One of the ways that Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council ensures services are accessible to everyone is the use of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA). This assessment is carried out on all new or amended services, strategies and policies and aims to identify any potential barriers or discrimination faced by customers protected by equality legislation. These laws demand that no-one faces discrimination on the ground of disability, age, gender, faith/belief, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity or transgender when accessing our services or working for the council.
The Equality Impact Assessment also requires that if a potential negative impact is identified, reasonable ways in which to deal with it are also identified and considered. For example, if an EIA was carried out in Customer Access and it identified that some customers could not read English language printed council leaflets, it would be reasonable to implement a system of having council information translated into other formats when needed – whether foreign language, large print or audio format.
By 2007 EIAs had been completed on all the required Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council services, and details of these were published on the website. These documents have now been archived, but information about these is available by emailing Neighbourhood.dev@basingstoke.gov.uk
When a full EIA is needed the council will invite representation from relevant community groups to ensure that customer need and comments are fed into the decision process. For example, if major physical changes to one of the council offices were proposed we would ensure that the local disability forum has an opportunity to take part in the discussion to raise concerns around accessibility.
Below is a list of newly completed EIAs - each completed assessment has been validated by the council's Equalities Strategy Group and a summary report showing the key information for each assessment is attached.
