Transcript Disability in the new Equality Duty

Disability in the new
Equality Duty
Caroline Gooding
Equality Consultant
I will discuss:



How has the Equality Duty changed?
What do we know was good about the
disability equality duty?
How can groups and individuals get the
best out of the new Equality Duty?
Single Equality Act 2010





New Equality Duty will bring together the
three existing duties (disability, race and
gender) and extend to:
gender reassignment,
age,
pregnancy and maternity,
sexual orientation and
religion or belief
As before


General equality duty: in the Equality
Act, requiring authorities to have “due
regard” to equality in carrying out
functions
Specific duties: to be introduced by
regulations, applying to smaller
number of authorities, to assist
compliance with general duty
Time table




Consultation on specific duties closes 10
November
Draft statutory Code
New duty in force April 2011
Setting equality objectives April 2012
Disability Equality Duties remain in force
until Equality Duty comes in.
New Equality Duty
will retain the three broad “limbs” of the
existing duties:
 eliminating unlawful discrimination and
harassment;
 advancing equality of opportunity; and
 advancing good relations between
different groups.
The Act says that advancing equality of
opportunity involves in particular the need
to:
(a) remove or minimise disadvantage
(b) take steps to meet the needs of people who
share a protected characteristic
(c) encourage people who share a protected
characteristic to participate in public life or
in any other activity in which participation is
disproportionately low.
The Act says that steps to meet disabled
people’s needs

Includes in particular steps to take
account of disabled people’s disabilities
The Act says that fostering good relations
requires in particular:


Tackling prejudice
Promoting understanding
Who is covered by the general
equality duty?


Public authorities listed in the Act – and
by subsequent regulations
Other bodies (public, private or
voluntary) in the exercise of ‘public
functions’
Current disability equality
duties
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Involve disabled people in developing
Disability Equality Scheme
Publish scheme
Demonstrate have taken actions in scheme
(unless it would be unreasonable and
impractical to do so)
Report on progress
Review and revise scheme
Disability Equality Scheme
must set out:





How an authority intends to fulfill its duties
Statement of involvement of disabled people
in its development
Statement of equality impact assessment
methods
Action plan
Evidence gathering: employment; educational
opportunities; services and other functions extent to which they take into account
disabled people’s needs
Secretary of State duty –
Disability only
Overview of the progress made by
public authorities in their policy sector
in relation to disability equality, setting
out proposals for co-ordination of action
by public authorities in that policy
sector to further progress on disability
equality
Proposed specific duties
Public authorities must:


Set equality outcome objectives –
and review at least every 4 years
Publish equality data annually
Equality Act 2010: The public sector equality duty Promoting equality
through transparency August 2010
What equality outcome
objectives must be set?


one or more objectives which the authority
reasonably thinks that it should achieve in
order to further one or more of the aims set
out in the general equality duty
must be specific and measurable; and
authorities should set out how progress
towards the objective(s) will be measured
Public bodies with more than
150 employees must publish
employment data in relation to ‘the protected
characteristics of employees’
 Code and guidance will provide further
guidance on which information should be
published by different types of public bodies.
 The Government “expect this to include data
on important inequalities such as ..the
distribution of disabled employees throughout
an organisation’s structure.”
Authorities must also publish


assessments of the equality impacts of
its policies and practices, and the likely
impact of its proposed policies and
practices and the information taken into
account in such assessments
details of any engagement with persons
it considered interested in the general
equality duty
In place of regulation…

“Our focus on transparency means that
citizens themselves will be able to judge,
challenge, applaud and hold to account public
bodies in their performance of both the
general duty and the specific duties. This new
emphasis means that public bodies will be
democratically accountable, and that citizens
and representative groups will engage with
public bodies in ensuring that they fulfil the
aims of the Equality Duty.”
Lessons from RADAR’s ‘Achieving Equality
for Disabled People in the Public Sector’



“Through this project we found that there are
three elements of the duty which are clearly
having an impact on the performance of
public sector organisations in relation to
disability equality. These are:
Involving disabled people
A clear focus on actions and outcomes
Mainstreaming disability equality through
equality impact assessments
Making practice happen EHRC 2009

The Secretary of States’ specific duty to
report on disability across each sector
has created a significant shift in central
government’s understanding and
response to disability equality.
Get the best out of new
Equality Duty




Comment on draft regulations:
Comment on statutory Code
Work with organizations on objectives –
keep up good practice involvement
Use general duty
Enforcement
The General Equality Duty can be enforced by
any individual with a particular interest,
through applying to the courts for a judicial
review or through an enforcement notice
issued by the Equality & Human Rights
Commission (EHRC).
Only the EHRC can enforce compliance with
the specific duty.
General Disability Equality
Duty cases


R (on application of Chavda and Others)
v Harrow LBC 2007
R (on the application of Lunt and
another) v Liverpool City Council 2009