Fair Say Consultation

In July 2009, the Borough of Poole invited people from across Poole to have their 'Fair Say' on how quality of life could be improved for those who experience barriers due to their age, faith, gender, sexuality, due to a disability, or because they are from another ethnic or cultural background. This fed into the Council's Fairness for All Scheme.

Opportunities were provided for people to comment via leaflets and discussion guides and online via a feedback form on this website. In addition, three consultation sessions were held at Lighthouse - in the morning, afternoon and evening of the 22nd July. In total, 93 residents took part in the event, and over 20 organisations were represented.

Key Messages from the Consultation included: 

• Raise awareness of what the Council does and the services it provides so that people know what is available and what help they can receive.
• Make sure information is accessible to all.  Leaflets and letters should be presented simply and clearly and provided in formats and languages that people can understand.
• All Council employees should be trained to recognise and respond to the needs of equalities groups.
• Learn how people want to be consulted, so more people can engage with the Council. Everyone should feel that they are listened to, and can have their say.
• Support and encourage people to speak up and address bad behaviour or concerns. 

John McBride, Chief Executive, Borough of Poole, said: "At the Fair Say event I clearly heard people saying that they wanted to see actions, and I am now working closely with colleagues to deliver changes that will positively affect people’s experiences of using council services.

People who attended the Fair Say event told us what we do well, their priorities. Some of the comments and suggestions were already covered in our new 'Fairness for All' Equality Scheme and many others have now been incorporated. There is feed back on what we are doing as a result of what we heard. The other comments have been passed to services for further consideration and we will report back to you again in March 2010 on the actions we will take to improve the services that we deliver. We will also tell you what we cannot do and why.

Also to reflect comments made the scheme's subtitle has been renamed 'Promoting Equality, Celebrating Diversity' rather than 'Challenging Inequality, Celebrating Diversity', so that it focuses on positive actions.

Some examples of actions that will happen as a result of the consultation include:

• Make it clearer what the Council does so customers know what to expect from us
• Improve access to services and information for Black and minority ethnic people, and deaf people
• Ensure that community centres are more accessible and open to use by new groups
• Extend the number of places where people can report prejudice incidents
• Monitor diversity in our workforce to make sure it reflects our community
• Develop a 'Fair Say' web portal to publicise opportunities to engage, provide feedback and information on equalities related consultation
• Meet with/contact the organisations that took part in Fair Say to publicise the Fairness for All scheme and opportunities to get involved.

Other actions that we will take can be seen here.

The full scheme is available on-line, and copies are available at all Poole libraries.

The scheme is a ‘living document’, so will be udpated to reflect any changes necessary to meet the diverse needs of Poole’s community and to provide feedback actions the Council has taken.   

If you want to have your Fair Say contact us at research@poole.gov.uk