[1] The
following principles, drawn from case law, explain what we must do
to fulfil our duties under the Equality Act:
·
Knowledge: everyone working for the council must be aware of our
equality duties and apply them appropriately in their
work.
·
Timeliness: the duty applies at the time of considering policy
options and/or before a final decision is taken – not
afterwards.
·
Real Consideration:
the duty must be an integral and rigorous
part of your decision-making and influence the
process.
·
Sufficient Information:
you must assess what information you have
and what is needed to give proper consideration.
·
No delegation: the council is responsible for ensuring that any
contracted services which provide services on our behalf can comply
with the duty, are required in contracts to comply with it, and do
comply in practice. It is a duty that cannot be
delegated.
·
Review: the equality duty is a continuing duty. It applies
when a policy is developed/agreed, and when it is
implemented/reviewed.
·
Proper Record Keeping:
to show that we have fulfilled our duties
we must keep records of the process and the impacts
identified.
NB: Filling out this EIA in itself does not meet the
requirements of the equality
duty. All the requirements above
must be fulfilled or the EIA (and any decision based on it) may be
open to challenge. Properly used, an EIA can be a
tool to help us comply with our equality duty and as a
record that to demonstrate that we have done so.
[2]Our
duties in the Equality Act 2010
As
a public sector organisation, we have a legal duty (under the
Equality Act 2010) to show that we have identified and considered
the impact and potential impact of our activities on all people in
relation to their ‘protected characteristics’ (age,
disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race,
religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage and civil
partnership).
This applies to policies, services
(including commissioned services), and our employees. The level of
detail of this consideration will depend on what you are assessing,
who it might affect, those groups’ vulnerability, and how
serious any potential impacts might be. We use this EIA template to
complete this process and evidence our consideration.
The
following are the duties in the Act. You must give ‘due
regard’ (pay conscious attention) to the need to:
- avoid, reduce or minimise negative
impact (if you identify unlawful discrimination, including
victimisation and harassment, you must stop the action and take
advice immediately).
- advance equality of opportunity. This
means the need to:
-
Remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected
characteristics
-
Taking steps to meet the needs of
people from protected groups where these are different from the
needs of other people
-
Encouraging people from protected
groups to participate in public life or in other activities where
their participation is disproportionately low
-
Consider if there is a need to treat disabled people differently,
including more favourable treatment where necessary
- foster good relations between
people who share a protected characteristic and those who do
not. This means:
-
Tackle prejudice
-
Promote understanding
[3] EIAs are always proportionate to:
- The size of the
service or scope of the policy/strategy
- The resources
involved
- The numbers of
people affected
- The size of the
likely impact
- The vulnerability
of the people affected within the context
The greater the
impacts, the more thorough and demanding the process required by
the Act will be.
[4] When to complete an EIA:
- When planning or
developing a new service, policy or strategy
- When reviewing an
existing service, policy or strategy
- When ending or
substantially changing a service, policy or strategy
- When there is an
important change in the service, policy or strategy, or in the city
(eg: a change in population), or at a national level (eg: a change
of legislation)
Assessment of
equality impact can be evidenced as part of the process of
reviewing or needs assessment or strategy development or
consultation or planning. It does not have to be on this template,
but must be documented. Wherever possible, build the EIA into your
usual planning/review processes.
Do you need to complete an EIA?
Consider:
- Is the policy,
decision or service likely to be relevant to a specific group or
groups (eg: older people)?
- How many
people is it likely to affect?
- How
significant are its impacts?
- Does it relate
to an area where there are known inequalities?
- How vulnerable
are the people (potentially) affected?
If there are potential impacts on
people but you decide not to complete an EIA it is usually
sensible to document why.
[5]
Title of EIA: This should clearly explain what service / policy /
strategy / change you are assessing
[6]
ID no: The unique reference for this
EIA. If in doubt contact your CCG or BHCC equality lead (see page
1)
[7]
Team/Department: Main team responsible for the
policy, practice, service or
function being assessed
[8]
Focus of EIA: A member of the public should have a good
understanding of the policy or service and any proposals after
reading this section. Please use plain English and write any
acronyms in full first time - eg: ‘Equality Impact Assessment
(EIA)’
This section should explain what you are
assessing:
- What are the main
aims or purpose of the policy, practice, service or function?
- Who implements,
carries out or delivers the policy, practice, service or function?
Please state where this is more than one person/team/body and where
other organisations deliver under procurement or partnership
arrangements.
- How does it fit with other services?
- Who is affected by the policy, practice,
service or function, or by how it is delivered? Who are the
external and internal service-users, groups, or communities?
- What outcomes do you want to achieve, why and
for whom? Eg: what do you want to provide, what changes or
improvements, and what should the benefits be?
- What do existing or previous inspections of
the policy, practice, service or function tell you?
- What is the reason for the proposal or
change (financial, service, legal etc)? The Act requires us to make
these clear.
[9] Data: Make sure you have enough
data to inform your EIA.
·
What data relevant to the impact on specific groups of the
policy/decision/service is available?
·
What further evidence is needed and how can you get it? (Eg:
further research or engagement with the affected groups).
·
What do you already know about needs, access and outcomes? Focus on
each of the groups identified above in turn. Eg: who uses the
service? Who doesn’t and why? Are there differences in
outcomes? Why?
