Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is an Equality Impact Assessment?
An Equality Impact Assessment, sometimes called Equality Impact Analysis, is a review of the actual or potential effects of our policies/procedures/services on people who identify with any of the protected characteristics. To ensure that we give careful consideration to the potential impact of a policy/procedure/service, the Equality Analysis Form prompts us to consider a policy* from the perspective of someone identifying with any of the protected characteristics, and to consider how the policy might impact upon them.
* The use of the term ‘policy’ refers to the full range of functions, procedures, activities, and decisions for which the University is responsible.
Why is an Equality Impact Assessment important?
Equality Impact Assessments give us the opportunity to do things better by taking advantage of the positive effects of a policy/procedure/service, and reducing or avoiding negative effects to prevent discrimination.
The public sector Equality Duty requires the University to have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
- Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
- Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic* and those who do not
In having ‘due regard’ there must be evidence that equality issues have been considered. Therefore Equality Impact Assessments enable the University to meet these legal duties by:
- Evidencing that equality has been considered throughout the decision-making process across the University
- Enabling us to pre-empt and discourage incidents of discrimination
- Highlighting areas of best practice in terms of equality and diversity – sharing things which are working well
Do I need to complete an Equality Impact Assessment?
In order to meet the University’s legal duties, equality issues should be considered and embedded within all decision-making, policy writing and service delivery at the University. University Executive Board (UEB) and Council are aware of this and will expect to see a completed EIA statement on all policy documents submitted. More information about how to include this in your paper can be found in UEB's Guidance & Templates. Therefore an Equality Impact Assessment should be completed:
- Whenever a new policy is being written
- Whenever an existing policy is being reviewed or significantly amended
Some University-level policies which are implemented at Faculty/Division level may have already had an Equality Impact Assessment completed at University-level. If this is the case and your Faculty/Division are implementing the policy in-line with the central policy and without any specific local arrangements or variations then an Equality Impact Assessment at local-level is not necessary.
What is meant by ‘policy’?
For the purpose of the Equality Impact Assessment process, the use of the term ‘policy’ refers to the full range of functions, procedures, activities, procedures and decisions for which the University is responsible. This includes both current and new policies.
Therefore any reference in the Equality Impact Assessment paperwork to the ‘policy’ should not be read literally as only applying to a written policy. The use of the word ‘policy’ should be regarded as flexible enough to refer to a procedure, activity, procedure, service, and decision.
Who carries out an Equality Impact Assessment?
The policyholder, project lead or manager is accountable for ensuring that equality issues have been considered at options appraisal stage and that an EIA is completed. The policyholder is the person who “owns” the policy, ie who has the authority to make changes to the policy, and would be accountable/the point of contact should there be any challenges on equality grounds.
The policyholder may delegate the completing of the EIA to another person if they wish, but they need to be sure that whoever this knows enough about the detail of the policy to be able to thoroughly consider the policy’s actual and potential impact.