Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessments

Do you recognise that carrying out Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) demonstrates compliance with your Public Sector Equality Duty? Are your managers confident to carry out EIAs? Do your governors and trustees know that they should ask for evidence of EIA before signing off a new or updated policy, plan or strategy? Would new guidance help?

At the end of last year, the government published a reminder that the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) requires public authorities to have due regard to equality considerations when exercising their functions. The publication also provides an overview of Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs). These are assessments that public authorities often carry out prior to implementing a policy, plan or strategy and are a way of facilitating and evidencing compliance with the PSED.

Senior leaders and cross college managers such as HR, student services and admissions, should routinely and confidently carry out an EIA when updating or developing a new policy, plan or strategy. They should record the outcomes of their EIA, as case law has established that a record of the EIA must be made to demonstrate that the EIA has been carried out.

Senior leaders should publish their process for carrying out EIAs and summarise their actions when publishing their annual equality information report on their website, to comply with the specific duties of the Equality Act 2010.

Governors and trustees are responsible for ensuring statutory duty compliance and should therefore ask for evidence that an EIA has been carried out when ratifying a new or updated policy, plan or strategy.

You can download the government briefing here

You can download information on my training workshop on carrying out equality impact assessments here

You can download information on my training workshop for governors and trustees on their roles and responsibilities here