·
Have there been any important demographic changes or trends
locally? What might they mean for the service or function?
·
Does data/monitoring show that any policies or practices create
particular problems or difficulties for any groups?
·
Do any equality objectives already exist? What is current
performance like against them?
·
Is the service having a positive or negative effect on particular
people in the community, or particular groups or communities?
[10] Engagement: You must engage
appropriately with those likely to be affected to fulfil the
equality duty.
·
What do people tell you about the services?
·
Are there patterns or differences in what people from different
groups tell you?
·
What information or data will you need from communities?
·
How should people be consulted? Consider:
(a) consult when proposals are still at a formative stage;
(b) explain what is proposed and why, to allow intelligent
consideration and response;
(c) allow enough time for consultation;
(d) make sure what people tell you is properly considered in the
final decision.
·
Try to consult in ways that ensure all perspectives can be
considered.
·
Identify any gaps in who has been consulted and identify ways to
address this.
[11] Your EIA must get to grips fully and
properly with actual and potential impacts.
·
The equality duty does not stop decisions or changes, but means we
must conscientiously and deliberately confront the anticipated
impacts on people.
·
Be realistic: don’t exaggerate speculative risks and negative
impacts.
·
Be detailed and specific so decision-makers have a concrete sense
of potential effects. Instead of “the policy is likely to
disadvantage older women”, say how many or what percentage
are likely to be affected, how, and to what extent.
·
Questions to ask when assessing impacts depend on the context.
Examples:
o Are one
or more groups affected differently and/or disadvantaged? How, and
to what extent?
o Is there
evidence of higher/lower uptake among different groups? Which, and
to what extent?
o If there
are likely to be different impacts on different groups, is that
consistent with the overall objective?
o If there
is negative differential impact, how can you minimise that while
taking into account your overall aims
o Do the
effects amount to unlawful discrimination? If so the plan
must be modified.
o Does the
proposal advance equality of opportunity and/or foster good
relations? If not, could it?
[12]
Consider all three aims of the Act: removing barriers, and also
identifying positive actions we can take.
·
Where you have identified impacts you must state what actions will
be taken to remove, reduce or avoid any negative impacts and
maximise any positive impacts or advance equality of
opportunity.
·
Be specific and detailed and explain how far these actions are
expected to improve the negative impacts.
·
If mitigating measures are contemplated, explain clearly what the
measures are, and the extent to which they can be expected to
reduce / remove the adverse effects identified.
·
An EIA which has attempted to airbrush the facts is an EIA that is
vulnerable to challenge.
[13]
Age: People of all
ages
[14]
Disability:
A person is disabled if they have a
physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term
adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day
activities. The definition includes: sensory impairments,
impairments with fluctuating or recurring effects, progressive,
organ specific, developmental, learning difficulties, mental health
conditions and mental illnesses, produced by injury to the body or
brain. Persons with cancer, multiple sclerosis or HIV infection are
all now deemed to be disabled persons from the point of
diagnosis.
[15]
Gender Reassignment: A
transgender person is someone who
proposes to, starts or has completed a process to change their
gender. A person does not need to be under medical
supervision to be protected
[16]
Pregnancy and Maternity:
Protection is during
pregnancy and any statutory maternity leave to which the woman is
entitled.
[17]
Race/Ethnicity: This includes
ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality, and includes
refugees and migrants, and Gypsies and Travellers.
Refugees and migrants means people
whose intention is to stay in the UK for at least twelve months
(excluding visitors, short term students or tourists). This
definition includes asylum seekers; voluntary and involuntary
migrants; people who are undocumented; and the children of
migrants, even if they were born in the UK.
[18]
Religion and Belief:
Religion includes any
religion with a clear structure and belief system. Belief means any
religious or philosophical belief. The Act also covers lack of
religion or belief.
[19]
Sex/Gender: Both men and
women are covered under the Act.
[20]
Sexual Orientation:
The Act protects bisexual,
gay, heterosexual and lesbian people
[21]
Marriage and Civil
Partnership: Only in relation to due
regard to the need to eliminate discrimination.
[22]
Community Cohesion: What must
happen in all communities to enable different groups of people to
get on well together.
[23]
Cumulative Impact: This is an
impact that appears when you consider services or activities
together. A change or activity in one area may create an impact
somewhere else
[24] Assessment of overall impacts and
any further recommendations
- Make a frank and
realistic assessment of the overall extent to which the negative
impacts can be reduced or avoided by the mitigating measures.
Explain what positive impacts will result from the actions and how
you can make the most of these.
- Countervailing
considerations: These may include the reasons behind the
formulation of the policy, the benefits it is expected to deliver,
budget reductions, the need to avert a graver crisis by introducing
a policy now and not later, and so on. The weight of these factors
in favour of implementing the policy must then be measured
against the weight of any evidence as to the potential
negative equality impacts of the policy.
- Are there any
further recommendations? Is further engagement needed? Is more
research or monitoring needed? Does there need to be a change in
the proposal itself?
[25]
Action Planning: The Equality
Duty is an ongoing duty: policies must be kept under review,
continuing to give ‘due regard’ to the duty.
If an assessment of a
broad proposal leads to more specific proposals, then further
equality assessment and consultation are needed.
