EHRC issues new step-by-step guide to equality impact assessments
In November 2009, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published a new step-by-step guide to integrating equality impact assessment into policymaking and review.
Board members welcome this very clear guidance. Used properly, it should raise the standard of equality impact assessments produced by the public sector. We are pleased to see the emphasis on training in Step 5 of the guidance:
“The race equality duty requires public authorities to train staff to enable them to meet the requirements of the duties. This is strongly recommended for the other grounds. The training should be appropriate to the particular responsibilities of the staff involved and tailored to the authority’s own equality scheme/s and EIA tool. It should look at the ‘whys’ of doing EIAs as well as the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’, so that policymakers are able to focus on the outcomes sought.
It is particularly important that training for senior board members (including nonexecutive members) equips them for their scrutiny role on equality, and to ensure the use of equality impact assessment in decisionmaking at all levels. This should not be seen as a one-off exercise. Training should be delivered on a regular basis to both cover new staff and provide refresher training for existing staff.”
The Institute has designed an equality impact assessment training course for members. The first session was very well-received. We will run further courses if there is sufficient demand from our members.
Click here to download the guide from the EHRC website.