Our equality strategy

Outlining our commitment

The Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy is a council wide programme through which we will work together with staff, partners, and community stakeholders in order to implement duties of equality legislation, disseminate good practice, and ensure the council's workforce and service providers are equipped to deliver accessible, safe, and inclusive services to our diverse community.

St Helens Borough Council's Equality Strategy 2022-25 (PDF, 2 MB)(opens new window)

Delivering our EDI Strategy

The EDI Strategy is being delivered in two phases:

• Phase 1 - focusing on the council as an employer (from April 2022)
• Phase 2 - focusing on the council as a lead organisation in the community and partner in the Liverpool City Region (from January 2023)

Phase 1 - focusing on the council as an employer

Phase 1 commitment

St Helens Borough Council is committed to creating a more welcoming, safe, and inclusive work environment, based on the vision that everyone is included, has a voice, and is empowered to influence, through the values of trust, integrity, collaboration, innovation.  Our vision and values create a culture of mutual respect, inclusion, and dignity, which is critical to ensure the organisational capability meets the needs of our increasingly diverse community.

To demonstrate progress against our Phase 1 commitment, the following Measurable Equality Objectives will be reported annually within our Equality Monitoring Report:

• A council workforce profile with an improved representation of diversity across all protected characteristics.
• Staff survey evidence that staff who share different protected characteristics.
• Feel their health and well-being is well supported.
• Feel their level of motivation is high.
• Are experiencing a positive work culture based on our shared values and behaviours.

From 2023-24 the Staff Survey outcomes will be reported every two years in the Council's Annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Reports.

Objectives from staff collaboration

Our Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic Staff group was instrumental in co-developing our Race Equality Declaration of Intent, which includes our measurable race equality objective to 'Set targets for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic staff representation informed by 2021 Census and report against those targets annually'. 

• From 2022, the Council has set targets for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic staff representation informed by 2021 Census.  Progress against these targets is reported in the Council's Annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Reports.

Our Disability Staff Forum has considered the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) Disability Confident Scheme as the appropriate self-assessment and improvement tool through which to advance disability equality in employment. 

• The council achieved Level 3, the highest level of the Scheme, in October 2024 and is now registered as a Disability Confident Leader.  

The Staff LGBTQI+ Forum, which explores the experiences and supports staff with sexual orientations and gender identities in the minority in the workforce, identified the Navajo Merseyside & Cheshire LGBTIQA+ Charter Mark as the appropriate self-assessment and improvement tool through which to advance sexual orientation and gender identity equality.

Phase 2 - focusing on the council as a lead organisation in the community and partner in the Liverpool City Region

Phase 2 commitments

St Helens Borough Council will work with partners in the borough to actively identify and remove barriers for under-represented groups, advance equity by recognising and meeting people's different needs, practise inclusion in all we do, and ensure the council's workforce and service providers are equipped to deliver accessible, safe, and inclusive services to our diverse community. 

We will also work with partners in the Liverpool City Region, demonstrating that our positive actions working together will deliver change that benefits everyone in our city region.

We will use the Equality Framework for Local Government as the tool to demonstrate progress against our Phase 2 commitments.

The Equality Framework for Local Government is the recognised national excellence model of good practice. It measures council performance against 447 criteria, across 17 themes, under four modules:

• Module 1: Understanding and working with your communities
• Module 2: Leadership, partnership, and organisational commitment
• Module 3: Responsive services and customer care
• Module 4: Diverse and Engaged Workforce

Each EFLG Module has 3 levels: Developing, Achieving, and Excellent.

Phase 2 Measurable Equality Objective - we will use progress through the 3 levels of the Equality Framework to demonstrate achievement of our Phase 2 commitments.

The Council self assessed as Level 1 of the Equality Framework for Local Government in May 2023.  Progress against the Equality Framework for Local Government targets is reported in the Council's Annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Reports.