Equalities

Our commitment

Haringey is a richly diverse borough with a proud history of championing equal rights.

As a council we are committed to working together with our communities, partners, residents, and staff to take a stand against racism, discrimination, and inequality in all its forms.

We will place equity at the heart of our approach, recognising that fairness and equality must be underpinned by an understanding of different circumstances, needs and priorities.

Our commitment spans our role as employer, service provider, and local leader.

Taking Action

We launched our annual EDI action plan in October 2023

We recognise that a diverse and engaged workforce is best able to understand and meet the needs of our communities. This action plan is aimed at creating a more inclusive and fair organisational culture and breaks down our long-term goals into achievable actions.

We embed equality considerations in our decision making

All decision-making reports include equalities considerations. Equality Impact Assessments are undertaken to identify opportunities to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and to tackle prejudice and promote understanding.

We established the Haringey anti-racism co-ordination group with our partners

This group is shaping the collective efforts of key agencies and community partners in our work to challenge and dismantle the systems, structures, and behaviours that perpetuate racism.

We have set out our strategic initiatives to create a more equitable and inclusive adult social care system

This sets out our approach to creating a more equitable and inclusive social care system that promotes the wellbeing and dignity of everyone within our community.

We have created a Haringey children’s services anti-racist statement and developed anti-racist practice standards

These create clear requirements for how we work within Haringey children and families services.

Building trust

We want collaboration, empowerment, and accountability to underpin the action we are taking.

Therefore, we will:

• involve and empower colleagues in the delivery of EDI initiatives and share learning across the organisation
• provide regular updates on progress made against our action plan to our Equalities Steering Group
• work with colleagues, staff equality networks, and leadership to identify priorities for EDI improvement work, supporting an annual update of the EDI action plan

The Equality Act 2010 

The Equality Act 2010 brought together several separate equality laws. The Act provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.

For more information go to Equality Act 2010 on GOV.UK.

Protected characteristics

The Act introduced the term 'protected characteristics to describe the groups who are protected by the Act. The protected characteristics are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

Find out more about protected characteristics on the Equality and Human Rights commission website.