What is Equality Analysis?

An Equality Analysis (EA), formally Equality Impact Assessment, is a thorough and systemic analysis of the effects (impacts) of our policies, practices and procedures on different groups of people.

It is an anticipatory process that allows institutions to predict possible barriers faced by those likely to face discrimination and disadvantage and to take appropriate actions to have a more positive impact – especially groups with protected characteristics.

So, while discrimination may never be intended, EA tests out the possibility that this may be a consequence of changes that we make.

EA is not an end in itself – it is a way of tackling barriers and including people who have been traditionally excluded from the mainstream. It’s also a way of ensuring and showing due regard has been paid to our duties not to discriminate.

‘Equality Analysis is not only about addressing discrimination or adverse impact. They are about positive promotion of equality of opportunity, improving access, participation in public life and good relations.’

Understanding Discrimination

Discrimination is where someone is treated less favourably or put at a disadvantage because of certain personal characteristics, such as their gender or race, or maybe because they have a disability.

At Goldsmiths we support the improvement and encouragement of equality, and we have agreed plans to identify and remove barriers and to promote participation among those who may be more vulnerable than others.

The Equality Act (2010) unites and replaces previous anti-discrimination legislation. It ensures consistency in what you need to do to make the workplace a fair environment in order to comply with the law.

The Equality Act covers the same groups of individuals that were protected by the previous legislation – these are now known as protected characteristics – but there are some changes. As a result you may need to review and change policies and practices.

Understanding Equality AnalysisA guide for staff at Goldsmiths

Protected characteristics

To comply with legal obligations (and best practice), we need to assess the impact on individuals with protected characteristics. These include:

Age Where this is referred to, it refers to a person belonging to a particular age (e.g. 32 year olds) or a range of ages (e.g. 18 - 30 year olds).

Disability A person has a disability (by law) if s/he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on that person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Gender reassignment The process whereby a person's physical sexual characteristics are changed by means of medical procedures. A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process).

Gender IdentityDescribes the gender that a person sees themselves as. It is not outlined explicitly as one of the protected characteristics in the Equality Act. However, should also be considered to ensure people are not disadvantaged by their gender identity, which could include (but is not limited to), gender-queer, non-binary, or agender.

Marriage and civil partnership The relationship between two people who are husband and wife, or a similar relationship between people of the same sex (as newly defined by Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013).Civil partners must be treated the same as married couples on a wide range of legal matters.

Pregnancy and maternity (adoption is covered within this) Pregnancy - being pregnant or expecting a baby. Maternity and adoption - the period after the birth or adoption and is linked to maternity and adoption leave in the employment context.

Race It refers to a group of people defined by their race, colour and nationality (including citizenship) ethnic or national origins.

Religion and belief Religion has the meaning usually given to it but belief includes religious and philosophical beliefs including lack of belief (e.g. Atheism). Generally, a belief should affect your life choices or the way you live for it to be included in the definition.

Sex This is defined as a person’s legal sex – i.e. man or a woman.

Sexual orientation Refers to a persons’ orientation or attraction towards; the same sex, opposite sex or to both sexes.

‘The social model of disability says that disability is caused by the way society is organised, rather than by a person’s impairment or difference. It looks at ways of removing barriers that restrict life choices for disabled people’.

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When do I need to complete an Equality Analysis?

Goldsmiths has a strategy to embed equality and diversity so that it becomes an integral part of our culture and planning processes. EA should be considered early alongside risk, budget, and health and safety management.

An EA should be started when you are first looking at: creating new methods of service delivery creating new policies or practices developing business plans, strategies and projects reviewing or amending existing policies, practices or

methods of service delivery considering a change management process or

organisational review, particularly those that could involve relocating staff or rationalisation of posts

any major communications or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project

introducing online services reviewing or introducing forms, leaflets, guidance, codes of

practice or websites.

To gain maximum benefit an EA should be begun at the very earliest stages of developing policies, practices and services.

EAs should be an integral part of policy development and review, not a one-off or separate exercise.

