Equality and Diversity

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Equality and Diversity

• Directorate of Learning and Performance

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Equal Opportunities

• All Equal opportunities legislation is founded in
  4 key Acts
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Special Educational Needs Disability Act
• 2001 (SENDA) amending the 1995 DDA

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The Acts

• Sex Discrimination Act 1975 makes it unlawful to
  discriminate on grounds of
• Sex or marital status in recruitment, promotion
  and training
• The act also covers education, the provision of
  housing, goods and services and advertising

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The Acts

• Race Relations Act 1976 makes it unlawful to
  discriminate on grounds of
• Race
• Colour
• Nationality
• Ethnic or National Origin
• and covers the same provisions as the SDA

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The Acts

• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 operates in a
  similar way to the SDA and RRA but also places a
  duty on employers to make reasonable
  adjustments to
• Premises
• Working practices
• in order to allow a disabled person to be
  employed

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Concepts

• The key concept used in all equal opportunities
  legislation is that of discrimination. There are
  2 types
• Direct discrimination
• Indirect discrimination

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Concepts (Cont.)

• Direct discrimination occurs when
• You can prove that you have been treated less
  favourably on grounds of race, gender, disability
  etc. than others in similar circumstances
• Indirect discrimination occurs when
• You or people from your racial etc. group are
  less likely to be able to comply with a condition
  or requirement and the requirement cannot be
  justified on other than racial, gender,
  disability grounds etc.

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Concepts (Cont.)

• Discrimination is not concerned with peoples
  views or attitudes for example racial
  discrimination is not the same as racism or
  racial prejudice.
• Discrimination is concerned with peoples actions
  and the effects of their actions.
• It is not illegal to be racist but it is illegal
  to take actions which discriminate, harass or
  victimise etc.

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Concepts (Cont.)

• There are some exceptions identified under the
  acts
• Positive Action is legal and can occur where
  action is taken to redress the effects of past
  discrimination and particularly in situations
  where e.g. a group of people have been
  underrepresented in training or employment in the
  preceding 12 months. This would typically involve
  the provision of training or encouragement to
  that particular group to enable them to compete
  on an equal footing for the work in question. It
  is illegal to discriminate positively at the
  point of appointment Positive discrimination is
  illegal

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Concepts (Cont.)

• Genuine Occupational Qualification (GOQ)
• It is not unlawful for an employer to
  recruit,train or promote a person of a particular
  sex, racial group etc.where it can be shown that
  being of a particular sex or race is a GOQ for
  the specific job in question
• This can occur in situations where e.g. it is
  required to preserve dignity or privacy or e.g.
  where the employment of a member of an particular
  group is a necessary prerequisite of employment

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SENDA

• SENDA (2001) provides an amendment to the 1995
  Act to cover Education and Training and serves as
  a code of practice for educational providers. The
  definition of disability is wide and includes
• Physical and Sensory disabilities
• Learning difficulties
• Mental Health problems
• Progressive conditions such as AIDS and MS

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SENDA (cont)

• Only applies where disability or impairment is
• recognised by the Act
• To bring a case forward the person must prove
  they are disabled in terms of the Act
• A person has a disability if he has a mental or
  physical impairment which has a substantial and
  long term adverse effect on his ability to carry
  out normal day to day activities

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SENDA (Cont)

• Education
• A person needs to be not only disabled but a
  student or prospective student or applicant to be
  protected by Part 4 of the Act

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SENDA (Cont)

• Discrimination is described in 2 ways in the DDA
• To treat a disabled person less favourably than
  you treat, or would treat, someone without a
  disability for a reason relating to his or her
  disability
• Failure to make a reasonable adjustment for a
  disabled person

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SENDA (Cont)

• It is unlawful for an education provider to
  discriminate
• In admissions, enrolments or exclusions
• In terms on which admissions or enrolments are
  made
• By refusing or deliberately omitting to accept
  application for admission or enrolment
• In the provision of student services

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SENDA (Cont)

• The Act makes it unlawful for educational
  institutions to discriminate against disabled
  applicants or students
• The educational establishment is required to make
  reasonable adjustments where applicants or
  disabled students are placed at a substantial
  disadvantage

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SENDA (Cont)

• Services to Students
• All teaching
• Outings and trips
• Job references
• Exams and assessments
• Library and Learning Resources
• Leisure and Sports Facilities
• Curriculum Design
• Catering and car parking

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SENDA (Cont)

• Responsibility
• Board of Governors, governing body or trustees of
  the institution or the local authority, not the
  individual staff member
• May have a defence that it has taken reasonable
  action to ensure that employees and agents do not
  act in a discriminatory manner

