Document ECF/09/18
Equality Impact Assessment Programme: A New Road Map?
Objective: to embed the key principles of equality impact
assessment into mainstream reviews and policy-making
procedures by 2011.
Where are we now?
On the equality impact assessment of proposed policies:
We have improved the reference to the EIA procedures in the guidance on
the presentation of reports to committee (the Committee Handbook).
There is now an urgent need to revise the pro-forma and guidance for
EIAs that is linked to the Committee Handbook.
Once that is in place, we have to consider how we are going to get
managers’ ‘buy-in’, which links up with the discussion below on current
policies and functions.
On the equality impact assessment of current policies:
It’s a more complicated story about insufficient resourcing, project drift
and the impact of other change programmes.
In line with HEFCE/ECU guidance, a central ‘map’ of all policies and
functions was created that also identified policy ownership. Some
modifications will continue to be made to up-date and improve the
accuracy of the ‘map’; but this first stage of the EIA process is largely in
place.
On the second stage, two approaches towards prioritisation eventually
emerged from the discussions with the professional and administrative
services (support services) and the faculties, namely, that while the
former would continue to prioritise and then screen policies as set out in
the project brief agreed by SLT, the faculties would be asked to participate
in screenings determined centrally by the EIA Steering Group. The Group
selected student admissions as the first topic for this kind of workshop;
but the approach had to be changed when it was found that a new, central
policy on student admissions had to be approved very quickly in order to
comply with an externally imposed deadline. Now, instead of a central
workshop on the policy, there will be, firstly, a workshop on the
operationalisation of the new monitoring procedures, and then one or
more workshops at faculty level where the actual admissions data
warrants it. So, on the very first policy choice by the Steering Group,
implementation became problematic.
Within the support services, there have been further changes in the
approach to prioritisation. Initially, all support services were asked to:
draft a three year schedule to review all current policies and functions,
prioritise those reviews, or ‘screenings’ as they are called in the HEFCE
guidance, and then conduct the actual ‘screenings’ (to determine whether
EIA A New Road Map 23 06 09 ECF Paper
page 1 of 4
Document ECF/09/18
a much more detailed enquiry, a ‘full impact assessment’ in other words,
would be necessary). However, broadly two responses emerged from
within the support services to that guidance:
(a) some either agreed to the approach in principle, or have actually
drawn up a 3 year schedule (Estates, ILS, Finance, PVC Research
& Innovation); or
(b) they decided to build EIA into their review processes in one way
or another (HR, GSU, Commercial Services and PVC Academic)
and not have a separate schedule for screenings.
So far, few screenings have actually taken place. In GSU, five academic
policies (reviewed by Pinsent Masons) have been screened, using the
present template. Initially, they were disappointing; but there were also
some very positive developments. A kind of EIA was carried out on the
draft student admissions policy, and although that, too, had positive
outcomes, the template itself was not actually used. The PVC Research &
Innovation led an introductory workshop for RIDs and ADs on screening,
which, again, had a positive outcome without the template being
completed.
While discussions are continuing with Estates, Finance, ILS, HR and SID,
Student Life (SL) is the only directorate that has a firm schedule to screen
any policies before the end of July. For most of these services, the
principal reason for delay is the impact of Project Headroom and the restructuring of the support services.
In addition, the EIA Project Team has not even been able to initiate
discussions with the other support services (Enterprise & Development)
because of the lack of staff resources within GSU.
Overall, these results are disappointing compared to the original
intention – agreed by SLT in October 2008 – that all units, both
academic and non-academic, should have had some engagement
in screenings before the end of July 2009.
As indicated earlier, some of the causes of this relatively disappointing
outcome – the limited staff resources and the restructuring of the support
services – were outside the control of the EIA Project Team. However,
while the Team did its best to firm up its approach with a project plan, it
could not cope with the diversity of approaches that emerged from the
dialogue with the senior managers and the volume of policy and
procedural reviews that are taking place across the University. The Team
attempted to respond to these issues, and others, by refining the project
plan and drafting a ‘risks and issues’ log; but it was unable to present a
clear set of solutions to the Steering Group.
There is clearly a need for both a new ‘road map’ for the
programme and additional resources (at least for the next two
years). Such a ‘map’ should also take into account the
Government’s latest statements on how they see equality impact
assessments being conducted under the new Equality Duty from
2011 onwards. (See the section on impact assessments in the
EIA A New Road Map 23 06 09 ECF Paper
page 2 of 4
Document ECF/09/18
consultative draft on the specific duties, which proposes a ‘light
touch’ approach that focuses on ‘key policies’ and outcomes rather
than processes.
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/Specific%20Duties%20Consul
tation%20Document.pdf )
Proposals for the new road map:
First, it is recommended that we proceed with the existing
programme of activities. This should include: SL’s workshops, an
equality awareness workshop for Estates, the meeting of the research
community, any workshops organised by ILS and HR, any workshops
around student admissions, and, lastly, the workshop on public
procurement (now scheduled for September). (See annex 1 for further
details.)
The second recommendation is that faculties should be involved
through any workshops organised by the support services that
have a direct relevance to activities in the faculties. It may be too
late to do this in the case of SL’s forthcoming workshop on academic
skills; but it should be considered as the other support services begin to
plan their workshops. Otherwise, we have to ask whether a new approach
to the involvement of the faculties and schools has to be developed.
The third recommendation is that we re-launch the programme
when the EIA Co-ordinator is in post. Working alongside the Senior
Assistant Secretary (Equality & Diversity), this officer should have the
clear brief to frame a project that aims at mainstreaming equality impact
assessments into all review and policy-making procedures by 2011 (that
fully complies with specific duties as re-defined in the forthcoming
Equality Act), with these specific outcomes:





a ‘map’ of all review processes and programmes (both routine and
ad-hoc)
a new template and guidance that responds to local feedback and
the Government’s draft guidance on impact assessments
a protocol on consultation and engagement with key stakeholders
a central log that records the progress of all EIAs
a web site that enables impact assessment and promotes the
resulting improvements
Report Writer:
Dr Ken Grainger
Senior Assistant Secretary, Equality & Diversity
Governance Services Unit
23rd June 2009
EIA A New Road Map 23 06 09 ECF Paper
page 3 of 4
Document ECF/09/18
Annex 1:
Current schedule of activities around the Equality Impact
Assessment Programme
Organisation
Student Life
Human Resources
Estates & Property
Services
Activity
Date
Workshop on health and counselling
services
Workshop on academic skills
programmes
1st July
Allocation of lead responsibilities for
the reviews of the top ten HR
policies and prioritisation for the
screening workshops
First screening workshops completed
12th July
Initial workshop to raise awareness
of equality and diversity issues
Dates pending
completion of
structuring
Date pending
Date pending
Screening workshop on car parking
Screening workshop on work
experience placement in the Division
21st July
By 7th August
Information & Learning
Services
Completion of review of Division’s
process catalogue
By 31st July
Finance
Workshop on procurement
30th September
PVC Academic [possibly
in conjunction with:
Student Information/
Planning &
Performance]
Workshop on operationalising the
new policy on monitoring admissions
By end of July
Faculty-based workshops where
admissions data indicate the need
By end of
September
EIA A New Road Map 23 06 09 ECF Paper
page 4 of 4