This service is managed by HR and Organisational Development
Our equality duties and outcomes
Our Equality Outcomes help us meet the Public Sector Equality Duty. They are an impactful way to progress equality, tackle discrimination and harassment, and promote good relationships between different groups of people.
As a public authority, we must create and publish an equality outcomes report every four years. We must also publish an update report every two years.
Our seven equality outcomes for 2023–2027
These outcomes represent the priorities for Orkney Islands Council, Orkney Islands Council Education Authority and Orkney Islands Council Area Licensing Board:
- We will aim to attract more diverse talent by reviewing policies and practices to ensure that there are no barriers to entering and sustaining employment for under-represented groups.
- We will aim to reduce the gender pay gap.
- People in Orkney have increased confidence and opportunities to express their views and influenced decision-making and service design.
- People in Orkney have improved accessibility to all transport services.
- Pupils have a greater sense of belonging and safety in schools.
- Young people in Orkney facing barriers are supported and leave our schools with sustained positive destinations.
- People in Orkney will have improved choice and accessibility to licensing application processes.
How we stay accountable
- We report on our workforce diversity data on an annual basis and use this to help with our progress against mainstreaming equalities and setting our equality outcomes every four years
- We publish our workforce diversity data in our annual EDI Priorities Progress Report as well as on our website every two years
This keeps us transparent, accountable and focused on continuous improvement.
Related resources
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EDI Priorities Progress Report 2024-2025
This document contains Orkney Islands Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion progress report for 2024/2025. It covers work to improve fairness and access across employment, education, communication, transport, sport, leisure, licensing and British Sign Language services. It also reports progress against equality outcomes for 2023–2027, including support for young people, accessible transport and inclusive recruitment. The report includes workforce data, pay gaps and occupational patterns, including a reduced gender pay gap of 3.05%.
Please be aware that this summary has been generated using AI.
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Equalities Mainstreaming and Outcomes Report 2023-2027
This document contains Orkney Islands Council’s Equalities Mainstreaming and Outcomes Report for 2023–2027. It explains how equality is built into council services, employment, education, transport, housing and licensing, and sets out planned outcomes to improve inclusion and access. It also reports progress from 2022–2023, equal pay gaps and workforce diversity data.
Please be aware that this summary has been generated using AI.
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EDI Priorities Progress Report 2023-2024
This document contains Orkney Islands Council’s 2023/2024 progress report on equality, diversity and inclusion. It covers work to improve fair access to employment and services, including education, transport, sport, housing, libraries and British Sign Language support. It also reports progress against equality outcomes, workplace diversity data, gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps, and occupational differences between men’s and women’s roles.
Please be aware that this summary has been generated using AI.
The Equality Act 2010 and public sector equality duty
The Equality Act 2010 replaced previous equality legislation with a single act that aims to provide a simpler and more effective legal framework to tackle discrimination and disadvantage. It applies to everyone, in both the public and private sector.
The Act strengthens the law to tackle discrimination on the following characteristics:
- Age
- Disability
- Sex
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sexual orientation
We also consider socio-economic disadvantage and care experience in our equality work.
Our public sector equality duty
The Equality Act introduced the Public Sector Equality Duty, which requires us to give due regard to:
- Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other unlawful conduct prohibited by the Act
- Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share and people who do not share a relevant protected characteristic
- Fostering good relations between different people who share and people who do not share a relevant protected characteristic