North Norfolk District Council
Equality Impact Assessment
(EQIA) Guidance and Form
Owned by
Organisation Development
Date Published
January 2012.
Review Date
Location
January 2015.
http://intranet.northnorfolk.org/staff/equality.asp
Introduction
The Council is legally required to consider the equality duty as part of the
decision making process. In our activities, such as provision of services,
policy development, procedures and savings, we must consider how we can:
1. Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
2. Advance equality of opportunity between different groups; and
3. Foster good relations between different groups by tackling prejudice
and promoting understanding.
To do this the Council uses Equality Impact Assessments. These allow us to
assess the impact, either positively or negatively, on different section of our
community, employees in different ways and find ways to address concerns
and maximize opportunities.
Do you need to complete an EQIA?
If your proposed activity affects people in any way, you have a responsibility
to make sure you know how it affects different groups of people. Here are
some questions to help you decide if you need to complete an EQIA:
1. Will individuals have access to, or be denied access to a service or
function as a result of the proposed activity? e.g new policy / change of
service provision.
2. Will the proposed activity result in a change to staffing levels, change in
terms and conditions, employer or location?
3. If there a change in budget which will result in a service being
withdrawn, changed or expanded?
If you answered yes to any of these questions then you will need to complete
an EQIA
Advice and guidance
Topic
Equality & Diversity
Performance
Management
Employment
Organisational Development Contacts
Kate Sullivan Ext 6052
Helen Thomas Ext 6214
Julie Cooke Ext 6040
A glossary and further information about Equality and Diversity and equality
analysis can be found at http://intranet.northnorfolk.org/staff/equality.asp
Equality Impact Assessment Form
When completing the form make sure:



Your statements and conclusions are clearly supported by evidence.
The form is completed before decisions are made.
You complete all sections.
Section 1: responsibility and proposed activity
Service Area
Director
Manager
Reviewing Officer
Date of EQIA
Economic Development
Title of activity
Learning 4 Everyone – Economic Development
Strategic Goal 2 Employment Creation
This is a regular equality impact assessment review
of the delivery of part of the Councils, Economic
Development Strategy, Strategic Goal 2 (SG2) which
aims to help people with finding working and
developing their skills and qualifications.
Summarise the
overall aims of the
activity/ proposal and
how it will achieve
them.
Robin Smith
John Morgan
October 2012
Through the Council’s Learning for Everyone (L4E)
Team we will provide Information, Advice and
Guidance (IAG) to local people who wish to enter
employment or improve their level of skills & raise
aspiration – IAG Gateway, National Careers Service.
The L4E team will offer bespoke programs of advice
& support to people facing redundancy from local
companies as & when such events occur – Skills
Support for Redundancy.
The L4E team will work with existing & new
employers to understand their future workforce
requirements & co-ordinate provision of relevant
training courses to secure employment within the
District – Training for Jobs, SSU (Skills Support for
the Unemployed), VTF (Victory Training Fund).
We will explore opportunities to work with local
businesses & identify funding to support the provision
of apprenticeships and work experience schemes
with the aim of increasing the employment
opportunities of young people in the District –
approach to Apprenticeships
Section 2: Impact Assessment
Q1 Indicate whether people with any of the following protected
characteristics below will be affected by the activity / proposal. This
includes: service users and non service users, employees including
members and contract workers, and visitors. Please tick all boxes that
apply.

Sex

Ethnicity (includes, migrant workers, Gypsies & Travellers)

Disabled (e.g. physical disability, mental health, visually or hearing
impaired, learning difficulties, cancer, HIV etc.)

Transgender (People who are proposing to undergo, have
undergone a process (or part of a process) to reassign their sex
changing physiological or other attributes of their sex.

