Who we are and what we do
The Assembly Commission supports the National Assembly for Wales (60 Assembly Members) and provides staff, property and resources for it to function effectively.
What the Equality Scheme does
The Equality Scheme sets out the Assembly Commission’s approach to meeting its equality objectives in its role as an employer and provider of services to Assembly Members, their staff and members of the public. An accompanying Action Plan details the actions we will take to promote equality, eliminate harassment and discrimination and remove barriers to equality.
The Scheme covers the period November 2008 to November 2011 and sets out how we will we meet the requirements for the public sector equality duties for race, disability and gender (including gender identity). We have also included the other equality aspects of age, religion/belief and sexual orientation in this Scheme. Human Rights principles are also taken into account in the Scheme.
How we developed our Equality Scheme
We undertook an involvement and consultation exercise to help us develop our Scheme. We asked staff, Assembly Members, members of the public and representative organisations what they thought of the equality outcomes we had identified and what actions they think we needed to take to achieve these equality outcomes.
We used this information to develop our Action Plan.
Action Plan - Our Priorities
Our Action Plan details the outcomes we want to achieve for equality and the priority actions we need to take to achieve these. The actions include:
Developing equality training and an awareness-raising programme for our staff, Assembly Members and their staff that reflects the requirements of our Equality Scheme
Supporting Assembly Members to enable them to build equality considerations into their work
Revising and piloting our equality impact assessment tool and training staff to carry out effective equality impact assessments
Continuing to improve our staff equality data collection methods and employment monitoring arrangements
Undertaking an equal pay review and developing a Pay Strategy that takes account of its results
Supporting and involving our staff networks and external Disabled Users’ Forum
Ensuring that our buildings are accessible to staff, Assembly Members, their staff and the public by continuing to undertake a programme of enhancements (using feedback from external users)
Ensuring that external suppliers reflect our equality requirements and aspirations
Making sure that the information we produce is accessible, informative and interesting
Increasing our engagement with individuals and representative organisations across Wales
Monitoring and acting on users’ feedback on our website and using this information to enhance its accessibility
Reporting on progress in achieving our equality outcomes and actions in the Assembly Commission’s Annual Equality Report
Monitoring and Review
The Assembly Commission will produce an Annual Equality Report, which will provide an update on achieving our equality outcomes.
The Scheme will be reviewed externally every three years and this will help inform the development of our next Scheme.
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We welcome feedback on our Equality Scheme. You can do this by contacting us:
Equality and Access Team
Assembly Commission
Ty Hywel
Cardiff Bay
CF99 1NA
Telephone: 029 2089 8204
Textphone: 029 2089 8601
Fax: 029 2089 8117
E-mail: equalities.team@wales.gov.uk
