South Ayrshire Council

Council's Gender Equality Scheme Published

The Equality Act 2006 came into effect on 6 April 2007, it has created a new statutory duty on all public authorities to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment and promote equality of opportunity between women and men.

The legislation was introduced across the United Kingdom by the Government to speed up the pace at which equality issues are dealt with. Under the new legislation the Council is required to:

Prepare and publish a gender equality scheme setting out its gender equality objectives.
When formulating overall objectives to consider the need to include objectives to address the causes of any gender pay gap.
Gather and use information on how the public authority's policies and practices affect gender equality in the workforce and in the delivery of services.
Consult staff, service users and others, including trade unions and take account of relevant information to determine its gender equality objectives.
Assess the impact of its current and proposed policies and practices on gender equality and the results of those impact assessments.
Implement the actions set out in its scheme within three years, unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so.
Report against the scheme every year and review the scheme at least every three years.
Publish a statement that outlines their policy on equal pay between men and women no later than 28 September 2007.

The Council is responsible for the South Ayrshire Council Gender Equality Scheme, The Education Authority Gender Equality Scheme and the South Ayrshire Licensing Board Scheme, all three are contained in the Scheme.

To identify the Council’s issues and priorities to promote gender equality it has consulted with a number of organisations in conjunction with Kyle and Carrick Council for Voluntary Organisations. The findings of the consultation to date are that, the three most important gender equality issues, in order of priority are:

Violence and safety.
Gender Equality Awareness of Council staff and members.
Childcare.

South Ayrshire Council has published its Gender Equality Scheme, which sets out a range of important issues and actions that the Council will address to further promote gender equality across the Council. It will continue to tackle occupational segregation and the low proportion of women in senior positions. In this Scheme the Council, at member and officer level, sets out a commitment to effectively address these issues.

Councillor Margaret Toner, Depute Leader of the Council and the member of the Council’s Leadership Panel Council with responsibility for equalities said: “ I would like to welcome the publication of the Gender Equality Scheme. This Scheme will be used as part of the Council’s business planning process and is integral to its work to achieve best value.

“Gender equality is not a one way process as it will benefit both women and men. The Scheme identifies many ways in which the Council can develop both as an employer and as a provider of essential services. I warmly endorse the Scheme and look forward to seeing our commitments turned into action.”

The Council’s Gender Equality Scheme can be seen in full by logging on to
www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk

July 2007