Equality monitoring
Effective equality monitoring is a key element in helping us to meet our legal obligations. Equality Monitoring is the collection of information about the characteristics of people such as their age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Having this kind of information about our customers helps us to make sure that our services are accessible to everyone who needs to use them.
Equality monitoring enables us to increase our knowledge and understanding of Manchester ’s diverse communities and gather information about who uses our services. For Equality monitoring to be effective, the recording of this information is just the first step. By analysing the data collected we can develop our understanding as a Council of how well we are meeting our commitments. The monitoring data may highlight where there are inadequacies or issues in how services are accessed and who they are accessed by. This provides the basis for enabling us to take steps to review policies and to identify areas for improvement.
Analysing information gathered through Equality Monitoring helps us to identify, and consult with, groups that do not access our services, or who access them in disproportionately low numbers. We can then:
- Develop an understanding of why our services do not meet their needs.
- Improve delivery of services making it easier for all groups of customers to access services.