South Tyneside Equalities Information Report 2024Targeting Support to Make Things Fairer

Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging are extremely important to us in South Tyneside. We will not stand for hate, prejudice or unfair treatment. We know that there is power and opportunity in our differences. And we are committed to making sure that everybody in our community and in our workforce is appreciated and supported to be able to thrive.

As part of the South Tyneside Vision and Strategy, adopted in Autumn 2022, South Tyneside Council, and the wider South Tyneside Partnership, identified ‘Targeting Support to Make Things Fairer’ as one of five long-term strategic guiding ambitions, underpinning our efforts to achieve the key things we want for our residents – for them to be financially secure, healthy and well, connected to jobs, part of strong communities – and deliver upon our vision of making South Tyneside a place where people live happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.

Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. In setting our Council ‘PROUD’ values (Professional, Respectful, Open and Honest, Understanding and Engaging, and Deliver What We Say We Will), we took care to make sure that respect and understanding are some of the key principles that are at the heart of our culture and guide all that we do, individually and collectively.

More recently, we have stepped up our efforts further and brought forward a comprehensive Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) strategy and action plan which sets out how we plan to deliver upon our newly refreshed Local Equality Objectives:

1. Improve our data and understanding
2. Strengthen our approach to engagement and co-production
3. Continue to embed EDIB into our culture, workforce and everything we do

We know that to progress our ambitions and objectives around Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, and to ensure that we are meeting our ongoing obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty of the Equality Act 2020, it is important that as an organisation we regularly review and refresh our understanding of the needs and make-up of the local population we serve.

This includes considering which groups have characteristics protected under the Equalities Act (age, sex, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation) and considering which other factors may have a role in shaping inequalities in access or outcomes. We aim to work towards equity of treatment and opportunity.

2023 - 2024 Progress

As a public body, under the Public Sector Equality Duty, South Tyneside Council is required to have due regard for the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation) and people who do not share it.
• Foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not share it.

We take this duty seriously in South Tyneside.

Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging is a proactive priority for the Council’s political and officer leadership and a Lead Member, Councillor Paul Dean, has been appointed to provide leadership of ‘Voluntary Sector, Partnerships and Equalities’, with a Member Champion, Councillor Shane Smith, additionally appointed specifically to advocate for Equalities, Inclusion, Diversity and LGBTQ people.

At the same time, we have made sure that equality is everyone’s business. Individual services work hard to promote equality and diversity in decision-making, service design and provision, as well as in procurement and contracting, and within the workforce.

Over the last year, across services, we have pressed forward with a range of initiatives aimed at providing opportunities for and removing barriers for service users and members of the local South Tyneside community with diverse characteristics and needs, including:

• Designing, co-produced with local special schools, disability advocacy and community groups, and installing inclusive play equipment at 11 parks and playgrounds around the borough to help accommodate wheelchair users and other children who have difficulty using existing play facilities.
• Installing new Changing Places toilet facilities at Souter Lighthouse and Bents Park following consultation on toilet location preferences with people with disabilities and their families and carers.
• Securing funding for and moving forward with plans for a new special primary school for pupils with significant social, emotional, and mental health needs and additional needs such as autism and ADHD.
• Planning a South Tyneside Poverty Truth Commission (led by third sector partners WHIST) and Inspire South Tyneside and involving local ‘commissioners’ with lived experience of poverty, to better understand local inequalities and experiences of poverty.
• Delivering bespoke employment support through South Tyneside Works to specific groups who face additional barriers to employment, including a scheme for over-50s jobseekers, as well as a STEMettes Leadership Academy which encourages women, girls and non-binary people to explore careers in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.
• Supporting socio-economically disadvantaged individuals and families through various Poverty Group-led initiatives, including by expanding the Council Tax support scheme, providing vouchers and free holiday clubs during school holidays to families with children eligible for free school meals, and campaigning to raise awareness of pension credit.
• Marking Pride month and showing support for LGBTQ+ residents by flying the inclusive rainbow flag, posting celebratory messages and using rainbow social media avatars, and working with Out North East to organise Pride events and activities over the summer.
• Organising positive, diverse and inclusive public events such as the This is South Tyneside Summer Parade which showcases the talents and interests of a wide range of local groups and people, from older residents to young adults with autism.
• Progressing our ‘Age Friendly Communities’ ambitions by completing a survey of partners and residents and bringing forward a new draft age friendly community strategy and action plan aimed at making it possible for people of all ages to live healthy and active lives and participate in their communities and activities they value.
• Working with young carers and partners to co-produce a ‘young carer’s passport’ to help young carers make schools and GPs know of their caring responsibilities so they can provide flexibility and understanding.
• Marking International Women’s Day with an event inviting girls and young women from local primary and secondary schools to meet with local women using STEM skills in different career paths.
• Bringing together residents from different age groups for multiple Intergenerational Debates, led by the Young People’s Parliament and Young Health Ambassadors.
• Participating in the ‘White Ribbon’ campaign aimed at eliminating abuse against women and girls.
• Organising and hosting the 2023 South Tyneside Hate Crime Conference, which brought together over 100 multi-agency professionals to learn from the voices and experiences of people who had been subject to hate crime as a result of their disability, race, or sexuality.
• Working the North East Dialogue Society and members of the local Muslim community, hosting a Community Dialogue Iftar Dinner at South Shields Town Hall celebrating diversity and unity.

