Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents. EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting. To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website. This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements.
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Name of Directorate and Service Area |
CYPS Children and Families |
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Lead Officer and contact details |
Sam Clayton |
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Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA |
Emma Pemberton, Project Manager |
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How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer |
There is a family time development group, this will feed into the steering group for Partner in Practice. The lead is Jo Miles PSW. These groups will pay due regard to equality as the work is anti-discriminatory. |
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When did the due regard process start? |
October 2020 |
Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (e.g. are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)
A research project is being carried out in collaboration with the University of East Anglia to review the impact of Covid-19 on Family Time and how learning can be applied in future. The project will also consider the pros and cons of taking a blended approach to the delivery of Family Time, incorporating both face to face and virtual contact sessions.
To carry out this work, engagement will be undertaken with a number of children/young people, their family networks and carers. An ‘Icebreaker’ meeting between birth families and carers will also be piloted as part of the research.
Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (e.g. to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)
This is being proposed as part of a wider piece of work looking at how Family Time can be improved for children/young people, their family networks and carers. The aim is to understand how a better experience can be had by all involved, and to share this learning across the sector so that families across the country can benefit.
Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?
An ‘Icebreaker’ meeting between birth families and carers will be introduced when a child becomes looked after. The hope is that this meeting will help to build a stronger relationship between the birth family and the carer of the looked after child from their first contact, enabling better information flow and relationships to develop.
Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)
Engagement was carried out with children/young people, their birth families and their carers to understand their experiences of Family Time during the Covid-19 pandemic. The project seeks to build on these results to understand how Family Time can be better for all parties. Further engagement will take place as the project progresses to test different ideas and suggestions and to understand families’ thoughts on these.
Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?
The proposal will have no impact on council budgets as the work is being funded by the Department for Education.
Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?
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No impact |
Make things better |
Make things worse |
Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc. |
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Age |
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X |
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The project is geared towards improving family time for all involved, including children/young people, their birth families and carers (who may be older). |
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Disability |
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X |
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The project is geared towards improving family time for all involved, including children/young people, their birth families and carers who may have a disability. From engagement carried out to date, we have had feedback from parents with social anxiety issues that virtual contact has enabled them to have a better quality of contact as their anxiety is reduced, during the pandemic this has also limited the transmission of Covid and therefore also reduced the health implications for both children and their families and carers. |
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Sex |
X |
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Race |
X |
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Gender reassignment |
X |
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Sexual orientation |
X |
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Religion or belief |
X |
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Pregnancy or maternity |
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X |
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Pregnant women are currently being advised to limit contact outside their household/support bubble from the third trimester, all necessary precautions are being taken to ensure family time is safe, including use of facemasks, hand washing etc. to minimise the risk of transmission. There are covid protocols in place to make this as safe as possible for everyone. The use of some virtual contact will further reduce the risk of transmission for pregnant women. |
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Marriage or civil partnership |
X |
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Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…
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No impact |
Make things better |
Make things worse |
Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc. |
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..live in a rural area? |
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X |
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An increase in virtual contact opportunities may have a beneficial impact on birth families or carers who live in a rural area, who sometimes have to complete long or stressful journeys to attend/facilitate face to face contact. |
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…have a low income? |
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X |
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The introduction of some virtual family time may reduce costs in terms of transport and time. Most families have a device to enable them to attend virtual meetings and where this has not been possible support has been given by digital buddies to facilitate meetings, supporting the parent on local authority devices if necessary. |
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…are carers (unpaid family or friend)? |
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X |
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It is anticipated that the research project will make Family Time a better experience for all involved, including carers. |
Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
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Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply) |
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North Yorkshire wide |
X |
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Craven district |
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Hambleton district |
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Harrogate district |
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Richmondshire district |
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Ryedale district |
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Scarborough district |
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Selby district |
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If you have ticked one or more districts, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below. |
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The change will be implemented county wide. |
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Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (e.g. older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
All protected characteristics will be anonymised in any data collection in respect of age, gender, race, etc. However, older foster carers may be at greater risk of contracting Covid if their foster child brings that into their home, due to age and related health conditions as we know from the science that older people experience worse effects from Covid than children and adults who are fit and well.
Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)
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Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us) |
Tick option chosen |
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X |
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Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services) The potential impact of this piece of work is largely positive rather than negative, as detailed above. |
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Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)
After the proposal is implemented, engagement will be carried out with the children/young people, families and carers who are impacted, to understand whether the impact is positive (as anticipated) or negative, and the extent of any such impact. The change is a pilot and at the end of the pilot period (March 2021) a review will take place to assess whether or not the change should be made permanent.
Section 12. Action plan.
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Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics. |
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Action |
Lead |
By when |
Progress |
Monitoring arrangements |
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Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.
The EIA suggests that any impact on people with protected characteristics will largely be positive. It has also identified that there are measures in place to understand the ‘real’ impact of the change once it has been implemented, and that this will be considered when making a decision as to whether or not the change should be permanent.
Section 14. Sign off section
This full EIA was completed by:
Name: Sam Clayton
Job title: Head of Effective Practice and QA
Directorate: CYPS
Signature: Sam Clayton
Completion date: 13/01/21
Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): Martin Kelly
Date: 13/01/21