Equality Impact Assessments

Amy Bryant Senior Policy Adviser

13 November 2008 Into the Professions Conference

Structure of the workshop ECU – who we are and what we do Impact assessments:

the legal context (focus on disability) the process

Group discussion of the positives and negatives Examples of implementation

Equality Challenge Unit

Established in 2001 to promote equality for staff in higher education in the UK

Remit extended in 2006 to include students

Funded by the 4 UK higher education funding Councils, Universities UK and GuildHE

15 staff, based in London

Mission statement

Equality Challenge Unit supports the higher education sector in its mission to realise the potential of all staff and students whatever their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, or age, to the benefit of those individuals, higher education institutions and society.

Legal context

3 public sector duties Race (since May 2002) Disability (since December 2006) Gender (since April 2007)

Specific duties including: Schemes Monitoring Impact assessments

The future – Single Equality Bill

Impact Assessment

Publishing

Monitoring

Specific duties

Policy

General duty:

Eliminate race, disability and gender discrimination

Legal context

Disability Equality Duty

1. Promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons

2. Eliminate unlawful discrimination

3. Eliminate harassment of disabled persons related to their disability

Disability Equality Duty

4. Promote positive attitudes towards disabled people

5. Take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities, even when that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons

The aim of equality impact assessments

To understand staff and student needs To assess differential impact across equality

groups To address differential treatment across equality

groups in accordance with legal requirements A tool to :

- know how the institution is doing - short term- create positive change - medium term - mainstream - long term

Impact assessment process

A seven-stage process:

Preparation Evaluation Dissemination and review

Aims of policy

Analysis of data

Assess impact

Mitigation/changes

Final Consult

ationPublish Monitor

Stage 1 – mapping

Screening/Mapping of policies: Identify all existing policies and practices

Formal Informal

Decide which equality group each policy affects Categorise low, medium or high relevance to

disabled people (and other equality groups) Prioritise policies for full impact assessment

Involving disabled people

Involving disabled people must: Be at an early stage Be influential and meaningful Be focussed Cover relevant stakeholders Use accessible mechanisms Be proportionate to the policy

Stage 2: Analysis of Equality Data

Good quality data lies at the heart of impact assessment data to decide relevance data to pinpoint problems data to understand the problems data to point to solutions

Mixture of qualitative and quantitative data Benchmarking

Equality data

National HESA statistics – (HEIDI) UCAS data Labour force surveys National Student Survey Government and academic

research National statistics (census) Records from trade unions

and other membership organisations

Institutional HR monitoring Student registry monitoring Complaints and grievances Surveys and consultations Other?

Collecting additional data Consultations with staff and/or students Surveys (face-to-face, telephone, web, postal) Interviews (group, individual) External reviews (consultant reports)

Stage 3 & 4: Impact assess and mitigation Check for differential impact by equality group? –

(NB check positive impact for disability) Where differential impact found, options are:

• Avoid the impact by: Replacement of policy with alternative to meet aims Change the policy

• Justify need for continuance of policy and mitigate negative impact

• Abandon policy

Stage 5: consultation

Build on the consultation with groups in stage 1 Opportunity to ensure proposed policy changes will

have positive impact Allows buy-in from those previously involved Mitigates against consultation fatigue

Stage 6: Publication

Legal requirement of Race Equality Duty - publish results and monitoring arrangements

Other areas – good practice to do so Publication format to include:

• Assessment of policy and data used• Details of methods and outcomes of involvement• Amendments planned and made• How decisions have been taken• Proposed timetable for review

Stage 7: Monitoring and Review Not one-off process Cycle of institutional quality control Devise mechanisms for regular review Incorporation within 3-year cycle of review

What is happening in your organisation? Examples of good practice What have been the positives and negatives to your

institution and/or department of impact assessments?

What further support do you need?

Example implementations Staff and student E&D forums Equality impact assessment briefings Internal guidance Reflective training interventions Centralised assessments

7th Floor Queens House 55/56 Lincoln's Inn Fields

London WC2A 3LJ

Tel: 0207 438 1010 Fax: 0207 438 1011

www.ecu.ac.uk