We are committed to promoting diversity and equality of opportunity to everyone it comes into contact with. This is an essential part of improving services for everyone. We realise that this idea can only be achieved if we ensure that we promote equality for all groups of people and remove discrimination and harassment both in our role as an employer and service provider.
Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act became law in October 2010. For the first time it brought together all of the legal requirements for equality that private, public and voluntary organisations must follow when they work with their employees and the public.
Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 places a duty on public sector organisations to pay due regard to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination (harassment, victimisation and any other prohibited conduct)
- advance equality of opportunity between those who share a protected characteristic and people who do not
- foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and people who do not
More information about the Act, and who is protected by it is provided by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Public Sector Equality Duty
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), puts in place some other things that the Council must do to show that it is working fairly. The Equality Act 2010 brings together all previous anti-discrimination laws into a single act to make the law easier for people to understand and comply with and to remove inconsistencies. The new duty applies to ‘relevant protected characteristics’ which are:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
Community Impact Assessments
A Community Impact Assessment is a way of evidencing how proposals for proposed policy, procedure, practice or service do, or may, affect people differently, and if so, whether it affects them in an adverse way.
This process is designed to be holistic in the sense that it requires individuals to assess against a framework that encompasses health and community.