Transcript Slide 1

Good Relations & the Public Sector
Equality Duty
Chris Oswald
Head of Policy & Comms
EHRC Scotland
February 13.
The Context
• National Outcome 7 - “We have tackled the
significant inequalities in Scottish society.”
• National Outcomes on employment, education,
health, crime, older people, life chances and public
services.
• Single Outcome Agreements
• The impact of the recession and demographic
change
• Christie Commission – Reform of public services
Public Sector Equality Duty:
purpose
• Take effective action on equality issues
• Make the right decision, first time round
• Develop better policies and practices, based on
evidence
• Be more transparent, accessible and
accountable
• Improve outcomes for all
General Equality Duty
• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment,
victimisation and any other conduct prohibited
by the Act;
• advance equality of opportunity between people
who share a protected characteristic and people
who do not share it; and
• foster good relations between people who share
a protected characteristic, or not
Good Relations –
General Duty unpacked.
• ...involves having due regard, in particular, to the need
to—
• (a)tackle prejudice, and
• (b)promote understanding.
Slide Number 5
General Equality Duty
• Single duty covering 8 of the protected
characteristics – age, disability, gender, sexual
orientation, race, religion and belief, gender
reassignment, pregnancy and maternity
• It covers marriage and civil partnership in relation
to the non-discrimination duty only
• Covers all “listed” public authorities
• Also covers all bodies carrying out a public
function, in relation to that function
• A “public function” is one defined as such by the
Human Rights Act 1998
Overview of Scottish specific
duties
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Mainstreaming equality
Equality outcomes
Assessment and review
Employment information
Gender pay gap information
Equal pay statement
Procurement
Scottish Ministers duty
Publication duty
Equality Outcomes
As a public authority, you must;
• publish a set of Equality Outcomes by 30/04/13
and every four years thereafter
• take reasonable steps to involve people with
protected characteristics in preparing outcomes
• consider relevant evidence relating to protected
characteristics
• publish reasons for not setting outcomes on
individual protected groups
• publish a progress report by 30/4/15 and every
two years thereafter
Equality Outcomes
What they are not;
• Outputs
• Performing the other specific duties
• Making your services accessible
• About your services or functions
Equality Outcomes
What they are;
• results that you aim to achieve in order to further
one or more of the ‘needs’ of the general equality
duty
• changes in the lives of people affected by what
you do
• as a consequence of the actions you have taken
Equality Outcomes
Partnerships
• General equality duty is held by the individual
authority
• Does not extend to partnerships except in
relation to the authorities partnership activities
Equality Outcomes
Partnerships
• the most pressing issue of inequality may be one
which can only be addressed through partnership
• partners may wish to confer on preparing
outcomes and working jointly towards achieving
progress
• accountability for equality outcomes rests with the
individual body
Our approach
• Hands off – for those authorities who we believe
are performing well
• Hand in hand – assisting those authorities who are
struggling with issues such as using equalities
evidence (see Improving Local Equality Data)
• Hands on – for the minority of cases where either
the authority is not willing to make changes or to
clarify areas of conflicting rights.
Monitoring Outcomes
• Major monitoring & reporting project planned
• Commences May 2013, looks at all published outcomes
from all 300 PA’s
• Identifies non compliant authorities
• Assesses the type and nature of published outcomes,
by sector, evidence base, scope etc
• And reports to Scottish Parliament in Autumn 2013.
Slide Number 14
Contacting us
Freepost RRLL-GYLB-UJTA
2nd Floor
151 West George Street,
Glasgow G2 2JJ
0141 228 5910
• www.equalityhumanrights.com