When it comes to supporting our employees, a regularly reviewed and refreshed suite of HR policies and documents support staff and applicants with protected characteristics in various ways, from offering enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay, to equipping managers and staff with guidance on how they can support colleagues experiencing menopause.

We take care to ensure our recruitment processes are fair, transparent, and free from bias, with vacancies advertised through a range of channels to attract a broad range of applicants, and managers supported with Recruitment and Selection Training that includes information on fair selection methods and how to avoid discrimination.

Over the last year, we have also pressed forward a range of other initiatives to improve support for our employees with diverse characteristics and needs, including:

• Offering an expanded range of training opportunities to help employees better support colleagues and service users with diverse characteristics and needs, including on topics such as ‘How to be a Good Trans Ally’, ‘Neurodiversity in the Workplace’, and ‘Disability Awareness and Etiquette’.
• Developing a new dedicated ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ section on the newly refreshed staff intranet, which provides employees with information on protected characteristics and provides links to relevant information.
• Installing a new Changing Places facility with enhanced accessible toilet in South Shields Town Hall.
• Introducing two new spaces made available in South Shields Town Hall for colleagues with particular protected characteristics to use:
  • A new and expectant mother’s room, with comfortable furniture, a dedicated breast-milk fridge, handwashing facilities and the facility to lock the door and indicate that the space is in use.
  • A faith room, with a designated washroom, provided for colleagues to use for prayer, meditation, or mindfulness.
• Signing up to the Anti Racism Charter, pledging to champion a racially diverse workforce, challenge racism wherever it is seen, and identity and remove barriers and promote opportunity in recruitment, promotions, training and development, disciplinary procedures and pay.
• Piloting an Exit Questionnaire to gather better information on the reasons employees leave.
• Committing to the Age-Friendly Employer Pledge, communicating the importance and value of older workers, and pledging to undertake a multi-year programme of action championing age inclusion in the workforce, including the development of new Age Inclusion Forums and work on Health MOTs for over-50s and offering all-age career development opportunities.
• Nurturing a new EDI Employees Network, made up of colleagues from across different services with a personal or professional interest in advancing equalities issues, as well as the creation and ongoing promotion of a number of different groups and networks including:
  • Neurodiversity and Disability Network
  • Women's Network
  • Multi-Cultural Network
  • LGBTQIA+ Network
  • Armed Forces Network
  • Staff Carer’s Network
• Celebrating the first-year anniversary of the EDIB employee networks with an awareness-raising event in June.
• Developing and seeking volunteers to be involved in a Reverse Mentoring pilot.
• Becoming the first Council in the North East to achieve Level One (Active) in the Care Confident Employers benchmarking scheme, after work to recognise, support, recruit and retain employees who have caring responsibilities.

South Tyneside Council draws from a range of intelligence in considering how our policies and practices affect different service users, including those who share protected characteristics.

As an organisation, we are committed to making fair, transparent, evidence-based decisions. We recognise that the more we know about our local population, the better we are able to ensure our services meet their needs.

We closely monitor a wide range of indicators and outcomes through our Corporate Performance Framework and within individual services, using this to monitor the impact of our activities and policies on residents.

Insight collected from feedback, consultations and engagement with service-users is another important part of this intelligence puzzle, helping us shape our services around people’s needs and preferences.

Increasing access to data, including most recently the data from the 2021 census, is also helping us to continually improve our understanding of the identities, characteristics and experiences of our residents.

