DED Action Plan Review Taking on the Duty

NADP Annual Conference 2007 Honey Lucas ECU Projects Officer

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Purpose of session

 To review the progress made on the DED within your institution - 7 months on  To assess what is working well within your institution’s DES action plan  To identify the challenges/ barriers to success that your institution is facing  To generate practical solutions to overcome these challenges 2

ECU vision

 Equality Challenge Unit works with higher education institutions to support all

staff

and

students

realise their potential, whatever their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion or age; and  Works to ensure that equality and diversity becomes explicitly integrated into the strategic priorities of all HEIs 3

ECU programme 2007

Projects relate to four key programme areas:



Evidence base



Involvement and research



Inclusive campus



Mainstreaming equality

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DED Details 1

DDA (2005) indicates

General duties

for HEIs:       promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Act eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is related to their disabilities promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons encourage participation by disabled persons in public life take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons.

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DED Details 2

DDA (2005) also indicates

Specific duties

for HEIs:      To publish a Disability Equality Scheme (including within it an Action Plan) To involve disabled people in producing the Scheme and Action Plan To demonstrate they have taken actions in the Scheme and achieved appropriate outcomes To report on progress To review and revise the Scheme* *Summary from the DRC 7

DES Review: December 07

ECU (with SKILL and Impact Associates) worked with 30 HEIs on the preparation of their DES. Best practice was felt to be: a. Addressing requirements of both

general

and

specific

duties b. Moving beyond the bare legal requirements c. Senior management involvement and link to HEI strategies d. Significant involvement of disabled people at all stages e. Showing the context of data collected and services provided 8

DES Review: December 07

Best practice continued: f. Show understanding of Impact Assessments in your own HEI g. SMART Action Plans with performance indicators and monitoring h. Action Plans with staff responsibilities clearly indicated i. Clear information about reporting on progress annually j. Availability of the Scheme in different formats k. Indication of how the Scheme will be developed in the future.

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DES Review: December 07

These findings have been summarised in an ECU publication: ‘Feedback to the Higher Education sector on Disability Equality Schemes’.

Downloadable (free) from: www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/ 10

DED Action Plan

Working with disabled people to identify barriers at your institution, the Action Plan of your DES should:  Address the requirements of both the general and specific duties    Indicate how you are going to address barriers Identify who is taking responsibility for individual actions Identify time and resources required for tackling barriers   Draw in the results of Impact Assessments as they happen Monitor the implementation of the actions shown.

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Actions Plans: July 07

Referring back to the list of best practice from the ECU Review: 1. Have any of those points been an issue for your Action Plans? If so,

how

and

what

have you done to resolve any problems?

2. What issues are arising about medium- and long-term implementation?

3. What practical steps have you taken/ could you take to drive the Action Plan forward?

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