Gathering and using information
Evidence-based decision making
The information that we collect and hold is used to inform decisions about the services we commission and the strategies and plans we develop. We use information to carry out needs assessments that help us to see what the issue is and which groups are affected by an issue, and how they are affected differently. This enables us to make plans and deliver services that meet the needs of different groups.
Our Corporate Plan, and all our council services’ business plans, are shaped by consideration of the needs of local people. Business plans identify where more robust and detailed assessments of equality impact are required.
A range of major strategies have been developed to set out our approach to delivering services to meet specific groups’ and communities’ needs. These go into more detail about local inequalities and equality considerations and how services within different areas are tackling issues within these. For example, major strategies such as the Children and Young People’s Plan, and the Work and Skills Strategy set out how we will address the needs of different groups in relation to some of our key priorities as a council and partnership.
All major decisions on strategies and services are subject to detailed analysis of specific equality impacts. These help us to ensure that we have considered our equalities duties.