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Public sector equality duty statement (UKSPF)

This is the public sector equality duty statement for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund programme managed by Leicester City Council. The following explains our duties under the Equality Act of 2010 and how we will carry out the commissioning part of our actions as lead local authority. This information refers to Leicester City Council.

The Equality Act 2010

The Act introduced the equality duty to harmonise all previous equality duties and extend it across the protected characteristics. This gives local authorities the obligation in the exercise of our functions, to have due regard to the need to:

  • Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the act
  • Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
  • Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

This involves us:

  • Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics
  • Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people
  • Encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionally low.

Complying with this latter duty may involve us treating some people more favourably than others. The Act covers the nine protected characteristic:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender reassignment
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race
  • Religion or belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation
  • Marriage or civil partnership status.

UKSPF Leicester

UKSP Leicester has an overarching objective of building pride in place and increasing life chances. There are three investment priorities which may overlap over the programme and within a project. These are:

  • Community and place
  • Support for local businesses
  • People and skills.

Leicester continues to see high levels of inequality and deprivation across a number of indicators important for quality of life (such as pay, employment, healthy life expectancy, anxiety) with some areas within the city ranking within the top ten in England for levels of deprivation.

We are looking to support disadvantaged communities and encourage greater socio-economic inclusion, and to address the inequalities experienced by too many people in the city – BAME communities, women, young people, older people and people with disabilities.

As a result, Leicester City Council in carrying out its duties under the Equality Act 2010, encourages applications for grant funding that support people from these groups to access UKSPF Leicester.

Organisations awarded UKSPF through specific open calls will be required to provide equality monitoring information in respect of their delivery.