Key information on our population, by protected characteristic

Population

• There are 147,800 people living in South Tyneside.

Sex*

• 48.5% of residents are male, and 51.5% are female.

The 2021 Census self response options for the question on sex were either ‘male’ or ‘female’. There was no requirement that self declared sex should align with the sex recorded on an individual’s birth certificate. See the ‘gender reassignment’ section below for further information on gender identification, including non-binary and intersex.

Age

• 16.6% of residents are under 16.
• 20.9% of our residents are over 65.
• Older residents are also more likely to have a disability (see below). Of South Tyneside’s over 65s, 18% people have impaired mobility, 54% of people have some hearing loss, and 9% have a moderate or severe visual impairment.

Disability

• 22.1% of residents (surveyed in the 2021 census) identified as being disabled.
• 10.5% of residents identified as being disabled and limited a lot in day-to-day activities and a further 11.6% identified as being disabled and limited a little in day to day activities.
• 77.9% identified as being not disabled.
• 24.8% of residents aged 16+ have a long term musculo-skeletal problem such as arthritis.
• 5.7% of working aged adults are estimated to have impaired mobility.
• 2.4% of local adults have severe hearing loss.
• 2.2% of local adults have a severe visual impairment.
• 2.2% of local adults aged 18+ have a learning disability.
• 16.9% of local school pupils have some level of special educational needs or disabilities.
• 19.1% of the population aged 16+ are estimated to have a common mental health disorder (including depression or anxiety).

Ethnicity

• 5.6% of our residents are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
• 94.4% of residents identify as white.
• 2.9% of residents identify as Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh.
• 95.6% of residents were born in the UK.
• 0.6% of residents were born in Bangladesh.
• 0.3% of residents were born in Germany.
• 0.3% of residents were born in India.
• 97.74% of residents have English as their first or preferred language.
• Of those residents whose main language is not English (2.34%), a quarter either cannot speak English at all or cannot speak English well (0.56% of all residents).
• 0.48% of residents have Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya) as their preferred language.
• Other first or preferred languages of South Tyneside residents include Polish, Arabic, Panjabi, Portuguese, Persian or Farsi, Kurdish, Urdu and Romanian.
• 0.04% of people in England have sign language as their main language.

Religion and Belief

• 52.6% of South Tyneside residents identify as Christian.
• 39.3% of residents have no religion or belief.
• 2.5% of residents identify as Muslim.
• Other religions practiced by notable numbers of residents of the borough include Sikhism (0.3% of residents), Hinduism (0.2% of residents), and Buddhism (0.2% of residents).

Pregnancy and Maternity

• The average age of a mother in South Tyneside is 29.6 years.
• The general fertility rate in South Tyneside is 55.5, meaning that there are 55.5 live births each year for every 1000 females of reproductive age (15 to 44) in the population – or approximately 1 in 18 local women in this age group gives birth each year.

Sexual Orientation

• 92.01% of the South Tyneside population identify as straight or heterosexual (according to the 2021 census).
• 2.74% of residents identify as LGBTQ+
  • 1.45% of residents identify as gay or lesbian
  • 1% of residents identify as bisexual
  • 0.07% of residents identify as pansexual
  • 0.02% of residents identify as queer
  • 0.05% of residents identify with another sexual orientation
  • 0.04% of residents identify as asexual
• A further 5.36% of South Tyneside census respondents chose not to report their sexual orientation.

Marriage and Civil Partnership

• 41.39 % of South Tyneside adults are in a marriage (41.17 % with a person of the opposite sex, 0.22% with a person of the same sex).
• 0.15% of South Tyneside adults are in a registered civil partnership (0.09% in a same-sex civil partnership, 0.06% in an opposite-sex civil partnership).
• 10.31% of adults are divorced (with a further 0.02 with a legally dissolved civil partnership).
• 2.72% of adults are separated (but still married) and a further 0.02% are separated but still in a registered civil partnership.
• 7.38% are widowed with a further 0.01% a surviving partner from a civil partnership.
• 38% of the South Tyneside population over 16 have never married and never registered a civil partnership.

Gender Reassignment*

• 95.31% of South Tyneside residents responding to the 2021 census reported their gender identify as the same as the sex that was assigned at their birth.
• 0.38% of South Tyneside residents reported that their gender identity was different to the one assigned at birth.
• Of this group, 16.5% (0.06% of the total South Tyneside population) identified as trans women, 24.6% identified as trans men (0.09% of the total population), 12.6% identified as non-binary (0.05% of the total population), 39.6% did not specify a gender identity (0.15%), and 6.7% identified as another gender identity (0.03%).
• 4.31% of local census respondents chose not to report their gender identity.

