South Ayrshire Council marks equalities progress and sets new goals

At Cabinet on 29 April, Councillors approved the publishing of South Ayrshire Council's 2025 Equality Outcomes Report and agreed upon a new set of Equality Outcomes for the years 2025-2029.

The 2025 report highlights where the Council is making a continued commitment to reducing inequality and eliminating discrimination amongst protected groups. Key achievements include:

• Supporting wellbeing, strong families and caring communities through our South Ayrshire Children and Young People's Services Plan;
• South Ayrshire Violence Against Women Partnership activities including supporting the annual 16 Days of Action Campaign;
• Our Thriving Communities service's commitment to supporting Women's Groups; the South Ayrshire Youth Council; health and wellbeing; and improving access to employment opportunities through a number of employability programmes;
• Supporting families to maximise their incomes, enabling households to reduce the impacts of poverty;
• And as an Education Authority, raising attainment, improving outcomes, and achieving equity for children and young people.

These are just a few of the milestones reached - you can read even more in the report here - https://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/article/80133/Equality-outcomes-and-mainstreaming-reports-2025  

To build upon these fantastic achievements, a new set of Equality Outcomes has been developed to progress over the next four years. South Ayrshire Council and the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership consulted with communities to decide upon the following priorities:

• Our staff with protected characteristics have safe and supportive work environments to thrive, and the Council is seen as an employer of choice.
• There will be a better understanding and intolerance of discrimination and violence against people with protected characteristics across our communities, workforce and schools.
• We will increase the number of training and employment opportunities for people with protected characteristics from our local communities.
• Our communities will have the opportunity to shape services and influence policy and practice by ensuring that we listen to the voice of lived experience and people with protected characteristics.

You can read more in the report here - https://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/article/80136/Equality-outcomes-2025-2029

The Council will implement the following actions in order to progress the new outcomes: training; awareness raising at work, in school, and across our communities; and improving community engagement processes.

South Ayrshire Council's Portfolio Holder for Health and Social Care, Councillor Hugh Hunter, said: "It's wonderful to be able to share some of the milestones the Council has reached in terms of equality. We have ambitious goals to build on the fantastic progress made in the last few years with our new outcomes and have taken the priorities of our local communities to heart."