Understanding Equality
Analysis
Guidance including
step-by-step hints and tips
Our approach to Equality Analysis
1. General principles
The decisions we make impact on people in different ways – whether these are decisions about
the service we deliver, the people we engage with, or the way we recruit, develop and support
staff.
Deliberately thinking across the different strands of diversity prompts us to move beyond our
own experiences, and try and think about how others, with different characteristics, may be
impacted by what we do. Equality Analysis can help us to do this.
Equality Analysis can help us to improve experiences for:
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people in different age groups
disabled people
people going through gender reassignment
people who are pregnant or have children
people of different races (including people of different nationalities, colours, ethnic or
national origins, castes, Gypsies and Travellers and those whose first language is not
English)
people with different religions or beliefs (or those without religion or belief)
men and women
people with different sexual orientations
people who are married or in civil partnerships
people from different socio-economic groups
people who speak Welsh
whether they are:
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service users (complainants, family members, representatives of next of kin, officers
or staff subject to investigation).
external stakeholders (community interest groups, non-police stakeholders, other
members of the public, officers or staff within the police, SOCA, HMRC or UKBA,
other policing stakeholders).
internal stakeholders (Commissioners, staff).
2. The process
The IPCC has developed an Equality Analysis (EA) to help it understand the effect of proposed
or existing policies, strategies, activities or decisions on different groups protected from
discrimination by the Equality Act and other relevant legislation.
Our EA process is integrated into the corporate planning and project management processes
used across the IPCC, and also referenced in Commission and Management Board templates.
Roles in the process:
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Directors and Heads of Function have a key role in ensuring that work undertaken
by their teams is impact assessed where required.
Project Managers or relevant leads are responsible for preparing EA (where these
are required) and for consulting with those affected, gathering the necessary
evidence and identifying options.
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Project Boards (or line managers where this no project board) comment on and
have responsibility for signing off any EA prepared.
Equality champions within each Directorate are available to provide advice at any
stage of the process, quality-assure EAs in development, maintain a register of all
EAs and publish EAs.
The Valuing Diversity Group dip-sample all completed EAs to ensure issues have
not been overlooked and review the register of EAs on a regular basis to establish
which ones should be published.
The IPCC’s Management Board and Commission also ensure that items coming
before them have been properly analysed where relevant.
3. Using information
Issues identified from an EA inform the development of our corporate plan, guardianship
strategy and local engagement plans. Key themes and issues identified during the past year are
also summarised in the IPCC’s annual equality report.
4. Publishing information
Once the Equality Analysis has been approved, it should be sent to the directorate equality
champion. They will add it to the next available agenda for the Valuing Diversity Group for a
decision on whether it should be published on our website. The majority of our completed EAs
are published on the IPCC website unless they relate to individual cases or contain personal or
sensitive information. If this is the case, the completed Equality Analysis should still be sent to
the directorate equality champion, detailing the reasons why it shouldn’t be published.
Completed EAs can be found online:
www.ipcc.gov.uk/eia
Reports to commission meetings reference whether impact assessment has been undertaken.
Published Commission meeting papers can be found online:
http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/index/about_ipcc/who_runs/commission_meetings.htm
5. Providing feedback
Members of the public are invited to provide feedback on any EA published on the IPCC
website. All comments should be directed to the Valuing Diversity Group via the below details:
Valuing Diversity Group
c/o Commission Secretariat
Independent Police Complaints Commission
90 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6BH
Telephone:
Minicom:
Fax:
Text relay:
Email:
08453 002 002 (press 1 at prompt)
0207 404 0431
0207 404 0430
18001 0207 166 3000
diversity@ipcc.gsi.gov.uk
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IPCC Equality Analysis (EA) Template
1. Title of policy/practice/activity/decision being assessed:
2. Name of assessor/Author:
3. Lead director:
4. Date of assessment:
5. Version number:
6. TRIM record reference for current/previous versions: IPCC/
7. Date of next review:
8. What are you assessing?
9. Will service users from different protected groups or who speak Welsh be affected by
the policy/practice/activity/decision? How are they likely to be affected?
10. Will external stakeholders from different protected groups or who speak Welsh be
affected by the policy/practice/activity/decision? How are they likely to be affected?
11. Will Commissioners or staff from different protected groups or who speak Welsh be
affected by the policy/practice/activity/decision? How are they likely to be affected?
12. Does this policy/practice/activity/decision offer any potential to improve our
understanding of the needs or experiences of people in different protected groups?
13. Have you considered making any changes as a result of this EA to respond to
negative impact, or issues arising from research or consultation? What did you consider
or do?
14. Have you identified any issues or concerns which need to be dealt with by someone
else? If so, what are these issues and who have you passed them to?
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15. Do you need to monitor or review the ongoing effect of the
policy/practice/activity/decision, if so how do you plan to do this?
16. Does the policy/practice/activity/decision help us to work towards current corporate
equality objectives? If so, which ones?
17. Has your directorate equality champion provided feedback:
YES/NO
18. Is this EA suitable for publication?
YES/NO
19. Has your project board, or line manager approved this document:
YES/NO
20. Have you TRIM’d this document?
YES/NO
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Useful resources
General reference
Equality analysis and the equality duty: A guide for public authorities (EHRC, 2011)
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/EqualityAct/PSED/equality_analysis
_guidance.pdf
A short piece of guidance explaining the benefits of equality analysis (or equality impact
assessment), issues to consider and legal requirements.
Equality Act 2010 – Public Sector Equality Duty: What do I need to know? A quick-start
guide for public sector organisations. (Government Equalities Office, 2011)
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/110117%20Public%20sector%20Equality%20Duty%20Gu
ide%20-%20FINAL%20ACCESSIBLE.pdf
A short guide to the new equality duties. Includes case studies.
Useful sources of data
Equality Measurement Framework
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/key-projects/equality-measurement-framework/
Data provides a snapshot of progress in equality and human rights across a number of areas.
Disability Equality Indicators
http://www.officefordisability.gov.uk/roadmap2025/indicators.php
Data shows progress around disability equality, and identifies areas for future work.
British Crime Survey
http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/index.html
The survey is an important source of information about levels of crime and public attitudes to
crime as well as other criminal justice issues.
Citizenship Survey
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurveyq4200910
Statistics from the survey include data covering a range of issues including community
cohesion, empowerment, values, racial and religious prejudice and discrimination.
IPCC Public Confidence Survey
http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/index/resources/research/public_confidence.htm
Findings from the IPCC’s annual public confidence research.
HM Government Data Portal
www.data.gov.uk
The data portal provides access to data and research published by a variety of public bodies.
IPCC annual Equality Reports
www.ipcc.gov.uk/annual-equality-reports
Includes data published annually by the IPCC to show how we’re meeting equality duties.
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Independent Police Complaints Commission
90 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6BH
www.ipcc.gov.uk/eia
Tel: 08453 002 002 (local rate)
Email: diversity@ipcc.gsi.gov.uk
Version 3.0
Published: February 2012
© Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), 2012
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