Equality & Diversity

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Background

The public sector equality duty, as defined within the Equality Act 2010 and referred to as the general equality duty, came into force in April 2011.

The general equality duty requires us, as a public body, in the exercise of its functions, to have due regard to the need to:

Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010.
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.
Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Improving our Services

In order to discharge our duties fully and fulfil our commitment to ensuring fair treatment and equal opportunity and treatment for all, we undertake a number of specific activities which include:

Promotion of our Equal Opportunities Policy, setting out our commitment to both current and potential future staff. Equalities data is collected anonymously and used to develop staff recruitment and development practices and procedures which are fair, open and transparent.
We undertake equality impact assessments of our core policies and procedures with the aim of making these fair and non-discriminatory based on protected characteristics.
As part of the application process, we request that all applicants complete an equal opportunities form. Any information received is processed anonymously and we aim to use this data to improve our core operating procedures, identify key trends and promote the overall fairness and accessibility of our service.

In line with the public sector equality duty, we also produce an equality duty mainstreaming report every two years. This provides an update on activities that we have taken in furtherance of both the Act and our commitment to equality and diversity.