New guidance for the FE sector

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has produced guidance for further education providers on their responsibilities of the Equality Act.

The guidance sets out requirements in relation to the provision of education, and covers all of the services, facilities and benefits, both educational and non-educational that an education provider provides or offers to provide for students.

This guidance is long awaited, but is no substitute for a Code of Practice for the sector. A Code of Practice is a statutory document, meaning that a court of law is required to take it into account when making decisions. The EHRC has a duty to produce a Code of Practice, but has been prevented from doing so by the Government’s decision not to lay a Code of Practice for the FE sector before Parliament. Until this decision is reversed, the EHRC cannot develop a Code of Practice for our sector.

So we have to ‘make do’ with Technical guidance, which is non-statutory guidance. However, it does provide some clarification of the requirements of the legislation.

Click here to download the guidance