Get involved Your health Local NHS
Services

Equality & Diversity
Implementing the new Equality Act

The Equality Act came into law in October 2010, and signalled that there will be a new Public Sector Equality Duty which will be in place for April 2011.
This replaces the public sector duties for Race, Disability and Gender and extends the public sector equality responsibility to 9 ‘Protected Characteristics’:

Age
Disability
Gender Reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and Maternity
Race
Religion or Belief
Sex
Sexual Orientation

This duty has two parts, the general and specific duties. The general duty came in on 1st October.

As a general duty:

A public authority must, in the exercise of its functions, have due regard to the need to:

eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act

advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

As a specific (public sector) duty:

Main dutes:

Public bodies to focus on the difference they can make and the improved equality outcome objectives they can deliver, with specific, relevant and measurable intended impacts, combined with the other requirements to publish data on their performance
The evidence they draw on will typically include evidence gathered from engaging with, and involving, people from the protected groups
Public bodies should determine the areas on which they plan to focus, set out what they want to achieve, and explain how they will measure success.
Public bodies will have the freedom to identify their own objectives, rooted in the available data to best meet the needs of their service users.

Impact on race, disability and gender

In setting equality objectives DoH expect public bodies will still go through a similar process to the one they would have used to develop an equality scheme, i.e. they will still need to:

assess the relevance of their functions to equality,
gather evidence in relation to all protected characteristics (including race, disability and gender)
consult and involve relevant people
will now need to publish that data and other evidence that they have drawn on, so the public can see why they have chosen to focus on the areas they have

Proposals for publication of objectives can to be reported on through the usual planning and reporting mechanisms, such as business plans and annual reports. This should result in more action, and better outcomes, for disadvantaged groups.

Public bodies will be required to publish information on equality in their workplaces at least annually, which is likely to include information on the gender pay gap and the data that informed the selection of their areas of focus.

Impact on age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and gender reassignment

The specific duties will require listed public bodies to publish their equality outcome objectives, and the data and evidence they have on the eight protected characteristics, including the results of any engagement work that public bodies have undertaken with people from these groups.

Bodies will need to take reasonable steps to fill gaps in data where they cannot demonstrate how they are delivering on equality. This process will require public bodies to consider all the protected characteristics, to go through a rigorous assessment of evidence of need, and to publish the evidence and data sets they have drawn on.