FOI request (FOIR-689169879)

Council staff, training and procurement: Equality, diversity, and inclusivity

Requested Thu 20 February 2025
Responded Thu 06 March 2025

I wish to make a freedom of information request and would be grateful if you could provide me, within twenty working days, the following information:

1. The number of roles in your council (expressed in numbers of full-time employees (FTE)), that are mainly or exclusively focussed on issues of equality, diversity, or inclusivity. For example, this could include (amongst other guises) 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer' (EDI) or 'Diversity and Inclusion Project Manager'.

For all roles meeting this description, please also provide, in order of preference, either the salary of these roles, the pay band of these roles, or the combined total salary of these roles. Please provide the information that is most in accordance with your data processing practices.

Please also advise if the council has any plans to hire further staff in these areas within the next 18 months, and the roles/pay bands that they are likely to occupy.

2. Please provide the number of internal training courses attended by staff which pertain to the issues encompassed by equality, diversity or inclusivity. Please include the name of the courses, the number of attendees, and the duration of the course.

3. Please, if possible, provide details of any internal EDI practices and networks, including the number of individuals who are members of such networks.

4. Please provide details of any external contractors brought in by the council to conduct training, advice, or guidance on issues relating to EDI. Where applicable this should include costs and associated man hours.

5. Please provide details of how equality, diversity and inclusivity is included in your procurement practices, the relative weight afforded to these considerations, and the current value of contracts in which EDI considerations was a part of the procurement process.

Complying with all 5 questions should not exceed the statutory cost limit, but should you deem that it does, please then proceed with the request excluding those components that would result in the threshold being crossed. At the absolute minimum, parts 1 through 4 should be answered.

Response

1. Zero

2.

Equality and Diversity at Hastings Borough Council - 79 completed - 8 minutes

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - 19 completed - 7 minutes

Both of these courses are part of our eLearning package but if further online training is requested, this will be considered at the time.

3. Not applicable

4. Hastings Borough Council (HBC) has not had any external trainers giving any EDI training to staff. However, Councillors received training from The South East Employers relating to Equalities.

5. Please see the procurement section on our website:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/business-commerce/supplying-council/purchasing-procedures/

Hastings Borough Council holds no data in relation to specifics.