Our equality and diversity

What are the council's plans to increase access to its services?

Corporate Equality Policy

The council has a formal requirement to produce a Corporate Equality Policy (72.9 KB) . 

South Oxfordshire District Council has produced a joint policy with the Vale of White Horse District Council to reflect the new joint working arrangements.  The policy sets out the councils’ commitment to ensuring equality considerations are included in everything we do, it also helps to demonstrate how we will meet our duties under the Equality Act 2010.

Corporate Equality Objectives

The council has set the following equality objectives in line with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and to support the delivery of the councils’ Corporate Plan priorities.  We have set a number of measures that we will report against annually along with detail about actions we have achieved to demonstrate how the councils’ are meeting the general duties in the Equality Act.

• Provide equality of access to services and our employment opportunities
• Support projects to tackle hate crime and foster good relations between different groups of people in South Oxfordshire
• Seek to improve access to major new developments and town centres in South Oxfordshire, including Phase II Orchard Centre Didcot for people with disabilities, carers and older people

Service level equality objectives and actions to achieve these can be found in completed equality impact assessments. 

You can view of download our Corporate Equality Action Plan 2012/13 – 2014/15 (112.0 KB) to look at the actions and measures we have set ourselves.

Each year we produce an annual progress report relating to our equality work program, this report helps to demonstrate how the council is meeting the general duties of the Equality Act 2010.  You can view or download our progress report for 2011/12 (102.3 KB)  and 2011/12 Corporate Equality Action Plan (54.0 KB) , sending any comments you have on the progress we have made to the shared equalities officer using the contact details on the right.

Translation and interpretation policy

As part of ensuring all our residents have equal access to council information and services we have a translation and interpretation policy (66.1 KB) .  This sets out our approach to responding to requests and proactively offering these services. You can find out more about this service using the link on the left.