Religion & Belief (includes different faiths and beliefs such as
humanism and people with no religion or belief)

Sexual Orientation (gay, lesbian and bi-sexual)

Age

Civil Partnerships & Marriage

Pregnancy & Maternity
Q2 Describe how the proposed activity may affect people with a
protected characteristic when compared to people without those
characteristics i.e. does the activity or proposal put them at a
disadvantage. You will need to cite the evidence below. Think carefully
about the following areas
1. Do people with certain protected characteristics use the service more than
others? Might the proposal therefore particularly impact on them or people
associated with them, such as their families or carers?
2. The built environment (is it accessible - if not, are reasonable adjustments in
place?) e.g buildings where the activity is taking place.
3. ICT (is it accessible – if not, are adaptive ICT solutions in place?)
4. Communications (customer contact, paper, electronic, verbal etc - is it
accessible?)
5. User involvement/participation/consultation (is it inclusive of everyone &
does it accommodate different needs?)
6. Have all reasonable and proportionate options been explored to use the
proposed activity as an opportunity to promote equality for all the protected
characteristics? For example by:


Removing or minimising disadvantages.
Taking steps to meet the persons needs, this may include treating a
person more favourably if it relates to disability or through the use of
Positive Action.

Encouraging persons who share a relevant protected characteristic to
participate in public life or in any other activity in which participation by
such persons is disproportionately low.
7. Have all reasonable and proportionate options been explored to use
the proposed activity as an opportunity to foster good relations
between different groups by tackling prejudice and promoting
understanding.
8. Have all reasonable and proportionate options been explored to use
the proposed activity as an opportunity to eliminate unlawful
discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
Enter your description and evidence here. (include file references to
evidence and any other relevant data)
The service is available to all members of the local community and is
delivered in equality accessible premises, for example with ramps and/or
hearing loops, access to Intrans and adaptive IT technology. However,
our key performance targets make us focus on those who are
unemployed or at risk or redundancy. We offer a personalised and
compassionate approach, as although not a protected characteristic
group, many of the clients suffer from very low self esteem issues or
have suffered some personal negative experiences and come to us with
low levels of confidence.
Past years’ data, going back to 2002, indicates that we see more women
than men. Also that the number with a disability is high and the number
of older people is high. Ethnic groups are broadly in line with comparator
data, however, recently most ethnic group engagement has come as a
result of redundancy work. This has lead to an ongoing series of English
for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses running in the District.
The gender data is quite concerning. Since 2008 the number of men
accessing the service has increased, this has been over 50% in a given
period of up to 6 months. This was assumed to be an impact of the
recession, that is, male engagement is motivated by immediate economic
needs rather than longer term goals. While the current variance is not
significant compared with most comparator data (census etc) when
compared with number of Jobseeker Allowance (JSA) claimants there is
a large variance. If we isolate the people affected by redundancy then the
is a male majority (56% against 44%). Thus we recognize a need to have
a greater number of men engaging with the service. We will look to
address this through more targeted marketing to men, for example the
use of beermats/coasters.
Second, ethnic group engagement is constantly scrutinized. At present
we are seeking to enhance the environment in which we operate through
use of positive images, illustrations through various posters, as well as
highlighting the Intrans service. At a focus group in November 2012 one
client stated that they were surprised that there were people who wanted
to help foreigners.
Third, current contracts create a bias against the under 19s as we do not
have any revenue streams for them and only limited resources to actively
assist them, with much support being to signpost to organisations that
can help. Defining an effective approach to promoting apprenticeships
and engagement with schools to aid the transition from school are areas
of current strategic work.
There is a further need to promote the use of adaptive technology with IT
for those with disabilities, we have the equipment but it is often sidelined,
because people prefer to use standard equipment so as not to further
isolate themselves from others. However, we will be more proactive in
using the equipment in future through simple measure like taking it out of
the cupboard.
All protected characteristics groups are scrutinized at team meetings. We
have thus far resisted asking for additional quantitative data from clients
to monitor this more closely but we have no qualitative client or partner
feedback to indicate that there is an issue for these or any group with
accessing the service, with the possible exception that it is not publicised
enough, but this applies universally.
Q3 Please describe any actions you will take to minimise or remove any
negative impacts of the proposed activity or to promote further equality
of opportunity and good relations.
Action
Develop approach to
more effectively engage
with younger people.
Develop publicity with a
greater focus on males,
utilizing the Work Club
funding
Greater access to
adaptive technology for
IT
Continuous
environmental audit
Outcome
Lead
Officer
Expanded service, with
John
more resources, which is Morgan
engaging with more
younger people and
helping them into
training and work
Better publicity for the
John
service and continued
Morgan
scrutiny of the gender
balance of clients
More opportunity for
Stuart
disabled characteristic
Hutcheson
group to develop IT skills
Create an ever more
John
welcoming environment
Morgan
to encourage all groups
to access the service.
End Date
Programm
e to be
developed
2013
March
2013
Dec 2012
Formally
monitore
d at EQIA
review
Mar 2014
Any actions taken to mitigated negative impacts of an activity or proposal
should be included in either: your service’s business plan, an appropriate
team member’s appraisal or logged on TEN.
Q4 If any negative impacts can not be minimized or removed state how
the impact can be justified. You must state the evidence for this.
N/A
Section 3: Monitoring & Review
You will need to make arrangements to monitor the implementation of the proposed
activity as this will allow you to:




