Beside this, there will be recruitment of minority groups and there will be training centres and traineeships. The Council will also incorporate the use of an apprenticeship programme for young people who lie between the ages of 16 and 24. (Flannery, 2007) This will be achieved through partnering with schools engaging in career development. Also, the Council will allow both male and females in these training programmes. The Council also plans on recruiting four parents who fall under this category. It also plans on supporting those same parents through the agencies that will be involved. The Council will also facilitate admission of these kinds of parents such that they can fill in any vacancies available at the Council. It is going to work together with these parents to ensure that they are allowed top fill in vacancies that befit their kind of skills. Managers from the Council will also work hand in hand with its managers to spot vacancies that can be filled by lone parents. There will also be promotion of men in the involvement of child care and early year's programmes. This will be facilitated through the use of an action programme. They will also avail placements for men who would like to work in the early years programme. This will be a duty left to the Children and Young People's Directorate and will be implemented by the HR Consultant for Early Years. By doing so, the Council will have an increased number of men working in Early Years. On recruiting members of early years into its workforce, the Council will provide support to women who may belong to this bracket. This will be achieved through financial backing for those who have may have lower qualifications or those who are mainly women. This will also be combined with the encouragement of men into childcare by the use of recruitment campaigns targeting specific people. (Rees, 1998) The Council will also tackle a number of Tran's issues. This will be achieved through the dissemination of information regarding the commitment which the council has towards trans issues. It will also collaborate with employees that may be going through gender reassignment. There will also be some training offered to officers such that they can encourage employees undergoing reassignment of gender. The Council will also help in gender reassignment by allowing access to information in confidential manner to all employees engaging in those endeavours. (Dalton, 2006) The Council is also working on the issue of flexible hours as part of its gender policy. First of all, it will make sure that it communicates to its employees about the level of commitment it has to providing flexible hours. This will mean that most employees who may either be male or female can adequately cater for any responsibilities that they may have towards their families. After communicating too workers, the Council plans on changing the flexible working hours available to make it easier for its employees. It will make sure that managers frequently communicate those changes to staff members. On top of that, the Council aims at giving carers flexible working arrangements through the promotion of flexible working hours for employees under customer care. It recognises that these may be mostly women. Sheffield Council intends on including gender issues in its customer care programme. First, the organisation will make sure that it assesses customer enquiries and places them on their respective genders. This will go a long way in making sure that all the needs of men and women as customers will be taken care of. The Council also plans on making its customer service friendlier towards the family. This will be achieved through the provision of some facilities like changing rooms and also feeding rooms. By doing this, the Council be taking care of the needs of the family in service provision. It also plans on incorporating gender issues into different cultures. The Council realises that there are certain cultures that may require certain benefits related to their gender. In relation to customer care, the council plans on continuously checking its provisions for families and child care. This will ensure that there are constant updates and that customer's gender issues have been adequately addressed. The Council is also working on improvement when dealing with cases of domestic abuse. First of all, the Council will work towards provision of training for its staff members such that they may implement that training in various aspects of service delivery. The Council will also analyse some services and see which ones are more appropriate for women to deal with. Besides that, the Council also plans on working with cases of domestic abuse through the use of a multi agency strategy where there will focus on victims of domestic abuse. The multi agency strategy for domestic abuse will be incorporated into various aspects of the Council. For example during the Housing Strategy when dealing with homeless people, the Council will address any cases of domestic abuse. It also will also identify any cases of inequality during the Housing Strategy and deal with it accordingly. On top of that, the council will incorporate domestic abuse in the Support plan of the people. This will also mean that the Council will measure the level of success of this policy. It will also engage in a sanctuary scheme that prevents cases of homelessness for those who have been victims of domestic violence. The Council will also offer training for the protection of children who may be potential victims of domestic abuse. It will also develop a scheme that can act as a guide for various schools to implement. (Flannery, 2007) The Council will engage in consultation of men and women in service delivery. This will be facilitated by surveys. The Council will also open a number of workshops fro members of staff to tackle issues of gender. It will also check on all customer services to ensure that they are safe, accessible and family friendly. It will also increase the number of women that take part in decisions made by the Council. This will be done through profiling of cases such that genders that get involved can be assessed. Equality will also be incorporated in work involving the Charter Mark. The council will aim at improving regeneration services through the use of gender issues. This will be achieved by the Oxfam regeneration project. The Council will also try to understand the needs of men and women and incorporate them into service provision. Statistical data to support the policies Sheffield Council realised that there are numerous women who experience inequality in the process of provision of services. One example of a service where there may be inequality is in regeneration