To open the consultation document as PDF, click here.
The consultation at a glance
We want to do all we can to make sure that people are treated equally and fairly when they use our service and work for us. We also must comply with our duties under the Equality Act 2010 and specific equality duties in Wales. Under those duties, we must prepare an Equality Plan and Objectives and revise them at least every four years.
Our previous Equality Plan started in October 2019 and came to an end in 2022, but we extended it to March 2023. We are now proposing new Equality Objectives, aligned with our new Strategic Plan, which we launched in April 2023.
We invite all groups to tell us what they think about our our proposed Equality Plan and Objectives.
To find the full proposed Plan, click here.
For an Easy Read version, click here.
You can respond
| By post to:
|
Communications Team, Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, 1 Old Field Road, Pencoed, CF35 5LJ |
| By e-mail to: | communications@ombudsman.wales |
| By phone to: | 0300 790 0203 (choose option 3) |
| Through an online form: | click here |
This consultation will close on 16 October 2023
Context
Our previous Equality Plan covered the period from 2019 to 2022. It identified 11 Equality Objectives, related to how we deliver our complaints service, how we embed equality considerations into our improvement work and how we work as an employer. You can find that Plan here.
In 2020, we also developed our ‘Race and Ethnicity at Work Charter’. We did that against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter Protests, to strengthen our contribution to race equality, justice and inclusion in Wales. The Charter included some further and more detailed steps to support our complainants and our staff from ethnic minority backgrounds. You can find that Charter here.
In 2022, we extended the Plan and the Charter for a year, as we started to work on our new Strategic Plan, setting the direction for the office for 2023-2026.
We completed many actions that we had committed to under the Plan and the Charter. For example, we improved how we collect equality data and started new and useful conversations with organisations across Wales representing communities that rarely complain to us. We updated our Equality Impact Assessment procedure and started to apply it when planning our investigations on our own initiative. We significantly reduced our mean and median gender pay gaps. We also increased the ethnic diversity of our workforce and our Advisory Panel.
However, we did not see the impact that we wanted to see in all respects. The profile of our complainants did not change noticeably during the lifetime of the Plan. Some groups remain under-represented among our staff – for example, very few people identify as disabled. We also know that there is more for us to do to ensure that no groups face barriers when using our service.
Our new Equality Plan
We developed our new Equality Plan to support the delivery of our new Strategic Plan 2023-2026 and its mission: to have a positive impact on people and public services in Wales.
We want to structure our work under the new Equality Plan based on the following principles:
| Targeted and focused |
We do not have the capacity or resources to reach all communities or to address every area that we could potentially improve. We must target and prioritise our work under this Plan, based on our understanding of areas that require most attention and where we can have most impact. |
| Impact-oriented |
We understand that it is sometimes difficult to capture the impact of our work and that, in many areas, we may be able only to influence change. However, we will be transparent about the intended impact of our work under this Plan and clear on how we intend to measure it. Every year, we will include the relevant actions and targets under this Strategy in our Business Plan and we will monitor our performance. |
| Streamlined |
Our Equality Plan is aligned to and, in some respects, reiterates the steps under our other strategic documents – for example, our People Strategy and our Communications and Engagement Strategy. This ensures that we embed attention to equality across our work, but do not duplicate our efforts. Our new Equality Plan will also integrate some actions from our current Race and Ethnicity at Work Charter. |
We are proposing 7 Equality Objectives aligned with the Aims of our Strategic Plan:
| Strategic Aim 1: Delivering justice with a positive impact for people and public services | 1. Ensure that we support people with additional access needs to use our complaints service.
2. Help to improve our services and impact through better engagement with equality groups. |
| Strategic Aim 2: Increasing accessibility and inclusion | 3. Raise public awareness of the office and its role and powers among groups under-represented among our complainants.
4. Maintain and develop more accessible information explaining who we are and how we work. |
| Strategic Aim 3: Increasing the impact of our proactive improvement work
|
5. Through our Complaints Standards role, seek to influence positively the accessibility of local complaints processes. |
| Strategic Aim 4: Ensuring that we are a healthy, efficient and accountable organisation. | 6. Work to improve representation of target groups among our workforce.
7. Continue to monitor our gender pay gap and identify any opportunities to reduce it further. |
To find the full proposed Plan, click here.
For an Easy Read version, click here.
Consultation questions
Do you agree with the principles guiding our new Equality Plan (targeted and focused; impact-oriented; streamlined)?
Do you agree with the Objectives that we have identified? Please include any comments or feedback on each Objective.
- Ensure that we support people with additional access needs to use our complaints service
- Help to improve our services and impact through better engagement with equality groups
- Raise public awareness of the office and its role and powers among groups under-represented among our complainants
- Maintain and develop more accessible information explaining who we are and how we work
- Through our Complaints Standards role, seek to influence positively the accessibility of local complaints processes
- Work to improve representation of target groups among our workforce
- Continue to monitor our gender pay gap and identify any opportunities to reduce it further
Do you have any comments on our proposed approach to how we will:
- monitor our work under this Plan
- identify, collect and publish relevant information
- assess and monitor the impact of policies and practices and publish any assessment reports
- promote staff knowledge and awareness of our equality duties and identify training needs in relation to those duties.
What effects could our proposed Equality Plan have on the Welsh language and, specifically, on opportunities for people to use Welsh and on treating the Welsh language no less favourably than English?
How could positive effects on the Welsh language be increased, or negative effects be mitigated?
Do you have any other comments on our proposed Equality Plan?
How to respond
You can respond
| By post to: | Communications Team, Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, 1 Old Field Road, Pencoed, CF35 5LJ |
| By e-mail to: | communications@ombudsman.wales |
| By phone to: | 0300 790 0203 (choose option 3) |
| Through an online form: | click here |
Thank you for committing your time to respond to our consultation. Your feedback will help us ensure that we do all we can to promote equality, diversity and inclusion is everything we do. We look forward to your comments.