Lambeth has surged ahead in so many ways in recent years: our population is growing, employment is rising and our schoolchildren continue to achieve record-breaking exam results.
The enormous investment pouring into the borough is changing lives for the better.
Despite this growth, we are acutely aware that Lambeth remains one of the most deprived areas of the country - Lambeth is the eighth most deprived borough in London and the 22nd most deprived in England. Deprivation brings significant challenges in health, education and employment for everyone.
But, for some of our people, the problems are even more severe. Some of our communities still suffer even greater levels of poverty and inequality; they still face barriers that prevent them from fulfilling their potential.
Lambeth is open for business and bold in our ambitions but, at the heart of it all, there must be fairness. We must be honest about the inequality we still have in our borough, and ensure that the proceeds of Lambeth’s growth are spread fairly amongst our communities.
Lambeth Council has established an Equality Commission, which will identify these barriers and tackle them head-on. It will concentrate above all on the challenges facing disabled adults, black Caribbean, Portuguese and our Somalian communities.
The commission has focused on four thematic areas:
- education and learning
- income and employment
- crime and justice
- participation, decision-making and leadership.
The Equality Commission launched its final report and recommendations on 18 July 2017:
The focus of the final report and recommendations made in it were grounded in the evidence collected as part of the commission process - from residents, local stakeholders and partners and officers. This evidence was captured in our interim report.
Lambeth’s Equality Commission gathered evidence from a range of sources as it investigated the reasons behind persistent inequalities in the borough.
Commissioners have made a number of fact-finding visits around Lambeth, and they have also taken formal evidence from a series of experts.
Feedback from these sessions was captured and along with formal briefing papers, fed informed formal commission sessions on each of the four thematic areas.
An overview of the thematic areas and the briefing papers for the commission sessions are available on following pages.