About

We realise everyone is different and that your needs might be different. We are committed to treating everyone fairly, with courtesy and respect and believe everyone should receive the same quality of service.

Under the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority we have legal duties to:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other prohibited conduct
• Advance equality of opportunity
• Foster good relations between people
• Publish objectives to demonstrate how we will meet the above legal duties and publish information on our performance

The duties apply to nine ‘protected characteristics’. These are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation.

We acknowledge and welcome our legal duties and use the legislation and national guidance as a framework to eliminate inequality. However, we are not only driven by legislation - our policy and work programmes are also in response to local needs.

View our Equality Policy

Objectives

Our Equality Objectives were agreed in July 2015. They'll be updated again in April 2016.

As a Community Leader

We'll engage with residents in an open and meaningful way by:

• Delivering our Communications and Engagement Strategy Action Plan
• Encouraging what's set out in our Communications and Engagement Strategy
• Asking residents to complete a survey telling us what they think about us
• Making sure the advice we give uses language that is easy to understand

As a Service Provider

We'll make sure that our services are inclusive and accessible, supporting residents and customers by:

• Doing an Equality Impact Assessment when making changes to policies and services
• Reviewing the equality information we collect to develop a better understanding of our customers
• Raising staff awareness of equality and diversity issues in Maidstone’s communities
• Creating a Financial Inclusion Action Plan
• Promoting the Financial Inclusion Forum to partners and charities
• Delivering our Customer Service Improvement Programme to develop best practice

As an Employer

We'll strive to have a workforce that feel valued and respected by:

• Delivering our Workforce Strategy
• Doing the Investors In People (IIP) assessment
• Continuing to deliver one council briefings

Equality Advisory and Support Service

What they do

The Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) is a service that was created to offer advice and support to both individual people and big organisations.

For individuals

For individuals they can offer advice for you about your human rights and if they are being abused. They can also offer one-to-one support to help you get the outcome you want and resolve issues you may have without getting the law involved.

For organisations

By giving support to individuals it allows organisations, who these people would have been sent to, to free up resources and concentrate on bigger problems. All information is kept safely however the EASS can give information on issues that have been solved in your area.

Who to contact

To contact the EASS you can call 08088 000082 or text  08088 000084.

You can also go on the EASS website where you can chat with someone from the service for free.