Equality And Diversity
We are committed to promoting equality and respecting diversity in our town, our services and our workplace. Our commitment is outlined in our Corporate Policy on Promoting Equality, Respecting Diversity Policy which is supported by an Action Plan (2005-2008).
Our aims are to:
- Champion equality and diversity in the community and with our partners
- Recognise and value the diversity of Poole's visitors, residents and our employees
- Promote fair and equal access to services, and employment and career development opportunities.
- Improve participation of all equality groups in decisions that affect their lives
- Identify and eliminate discriminatory behaviour and harassment
- Integrate equality issues into the mainstream business planning and service delivery of the organisation.
It also shows what we will be doing to meet the requirements of equalities legislation 
, such as Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 and the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. We have a target of reaching Level 3 of the Equality Standard by March 2009.
Equality Groups that we consider in our policy and action plan include:
- race,
- disability,
- gender,
- age,
- faith or religious belief
- and sexual orientation.
We have set out our policy commitment to the Gender Equality agenda in our Promoting Equality, Respecting Diversity policy.
An interim Gender Equality Action Plan has been developed and incorporated into a revised Corporate Equality Action Plan. Relevant actions are covered in two sections. The first where there is a commitment to take action across key objectives that are common to the six equality strands and then in a second part that looks at issues specific to disability equality. The other equality issues are also covered in this way.
More work is underway to strengthen and improve the equality action plan. Once complete it will be submitted to Cabinet for approval.
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