Equality act and duty

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) came into force in October 2010 and replaced a range of previous anti-discriminatory laws with a single Act.

The Act identified nine protected characteristics and these are set out below and are covered by the Equality Duty:

1. Age

2. Disability

3. Gender reassignment

4. Marriage and Civil Partnership (but only in respect of eliminating unlawful discrimination)

5. Pregnancy and Maternity

6. Race – this includes ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality

7. Religion or Belief – this includes lack of belief

8. Sex

9. Sexual orientation

The Public Sector Equality Duty

The Equality Duty can be found in section 149 of the Act and came into force on the 5^th April 2011. The Equality Duty applies to NHS Blackburn with Darwen Care Trust Plus (the Trust) and any organisations it has contracts with who carry out public functions on behalf of the Trust e.g. GPs, Dentists and Hospitals.

The Duty has three aims these are:

1. eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act;

2. advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and

3. foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

The Equality Duty is supported by Specific Duties which came into force on the 10^th September 2011. The Specific Duties require the Trust to publish relevant, proportionate information demonstrating our compliance with the Equality Duty and to help us set specific, measurable equality objectives.

The Trust must publish its equality information by the 31^st January 2012 and then annually thereafter.

What do we need to publish?

The information published must include:

1. Equality information relating to our workforce who share protected characteristics

2. Equality information relating to the people who live in Blackburn with Darwen as they are the people affected by the Trust’s policies and practices when buying or not buying health and social care services.

What will we publish?

1. The Trust’s Workforce Profile

2. The Equality Performance Improvement (EPIT) Self-Assessment Report 2011

3. The Equality Performance Improvement (EPIT) Narrative

4. The Equality and Diversity Annual Report for 2010/11

5. The findings of our Equality Stakeholder Engagement Event  You can download the presentation here.

6. Meeting the Equality Duty Briefing Paper

7. Public Health Report

8. The Single Equality Scheme and KPI Report 2011

9. The Equality and Human Rights Minimum Standards for Contracts 2011

Terminology

Equality information refers to information about performance of the equality duty. This includes information about the protected characteristics of staff and service users and local or national research on equality issues. It includes both quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (descriptive) information. Qualitative information may focus more on factors which are more difficult to measure or represent in quantitative terms. It can help to deepen understanding as to why certain patterns are occurring and of the effects of your policies and practices.

Services includes services and other functions carried out by a public authority, including exercising powers (such as enforcement) as well as services that are contracted out to external organisations.

Protected characteristics are set out in sections 4–12 of the Equality Act 2010. They are the characteristics that are protected under this Act, as follows: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Protected group refers to people who share a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

Equality organisation or Stakeholder refers to voluntary sector groups which are run by or on behalf of protected groups to campaign for and undertake work to advance equality.

General equality duty is set out in section 149 of the Equality Act. ‘Specific duties’ are the steps which listed public authorities are obliged to take to meet the general duty. These are set out in secondary legislation (‘the regulations’).

Disaggregation refers to the process of breaking down your information according to protected characteristic. For example, disaggregating exam results for pupils by gender or by ethnic group. 

Benchmarking refers to the comparison of your performance or satisfaction levels with others – either with the average for your sector or type of organisation, or with a set of good performers from your sector.