1. Please indicate whether your local authority has formally adopted the socio-economic duty (Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010). For this purpose, ‘adoption’ of the socio-economic duty, means that the authority must have either passed a motion at full council that adopts the duty, approved adoption via delegated decision or have agreed it via the council’s executive or cabinet. Please provide any relevant documentation to support your response.
No
2. Does your local authority consider socio-economic status within all its Equality Impact Assessments and equality frameworks? Please provide any relevant documentation to support your response.
Yes: This is available online at: Toolkit – Impact Assessment (devon.gov.uk)
3. Has your local authority made a commitment to considering socio-economic status more broadly in strategic decision-making and policy development? Please provide any relevant documentation to support your response.
One of the priorities in the Council’s Strategic Plan 2021-2025 (available online at Strategic Plan) is to tackle inequality and poverty and make Devon. This will make Devon a fairer place, address poverty, health and other inequalities, and ensure support for those people and families struggling most.
The Cabinet Member for Public Health, Communities and Equality has responsibility for the discharge of the Council’s public health functions and health protection and promoting the health and wellbeing of the public and also responsible for those Council services which safeguard individuals in the community and enhance their quality of life: in particular local flooding, waste management including recycling, community safety, food insecurity, financial hardship and other community inequalities, emergency planning and gypsies and travellers. (See paragraph 8.9 of the Council’s constitution )
4. If your local authority has formally adopted the socio-economic duty (as described in question 1), please describe how the council has implemented the duty, or provide details relating to any future plans it has for implementation.
Following our response to question 1 we do not hold this information.
5. If your local authority has not formally adopted the socio-economic duty (as described in question 1), are there future plans to adopt it? If so, please indicate the timeline that this will happen within.
No