ForewordI am delighted to introduce the Jobcentre Plus equality schemes, which include our disability and gender schemes and our annual race equality scheme progress report. Our diversity goals, introduced in 2000, are:
- to build a workforce that reflects and is part of the wider community;
- to be an employer of choice in a diverse marketplace;
- to enable all staff to contribute to our business objectives and to maximise their potential to do that; and
- to provide an excellent service to all Jobcentre Plus customers that reflects their particular needs and embraces diversity.
In Jobcentre Plus we have already made significant progress towards achieving our diversity goals, but we know that we have much more to do. Our equality schemes and the associated action plans set out our vision for mainstreaming diversity and equality into every area of our business, specifically in the areas of economic and social impact, employer services, customer focus and employee engagement. In developing our equality schemes we have drawn on our experience of taking forward our Race Equality Scheme. We will continue to build on our successes and lessons learned. Lesley Strathie Chief Executive Jobcentre Plus: our aims and objectivesJobcentre Plus is an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The aim of the Department is to promote opportunity and independence for all. Jobcentre Plus plays an important role in this: everything that we do is designed to deliver opportunities to work for customers who can work, and financial support for those who cannot. The UK has a record number of people in work. By making our business a success, Jobcentre Plus will help more people into employment and also help to ensure that the benefits of employment are distributed more fairly across the population. Working in partnership with key stakeholders, and by focusing our work on the most disadvantaged people in the labour market, Jobcentre Plus will play a pivotal role in helping to reduce labour market inequalities, revitalise communities, and break the cycles of deprivation that affect some individuals, groups and neighbourhoods - such as persistent low income, disengagement from the labour market and reduced life chances.
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