schemes. It has been found that women and men require different aspects of public transport. First of all, women use more radial trips than commuter routes. These women also utilise public transport more than men. It was found that in Dublin where the Council increased the number of bus routes and also decreased the cost of multi trip fares, women benefited the most from that kind of change. It was found that there was a 35% increase in the use of those services. Besides that, there was also the issue of improved economic activity in the city centre during the same year. This was by 13% and could probably be attributed to the fact that there were more people especially women who were entering the city centre. (Rees, 1998) There is a need to improve equality in the employment section of the Council because it was found that representation in some committees is not fair. For example Strategic Partnerships of the Council have about 35% of women in their structure whereas other public organisations have slightly higher figures. There is therefore a need to increase the number of women who influence the way choices are made. Similarly, it has also been found that boards that encompass issues affecting the whole City have fewer women than Boards that mainly deal with community issues. Consequently, women are not prioritised at such board meetings and their needs will therefore not be met. In line with the latter mentioned facts, it was found that there may be some women in influential meetings but their overall contributions are minimal. For example there was one meeting where women made up majority of the members in the room; they were approximately 51%. Yet in contrast to that high attendance, there were only about 11% of those women who made valuable contributions in the meeting. This goes top show that more women need to be empowered in decision making organs. (Sheffield City Council, 2007) It has also been shown that there are various challenges that face the female gender more than the male one. A research doe by Equal Opportunities Commission, Trade Union Congress and a GELLM Programme on other local councils outside South Yorkshire found that there were numerous cases of inequality within internal labour market. The researchers found that most women are underutilised at their work places. It also found that majority of women who are unemployed are in serious need of work. Besides these, it was also found that there was a need for women to get jobs that pay well. On top of that, women coming from ethnic minority groups are treated unfairly. Also, most women find it hard to advance within their careers probably because there are numerous obstacles in their way. Regeneration schemes made by various aspects of the councils were not able to help most of the poorest women. And on a more positive note, it was found that the workforce can be developed and that quality of jobs can also be improved. Acts and laws There have been numerous laws in the immediate past and also in the times before that have facilitated gender equality. The fist Act that paved the way was in the early twentieth Century in 1900, this was when women were given the right to vote for their candidates of choice. Decades later, women took part in numerous liberation movements during the mid twentieth Century. In the year 1970, there was the Equal Pay Act which was meant to eliminate discrimination in the area of enumeration. (Jones, 2000) Then in the year 1975, there was an Act that was passed that paved the way for more recent gender equality acts. This was called the Sexual discrimination Act which was meant to protect people in the work place against any form of discrimination based on their gender. During the year 1983, there were some laws that improved rights dealing with issues of divorce and also surrounding abortion. These were areas that presented a lot of inequality as most women were not given full rights to make their own decisions. In the year 2006, there were laws that were passed to involve fathers in parental responsibilities. This affected their right to ask for flexible working hours, it also made them eligible for parental leave. The law that implemented all these changes was called the Work and Families Act. In the same year there was also the Equality Act passed by parliament. This law is the most influential when it comes to the implementation of equality schemes within the workplace because it advocate for the needs of both men and women in the workplace and also in the labour market. Working plans and strategies on the ground that support the policy There are three aspects that are already in place to facilitate or aid the implementation of the policy. These include; Consultation Service delivery Employment (McGilloway, 2001) In consultation, the Council is already working hand in hand with various other groups that deal with women's issues. One such group is the Sheffield Women's Forum. This group protects the rights of women in the work place and has been known to advocate for a number of issues such as the wide wage gap that exists between men and women in the workplace. The Council has also collaborated with the Sheffield Domestic Abuse Forum. This group deals with women who may have undergone cases of domestic violence. The Council also realises that some of its members could fall under this category. Another group that the Council has worked with is a Development's Trust for South Yorkshire that deals with women. Besides this, Sheffield Council has also formed numerous consultation groups within the organisation. It has not placed only one gender in the consultation groups, it has attempted to incorporate a mixture of both genders such that it can gain wide acceptance of policies that will be recommended. Currently, Sheffield Council has put in place an email list. Here, the organisation discusses with members various issues related to equality. The Council also involves Trade Unions in its equality groups. What normally happens is that the Council comes up with a committee called Corporate Joint. The purpose of this committee is to consult with Trade Unions on behalf of the Council. The organisation has also implemented some equality strategies in its service delivery. First of all, the Council has played its part in advocating for those who have been involved in domestic abuses. It has done this through helping in the construction of a strategy for domestic abuse. On top of that, the Council has worked with other statutory organsiations on this same issue. Equality in service delivery has also been realised through the implementation of training in childcare especially during a mother's early years. This has been achieved by the