The test for relevance would be if you can say whether there will be an effect on people with one of the protected characteristics or not (positive or negative).

It may be decided quite early on that an EA is not relevant. In this case the conclusion still needs to be documented to outline why.

The proposal could have a positive impact, negative impact, or no impact.

Try to involve relevant stakeholders in the EA process, if possible, to gauge their views from the beginning and get a wide range of perspectives.

Goldsmiths have a duty to involve students and staff covered by the protected characteristics, in particular disability, in any decision-making where relevant.

It is quite possible that some policies, practices or services will be more relevant to one protected characteristic than another (see case study on next page).

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Case study 1 – Building accessibility

Following an audit of the premises, a local library made a change to its development plan regarding its road furniture such as directional signs, white lines, parking bays, zebra crossings and lighting.

When assessing impact across the protected characteristics, the Health and Safety Manager found that the proposed changes to the development plan rated as highly relevant for groups covered by the protected characteristic ‘disability’. This was particularly the case as considerations over disability and visibility needed to be looked at before any changes were made. However, the same policy was rated low impact for groups covered by the protected characteristic ethnicity, as this was unlikely to be an issue.

In addition to disability, what was the relevance for other protected characteristics? It was considered to have a potentially negative impact under gender, and considerations were given to safety, particularly in the winter

months

It was also considered to have a potentially negative impact for the characteristic ‘age’, since older people, constituted a large number of their service users. Considerations of vulnerability and mobility for this group needed to be looked at

What actions were identified as a result of the Equality Analysis? The EA helped to identify how the library could remove barriers to access and inclusion for particular groups of people and also have more positive impacts, promoting equality of opportunity. Actions were taken to:

Provide an additional five accessible bays in line with best practice guidelines that state that recreation and leisure facilities should have accessible bays for 6% of the car park capacity – there should have been 13 designated spaces in total when there were only eight

Place a handrail on either side of all the external steps to and from the building to aid people with mobility impairments in navigating the steps – there was a handrail on only one side in the majority of cases

Put appropriate tactile raised markings on the road edges and on stairways into and out of the building to assist individuals with visual impairments

Illuminate certain areas at night to make them safer for women and increase visibility for staff and disabled service users.

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Completing an Equality Analysis

Identifying what is to be assessedIt is important to identify who owns the policy or function which means the person who has the authority or responsibility for updating, agreement and the timescale. Consider who else needs to be involved, this can include internal and external stakeholders but it is important to involve those most likely to be affected if possible. Identify who is going to carry out the assessment, this will need to be someone who knows the issues well, it does not always have to be the owner of the policy.

Collecting existing sources of information or identifying gaps in information Start the process by gathering information.

Information can be sought from internal and external sources and this stage should assist you in reaching a judgement on the impact that a change may have on different groups of people, for example:

workforce/student profiles statistics staff/student surveys focus groups complaints analysis feedback

If there are gaps in information that makes it difficult to form an opinion or information does not exist, you can identify what additional information needs to be collected or other areas that could be explored.

How to analyse and act on your findings Completing an EA is about making comparisons between groups of employees and service users. You will need to analyse the information you have gathered and assess the likely impacts of your proposals (both positive and negative). You will also need to

consider whether your proposals promote equality of opportunity or whether more work could be done to promote this.

Differential impact It is usual to discover differences. Instead, look for bias – that is, significant or disproportionate differences between groups of people in the way a policy practice or service has impacted on them. Consider each protected characteristic for relevance and both positive and negative impact.

Ask the question ‘why?’ and investigate further

Questions to consider in identifying any possible adverse impacts include:

Is there a lower participation rate for some groups rather than others?

Do eligibility criteria appear to disadvantage certain groups? Is access to services and benefits reduced or denied in

comparison with other groups? Does a group face increased difficulty as a result of a policy,

practice or change to a service?

Where a differential adverse impact is identified you will need to consider whether we are acting within the law, appropriate steps must be taken and outlined, this might involve additional consultation.

