The Equality Act 2010
What the new Act means to
Schools
Public sector equality duty
• The following information is based on
current government proposals. Nonstatutory guidance is due in January
2011
• Schools will be expected to publish
relevant data by Dec 2011
Equality Act 2010
• The provisions of the Act apply to
England Scotland and Wales.
• All schools irrespective of their status
have obligations under the Equality Act
2010
• Schools who have measures in place to
ensure compliance with existing equality
legislation should be able to
Implications For Schools
• From April 2011 the Act will introduce a
single Equality Duty which will apply to
schools including PRUs and Academies
What’s Changing
• The old equality duties covered four
areas: race, gender, disability and
community cohesion.
• The main changes for schools are the
addition of: religion or belief, sexual
orientation, pregnancy and maternity,
gender identity and age
Requirements of the new duty
(across all protected
characteristics)
As before schools must have due
regard to the need to:
• Eliminating discrimination
harassment and victimisation
• Advancing equal opportunity
• Fostering good relations
Eliminating discrimination,
harassment and victimisation
• Removing barriers to access
• Making reasonable adjustments
• Preventing less favourable
treatment, prejudice-related
incidents, harassment and
victimisation
Advancing equal
opportunity
a)
remove disadvantages compared to other groups
e.g. narrowing any attainment gaps
b)
meet needs that differ from other groups
c)
encourage participation if it is disproportionately
low
Covering, for the first time in schools:
• religion or belief;
• sexual orientation; and
• gender identity
Fostering good relations
(a) tackling prejudice, and
(b) promoting understanding
e.g.
Teaching pupils about gender equality, sexism and different
respectful relationships
Teaching disabled and non-disabled pupils about disability equality
Teaching all pupils about race equality, cultural identity and
cohesive communities
Providing a safe space for mature discussion of controversial
issues such as immigration, terrorism and extremism
The government’s approach
• To raise and embed self-awareness of
systematic barriers and hidden
discrimination
• For this to become business as usual,
over time
• To raise and embed self-awareness of
systematic barriers and hidden
discrimination
• For this to become business as usual,
over time
Gathering equality
information
Quantitative
• raw data, e.g. attainment. attendance;
• routine monitoring data, e.g. FSM, belief;
• statistics collected by external bodies
• Audit of visual images
Qualitative
• pupil, staff, parent or community surveys;
• complaints, and what you’ve learned
Equality impact assessment
This checks the potential impact of school
practices on equality issues, so that we
rely less on assumptions.
It’s a bit like a risk assessment, based on
the equality information you gather
There is no written format for the process
but it’s assumed schools will carry out
around 5 a year, taking half a day each
time.
Equality objectives
• From April 2012 Schools will be
expected to set equality objectives
• then every four years
• could be within an “Equality Scheme” or
elsewhere in school’s usual planning
• could be linked to school Access Plan
for disabled pupils
• could be linked to cohesion actions
What information are we likely
to need to publish?
• equality outcomes (annually), e.g.
–
–
–
–
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raw data;
routine monitoring data;
staff, customer or population surveys;
data about complaints;
statistics collected by external bodies
• equality impact assessment (annually)
• equality objectives (every four years)
Implications for school leaders
and governing bodies
• The responsible body which is liable for
any breaches in the Equality Act
• Governing Body
• Local Authority
• Sponsors