Equality Impact Assessments

1. Equality Impact Assessments Amy Bryant Senior Policy Adviser 13 November 2008 Into the Professions Conference

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. Specific duties Policy Impact Assessment Monitoring Publishing Legal context General duty: Eliminate race, disability and gender discrimination

7. Disability Equality Duty • Promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons • Eliminate unlawful discrimination • Eliminate harassment of disabled persons related to their disability

8. Disability Equality Duty • Promote positive attitudes towards disabled people • Take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities, even when that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons

9. 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 - mediumterm - mainstream - longterm

10. Aims of policy Final Consultation Publish Monitor Analysis of data Assess impact Impact assessment process • A seven-stage process: Mitigation/changes Preparation Evaluation Dissemination and review

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Equality data National Institutional HR monitoring Student registry monitoring Complaints and grievances Surveys and consultations Other? • 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

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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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?

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

22. 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