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Case Study 2 – Naturalisation

Following the move of the British Nationality Act cards database indexes to an established archival institution, a large volume of enquiries regarding naturalisation certificates were received by the organisation. Since the service was inherited it was new so in line with best practice an EA on the service as it was being delivered was carried out. The service was complicated and unlike other services at the establishment, it was inefficient and took considerable time to issue the new certificates. This created a barrier to service users accessing essential documentation that they often needed urgently.

The EA indicated that the inherited system of enquiry was having an adverse impact under the characteristic of ‘race’. This was because the majority of customers that made naturalisation enquiries were; from black and minority ethnic groups, non UK residents or if they were UK residents, they had only been for a short period of time. English was the second language for the majority of service users. A negative impact on disabled staff was also identified as index cards are difficult to access due to their physical location.

To further understand the impact of the service, the archive identified key characteristics of customers and their needs. Because these were one-off enquiries, it was difficult to invite customers in for consultation. Instead, evidence was gathered by using customer profiling and exploring the pathways customers took for different types of enquiry, and by conducting user research. The National Archives was able to identify where the key barriers to access were. Steps were taken to improve the service delivery and to have a positive impact, including:

digitising the indexes providing a more straightforward online tool for searching involving user testing in the design of the tool testing its accessibility populating the catalogue at item level with details of individuals.

This enabled the following:

easier access, accuracy and efficiency for searches carried out by staff better understanding of gaps in the collection and missing index cards greater understanding of patterns of post-Second World War migration by country of origin easier access to search facilities for staff with disabilities.

This had a considerable impact on customers, particularly from black and minority ethnic groups who may have otherwise been excluded from accessing an efficient service for obtaining naturalisation certificates.

Mitigating adverse impact

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If you have found a significant difference in how you’re treating people or negative impact, or you have missed an opportunity to promote equality of opportunity, you need to provide further details of the actions that can be taken to remedy this. You can:

Decide to stop the policy or practice at some point because the data shows bias towards one or more groups.

Change or mitigate the policy or practice in a way which you think will eliminate the bias.

Justify it – for example if the data shows the policy operates against a particular group, but you cannot see an alternative. You’ve looked at the policy or practice from every angle, considered all options carefully and there still seems to be no other proportionate way to achieve the aim of the policy or practice. Then you are going to continue with this policy or practice in the knowledge it will favour some people less than others.

Action In most cases where disproportionate disadvantage is found by carrying out an EA, policies and practices are changed or adapted. This is a positive feature, demonstrating fairness at The National Archives by removing barriers to both staff and service users.

Making objective justifications An EA asks you to carefully consider whether the impacts identified in the initial assessment can be justified and, if not, to think about ways of delivering the same outcomes by making adjustments to the proposals. You should ask yourself:

Why do we want to do this? Can we set out the reason clearly on paper? Do we have evidence to support this reason? Are we certain that this is real hard evidence and not just

based on assumptions? Is there an alternative less or non-discriminatory way of

achieving the same result?

Question Have you sought a second opinion from other key managers and recorded how the decision was made in case it is reviewed in the future?

Further involvement and consultation When major impacts or missed opportunities to promote equality of opportunity have been identified, you will often need to seek advice or views from relevant stakeholders on what to do next. Further consultation may therefore be necessary at this stage. You will need to decide what the most relevant and proportionate means of consultation will be. Informal dialogue with interested parties may be more appropriate than formal, written, public consultation. Involving disabled people will be key here.

Equality Analysis must be objective and must use evidence in deciding impact. Value judgements will not do!

Case Study 3 – Removal of microfilm in the reading rooms

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In April 2006, removal of microfilm from open access in the reading rooms was piloted by a university library. The aim was to create online access to the resource via digitisation. Feedback about the impact of removing the film was sought from customers using a poster campaign and consultation with the Regular Reader’s Forum.

During a further consultation in 2009, feedback was sought from a range of customers who used the microfilms and may have been impacted by the change in the service. The consultation included customer satisfaction surveys, open user forums, ