Ensuring an equal voice - Reaching out to the community so we hear from everyone

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination in the workplace and wider society. The Council also has a duty consider all individuals when carrying out our work. We do this via our Equalities Policy, which is currently out for consultation (ending 2 April).

We include how we treat everyone fairly and with respect, understand and respond to the needs of our communities to ensure no one is disadvantaged, put the customer at the heart of everything we do and ensure our services are accessible.

Examples include providing Changing Places facilities or play parks built with accessibility in mind.

Our Equality Objectives

Objective 1: Improve our understanding of our diverse communities in all that we do
Objective 2: Encourage all residents to have a say in the decisions that affect them and get involved in their local communities
Objective 3: Deliver services and customer care to meet the needs of all our residents
Objective 4: Deliver organisational change to enable a more inclusive and diverse workforce

Have your say

Visit the consultation portal to have your say.

If you would like receive it in an alternative language or format please email corporatepolicy.team@ashford.gov.uk

Make your voice heard……

We want to capture the views across a broad range of our backgrounds and viewpoints within our community.  As the borough grows, so does the diversity within our community, so we’re reaching out to individuals and groups, and especially those we have never heard from before.

For example Ashford Access promote awareness regarding disabled access to public areas. Are there other groups or causes we should be hearing from too?

Get in touch

If you would like to help us ensure those hard to reach groups’ views are shared please email corporatepolicy.team@ashford.gov.uk

Making accessing our services easier

SignLive

British Sign Language users can use the SignLive service to have a call with our customer services team interpreted by a professional. It is free to access via an app on your smartphone or tablet or you can also use a computer with a webcam, microphone and speakers.

Alternative formats

If you need information on our website in a different format (e.g. accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille) please contact us by email: accessibility@ashford.gov.uk or by calling 01233 331111 – then press option 9.

Making our website accessible for all

We want as many people as possible to be able to use our website so there are a number of ways to make it easier to use.

Did you know you can change the colours, contrast levels and fonts size easily or zoom in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen? You can also navigate most of the site using speech recognition software and listen via a screen reader.