It should be noted that there has been some recent criticism of census research methods in relation to optional questions about gender identify and sexuality, with it suggested that some respondents misunderstood the question wording and responded inaccurately, however the 2021 census is the only available dataset which provides an indication of gender identity of the entire UK population.

Socioeconomic Disadvantage

Socioeconomic status is not a legally protected characteristic, but there is reference within the Equality Act 2010 to a requirement for public bodies to adopt transparent and effective measures to address the inequalities that result for inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage. While this ‘socioeconomic duty’ was never formally enacted in England, it has been activated in Scotland and Wales and a number of English local authorities have voluntary adopted it and lobbied for its wider implementation.

• South Tyneside is ranked 27^th most deprived out of 317 local authorities nationally. (According to the 2019 Index of Multiple Deprivation).
• The average life male life expectancy in South Tyneside is 76.9 and the average female life expectancy is 81.4 (PHE Life Expectancy at Birth, 2016-2020). Across wards, this ranges from 71.4 to 82.7 for males and 78.3 to 88 for females, typically correlating with levels of deprivation.
• 35.6% of local under 16s (11,021 young people) live in relative low-income households.
• 32.9% of primary school pupils and 29.1% of secondary school pupils are entitled to free school meals (a statutory benefit available to families who receive means-tested benefits).

Other (non-protected) characteristics of note

In addition to those groups with legally protected status under the Equality Act, there are other groups who have particular needs or disadvantages and are likely to experience discrimination as a result of a particular characteristic.

• Experience of Care - Approximately 1% of local children and young people aged 0-18 are in care in any given year (100 per 10,000). Looked after children are more likely to have poorer educational and other outcomes compared to their non-looked after peers. Statistically, children in care are more likely than the average to be male, black African and / or have special educational needs.
• Carers – A carer is anyone who cares for a friend who, due to illness, disability, a mental health problem, or an addition, cannot cope without their support. 10.5% South Tyneside residents (aged 5 and over) report providing at least 19 or more hours of unpaid care per week.
• Armed Forces Experience - 5.3% of the borough’s 16+ population have previously served in the UK regular armed forces and/or reserved armed forces. This group is disproportionately male (89% male and 11% female) and tends to be older than the non-veteran population, with 22% of local veterans aged 80+.
• Asylum Status – An estimated 0.54% of the UK’s total population are stateless or have pending asylum status. (In terms of the profile of asylum seekers, approximately 26% of asylum applications are made by women with 74% made by men, and as of 2022, 31% of asylum seekers were of Asian nationalities and 24% were of European nationalities, with 23% Middle Eastern and 17% African, with the most common nationalities Albanian, Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian.)

Wider information sources

• The ‘Our South Tyneside’ report provides, in engaging infographic form, an annual snapshot of the latest data about the borough and its population across a wide range of themes and indicators. It is designed to be a useful reference document for residents, staff, elected members and partners to understand the composition of our borough and to help build the foundation for evidence-based decision-making.
• The South Tyneside Joint Strategy Needs and Assets Assessment (Overview - South Tyneside Council), which is updated on a rolling basis, provides a comprehensive overview of the diverse characteristics of our local communities.
• Service-specific strategies, including the South Tyneside Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the Economic Recovery Plan, and regular updates against these, provide additional topic-specific analysis of the characteristics, needs and outcomes of the local population.
• The Council publishes Quarterly Performance Reports which provide elected members, partners and the public with regular updates on key performance metrics.
• The Office of National Statistic publishes local authority-specific census profiles, including the South Tyneside Census Equalities Profile (How life has changed in South Tyneside: Census 2021 (ons.gov.uk)), which provides detailed information on the characteristics of the local South Tyneside population.

Workforce Data

As at 31 March 2024, South Tyneside Council employed 3062 employees (not including school-based employees).

In the following information, in line with best practice, to avoid identifying individuals, limited details are presented for ethnic, religious, gender and orientation categories where fewer than 10 people are recorded.

Sex / Gender

In accordance with requirements for gender pay gap reporting, gender is recorded and reported in a binary way, recognising only men and women. This means the data available does not take account of non-binary or other gender identities.

