- You are here:
- Home
- > About NHS Sheffield
- > News & features
- > CCG Equality Objectives
Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group Committee
Equality Objectives
April 2012
Introduction
The Equality Act 2010 is the new legislative framework to protect individuals from unfair treatment and promote a fair and more equal society. ‘The Act’ has strengthened the law on discrimination and replaces the public sector duties for Race, Disability and Gender to create a new ‘Public Sector Equality Duty’ which extends to people who fall into groups which have one or more of the following 9 ‘Protected Characteristics’:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender Reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and Maternity
- Race
- Religion or Belief
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
We are required to implement the following two duties:
The General Duty
As a public authority we must, in the exercise of our functions, have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the 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
The specific public sector equality duties
We are required to publish information to show we consciously think about the above three aims of the Equality Duty as part of the decision making process. Therefore we are required to:
- Publish equality information by 31st January 2012 and annually thereafter on how we have met the general public sector equality duties in regard to both the workforce (organisations with 150+ staff) and the population with specific reference to the ‘protected characteristics’.
- Prepare and publish equality objectives by 6th April 2012 and at least every four years
Publishing this information will make public bodies transparent about their decision making processes and accountable to their service users.
Based on the data we have published, consultation with service users, officers and stakeholders, and the EDS self assessment, we have adopted the following objectives:
- Improve the range of information we have about patients in protected groups and how this is used.
- Improving access to services
- Ensuring equality is core commissioning business
- Ensuring equality of opportunity for our staff and potential staff
- Developing strong and consistent leadership on equality issues
Each is described in more detail in this document. These objectives are broad and less specific than we would wish. Further work will be done to develop more specific objectives within each of the above, and actions plan for achievement of those objectives.
Download the full set of objectives (331kb pdf)
- Share this!
- Delicious
- Digg
- StumbleUpon
