Response: Audit and inspection of local authorities
Consulting body: Communities and Local Government Committee
Date: January 2011
Details: After the abolition of the Audit Commission, the DCLG launched an inquiry into the audit and inspection of local authorities. The Committee will consider future arrangements in all the areas that previously fell within the responsibility of the Audit Commission.
Documents: WRC submission to audit and inspection of local authorities inquiry (PDF 54KB)
Briefing: Communities in Control
Consulting body: Department for Communities and Local Government
Date: January 2009
Details: WRC published briefing on the government's white paper that proposed to devolve more power to local authorities so they have greater say in determining prorities for their area. The white paper looks at who has power, on whose behalf it has been exercised, how it has been held to account and how it can be accessed by everyone in local communities.
Documents: WRC briefing on Communities in Control (PDF 333KB)
Response: Comprehensive Area Assessment
Consulting body: Audit Commission
Date: October 2008
Details: The Audit Commisson produced proposals on the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) following thier consultation on this issue (see below). WRC welcomes many of the proposals but has some concerns about the impact of CAA and where the accountability lies if organisations and partners are failing to address the needs of their local areas, as for women in particular these needs are often hidden.
Documents: WRC Response to Comprehensive Area Assessment Summer 2008 (286KB)
Oct 08
Response: Third Sector Empowerment Fund
Consulting body: Department for Communities and Local Government
Date: September 2008
Details: As part of the Government’s agenda to devolve power to local communities as outlined in the recent White Paper ‘Communities in Control’, the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) has been consulting on proposals for a new fund to support third sector organisations. The fund aims to provide support for existing third sector organisations operating across England which are helping local communities turn key proposals into practical action on the ground in such areas as community leadership, involvement in planning and social enterprise.
WRC welcomes CLGs recognition of the role of the third sector in empowering local communities and are pleased to see that the themes include a focus on community development, community involvement in planning and empowerment of excluded communities. However we are very concerned that the fund is only eligible to national third sector organisations with high levels of income which would effectively prevent smaller voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) from applying. Given that specialist equalities organisations (who work to empower the most vulnerable and marginalised communities) such as women’s VCOs tend to be smaller they are more likely to be excluded from accessing the fund as result of the proposed thresholds.
Documents: Third Sector Empowerment Fund consultation response (497KB) Sept 08
Response: Third Sector Partnership Board
Consulting body: Department for Communities and Local Government
Date: September 2008
Details: This consultation paper outlines proposals to enhance the Communities and Local Government Third Sector Partnership Board and looks at its future role and remit, membership and way of working. CLG propose that the Partnership Board is the principal forum through which the third sector can, in a consistent and strategic way make its contribution to the design, development, implementation and evaluation of many activities that the Department undertakes. WRC is broadly supportive of the aims of the Partnership Board, however we want CLG to ensure that equalities groups, including women are adequately represented on the Board, that CLG policy is informed by the work of third sector organisations and not just their own agenda and that third sector organisations who are not on the Board have other ways to influence CLG policy.
Documents: Third Sector Partnership Board consultation response (496.50KB) Sept 08
Response: Equality Framework for Local Government
Consulting body: Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA)
Date: September 2008
Details: The IdEA has outlined a comprehensive adapted framework for how local government should record and monitor their equality work, including sets of indicators for reaching different levels of compliance with the equality framework. It highlights the equalities duties and includes a definition of equality which acknowledges we don’t all start from the same place.
While WRC is broadly supportive of this equalities framework, there are some significant gaps which need to be addressed. Clarity on the concept of substantive equality, that targeted approaches are sometimes essential to challenge systematic discrimination, should be embedded in the indicators to truly measure equalities work. There are no indicators on violence against women, despite this being one of the main factors of women’s inequality.
Community cohesion is listed alongside the equality duties as key policy to adhere to, despite the damaging approach of this policy to negatively regard single-issue groups, such as women’s organisations or black and minority ethnic women’s groups. And there are not enough robust indicators on engagement of the voluntary and community sector at local level, or the accountability of LSP decisions on priority setting, and how inclusive this is of equalities evidence at a local level.
Documents: WRC response to IDeA Equality Framework for Local Government consultation (515.50KB) Sept 08
Response: Unlocking the talents of our Community
Consulting body: Department for Communities and Local Government
Date: June 2008
Details: Department for Communities and Local Government consulted on the ways in which local people can be actively involved in: improving deprived areas through regeneration and promoting work and enterprise, encouraging active citizenship, improving local public services and strengthening local accountability. The focus of the consultation was on individuals rather than the voluntary and community sector and WRC's response to the consultation wanted to ensure that women and women’s organisations were engaged and involved in shaping the priorities of local communities and to ensure that gender and other equalities issues were taken into account.
Documents: WRC response to Unlocking the talents of our community (278KB)
Response: Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities
Consulting body: Department for Communities and Local Government
Date: February 2008
Details: The Women’s Resource Centre responded to the Department for Communities and Local Government draft guidance on ‘Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities’. The guidance is aimed at local authorities and their partners, and relates to new legislation introduced in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act. The guidance covers Local Strategic Partnerships, Sustainable Community Strategies, the new duty to involve, Local Area Agreements, the revised best value regime and commissioning. These are the key mechanisms for setting the local agenda and identifying local (funding) priorities. It is therefore vital that they are underpinned by a commitment to equality. We wanted women’s organisations to be seen as key stakeholders in this agenda who are represented and involved in decisions which affect them and the communities of women they work with.
Documents:
WRC response to the DCLG Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities consultation (131.50KB) Feb 08
Consultation Response: Comprehensive Area Assessments
Consulting body: Audit Commission
Date: February 2008
Details: The Women’s Resource Centre responded to the Audit Commission’s consultation on a new performance framework for local government. We cautiously welcomed the proposed new approach to inspection which places increased emphasis on partnership working. We highlighted the need for the Inspectorates to measure the progress of local authorities on gender and other equalities issues and on how well they engage the local voluntary and community sector, including women’s organisations.
Documents:
WRC response to the Audit Commission Comprehensive Area Assessments consultation (137.50KB) Feb 08
Consultation Response: Inspection Reform
Consulting body: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Date: March 2006
Details: The Women’s Resource Centre responded to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s consultation, ‘Inspection Reform: The future of local services inspection’, on proposals to change how inspection bodies monitor and evaluate. While WRC supported a streamlining approach, our key point was the need to embed a consistent, overarching equalities framework into all inspectorate bodies’ work. We argued that alongside the current drive to devolve and decentralise power to local councils, there must be a standardised equalities framework – otherwise there is a risk that local councils will only highlight and prioritise the local issues they hear about, which may not be a reflection of all the local needs. In order to fully ascertain evidence of how well public bodies are meeting need, all inspectorate bodies (such as the Audit Commission) need to be collecting equalities data, including gender, age, disability, race, faith/belief, sexual orientation, and income, etc, and to disaggregate this data to see how many black women, older women, lesbians, etc use a service.
Documents:
WRC response to the OPDM Inspection Reform consultation (85KB) Mar 06