Background to Equality and Diversity

We remain committed to promoting equality, recognising and valuing diversity and ensuring equal opportunities chances for all.

What do we mean by equality and diversity?

'Equality means treating everyone with equal dignity and worth irrespective of particular characteristics such as their age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We recognise that people have different needs, circumstances and goals and achieving equality requires the removal of the discriminatory barriers that limit what people can do and can be.

We recognise that people can experience inequality in:

  • outcomes
  • access to services
  • the degree of independence people may have to make decisions
  • through discrimination or disadvantage imposed by other individuals, groups, institutions or systems
  • inequality of treatment, including in relation to employment,

Source: Equality and Human Rights Commission

 

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 replaced the previous anti-discriminatory laws with a single Act. This has made it easier to understand and comply with. It has also strengthened the law in important ways that will help tackle discrimination and inequality.

 

Who has responsibilities?

The Equality Act applies to all organisations that provide a service to the public, whether a charge is made for the service or not.  It also applies to anyone who sells goods or provides facilities.

 

Who is protected?

 

The Act protects people on the grounds of discrimination on the basis of 'protected characteristics':

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender Reassignment
  • Marriage and Civil Partnership
  • Pregnancy and Maternity
  • Race
  • Religion or Belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual Orientation

 Due to the nature of South Somerset and its diverse population, it is recognised that there are certain groups whose needs are also important to address. They are not specifically protected under the Equality Act 2010, but play a part in South Somerset's make up:Carers, Rurality, Armed Forces

What the law protects against

The Equality Act sets out the different ways in which it is unlawful to treat someone:

This includes:

  • Direct Discrimination - Treating a person worse than someone else because of a protected characteristic
  • Indirect Discrimination - Putting in place a rule or way of doing things that has a worse impact on someone with a protected characteristic than someone without

 
  • Discrimination arising from Disability - Treating a disabled person unfavourably because of something connected with their disability when this cannot be justified
  • Failing to make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities. We must:
  • Take reasonable steps to avoid disadvantage caused by a provision, criteria or practice or a physical feature that puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person
  • Take reasonable steps to provide auxiliary aids/service
 
  • Harassment
  • Victimisation
 

General Equality Duty

The General Equality Duty of the Equality Act requires that in the exercise of our functions we must give due regard to:

  • Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • Advance equality of opportunity (this means for example, removing or minimising disadvantage, meeting different people's needs, taking account of disability, encouraging people to participate in public life)
  • Foster good relations between people (this means tackling prejudice and promoting understanding)

    

What does this mean?

The General Equality Duty requires equality considerations to be reflected in our policies, services, practices and decision-making processes. One way that we demonstrate this committment to equalities is through our Equality Analysis process.(EqA)

 

Benefits of the General Equality Duty

Complying with the General Equality Duty is a legal requirement. However, we believe that it makes good business sense too. The EqA process ensures that our policies and decision-making practices are better informed, more cost-effective, and this leads to improved efficiency . By understanding different communities, we are able to improve our customer care and carry out our core services more effectively.

 

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