Equality, Diversity & Protected Characteristics*
Use of the term BAME/BME (From March 2023)*
To align us with other public sector organisations, and linked to the Liverpool City Region (LCR) race equality training, as a council we will no longer be using the term ‘BAME’ in our documents, reports or communications.
The reason for this is that ‘BAME’ is a catch-all term, frequently used to group all ethnic minorities together. This can disguise huge differences in outcomes between ethnic groups and it emphasises certain ethnic minority groups but omits others. Some people also find the term unhelpful or even stigmatising.
Instead, wherever possible, we will look to refer to people or communities more specifically.
Only if it is absolutely necessary to group together people from different ethnic minority backgrounds, please use terms including ethnic minorities, ethnically diverse or people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Overview
The Equality Act came into force on 1st October 2010. The Equality Act brought together over 116 separate pieces of legislation into one single Act. Combined, they made up a new Act that provides a legal framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all.
Wirral Content
Wirral Equality, Diversity and Protected Characteristics Report (February 2023)
Wirral Council: Supporting equality and diversity in our workforce
A requirement of the Equality Duty 2010 is for the local council to publish information relating to people affected by council policies and decisions. You can read more about how the Local Authority carries out its duties across Adult Social Care, children and young people, regeneration, finance and workforce via this page and read our annual workforce monitoring reports.
Regional Content
CHAMPS: JSNA Protected Characteristics and Equality Profile 1 - Demographics Update (October 2021)
A number of the JSNA leads from across Cheshire & Merseyside and the North West have collaborated to develop this series of Protected Characteristics Profiles. The documents provide an overview of how various health and wellbeing issues affect each of the population groups listed within the Equality Act 2010.
National Content
Office for National Statistics: Inequalities data audit: focus on ethnicity
This report takes a first look at the outcome of an audit of UK inequalities data on the nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act (2010). A focus on ethnicity data is also included.
House of Commons Library: The Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessments (July 2022)
This briefing outlines the Public Sector Equality Duty contained in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, which requires public authorities to have due regard to several equality considerations when exercising their functions.