Council by taking those services straight to the communities involved. They have worked with Asian and Somali women to realise those goals. Sheffield Council implemented a Housing Strategy for minorities; this was only possible after they engaged in intense consultation with women from those minority groups. There have also been libraries that exclusively deal with women's issues. The Council has also collaborated with an information Bureau at Hallam shire Hospital. In so doing, the Council has promoted the dissemination of information concerning women's health. (Sheffield City Council, 2007) Additionally, the Council has also engaged in a number of activities that foster equality in employment. Firstly, the Council has put in place a 'respect and dignity at work' policy. Since this policy applies to all members of staff, then it has promoted equality. On top of that, the Council has also helped parents to achieve work life balance. It has availed information that can be accessed on their local area networks concerning how parents can balance their lives. Besides, it also has policies that tackle the issue of work life balance so that parents may be able to meet the needs of their families and their careers at the same time. The Council has also taken part in a training scheme that deals with empowering women for superior posts. It has also implemented a policy that deals with domestic abuses. It has provided guidance to managers in cases where some of its employees have been involved in domestic abuse. The Council has also been keen on the types of payments that it gives to all its employees. It makes sure that none of the members are discriminated on the basis of gender in regard to their wages and salaries. Salaries are made accorded to an individual's qualification. There is a transparent scheme in place that evaluates one's job. The Council makes sure that pay is a reflection of what had been assessed by the job evaluation technique. Therefore, they ascertain that their pay structure is an indication of the kind of equality present in the organisation. Ways impact of the policy is assessed An assessment of the policy is crucial so that the Company can ensure that the decisions they have made do not sideline one gender or do not make another gender feel disadvantaged. The Council has implemented an Equality Impact assessment where managers are given guidelines concerning some of the issues they have to tackle. The Council will make sure that before the policy is approved by the Cabinet, it will have undergone the equality impact assessment test. Once the Council finds out that the said policy has some negative elements for either women or men then the policy will not be implemented as it is. The impact assessment will be done in two aspects, the impact on service delivery and also in the area of employment. It will examine how these two aspects have incorporated both genders. (Sheffield City Council, 2007) Impact assessment will also be done with the help of men and women that come from the Council. This will go a long way in making sure that all the members of the organisation will take part in their 'involvement strategy'. Since the policy is meant for both genders then it is crucial to involve those same parties in decision making. My critical analysis of the policy The policy will go a long way in ensuring that equality is achieved within the Council. However, there are few shortcomings in the policy. First of all, the time frame allocated for most of the projects is one year. This is a relatively short time for issues like profiling all the customers by gender and coming up with a plan to meet their needs. Besides this, the policy has not placed a lot of focus on the regeneration projects it engages in. Yet this is a very crucial and practical aspect of the Council and this is where most cases of inequality lie. The policy has placed a lot of attention on issues of training, for example training workers about domestic abuses but the policy has not laid out what will be done to those victims in case they undergo abuse. Lastly, most of the policy framework lies in the hands of the Development Environment and Leisure Equality group, while the intentions behind such allocations may be good, it may become difficult for the group to complete all the tasks allocated.(Dalton, 2006) Recommendations The Council should increase time frame allocated to heavy projects. This will go a long way in improving the precision of their policy. The Council should designate some gender duties to other groups in the organisation other than DEL Equality Group. This is because it will facilitate participation by all members into gender issues and will not make it look like a responsibility for one department. The policy should also lay more emphasis in the regeneration schemes and should also provide tangible solutions for victims of domestic abuse. Conclusion The government placed a gender duty on all public organisations to take up the issue of gender as a body. The Council has responded well to this challenge by coming up with a gender policy that affects a number of spheres in the Council's jurisdiction. The council has put gender issues in regeneration projects, customer care, decision making, employment and recruitment, gender awareness and in provision of working hours. However, there are some shortcomings in the policy like short time frames that can be adjusted. All in all, the gender policy of Sheffield Council is quite comprehensive and will spearhead other public institutions on the area. (Sheffield City Council, 2007) Reference Jones, K. (2000): The Making of Social Policy in Britain, From the Poor Law to New Labour, the Athlone Press, London. Best, S. (2005): Understanding Social Divisions, Sage Publications Ltd., London. Sheffield City Council (2007); Sheffield City Council Gender Equality Scheme 2007 - 2010, retrieved from http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/equality-and-diversity accessed on 5th February 2008 Egan, M.L. and Lofhjelm, S.M. (2001): Diversity from anti-discrimination compliance to organizational development. Human Resource Planning Vol. 24, No. 1 pp10-27 Frankie Dalton (2006): The Diversity and Organizational behaviours; Management Review; vol. 9 Pages 32-75 Flannery, K. (2007): Gender in regeneration's seminar; retrieved from http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/EasySite/lib/serveDocument.aspdoc=93986&pgid=38180 accessed on 5th February 2008 McGilloway, M. (2001): Finding a balance. Promoting women in local decision-making, a journal by Derry: Inter Agency Group Addressing Gender Equality Rees, T. (1998): Mainstreaming Equality in the European Union, London: Routledge Read More