Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Our departmentsEquality, diversity and inclusionPolicies and dataEquality Impact AssessmentGuidance

Equality Impact Assessment Guidance

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are a tool used to: 

  1. Undertake an analysis on how a proposed project, policy, or practice might impact differently on staff and students from an equality perspective.   
  2. Identify interdependencies between projects, policies and practices from an equality perspective.  

In order to be effective, EIAs should demonstrate a clear audit trail of how equality considerations were taken into account from the inception of the project, throughout the implementation process and critically at any decision making point throughout the life time of the project. This audit trail will help in demonstrating compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duties (PSED) 2011. 

Steps of an effective EIA process

  1. Project owner undertakes an initial EIA screening: This involves a high level evaluation of how the project may (or may not) impact disproportionately on people with different protected characteristics.   
  2. If the outcome of the screening is that a disproportionate impact has been identified, then a full EIA must be instigated.  
  3. Updates on the EIA must be presented at every project update and crucially when key decisions are taken. The project must not be “green lit” for progression until identified issues are addressed either through mitigation or through a review of the project scope. 
  4. A system should also be in place to review interdependencies between EIAs. This could be a formal review of EIAs at board level. Example: Identifying one project as having a negative impact on people whom English is not a first language may be addressed through mitigation. However having several projects with the same impact is more systemic, and can only be identified and addressed through examining the interdependencies between projects.   

What is mitigation?

Example: Does a new recruitment system disadvantage visually impaired users by not being screen reader compatible? If contracts are issued in PDF format, then the chances are that a person using screen reader technology will not be able to access this contract, therefore an alternative format must be issued for this person. This alternative format constitutes a “mitigation”. A mitigation is used to address any potential impacts. A mitigation must appropriately take away the disadvantage that may be experienced as a result of implementing a particular project. 

EIA Myth Busting

  1. Contrary to popular beliefs, EIAs do not have to be written up on a template. It does however help for an institution to have some form of written audit trail on how it considered equality issues within the project and during decision making. 
  2. EIAs are not “done” to a project then subsequently shelved, they should be a core part of a project, cyclical and updated frequently as the project develops. This also means that by their very nature, EIAs should also be reviewed once the project is complete to ensure that the anticipated impact(s) and any mitigations are realised.  
  3. Having a nicely written up EIA does not evidence compliance with the PSED! In order to demonstrate compliance, the university must show that appropriate equality information was made available at the point of decision making.