Equalities and Diversity

Equalities Statement and Policy

Our Equality Statement

  • Adur & Worthing Councils are committed to increasing inclusion, providing equality of opportunity in all our activities and ensuring that discrimination does not occur.
  • We will strive for a workforce that reflects the diversity of the local community to ensure that our services are provided appropriately, and the Councils benefit from a wealth of experiences.
  • To achieve our vision for inclusion and equality we will lead by example, we will listen to our communities and we will seek to work in collaboration with others. The Councils have adopted a new corporate plan called 'Our Plan' where we set out our purpose which is to provide good and lasting stewardship for both Adur and Worthing, so that people and places can thrive.
    See: Our Plan
  • In the plan we describe our ways of working which includes being inclusive and kind. To achieve our purpose we have adapted three new principles (described below) enabling the Councils to develop and deliver inclusive services by listening to underrepresented voices, creating equal access and meeting our equality duties.

Our Equalities Policy and Equality Objectives

The Equality Policy outlines our equalities objectives and commitments to our employees, members and residents. It describes how we will promote and deliver equality, with a genuine focus on the real impact. For us, equality and inclusion is about:

  • Better engagement with residents
  • Developing a more representative and creative workforce
  • Increased level of trust, confidence and resilience within communities
  • More responsive services and getting it right the first time
  • Actively addressing disadvantage and prejudice, ensuring no one gets left behind

The document includes progress on achieving our 2020/21 commitments and sets out our equality objectives for the coming year. For more information please see:

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Equality, Diversity and Data

The Councils use data and information gathered from the census, community participation, our services and other public bodies including the Department for Work and Pensions to understand our communities and provide appropriate services and activities.

Through West Sussex County Council we have access to a data platform called Local Insight. Local Insight produces area based reports about our communities including information on issues relating to vulnerable groups, housing, community safety access, transport and the economy.

The Councils are currently working to further improve the collection of data concerning its employees and those using its services, including information relating to persons who share a relevant protected characteristic.

Current sources of information about Adur and Worthing, the Councils' staff and services can be found as follows:

Gender pay gap:

Gender pay reporting legislation requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish statutory calculations every year showing how large the pay gap is between their male and female employees. Further details can be found below, and this information will be updated for the preceding year, on or before the 30th of March each year. See:

Adur & Worthing Staff Equality Data 2023:

A new HR system is in place to better collect equality data about our people. We are using this data to ensure our workforce better reflects the communities we serve. Further details of staff make up can be found here and will be updated on or before the 30th of March each year. See:

Census 2021 Information:

The results of the 2021 Census have now mostly been released and local authorities such as Adur and Worthing, other organisations providing services to people, and anyone can access a wealth of information in relation to their local areas. For further details see:

Adur and Worthing - Service User Data:

The Councils are currently working to further improve the collection of data with regard to those using its services, including information relating to persons who share a relevant protected characteristic.

Current sources of information about residents using our services include the following:

Going Local 2022

Going Local is our social prescribing service assisting with the improvement of health and wellbeing across Adur and Worthing, see:

Data collected from 250 people completing the Going Local Equalities Survey: 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023 identified the following:

  • 88% of respondents identified as White British,
    4.5% are from Other White backgrounds,
    3.5% from an Asian background,
    2.5% from a Black background, and
    1.5% preferred not to say
  • 4.5% of respondents identify as LGBTQ+
    with 9% preferring not to state their sexual orientation
  • 28% of respondents have caring responsibilities
  • 66% of respondents consider themselves to have a physical or mental disability that has a substantial and long term effect on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities
  • 31% of respondents have accessibility needs (mobility, communication or visual)
  • 70.2% of respondents identify as female,
    28.4% as male, and
    0.7% as transgender (1 in 200)

Complaints and Feedback June 2023

Our complaint process has been reviewed and improved and we are starting to collect equality data that should, in time, help us to better understand how we can improve our services. See:

For information of residents using our Complaints and Feedback service, see:

Homelessness

Our housing services seek to prevent homelessness and assist those who are homeless. See:

For equality information about residents eligible to apply to our homelessness service, see:

Worthing Theatre and Museums (WTM)

Provided below is a summary of Worthing Theatre and Museums (WTM's) equality data for the financial year 2022/23.

This data is for live event and cinema audiences (ticket buyers for whom WTM have contact information). WTM are waiting for an audience report for Spin Out (a free outdoor festival) and are in the process of sampling audience visitors at the Museum (free entrance). Once this data is available the information will be provided below.

For further details see here:

Low Income Households May 2023

Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support data is used to contact low income households to offer support and advice in a proactive way. See:

  • Our new approach to help the vulnerable avoid spiralling debts (press release)

The data enables us to see the following:

  • 10,027 households are claiming Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support across Adur and Worthing
  • 4,762 (47.5%) have someone in the household claiming a disability benefit
  • 1,160 (11.6%) have someone in the household claiming a carers benefit
  • 5,685 (56.7%) are working age and 4,342 (43.3%) are pension age
  • Financial resilience is also measured - as at May 2023:
    • 8,732 coping: Household income exceeds expected costs by £100+ per calendar month
    • 200 struggling: Household income exceeds costs by £0-100 per calendar month
    • 953 at risk: Household income is less than expected costs
    • 142 in crisis: Household income insufficient for housing

Four measures of poverty are also calculated for the low income dataset

  • Relative poverty: 3,465 households (34.6%)
  • Food poverty: 1,365 households (13.6%)
  • Fuel poverty: 4,232 households (42.2%)
  • Water poverty: 9,289 households (92.6%)
  • In all four poverty categories: 1,108 (11.1%)

Additional more detailed information is provided here:

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Useful links to external websites

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Equalities and Diversity

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Page last updated: 11 October 2023

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