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Equality Duty

Equality Duty

Staffs CC Equality & Gender Pay Gap Report 2023 PDF (1.22 MB)

Introduction

Staffordshire County Council is proud of the diversity of the county, and recognises that promoting equality and inclusion will improve public services for everyone. The Council has a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to advance equality of opportunity, eliminate unlawful discrimination and promote good relations between people. As part of this Act, the public sector equality duty requires the Council to showhow it is meeting its responsibilities as an employer, including a requirement to publish information on its workforce, broken down by protected characteristics, which are:

  • age
  • disability
  • gender reassignment
  • marriage and civil partnership
  • pregnancy and maternity
  • race
  • religion or belief
  • sex
  • sexual orientation

This report forms part of the Council’s response to that duty, and provides workforce data which will help us to understand the effectiveness ofour own employment policies and processes in promoting equality.

All figures for the 2022-2023 financial year are taken as at 01/01/2023.

Overview

  • The structure of the Council has changed over the last year, with a number of staff transferring in from other employers, and a new Directorate being created. As at the 1st January 2023, SCC employed people in 4,226 contracts across 5 directorates, Finance being the smallest, and Children and Families being the largest.
  • Further progress has been made over the last year in improving the completeness of our equalities data, particularly for Religion, Sexual Orientation and Disability.
  • Please note that although the Council works with a number of partner organisations to deliver its services, particularly in the adult social care sector, the figures in this report only cover those people directly employed by SCC

 

Protected characteristics – Age and Sex

  • Staffordshire County Council has always had a predominantly female workforce; as at January 2023, 77% of the workforce was female.
  • The County Council’s age profile has remained stable since 2009, and currently 28% of staff are aged 39 or under, 25% are aged 40-49, 32% are aged 50-59, and the remaining 14% are aged 60 or over
  • The average age of the workforce has fallen over the last year to 46, although the male workforce continues to average 2-3 years older than the female workforce
  • The distribution of workers by age group has been consistent year-on-year, but does vary between genders; there are higher proportions of females in the 30-59 age groups, whereas the male workforce has higher proportions of staff in the 60+ age range

 

Protected characteristics – Disability and Religion

Disability information is now held for 63% of staff – 2,657 people, which represents an increase of 10% from last year

  • Information on religion or belief is now held for 63% of staff – 2,672 people - which represents an increase of 8% from last year
  • 299 people indicated that they have a disability, equivalent to 11% of the ‘known’ workforce and 7% of the workforce as a whole
  • Christianity is the commonly cited religion, accounting for 53% of the ‘known’ workforce and 34% of the workforce as a whole.
  • Staff citing ‘no religion’ account for a further 38% of the ‘known’ workforce and 24% of the workforce as a whole.
  • Although recorded individually, the remaining responses have been grouped as ‘Other’ for ease of presentation; this group includes Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, but Agnostic is the most populous response

Protected characteristics – Ethnicity

  • Ethnicity information is now held for 82% of staff – 3,471 people. Although the number of records held is virtually unchanged from last year , the larger workforce means that in real terms this represents a fall of 8%
  • 8.7% of the known workforce are from ethnic backgrounds other than White – British, within which Other White Background is the most populous group, followed by Asian or Asian British - Indian
  • Previous analysis against data from the 2011 Census has shown that our workforce is broadly representative of the wider Staffordshire population, and this will be refreshed as more detailed information from the 2021 census becomes available

Protected characteristics – Marital Status & Sexual Orientation

Information on marriage and civil partnerships is now held for 75% of staff – 3,160 people. This represents an increase of 7% from last year

  • The current figures remain broadly in line with those from previous years, although the proportion of staff recorded as Married has again fallen slightly, while those for Single and Co-Habiting have both increased
  • Information on sexual orientation is now held for 62% of staff – 2,635 people - which represents an increase of 10% from last year
  • The number and proportion of staff recorded as gay, lesbian, bisexual or other has increased from last year, but remain less diverse than we would expect to see based on estimates for the UK population as a whole


Protected characteristics – Ethnicity

  • Ethnicity information is now held for 82% of staff – 3,471 people. Although the number of records held is virtually unchanged from last year, the larger workforce means that in real terms this represents a fall of 8%
  • 8.7% of the known workforce are from ethnic backgrounds other than White – British, within which Other White Background is the most populous group, followed by Asian or Asian British - Indian
  • Previous analysis against data from the 2011 Census has shown that our workforce is broadly representative of the wider Staffordshire population, and this will be refreshed as more detailed information from the 2021 census becomes available

Protected characteristics – Marital Status & Sexual Orientation

  • Information on marriage and civil partnerships is now held for 75% of staff – 3,160 people. This represents an increase of 7% from last year
  • The current figures remain broadly in line with those from previous years, although the proportion of staff recorded as Married has again fallen slightly, while those for Single and Co-Habiting have both increased
  • Information on sexual orientation is now held for 62% of staff – 2,635 people - which represents an increase of 10% from last year
  • The number and proportion of staff recorded as gay, lesbian, bisexual or other has increased from last year, but remain less diverse than we would expect to see based on estimates for the UK population as a whole

Protected characteristics – Pregnancy & Gender Reassignment

  • The proportion of staff returning from maternity leave for 12 months or more has been consistently high, averaging 86% across the last six years.
  • A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if they are proposing to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning their sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.
  • The Council currently has too few employees with this characteristic recorded to be able to publish figures whilst maintaining their confidentiality

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