Beyond Asking the Question

1
Beyond Asking the Question monitoring all six
equality strands

• London Borough of Tower Hamlets

2
Equality monitoring in Tower Hamlets

• Equality monitoring in place since 2002
• Commitment to all six equality strands
• Strong leadership and commitment
• Good application across services

3
Monitoring across the six strands

• 98 monitor ethnicity
• 95.5 monitor disability
• 95.5 monitor gender
• 93 monitor age
• 70 monitor religion/belief
• 57 monitor sexual orientation

4
Equalities Monitoring Review issues raised

• We need more information about the need for and
  outcomes of equalities monitoring information.
• It is difficult to ask the questions, some
  service users are offended by questions around
  sexual orientation and faith
• It is difficult to translate some monitoring
  questions particularly the sexual orientation
  one

5
Equality Monitoring Review issues raised

• Residents are concerned about why this data is
  collected and how it is used.
• We ask the questions but the response rates are
  low
• Our databases are not set up to record
  monitoring information across all six equality
  strands
• Residents complain about having to answer these
  questions again and again

6
Equality monitoring solutions

• Link monitoring to service delivery - support
  staff to understand why we ask the questions and
  how to use the information effectively
• Confidence - provide support and clarity to
  improve staff confidence
• Communication - positively promote the benefits
  of monitoring to staff and residents

7
Equality monitoring solutions

• Data quality - think about methods of data
  collection to improve response rates
• IT support - examine IT systems to look at how
  they can better support equality monitoring
• Leadership - communicate strong and clear
  messages about equality monitoring across all six
  strands as part of a wider commitment to
  diversity and equality