• 28.42% of Council employees are recorded as men (870) and 71.58% are recorded as women (2191) as of 31 March 2024.
  Although the Council’s workforce is disproportionately comprised of women, this is not unusual in the public sector, with nearly twice as many women compared to men employed in the public sector in the UK, and may be in part attributable to the sector’s reputation for flexible working practices, as well as to gender bias traditionally associated with roles such as in social care.
• Gender balance varies by directorate. The imbalance is most pronounced in Children’s Services (where the break-down is 88.99% women to 11.01% men). Most equal is Place and Communities, where 48.7% are women and 51.3% men. In Public Health, it’s 80% women to 20% men, while in Governance and Corporate Affairs it is 76.96% women to 23.04% men, in Business and Resources it is 64.93% women and 35.07% men, and in Adult Social Services and Commissioning it is 82.54% women to 17.46% men.
• The mean hourly pay rate for employees of the Council in March 2023 who were men was £17.92, and the mean hourly pay rate for women employees was £15.56.
• The median gender pay gap (the difference between the median hourly rate of men and women employees) for this period was 16.8%. This is higher than the 2022 UK average median gender pay gap (7.7%) and also slightly higher than the 2022 gender pay gap across all public sector employees (13.3%).
• More women than men work on a part time basis (86% of employees working under 30 hours per week are women, and 16% are men).
• Men are better represented in higher paying roles within the organisation. Of those employees in the lower pay quartile, 13% are men, and 90% are women. In contrast, 37% of employees in the higher pay quartile are men (whereas 63% are women).

The Council publishes its full Gender Pay Gap Report on an annual basis. The latest report is available on the Council’s website - Gender Pay Gap Report - South Tyneside Council

Age

• 55-59 year olds are the largest age group among Council employees, making up 15.81% of the workforce.
• The least populous age group in the Council are those aged 70+, making up 1.03% of the organisation.
• 16-24 year olds are the next most under-represented age group – making up 10.9% of the borough population aged 16+, but just 4.41% of the workforce population (1.86% under 20, and 4.38% between the ages of 20 and 24).
• Those aged between 65-69 make up a further 3.16% of the workforce.
• Business and Resources has the largest proportion among the Directorates of workers aged 20 and under (6.85% of the directorates workers, compared to an average of 1.86% of the Councils workers overall), while Place and Communities has the largest percentage of workers aged 60 or over (over 26.17% of the directorates workers are 60+, compared to an 16.37% of the Councils workers overall).

Ethnicity

• The data systematically recorded about workforce ethnicity is limited (with ethnicity not known for 12.84% of employees and a further 5% choosing not to share this, and without the White Roma category that is collected in the 2021 national census), but nonetheless gives some indication of the ethnic diversity of the organisation.
• 78.30% of staff (2397 people) identify as White British, with a further 0.29% identifying as White Irish (9 people).
• Overall, 3.57% of employees (112 people) are recorded as having an ethnicity other than White British or White Irish.
• The next largest ethnic group, after ‘White British’ and after those are ‘Not Known’ or ‘Prefer Not to Say’, are ‘Any other White Background’ (0.75%, 23 people), African (0.62%, 19 people), and Bangladeshi (0.52%, 16 people).
• 1.33% of employees (41 people) are recorded as coming from an Asian ethnic background. This includes 0.52% Bangladeshi (16 people) and a small number of people recorded as Indian, Pakistani, Chinese or Any Other Asian Background (fewer than 0.32% / 10 people in each sub-category).
• A very small number of people are recorded as Arab or Any Other Arabic or Middle Eastern Background (fewer than 0.32% / 10 people in each sub-category).
• 0.16% of the workforce is recorded as Black African (19 people), with a very small number recorded as from Any Other Black Background (fewer than 0.32% / 10 people).
• 0.7% of total employees (21 people) are recorded as coming from a mixed ethnic background. 0.7% of total employees (21 people) are recorded as coming from a mixed ethnic background. This includes White and Asian, White and Black African, White and Black Caribbean, White and Arab / Middle Eastern, and Any Other Mixed Background.
• The directorate with the largest proportion of recorded identities other than White British (or ‘Not Known’ or ‘Prefer Not to Say’) is Children’s Services, where 5.2% of employees have a recorded identity that is non-White British. The proportions for other directorates are: 3.64% in Place and Communities, 3.29% in Business and Resources, 2.96% in Adult Social Care, 2.62% in Governance and Corporate Affairs, and 0% in Public Health.
• The directorates with the largest proportion of employees for whom there is no ethnicity recorded are Government and Corporate Affairs (17.28% of employees) and Children’s Services (16.32% of employees). There are also high rates of employees in Business and Resources who have said they would prefer not to say their ethnicity (19.48% of employees).

