2. Full Impact Assessment

advertisement
Forth Valley College Equalities Impact Assessment
interim report
1.
Introduction
Forth Valley College is committed to the elimination of discrimination and the
promotion of equality. The College has undertaken to conduct Equality
Impact Assessments on College policies, practices and procedures to
determine any negative impacts on equalities groups and to examine how the
College can promote equality further.
The College formed a cross college group of staff to carry out the Equality
Impact Assessment process across the college. This group represents the
main functions of the college from teaching, HR, marketing, administration,
student support and curriculum and quality.
Initially the College screened its main policies for equality relevance, these are
listed in Appendix 1.
2.
Full Impact Assessment
From the list of policies listed in Appendix 1 a range of policies that the
College felt required full impact assessment was agreed. These are listed as
follows:
Academic Honesty
Complaints
Health Safety and Welfare
Learner Discipline
Student Admissions
Student Assessment
Student Withdrawals
Flexible Working
Recruitment and Selection
Prevention of Bullying and Harassment
Attendance Management
Staff Dismissal
Redeployment and Redundancy
Access to Training and Development
Career Progression
Staff Grievance
Student retention and attainment is analysed by equalities profiles as part of
ongoing portfolio and programme reviews.
Appendix 2 summarises the work carried out so far for impact assessment.
3.
Next steps
The purpose of this document is to provide stakeholders – staff, students,
partners, community groups – with the opportunity to tell us what they think.
We wish all interested parties to:
Tell us what you think of our suggested changes to policies
If there are other ways we can prevent discrimination
How we can promote equality
Any other suggestions or changes we can make to ensure the needs of
stakeholders are met
We would like responses by 31 July 2009
Please respond to:
equality@forthvalley.ac.uk
or to: Diversity Co-ordinator, Forth Valley College, Room 2x, Grangemouth
Road, Falkirk, FK2 9AD
or call: 01324 403329
After this date the College will complete the impact assessments with full
details of timescales for action and responsibilities for implementation.
4.
Further information
The full Equality Impact Assessment documentation is available on our
website at www.forthvalley.ac.uk
This publication is also available in other formats e.g. Braille, large print, audio
tape, computer disk – if you wish to receive the publication in any of these
formats please call 0845 634 4444. It is also available on our website at
www.forthvalley.ac.uk
Appendix 1: Equality Impact Assessment policies that have
been screened for equality relevance
Academic Honesty Policy
Adoption Policy
Alternative Assessment Arrangements
Attendance Management Policy
Child Protection Policy
Complaints Policy
Computer Equipment Loan Scheme
Core Skills
Criminal Disclosures
Disability Equality Scheme
Staff Dismissal Policy and Procedure
Equal Pay Statement
Equalities Policy
Flexible Working Policy
Support Staff Flexitime Scheme
Gender Equality Scheme
Policy on Gifts and Hospitality
Staff Grievance Policy and Procedure
Health, Safety and Welfare Policy
Highlighting Concerns at Work
Induction Guidelines
Internal Assessment Appeals
Internal Quality Audit
Internal Verification Sampling
Job Evaluation Policy and Procedure
Learner Discipline
Listening to Learners
Maternity Policy
Observation of Learning
Personal Target Setting & Review Process Guidelines
Portfolio Review
Pre-delivery Planning and Standardisation
Prevention of Harassment and Bullying Policy and Procedures
Programme Approval
Quality Management
Recognition & Procedure Agreement between FVC and EIS
Recruitment & Selection Policy & Procedure
Redeployment and Redundancy Policy
Retirement Policy
Secondary Work Undertaken Outwith the College
Self-evaluation Policy Statement
Procedure for Applying for Attendance at External Conferences, Courses,
Seminars or Workshops/Undertaking Further
Studies/Industrial/Commercial/Work Placement
Stress Management at Work Policy
Working Practices Agreement – Lecturing and Support Staff
Appendix 2: Summary of Equality Impact Assessment
findings at April 09
Academic Honesty Policy
The EQIA found that there was one recorded incidence in each of the two
years 2006 and 2007. However anecdotal evidence suggests that low level
breaches are being dealt with on an ad hoc informal basis within teaching
departments.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:





