Appendix - North Kesteven District Council

E Supporting Minority Groups
Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Residents
In the North Kesteven District 97% of the population are White British. Only 3% of the population who make up the
black and minority ethnic (BME) population in North Kesteven compared with the national average of 13%.
North Kesteven District Council has an equalities policy to provide a fair and unbiased service no matter what a
person’s colour, race, religion, sex, age or disability.
The duty to promote race equality issues was placed on local authorities with effect from December 2000. The
requirement comes from the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, and requires that timetabled and realistic
plans to meet the duty be put into place. The general duties are:
• Eliminating unlawful racial discrimination;
• Promoting equality of opportunity: and
• Promoting good race relations between people of different racial groups.
The Council is working towards the adoption of Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) good practice standards for
social landlords on tackling racial harassment which will improve the monitoring and coordination of services not
just within the Council but also between agencies on BME issues. The monitoring role will help the Council to
ascertain the extent to which BME groups are receiving Council services which will in turn enable services to
evolve to ensure that they can be accessed by all groups within the District.
The Council has also taking on the coordinating role for an equalities project on behalf of District Council’s in
Lincolnshire. The aim of the project is to harmonise good practice across the County and ensure that service
provision accurately reflects the needs of all local minority groups.
The Lincolnshire Regional Housing Sub Group intends to develop survey work to identify the needs of minority
groupings which can then be to develop joint strategies between Districts in the County to meet these needs. The
funding for this will be sought from the Regional Housing Board through the 2006-8 bidding round.
Domestic Violence
In response to the introduction of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and research that concluded that almost 25%
of personal crime was attributed to domestic abuse, the North Kesteven Community Safety Partnership included
Domestic Violence as one of their strategic priorities.
The partnership also committed funding to develop and introduce local initiatives for victims including an advice
and support service, delivered by Victim Support and introduced in Sleaford during January 2003. This was
subsequently rolled out to North Hykeham during 2004 along with a floating Domestic Violence service, accessible
throughout the whole of the district, delivered by Victim Support and funded by Supporting People.
Funding has also been committed to pilot a Sanctuary scheme, to employ a Domestic Violence Strategic
Coordinator and to consult with victims, statutory and voluntary agencies to develop a three year Domestic
Violence strategy, in fulfilment of the Best Value Performance Indicator 225.
Supporting People
The Government introduced from April 2003 a Supporting People Programme to bring together existing funding
sources into a County-wide budget administered by a Local Commissioning Body. This enables strategic and
funding decisions to be made at the County level.
The Council is represented on the Commissioning Body and has taken an active role in developing the supporting
people procedures for the County.
Supporting People now provides funding for a number of eligible service users who benefit from support delivered
by the:
Housing Strategy 2005 - 2008 36