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Clare Slater, Head of Transformation at Ryedale District Council

An interview with Clare Slater
Head of Transformation at
Ryedale District Council 

Clare Slater is Head of Transformation at Ryedale District Council in North Yorkshire. Equality Works first started working with Ryedale in March 2008, initially providing consultancy support and carrying out a policy and strategy audit.

Since then, Equality Works have worked closely with Ryedale on their Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs). This has involved coaching, delivering workshops and – more recently – developing a support programme for equalities monitoring.
 
In this interview, Clare explains some of the changes and improvements that have come about since the Council started working with Equality Works.
 
 
What is the approach of Ryedale District Council to Equalities?
 
Clare is keen to point out that the Council’s approach to Equality has evolved over several years. 
 
“In the early days,” said Clare, ”we didn’t feel we could succeed – despite everyone wanting success. Then along came Equality Works who showed us how it should be done.
 
“Now, we’re developing services and implementing changes in policy. Everyone here feels everything is possible!”
 
 
How does EqIA fit in with the Council’s approach to Equalities?
 
Clare is unequivocal about this:
 
“Equality Impact Assessments have become pivotal,” she said. “We’ve been through a lot of organisational changes in the last 12 months and undergone a major restructuring. The result is that things like Performance Management are now closely linked into EqIA – so they have to be right.
 
“It’s all become part of the same process so that, while EqIA is still distinct, it is no longer seen as a standalone process. We still need to do more work on this and that’s something we’ll be looking at in the next phase.
 
“Our ongoing review of services includes EqIA. As we develop new strategies, EqIA will be included as part of that. It’s this integrated approach that allows us to look at who is using our services so we can monitor whether we’re really making a difference.”
 
 
Here, Clare outlines an example of EqIA in action:
 
“Helen Ketcher – a Senior Client Consultant at Equality Works – recently did some EqIA coaching with our Heads of Service. We’d always struggled with the monitoring of corporate equality, so Helen’s work was really valuable to us.
 
“It was around this time that we were involved with a large public consultation which included a lot of road-shows, exhibitions and so on.
 
“We distributed feedback forms in the usual way but were pleasantly surprised when a third of them came back, duly completed! I have to say that this could only have happened because Helen was able to get the Heads of Service engaged in the process.
 
“We are now reviewing the way we report and the way information is presented. How we integrate E & D information into that format will help us with future decision making.” 
 
 
How did you develop your EqIA Toolkit –
and what are its key features?
 
“We had a typical Local Authority Toolkit with two phases and lots of closed questions. After a session with one of Equality Work's senior consultants, we looked closely at how the EqIA would work for us and decided it was a key part of the Equality process and not a standalone exercise.
 
“We looked at other organisations and began the process of re-drafting a new Toolkit – which is still ongoing. An important part of this is creating a web-based self-assessment template that will allow everyone to share learning.
 
“We now have four phases:
- Scoping
- Evidence gathering and analysis
  (which includes community involvement)
- Learning and planning for improvement where the focus is
  on influencing the future in positive ways
- And finally, delivering improved outcomes and monitoring.
 
“We are also getting much better at reporting to different audiences!”
 
 
What’s happening with assisted collections?
 
“We are currently having a major review of our waste collections. The Council delivers the service, but we are part of a waste partnership. Customer satisfaction levels need continuous monitoring and we identified some people who needed assisted collections.
 
“For various reasons, some people were unable to do things like putting out their own wheelie bins, so we needed to offer an assisted collection.
 
“We’re currently looking at ways we can tell people about this service, as well as making sure members of the community are aware of it and know how to ask for it.”
 
 
Have any additional changes or improvements been made to the Council’s service delivery as a result of the EqIA process?
 
“In addition to those things already covered, we’ve also reviewed our Corporate Plan and – using some of the work done on the Audit (where Equality Works helped us enormously) – we have made changes to the Council Plan as a whole.
 
“One of our main objectives is to understand the community and meet its needs. Equality Impact Assessments help us to do this and carry out the necessary monitoring.”
 
 
How has all this benefited Ryedale Council and the local community?
 
“The main point is that we have to deliver more, but with the same level of resources. That means we have to target services efficiently – and we can only do this by EqIAs and monitoring.”
 
 
How have you been able to quantify theResults of your work in the Equalities area?
 
“It’s still early days, but if we can achieve the targets set out in the single equalities scheme - corporate equalities objectives, then we’ll be really pleased. If we can also deliver on our corporate efficiency programme and maintain customer satisfaction, we’ll know we’ve got it right!”