Accessibility, equality and diversity

Equalities Roadshows 2025

This autumn our People and Culture officers will be travelling across the South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse with their Equalities Roadshows speak to the public about what the councils are doing to support equality and finding out more about what equality means to them.

The concept for the roadshows came from a motion in July 2024, from Cllrs Max Thompson and Jill Rayner from Vale of White Horse District Council who wanted to do more to show how proud the council is of recognising and supporting the importance of equality and diversity and making it clear to residents and businesses how they were doing this.

The roadshows will be at the following locations in October and November:

• Thame – Tuesday 21 October, Thame Market Place 8am – 3pm
• Wantage – Wednesday 22 October, Wantage Market Place, 8am- 3pm
• Abingdon – Monday 3 November, Abingdon Market Place, 8am – 3pm
• Henley – Thursday 13 November, Henley Market Place, 8am – 3pm
• Wallingford – Friday 21 November, Wallingford Town Hall, 9am – 2pm
• Didcot – Saturday 29 November, Cornerstone Arts Centre, midday to 4pm

Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

Our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy was adopted by Cabinet members in the autumn of 2022.

The new strategy will aim to ensure the council is doing everything it can to be inclusive to all ethnic minorities and other diverse and hard-to-reach communities in its staff recruitment, representation, and service provision.

You can read the strategy via the link below (if you require this in a different format please contact our Equalities Officer)

We would like your help to gather local knowledge about voluntary organisations/groups that relate to the ‘protected characteristics.’

The Equality Act 2010 introduced the term “protected characteristics” to refer to groups that are protected under the Act. Protected characteristics are legally defined as:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• being married or in a civil partnership
• being pregnant or on maternity leave
• race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

The Public Sector Equality Duty (created under the Equality Act 2010) came into force on 5 April 2011 and requires public bodies and others carrying out public functions to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunities and foster good relations between different communities.

Compliance with the equality duty enables us to provide services that meet the diverse needs of our users, and improve how we carry out our core business.

The development of an equalities database will ensure groups are kept informed on consultations and relevant updates in South Oxfordshire and we are asking for your help in connecting us.

Click here to view a document which sets out the information we are looking for about each voluntary organisation / group.

Equality and diversity

We plan and provide services, policies and employment opportunities in a fair, inclusive and equal way to foster good relations and meet the needs of everyone we encounter.

Please note that our Corporate Policy and Equality Action plan are being updated. If you would like more information please contact Corporate Services 01235 422127 or email corporateservicessupport@southandvale.gov.uk

We have a joint policy with Vale of White Horse District Council, which sets out our commitment to dealing with equalities issues and eliminating discrimination in everything we do. There’s more information about our policy in our Corporate Policy document.

We set our equality objectives in line with the requirements of the Equality Act (2010) and report this annually. You can read our Joint Equality Review by clicking on the button below.

Equality Workforce Reports

We are required to publish equality information to show our compliance with the
general equality duty. You can read our Workforce Equality Report below:

Previous Years:

• Workforce Equality Report April 2022 – March 2023 (PDF)
• Workforce Equality Report April 2022 – March 2023 (PDF)

Alternative formats of this publication can be made available on request these include large print, braille, audio, email, easy read and other languages. Contact us at Equalities@southandvale.gov.uk

Translation and alternative formats we provide

We aim to provide access to our information and services tailored to people’s needs.

We can provide written information in an alternative language or format, where we perceive there is a genuine need. This might mean we provide you with a summary or extract for longer documents, or it may be more appropriate to talk you through the document with you. The suitability of these options will depend on your needs.

We can also provide an interpreter, signer or lip speaker to communicate our information, where we perceive there is a genuine need. If you need to contact us by telephone but have limited or no English, we will use a telephone interpreting service.

Accessibility support

If you or a member of your family is registered as disabled, we may be able to provide support for the following:

• Council tax
• Housing benefits
• Making improvements to your home
• Help with recycling and rubbish collections

Other pages that you may find useful are:

• Accessible public toilets in our area
• Car parks that have disabled spaces
• Wheelchair accessible taxis in our area
• Information on leisure activities that we provide

Workforce monitoring

We are committed to ensuring our employment policies and practices are fair, advance equality, eliminate discrimination and foster good relations.

Each year we publish a summary of the employment monitoring data we have collated to review how we are doing.

You can read our Employee Data Report by clicking on the button below.

Please contact us if you require this report in a different format.

Gender Pay Gap

The Gender Pay Gap is an equality measure that shows the difference in average earnings (mean and median) between women and men, expressed relative to mens’ earnings. As an employer of more than 250 people, the Council is required to publish data on the Gender Pay Gap and report specific figures.

A positive figure (such as 10%) means that men are, on average, earning more than women by that amount. A negative figure means that women are, on average, earning more than men by that amount.

It is important to note that the Gender Pay Gap is different to Equal Pay. Equal Pay (Equality Act 2010) involves ensuring that men and woman are paid equally for working in the same or similar roles, or work of equal value. The Councils Gender Pay Gap figures and supporting narrative can be found below:

Annual gender pay gap report 2024/25 (PDF)

Annual gender pay gap report 2023/24 (PDF)

Annual gender pay gap report 2022/23 (PDF)

Annual gender pay gap report 2021/22 (PDF)

Annual gender pay gap report 2020/21 (PDF)