As a service we are committed to equality in both employment and in delivering our service. We recognise the diverse nature of Renfrewshire and endeavour to ensure that employees, partners, families, and young people are treated with sensitivity, understanding and respect. The council opposes all forms of discrimination and undertakes not to discriminate unfairly on the grounds of age, race, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment, disability, sexual orientation, sex, religion or belief, responsibility for dependents, social or economic status or criminal record. Every possible step will take into account the diverse nature of individuals and ensure that they are treated fairly and decisions on service delivery and employment are based on objective criteria.
As a result of our attendance and contribution to the SDEP anti-racist network, we have committed to become an anti-racist EP service. We acknowledge that racism exists and is both an individual and structural issue with pervasive effects in our society that extends beyond the conscious thoughts and behaviours of individuals. We have established an Equalities working party within REPS where we have agreed to focus our work on anti-racism reflection and skills development for EPs (and our trainees).
We aspire to develop a shared conceptual understanding about what racism and anti-racism is in REPS, we want to be able to self-reflect on our own behaviours and biases and the impact of our implicit biases on our stakeholders. In relation to being anti-racist, we want to feel confident that we have the skills and tools to challenge and question biases and racial discrimination. As a service we aim to create a safe space for difficult conversations and an existing nurturing relationship-based ethos underpins our practice. We are also looking into further developing our policies and guidelines to reflect an anti-racist values.
Session 2024-25 saw the REPS Equalities SIP group lead our 3rd year of anti-racist implementation in REPS. As we have continued our anti-racism learning, a key focus this year has been how we translate our learning in anti-racist action in our EP practice. We have therefore focussed on embedding anti-racism across practice and service structures. We have worked at varying levels to support anti-racist action; the level of the EPS, LA and nationally.
In developing our equalities knowledge and practices, we have also begun a focus on LGBT learning, which will continue to progress through session 2025-26.
Please use the tabs in this section to find resources developed by the REPS equalities team and national resources which we have contributed to.
