Planning Advisory Service: Equality and Diversity Case Study

In Spring 2008 the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) commissioned Equality Works to produce an equality and diversity case study. In order to provide accessible services and create inclusive environments, PAS recognised that planners need to understand the needs and aspirations of diverse communities in their local area. The commissioned good practice case study was, therefore, required to focus on how planners can routinely and systematically consider the impact of the plans they make on local communities.

Equality Works began their research process by carrying out comprehensive desk research on the context of planning across the public sector. This enabled our consultants to become more confident around planning issues on a local and a national level.

Following this desk research we produced a detailed questionnaire to be used by consultants in one to one interviews with around 20 local government and public sector senior planning representatives. Key to the success of the interview process was identifying organizations that could clearly demonstrate how they had built equality and diversity into their planning processes. Within these interviews we focused on the tangible outcomes to this mainstreaming process and the improvements in planning processes and services that had taken place. We also identified challenges to planners in creating inclusive environments and explored practical ways of overcoming these.

Once the research phase was completed the team carried out analysis of our findings. A core part of this process was to identify key themes where planners could make a real impact on local communities. These included:

• Evidence gathering
• Plan making
• Community engagement
• Development management
• Employment and training.

In addition we also identified top tips to prompt organisations in their own good practice around planning, equality and diversity.

The case study has recently been published and circulated to all local authority planning services. It is also available on the Planning Advisory Service website.