Social Inclusion (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats <info@oxfordshirelibdems.org.uk>

Social Inclusion

November 6, 2007 5:18 PM
By Cllr Zoé Patrick in County Council

We tried to pass a motion on this previously at Council but were overruled because we were told 'we are already doing it' - well clearly we are not and hence this has been picked up many times in our peer review as has been said by Cllr Altaf-Khan. We are told many times over and over in the report "the peer review team was not provided with sufficient evidence to demonstrate that equality and diversity are embedded at corporate and directorate level" and indeed this was cited as an area for consideration. And again there was a need to "provide more evidence about prioritisation of the needs of BME and disadvantaged communities".

This council just about does its statutory duties but we don't go any further than this and this is evidenced in this report. We all know how valuable the excellent rating is, and we wish to keep it that way, but we cannot be complacent on this issue. Oxfordshire has a number of areas, particularly in the City and in Banbury where there is a real opportunity to demonstrate our commitment. I know we employ some community development workers in some of these areas, but how many of us are aware of the work they do? And are they able to do enough. Can we go further? Again we have yet to hear.

The press release regarding the Director of Public Health taking some of this responsibility is hardly ground-breaking. Surely he should be doing this anyway. Health inequalities has for many years been a priority in public health and I would be surprised if he wasn't doing this already as part of his job. A press release to say the director is doing is job is hardly going to change anything overnight.

I would like to see more of our schools involved, more work done in HR both with recruitment and training needs. Some more effort to improve our understanding of our some of the needs of our vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. I look forward to support for this motion which will improve this Council's performance in this area.