Equality and diversity

Policy statement

The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames positively welcomes and aims to support the growing diversity of the community we serve and the people we employ. Our diversity is our strength and we are committed to providing services to our many different communities, by a workforce that reflects the diversity of society.

We also acknowledge that we live in an unequal society in which many people face discrimination. The Council of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames believes that equality of opportunity and freedom from discrimination are fundamental human rights. We actively oppose all forms of discrimination and are committed to the principle that no person shall face discrimination by being treated unfairly or being denied access to services or employment opportunities.

We will not discriminate (indirect and direct) on the grounds of race, sex, gender reassignment, marital status, being a lesbian or a gay man, age, religion or belief, HIV status, or disability (e.g. sensory and physical disabilities, learning disabilities and mental health status).

Discrimination as outlined above and harassment is unacceptable and contrary to our explicit aim of providing quality services and recruiting and retaining diverse staff.

The Council recognises its responsibilities under the following equalities legislation and related Codes of Practice:

Equality and diversity are majority issues, which concern the whole community:

  • Young people
  • Older people
  • Women and Men
  • People from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds
  • Faith/Belief groups
  • Disabled people
  • Lesbians and gay men
  • Transgender people

Quality means equality in the services we plan and provide, and in the staff we employ to provide those services. We cannot achieve our aim of providing good quality well managed services unless we take into consideration the diverse needs of all sections of our diverse communities and aim to become an organisation with a well developed workforce, which is able to respond to those diverse needs at all levels of the workforce. This is key to our Customer First programme.

We will build on the strengths of diversity and communicate with staff and our local communities to achieve a shared understanding of the local and national contexts within which we all work or live. This is key to all people who live, visit and work in the borough feeling ‘safe’ and being able to ‘take pride’ in a borough which values and respects its growing diversity and promotes good relations between all sections of its communities.

We intend to promote equality, value diversity and prevent discrimination through our roles as

  • Provider and Commissioner of Services
  • Employer
  • Community Leader

We intend to progressively achieve this through a programme of audit, review, impact/needs assessment and analysis, development of equality objectives and outcomes, monitoring, consultation, scrutiny and changes to how we work.

This will be undertaken as part of a programme of continuous development and mainstreaming of equality/diversity considerations throughout the whole business of the Council.

The Council also has a Code Of Practice for Challenging incidents of Harassment and Discrimination(pdf, 294KB)