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Equality Act 2010 - Information for Schools

The Equality Act 2010

The following pages have been designed to explain to schools what they need to do to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. The Act brings together a whole range of equality laws under one Act, some of which schools will already be familiar with and others that will be new. This is explained under the Legal Framework below.

The DfE has produced on its website an Equality Analysis Workbook to help schools with planning and recording. It will help schools to keep a record of their thinking, and of their decisions.

The Diversity and Cohesion Service adapted Northampton’s workbook for Bradford schools to assist in assembling evidence in order to meet the requirements of the General and Specific Duties in relation the Public Sector Equality Duty. This can be accessed here: Bradford Schools Workbook

Equality Policy and Schemes

The Equality Act 2010 provides a single legal framework to provide a more effective means of tackling disadvantage and discrimination. It harmonises previous equality legislation much of what is required by schools is already being carried out by them. It no longer requires schools to provide separate Disability, Gender and Race Equality Schemes. However it would be good practice (and evidence of compliance with the Act) for schools to have a policy statement outlining its principles showing how its policies and practice impact on equalities. A number of children's and young people 'sservices from different local authorities have developed a model school policy statement which has been published on the Insted website which is very informative and useful for schools to adapt for their own use.

Legal Framework

The Equality Act 2010 introduced a single Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) (sometimes also referred to as the ‘general duty’) that applies to public bodies, including maintained schools and academies (including Free Schools), and which extends to all protected characteristics - race, disability, sex, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment. This combined equality duty came into effect in April 2011. It has three main elements; in carrying out their functions, public bodies are required to have due regard to the need to:

eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act,
advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it,
foster good relations across all characteristics - between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

Specific duties are meant to help public bodies fulfil their obligations under the PSED. They are designed to be light-touch and proportionate. The emphasis is on transparency - making information available so that the local community can see how, and through what key objectives, the public body is advancing equality in line with the PSED.

The specific duties regulations require public bodies to:

publish information to demonstrate how they are complying with the Public Sector Equality Duty, and
prepare and publish equality objectives.

Public bodies have until the end of January 2012 (schools have until 6 April) to publish their initial information and until 6 April to publish their first set of objectives. They will then need to update the published information at least annually and to publish objectives at least once every four years.

A summary of the principal implications for schools was updated by the Department for Education in February 2013 called Advice for Schools Leaders, School Staff, Governing Bodies and Local Authorities

Ofsted Inspection Framework

Ofsted is bound by the public sector equality duty, its strategic plan and values to advance equality through its inspection of schools. Equality is integral to the inspection framework and the promotion of equality of opportunity for all pupils underpins the school inspection framework. School inspection acts in the interests of children, young people and their parents. It encourages high-quality provision that meets diverse needs and promotes not just equality of opportunity but improving outcomes for all pupils regardless of background.

There are two kinds of duty that schools must meet: the general which is the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and the specific. To fulfil the general requirement, the DfE guidance states that:

decision makers in schools must be aware of the duty to have “due regard” when making a decision or taking an action and must assess whether it may have implications for people with particular protected characteristics
schools should consider equality implications before and at the time that they develop policy and take decisions, not as an afterthought, and they need to keep them under review on a continuing basis
the PSED has to be integrated into the carrying out of the school’s functions and the analysis necessary to comply with the duty has to be carried out seriously, rigorously and with an open mind – it is not just a question of ticking boxes or following a particular process
schools cannot delegate responsibility for carrying out the duty to anyone else.

There are six principles which Ofsted refer to as the Brown Principles, established by case law that underpin what due regard means: awareness, timeliness, rigour, non-delegation, continuous, and record-keeping:

awareness – all staff should know and understand what the law requires
timeliness – the implications for equalities of new policies and practices should be considered before they are introduced
rigour – there should be rigorous and open-minded analysis of statistical evidence, and careful attention paid to the views of staff, and the views of pupils and their parents
non-delegation – compliance with the PSED cannot be delegated
continuous – due regard for equalities should be happening all the time
record-keeping – it is good practice to keep documentary records, for example in the minutes of staff meetings and governor meetings

Further information can be accessed through the Ofsted's Briefing on section 5 inspections - Inspecting Equalities

We are interested to hear from head teachers and School Leadership Teams if it would be useful to organise a CPD session on developing policy and practice focusing on equality information and objectives. Please note there may be a charge for this.