Disability

• As with ethnicity, the data systematically collected about employee disability is limited, with information not collected for nearly a quarter of the workforce (with disability status not known for 22.05% of workers and an additional 0.39% declining to specify their status). There is no legal requirement for employees to share information with their employer about their disability and some employees may consciously choose not to report their disability because of concerns about data confidentiality or because they feel disclosure could impact negatively on their jobs and career progression.
• 91 people out of 3061 employees are formally recorded as having a disability, representing 2.97% of the workforce (however, given 24% of people of working age are disabled across the UK, it seems that it is unlikely that this fully captures the extent of disability within the workforce.)
• Across Directorates, Adults Social Services and Commissioning has the highest percentage of employees who have declared a disability (6.21% of employees), with all other directorates between 2-4%.
• Of employees who declared a disability, 54.95% are female, and 45.05% male.
• Employees aged 50-65 have the highest rates of disability (with 14.29% of employees of this age group recorded as having a disability), with employees in their 40s having low rates of disabilities (4.4%) compared to other age groups. There are also low rates of disabilities among employees aged 65-70+ (although it should be noted that this age group is more likely to have the option to draw a pension should disability or ill-health make work difficult).

Survey Data Intelligence

Although the Council does not currently have as full an understanding of the characteristics of our workforce as might be ideal from the current data we systematically collect from our employees, we are taking steps to improve our intelligence.

The 2022 Workforce Equalities Survey provided employees with an important opportunity to share information on their characteristics and experiences, including details on their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and other aspects of their identity:

It should be noted that as well as this survey being completed two years ago, as this was not mandatory, and some employees chose not to take part or did not complete all sections, with just a 12.5% response rate, this still only provides a partial picture of the workforce.

Ethnic Group

• 94.98% of employee respondents identified as white (including 94.49% as white English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish / British and 0.49% as White Irish)
• 3.72% of employees respondents identified as coming from a black or ethnic minority group, including:
  
  3.72% of employee respondents identified as coming from a black or ethnic minority group, including Asian (Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Chinese or Another Asian Background), White and Black African, African, Arab, Any Other Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Background, or Another Ethnic Background (fewer than 10 respondents per sub-category).
• 1.3% of respondents advised that they did not wish to disclose information about their ethnic group.
• No employees self-identified as Indian, Black Caribbean, Gypsy, Roma or Irish Traveller (other ethnicities which are represented in the South Tyneside population, although in small proportions).

Religion

• 51.7% of employee respondents identified as Christian.
• 41.98% of respondents reported not identifying with a religion.
• Several respondents identified as Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu (fewer than 10 people per religion).
• 2.11% of respondents identified as following another religion not specified.
• A further 2.76% respondents did not wish to disclose any information on their religion in their response.
• No employees identified as Jewish or Sikh (other faiths which are represented in the South Tyneside population, although in small proportions).

Disability

• 22% of employee respondents reported having a physical or mental health condition listening or expected to last 12 months or more.
• 75% of respondents reported that they did not have a physical or mental health condition lasting or expected to last 12 months or more.
• A further 3% did not wish to disclose any information on disability in their response.

Sexual Orientation

• 89.95% of employee respondents identified as heterosexual or straight.
• 3.89% identified as gay or lesbian.
• 2.27% identified as bi-sexual.
• A proportion of respondents (fewer than 10) noted that they preferred to self-describe their sexual orientation.
• A further 2.76% advised that they did not wish to disclose information about their sexual orientation.

Gender Identity and Gender Reassignment

• 98.22% of employee respondents reported that their gender identify is the same as the sex they were assigned at birth.
• Several respondents reported an identity other than that they were assigned or birth (fewer than 10 respondents).
• A proportion of respondents (fewer than 10) advised that they did not wish to dislose information about whether they identified as the same sex they were registered at birth.
• 69.21% of employee respondents identified as women.
• 29.01% identified as men.
• Several respondents (fewer than 10) identified as non-binary.
• A number of respondents (fewer than 10) expressed a preference to self-describe their identity (preferring an identity other than as a man, woman, or as non-binary).
• Some respondents (fewer than 10) elected not to describe their gender.