Equality impact assessments

It is a legal requirement, laid upon us as a public sector body through the Equality Act 2010, for local authorities to assess the equality and human rights impact of changes proposed or made to services. This is part of what is described as the Public Sector Equality Duty.

The Public Sector Equality Duty, as set out in the Equality Act 2010, requires us to have what is termed 'due regard' to the needs and views of those with protected characteristics when developing and implementing policy and strategy and when commissioning, procuring, arranging, or delivering services.

There are nine protected characteristic groupings defined in the Equality Act 2010.

The full list of groupings is:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender reassignment
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race
  • Religion or belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

There is also intersectionality between these, eg a young person with a disability would be in the groupings of age and disability, and if they described themselves as having a faith they would then also be in the grouping of religion or belief.

Carrying out these impact assessments helps us as a public authority to ensure that, as far as possible, we are taking actions to meet the general equality duty placed on us by the Equality Act 2010, and to thus demonstrate that the three national equality aims are integral to our decision making processes.

It is up to us as an authority to decide what form our equality impact assessment may take. By way of illustration, some local authorities focus more overtly upon human rights; some include safeguarding. It is about what is considered to be needed in a local authority’s area, in line with local factors such as demography and strategic objectives as well as with the national legislative imperatives.

We need to be in a position to be able to demonstrate to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that we have made every effort to carry out our equality impact screenings, and that we have done so at every stage where it would be appropriate to do so.