Cheshire and Warrington Fair Employment Charter
The Fair Employment Charter development was initiated by the Cheshire and Warrington Leaders' Board, with the intention of celebrating good practice and to support businesses and organisations to raise standards in fair employment practices.
The draft charter sets out five initial key aspects of what an employer needs to offer to demonstrate fair employment. It is recognised that each organisation will be on their own Fair Employment journey and so will specialise in some areas rather than others.
The Charter will be for a variety of organisations, including all sizes of businesses and all sectors across the public, private and third sector.
Between Spring and Summer of 2023, partners in Cheshire and Warrington held a consultation on whether the sub-region should have a Fair Employment Charter via a series of engagement events with businesses and organisations from all sizes in the public, private, community and voluntary sector, and an online survey. Thank you to those who engaged and gave their views to help shape the Charter and its implementation.
Since then, work has been underway to incorporate consultation feedback into plans for the Charter’s development implementation, alongside continuing to learn from other Charters. We will shortly be seeking formal approval from all three Cheshire and Warrington Local Authorities to launch the Cheshire and Warrington Fair Employment Charter later this year, at Aspiring Entry Level for the first twelve months.
Alongside this we will be issuing an invitation to tender for additional capacity support to help develop the systems and processes we need to operate the Charter. We hope to be in a position to start accepting Aspiring Entry Level category applications in the autumn, following a launch event, and plan to share the updated Charter and information for potential applicants from the summer.
For further information or to express interest in submitting an application for the Aspiring Entry Level in 2024/25 please email fecharter@cheshireandwarrington.com
Previous Consultation 2023
The consultation launch on the 20 March saw many attendees from across the public, private and voluntary sector. Speakers included Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, Cllr Louise Gittins, and the Leader of Cheshire East Council, Cllr Sam Corcoran with a range of speakers that shared their knowledge and good practice in fair employment and examples of personal lived experience:
Resources:
Acas gives employees and employers free, impartial advice on workplace rights, rules and best practice. They also offer training and help to resolve disputes.
CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development. It provides various online resources on issues referenced in the Fair Employment Charter.
The Fair Employment Charter asks companies to commit to paying the Real Living Wage within a certain timeframe, if they do not already do so. More information on the Real Living Wage can be found on The Real Living Wage Foundation’s website.
There are many resources available to help improve Accessibility into Work. These include:
Cheshire & Warrington Opportunities Portal
Cheshire and Warrington Pledge connects employers and young people across the sub-region.
Careers and Enterprise Company is the national body for careers education in England and provides resources for employers on its website.
DWP offer several schemes and support services to help employers provide additional opportunities to access jobs. These include:
- Access to work scheme
- Supported internships for young people with SEND
- Disability Confident employer scheme
- Disability Employment advisors
- Help and support for older workers
- Health Adjustment Passport
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has lots of guidance on their website around different work based health and safety advice.
The Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) has advice for employers on living and working well.
Mental Health Charity MIND has guidance for employers on mental health in the workplace
The Social Mobility Commission has guidance on its website around EDI practices in work Social Mobility.
Cheshire and Warrington Fair Employment Charter Consultation
The following document sets out the plans for the Charter that will be tested in the survey and at the consultation events.
Download the document
Cheshire and Warrington Fair Employment Charter Consultation Launch Event
We held our first consultation event on 20th March. You can watch the recording of the whole event here.
Click here to watchCouncil leaders to consult on the possibility of introducing a fair employment charter
The charter will promote fairer pay and a more diverse, engaged, and healthy workforce, as well as assisting with recruitment of good staff and other economic benefits such as increased productivity and profitability for business.
Read more