Equality and Diversity
Equality and Diversity is one of three underlying principles of the "Connecting to Success" the West Midlands Economic Strategy with the aim of: “pursuing equality and reaping the benefits of diversity”.
Equality and Diversity is an underlying principle that supports the five key challenges set out in the strategy; namely skills, enterprise, innovation and transport and in particular economic inclusion.
Regional partners are committed to applying equality and diversity principles to the delivery of the Strategy, and consideration of the potential for positive and/or negative impact is also important.
The Agency’s Action Plan
Advantage West Midlands has developed a four year equality and diversity action plan that will help focus our work of “pursuing equality and reaping the benefits of diversity” by creating economic opportunities for all.
In addition to the equality and diversity action plan we also are guided by our equality schemes on disability, gender and race as well as our equality and diversity policy and associated statement.
Equality Impact
The focus for equality impact of strategies and projects in both rural and urban areas needs to be across the six key strands of equality where appropriate i.e. age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief. What is ‘appropriate’ requires an understanding of the demography of the region and its sub-regions as this will provide pointers as to which equality strand(s) need to be assessed for potential impact.
Links to the Strategy
Equality and Diversity principles apply across the entire strategy and all partners will be required to show how they have achieved equality and diversity mainstreaming or impact in one of more of the key themes of business, place, people and powerful voice.
Business
In the strategy "Connecting to Success" actions such as 1.2.1 regarding the trading potential of internationally well-connected BME companies, and 1.3.2 regarding bespoke enterprise support, mentoring and training for social enterprises and communities that face barriers to creating sustainable businesses, such as women, BME groups and young people link strongly to the strategic theme of business.
Place
Equality and diversity features prominently in this strategic objective; and action 2.6.1 is an example where we must “encourage the sustainable regeneration of our most disadvantaged communities” in order to develop a cohesive approach to linking opportunities created by physical regeneration to deprived communities.
People
With this objective, equality and diversity based actions, such as 3.5.2 also feature strongly; and employers in key markets are encouraged to explore and exploit the opportunities and challenges of an ageing workforce, increased patterns of migration, and emerging young entrants to the labour market as well as an increasingly ethnically diverse employee base.
As a Powerful Voice for the region, priority 4.3 in "Connecting to Success" highlights people diversity as a great strength and a solid basis for economic opportunities the region. We must know when and how to act collectively in a way that engages, reflects and energises all elements of diversity and all parts of the region.
Resourcing Interventions
The Agency’s resources support a wide range of interventions to address these strategic issues. In particular, we work through six Regeneration Zones and the West Midlands' Market towns to target funding. For example action 2.5.1 refers to the sustainable balance and pattern of development throughout the West Midlands, including both Urban and Rural Renaissance; this improvement of the environment will assist in facilitating economic growth and therefore economic (employment, skills and training) opportunities for people excluded from the labour market such as young people, BME communities, women and disabled people.