| Administrative History | The Access Officer role at Derbyshire County Council was originally created within the Corporate Property division in response to the Equality Act 2010, which placed a legal requirement on the council to make reasonable adjustments to its premises to provide access for people with disabilities. However, the Access Officer remit was a corporate one, requiring liaison with all other departments to pursue legislative compliance and good practice.
Many of the officer's duties related to access to buildings but there was also a broader anti-discrimination element to the job, reflected in these records. The Access Officer was:
1. An advisor to the council's Disabled Workers Group (founded before the creation of the role) to represent employees with disabilities.
2. A point of contact with local access groups. The Amber Valley Access Group was founded in the early 21st century as a volunteer group dedicated to improving access facilities locally by, for instance, surveying the access arrangements in publicly-accessible premises, liaising with Derbyshire County Council about construction of dropped kerbs or with Amber Valley Borough Council about planning matters. There was a standing arrangement for minutes to be sent to Derbyshire County Council's Access Officer. High Peak Access Group is a similar organisation which promotes equality for disabled people in the High Peak. The Access Officer was in touch with the group but not routinely copied in to minutes.
3. A member of the Equality Practitioners Group, set up by Derbyshire County Council in c2010. Its aims were to celebrate diversity and to promote awareness of the Equality Act 2010 and its implications for the authority and its stakeholders. This included objectives such as development of training for practitioners, consultation on policy changes, and the council's performance against the Stonewall Index of employers. Members were drawn from council departments and from representatives of trade unions, the Disabled Workers Group, the Black and Minority Ethnic Employees Network and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans Staff Network. The group had links with the Corporate Equalities Leadership Group.
4. A member of the Changing Places working group. The Changing Places Consortium of non-profit organisations was founded in 2005 to campaign for the installation in public places of toilets that are accessible to people with disabilities. It began engaging with councils and leisure venues to establish Changing Places toilets across the UK, based on a design pioneered in Nottingham which would later become British Standard BS 8300. In support of this campaign, Derbyshire County Council's Equalities Leadership Group set up a working group. The group's role was to promote the Changing Places campaign, to identify suitable locations for accessible toilets in council buildings and to influence partner organisations and the private sector to provide similar facilities. Although group members were primarily from council departments, members of the public such as parents of children with disabilities were also included, as was Councillor Carol Hart, the Cabinet Member for Communities (later the Member for Equalities). |