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SENDA (Cont)

• You must take steps to find out about a persons
  disability
• Ask students/applicants to declare disability on
  forms
• Staff obliged to pass on information
  appropriately
• Ensure that staff who are likely to to treat
  students or applicants with a disability less
  favourably are made aware and given information
• Those who who need to make adjustments are given
  information

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SENDA (Cont)

• Passing on Information
• Once a student has disclosed a disability and
  agrees for further information to be passed on,
  the whole institution is deemed to know about
  their disability.
• It is not up to the individual to disclose to
  each member of staff

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SENDA (Cont)

• Knowledge of disability
• If the institution did not know and could not
  have reasonably known that a person was disabled,
  it cannot be found to have discriminated by
  treating a person less favourably
• Equally, failure to make reasonable adjustments
  in the above situation will not be discriminatory
• This does not apply if an anticipatory judgement
  could have been made

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SENDA (Cont)

• Confidentiality
• A person does have a right to confidentiality
• Institutions also have to abide by the Data
  Protection Act whereby sensitive data is not
  stored or passed on without a persons consent

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SENDA (Cont)

• What are reasonable adjustments?
• Changing policies, procedures and practices
• Providing auxiliary aids or services
• Providing reasonable alternative methods of
  making services available where a physical
  feature prevents access

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SENDA (Cont)

• The concept of reasonableness
• The reasonable steps for a responsible body to
  take depends on all circumstances of the case and
  will vary according to
• Type of service being provided
• Nature of institution or service size and
  resources
• The effect of the disability on the individual
  disabled person or student

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SENDA (Cont)

• Factors which might be taken into account
  include
• Need to maintain academic other standards
• Financial resources available to the responsible
  body
• Grants or loans likely to be available to
  disabled students (and only disabled students)

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SENDA (Cont)

• Exceptions/Justification
• Less favourable treatment may be justified if it
  is necessary for the maintenance of academic
  standards, or if there are material (i.e. very
  specific and substantial reasons)
• The failure to make reasonable may also be
  justified in rare cases, but only if the reasons
  are material and substantial

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SENDA (Cont)

• Timetable for Implementation of the Act
• September 2002 Unlawful to discriminate
• Certain types of reasonable adjustments to have
  been made
• September 2003 Reasonable adjustments to the
  provision of auxiliary aids and services
• September 2005 Adjustments to physical features
  of premises
• All above where otherwise disabled learners might
  be
• Substantially disadvantaged

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SENDA (Cont)

• A useful web link for SENDA is
• http//www.drc-gb.org/
• Follow the links from here and download the full
  Code of Practice for Providers of Post 16
  education and related services it contains
  advice for colleges and a number of case studies
  relating to provision and practiceor
  www.techdis.ac.uk
• For Equal Opportunities Acts and concepts
• www.aston.ac.uk
• There are a number of links from this site

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Policies

• A number of commissioned reports underpin the
  governments legislation regarding equal
  opportunities the Dearing Report is an
  investigation into higher education the Kennedy
  Reports agenda is widening participation in FE
  and the Tomlinson Report was set up to explore
  access to education for those with disabilities

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Policies

• 3 major reports concerned with inclusion and
  widening participation
• Dearing Report 1997 (Higher Ed)
• Kennedy Report 1997 (Learning Works)
• Tomlinson Report 1997 (concerned with principle
  of inclusion for students with learning
  difficulties and disabilities)

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Kennedy Report

• This report highlighted the failure of further
  education systems to recruit large numbers of
  educationally disadvantaged adults
• Need to remove barriers to learning through
  increased flexibility in educational provision.

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Tomlinson Report 1997

• by inclusive learning we mean the greatest
  degree of match and fit between individual
  learners requirement and the provisions that is
  made for them
• The need to create an inclusive learning
  environment

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Policies

• Websites for reports concerned with widening
  participation include
• http//bridge.anglia.ac.uk/www/1996-7/dearing-summ
  ary.html
• http//www.niace.org.uk/Organisation/Advocacy/Arch
  ive/Kennedybriefing.htm
• http//inclusion.uwe.ac.uk/csie/tmlnsn.htm

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Measures 1

• Advertising of course/programme
• Non-discriminatory in format/language
• images etc.
• Invite applications from underrepresented groups
• Needs identification
• Initial assessment undertaken
• Learner support provided

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Measures 2

• Teaching Learning Materials
• Adaptations to resources/materials etc
• Language
• Non-discriminatory/Non-stereotypical
• Methods
• Interactive, use multi-cultural etc.
  examples/references

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Measures 3

• Assessment
• Arrange for special provision where appropriate
• Adapt assessment strategies where appropriate