The policy should refer to support for learners to help them comply with
Academic Honesty requirements
More information should be given to learners as part of induction
The learner information sheet on academic honesty should be rewritten in plain English
More information should be given to staff about the policy
Introduce a more formal recording procedure for breaches of the policy
across campus
Complaints Policy
The EQIA found that 100% of complaints came from Scottish students. Why
students from ethnic minority backgrounds did not complain should be
addressed.
In terms of disability the figure is similar with 100% of students complaining
declaring no disability – this needs further investigation.
In terms of gender the number of female students complaining is higher but
there is a higher number of female students in the college 56% female to 43%
male so this seems to be in line with the overall college profile.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:




A statement on the College vision for equality should be added to the
policy
Information on racist incident reporting should be included in the policy
and the promotional leaflet
The leaflet promoting the complaints policy should be more visible in
reception areas
The promotional leaflet requires to include a statement on alternative
formats
Learner Discipline
The EQIA revealed that the majority of discipline breaches are carried out by
young white Scottish males.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:



Learner discipline information should go on to the VLE for learners and
it should be mandatory that students read this
Learner discipline must be appropriately covered at induction
Teaching departments must have a process for collating and analysing
data on learner disciplinaries by equalities profiles
Internal Assessment and Appeals
The EQIA found that informal appeals are dealt with by Curriculum and
Quality Leaders at a local level. Formal appeals are recorded by
Departmental Administrators. For the year 07/08 there had been 2 appeals
formally recorded. The low number of appeals would appear to indicate that
the policy has neutral impact on equalities groups.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:


Policies should go on to the VLE for students to access
A second check by another staff member should be carried out when a
student appeals informally
Student Admissions
The ethnic profile for the Forth Valley area is 1.13% (Census 2001). The
percentage of Forth Valley College students from an ethnic minority
background is 4.49% (07/08)
The number of students at Forth Valley College declaring a disability is 7.5%
(07/08). The baseline figure for students declaring a disability in Scotland was
14% in 2005/06
In terms of gender the college figure is 56% female, 43% male (07/08) and the
2005/06 baseline figure for Scotland was 57% female to 43% male.
These figures seem to suggest that the College has a representative spread
of students from these three groups.
Further analysis in terms of disability was carried out on the number of
students who had received no offer after interview and the data seems to
show that in 2007 the percentage of applicants who were not offered a place
who had a disability was 26%. Further analysis should be carried out on the
reason for no offer.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:






Mandatory interview training for staff
Course information sheets should be produced by departments
Constructive feedback after interview should be available – use a
checklist
Detailed feedback after interview to student records
Analysis of withdrawal data to determine whether there is a link to
student admissions
Develop a student admissions policy to link to existing procedures
Health, Safety and Welfare
The EQIA revealed that in session 07/08 13 out of 178 incidents were related
to a disability or existing medical condition, the nature of the incident was
related to an individual’s existing condition e.g. asthma attack. Personal
Emergency Evacuation plans exist for those students who request these.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:




Make reference to personal Emergency Evacuation Plans and Inclusive
Risk Assessments in the policy
Add a statement to the policy to allow people from Equalities groups to
feedback on their experience of the policy in practice
Inclusive risk assessment procedures to be developed for all
procedures that require risk assessment
Amend First Aid procedure and Student Work placements procedure to
include provisions for existing medical conditions and inclusive risk
assessment
Flexible Working
The staff profile of FVC is 56% female and 44% male (2007) and 6.6% of staff
have disclosed a disability.
During 07/08 12 requests for flexible working were made, 11 from females.
This may suggest that male members of staff are unaware that the policy
includes them.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:


The policy should make it explicit that civil partners are eligible for
flexible working requests
The policy should be promoted to all members of staff and highlighted
that it is relevant to male and female members of staff and also same
sex partnerships.
Prevention of Harassment and Bullying
In the previous year there was only one recorded incident of a harassment
advisor being approached for advice.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:


The policy should be re-written as two separate policies, one for staff
and one for students
The harassment advisory service should be re-launched with a new
group of volunteers.
Recruitment and Selection
The EQIA looked at a sample of 5 recent vacancies where 71 applicants were
interviewed. The sample showed that 10 out of the 71 applicants were from
an ethnic minority background, 2 were registered disabled, and 45 were
female. The College is a registered two ticks positive about disability
employer.
Suggested changes to reduce negative impacts and promote equality were:






The FVC website requires to be revised to become compliant with DDA
Applications should be anonymous
Procedures should be drawn up to ensure staff are aware of the
adjustments that can be made
Applications could be made more accessible by being downloadable
and a clear statement on the availability of other formats is required
Data collection system requires to be introduced and monitored
A clear statement on our commitment to Equality via the Equalities
policy and our two ticks employer status should be on application
documentation
Download