Equal opportunities

Medway Council is firmly committed to equal opportunities and aims to encourage innovation and creativity by increasing the diversity and representation of its workforce. It has developed a corporate equalities plan that has set some challenging targets that need to be met. The corporate plan is being integrated within directorate-level plans to guide work to promote diversity at a service and individual level.

Extensive learning and development activity has been provided to contribute to the success of this process. This includes facilitated sessions in equalities action planning for directorate management teams and an underpinning programme of awareness training for individuals that aims to develop the level of awareness and competence required to implement these plans. Positive action schemes for council employees are also in place to address issues of under-representation. External partnerships are being forged with black and minority ethnic groups within Medway to promote the council as an employer of choice and to encourage take-up of council services by particular groups.

As part of its strategy, the council is fully committed to learning and development and invests substantial resources in creating learning and development opportunities for all its employees. As part of this commitment, all employees are entitled to receive a minimum of five days' learning and development a year. This may be in the form of training courses but increasingly, individuals are making effective use of less formal interventions, such as coaching, shadowing and internet research and learning.

To ensure fair and equal access to training and comply with Medway Council’s equal opportunities policy, the applications made for training and the training actually provided are both monitored, using the learning and development database, which holds information on staff ethnicity.

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