The Group Manager Human Resources and Organisational Development presented a report which provided the Cabinet Equalities Committee with a summary of the equality profile of the Council’s workforce as at 31 March 2022.

She stated that Appendix 1 provided an equality profile of the Council’s workforce as at 31 March 2022, with comparative data from the previous two years, where available. The profile included protected characteristics of the workforce (gender, disability, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation). There is a full data set available on gender and age although it is not mandatory for employees to disclose their sensitive personal information for equality monitoring.

The Group Manager Human Resources and Organisational Development highlighted Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy, which was an addition in 2021/22 and aimed to reinforce the council’s existing commitment and approach to equalities.

The Group Manager Human Resources and Organisational Development provided a summary of the statistics for each category in Appendix 1. Some key points were noted:

• The council’s workforce was an aging one, with the average age being 47. This reflected similar figures in other local authorities.
• Low figures were reported on sexual orientation
• Pregnancy and maternity were new items included in the figures
• Caring responsibilities were reported by 7.5% of the workforce, an increase on previous years. This was something that the Council wanted to support the staff in doing so.

The Chairperson asked if the Council was looking at including non-binary as a figure in future reports.

The Group Manager Human Resources and Organisational Development explained that this was something that is being built into the system to allow for reporting on, but it had taken longer than was expected. She hoped that this would be available in the next report to the Committee.

The Chairperson asked in terms of employees from ethnic minorities, did we know how this compared to the overall makeup of Bridgend County Borough. The Group Manager Human Resources and Organisational Development believed the figure to be around 1.9%, but would clarify this at a later date.

The Leader mentioned that the number of students who were speaking Welsh in schools was much higher than that of the workforce in BCBC. In terms of succession planning and building on improving Welsh in the workforce, it may be a time to reflect on this and see what further work could be done.

The Group Manager Human Resources and Organisational Development explained that there was a careers event approaching and we were working closely with the employability team and schools so this was an important event to raise these issues and awareness of the roles available in the Council. She added that a new apprentice appointment is planned within HR, who’s role is to improve  the support for current and help promote the opportunities for new apprentices, including  new Welsh speaking apprentices.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet Committee Equalities note the information contained in this report and within Appendix 1.