Easily review your Equality Impact Assessment in future.
Understand, in practical terms, the impact of the proposed activity once it is
implemented.
Know whether any action to mitigate any negative affect of the proposed activity
has worked such as positive action.
Keep reasonable adjustments under review. For example, the adjustment may
cease to be effective, or where an adjustment would have been unreasonable to
make, changes in circumstances or technological developments may now mean
it is.
Think carefully about the following areas when deciding your monitoring
arrangements:




Is the same impact being achieved for people with protected characteristics
compared to people without these characteristics – if not, why not?
Are the needs of people with protected characteristics being adequately met,
where these may differ from people without these characteristics?
Is uptake of any opportunities associated with the activity or proposal generally
representative of people with protected characteristics?
Does the customer/staff/volunteer profile reflect North Norfolk’s population – & if
not, why not?
Q5. Please describe your monitoring arrangements here. These can be
managed using the Council’s business management processes e.g.
TEN, appraisals etc.
Current data management enables us to capture gender/ age/ ethnicity/
disability/ lone parent data. This is reviewed at team meetings and reported to
our funders as well as being added to TENs when required. In addition we
utilize universal feedback forms and are using focus groups as a means of in
depth qualitative monitoring of the service.
Action points will be monitored and reviewed formally using the staff appraisal
process and monthly team meetings.
Section 4: EQIA Review
A completed EQIA should never go longer than 3 years without being
reviewed, however it should be reviewed more frequently if the activity, EQIA
and monitoring data suggests this would be beneficial.
You may need to be flexible with this date if there is a change in
circumstances, incident or series of complaints.
Review Date for EQIA
Lead Officer
March 2014
John Morgan
Section 5: Reporting your Equality Impact Assessment
1. Committee Reports
a. For activity which requires a committee decision, use the
existing Committee report template. There is a compulsory
section on Equality and Diversity.
2. Projects – Medium and large
a. An EQIA should accompany reporting at stage 3 of the project
management process i.e. when the scope for the project is
defined and the business case is made.
3. Projects - Small
a. A summary statement of the EQIA should be submitted to
relevant personnel before activity commences e.g. team leader,
manager.
The data which needs to be reported is summarized below:
1. That an EQIA has taken place.
2. What the key findings were i.e. whether there were any adverse impact
for customers or staff including: indirect and direct discrimination,
discrimination arising from a disability and discrimination through a
failure to comply with our statutory duty to anticipate and make
reasonable adjustments to a provision, criterion or practice, physical
feature or absence of auxiliary aid which results in a disadvantage to a
Disabled person.
3. How these affects will be mitigated or removed.
4. Where the EQIA can be located.
Signed
Signed
Print Name
Job Title
Date
John Morgan
North Norfolk Learning & Skills
Project Manager
5 December 2012