Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics

(Form updated October 2023)

JOINT DELIVERY OF GOVERNMENT FUNDING WITH THE YORK AND NORTH YORKSHIRE COMBINED AUTHORITY

If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.

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. 

Name of Directorate and Service Area	Community Development Directorate, Economic Development, Regeneration, Tourism and Skills
Lead Officer and contact details	Mark Kibblewhite; E:  mark.kibblewhite@northyorks.gov.uk
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA
How will you pay due regard? e.g. working group, individual officer	Individual officer
When did the due regard process start?

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?)

It has previously been agreed by the Council, that the delivery of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund would be delivered through joint working between the Council and the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership.  At the establishment of the new Combined Authority for Yorks and North Yorkshire the Local Enterprise Partnership was transferred into the new authority.  This proposal seeks to maintain the delivery of the UKSPF/REPF through joint working  between the Council and the Combined Authority and seeks authorisation to transfer funding of c. £2.4m from the Council to the CA in order to enable the seamless provision of activities and services for the remainder of the financial year.

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 to enable continuity of service through the 2024/25 financial year, and to maximise the impact of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund programmes in North Yorkshire.

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

Nothing will change for customers or staff.  Those colleagues who have transferred to the new Combined Authority will continue to work on the UKSPF / REPF programmes as before.  Customers engaging in these programmes will continue to receive the same level of service in a joined up manner as they did prior to the transfer of services from the Local Enterprise Partnership to the Combined Authority.

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?)

The delivery of the UKSPF and REPF has been subject to agreement by the Council which has established the principal of joint working with the Local Enterprise Partnership and subsequently the YNY Combined Authority.  The delivery of the UKSPF / REPF programmes are overseen by a wide ranging stakeholder group – the Local delivery Partnership.  This proposal simply seeks to ensure continuity of service delivery previously agreed by the Council and the Local Partnership Group which was itself subject to consultation on the impacts on equalities and diversity.

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?

Please explain briefly why this will be the result.

The result will be cost neutral.  Funding is provided by the Government with no requirement for match funding on the part of the Council.  This proposal seeks to ensure continuity of the delivery of services already wholly funded through the Government’s UKSPF / REPF programmes.

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	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.
Age	X
Disability	X
Sex	X
Race	X
Gender reassignment	X
Sexual orientation	X
Religion or belief	X
Pregnancy or maternity	X
Marriage or civil partnership	X

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	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.
..live in a rural area?	X
…have a low income?	X
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?	X
….. are from the Armed Forces Community	X

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide	X
Craven
Hambleton
Harrogate
Richmondshire
Ryedale
Scarborough
Selby
If you have ticked one or more areas, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.

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.

The proposal will not affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics.  This is because the delivery of the UKSPF / REPF will not change form what was previously agreed, beyond the fact that some service delivery will be housed within the new Combined Authority.

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
1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.	X
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why option has been chosen. (Include any advice given by Legal Services.) The proposal represents a mechanism to ensure the seamless continuation of service delivery.  The impacts on communities and individuals will not be affected as a direct result of this proposal.

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?)

The YNY Combined Authority will continue to monitor the impacts of it’s wider service delivery.  This proposal does not initiate any direct changes to the delivery of these services by the Combined Authority however through the monitoring and evaluation of the UKSPF / REPF programmes the overall impacts of the programmes will be assessed at the end of the programme.

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.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements

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.

This proposal seeks to enable the transfer of funds from the Council to the YNY Combined Authority to enable the continuity of service delivery previously agreed by the Council.  The programmes themselves remain unchanged and the requirements within those programmes, to ensure equalities impacts are positive also remain unchanged.

All of the legal, financial and equalities implications of the programmes have been addressed in previous reports developed to oversee their delivery.  The transfer of the Local Enterprise Partnership to the Combined Authority does not alter the delivery of the programmes other than requiring that in addition to the transfer of staff, an amount of funding also transfers to this Authority to ensure continuing service delivery.

Section 14. Sign off section

This full EIA was completed by:

Name:                         Mark Kibblewhite

Job title:                     Principal Economic Development Officer

Directorate:               Community Development

Signature:                  Mark Kibblewhite

Completion date:      07/08/2024

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature): Ian Thompson

Date: 7 August 2024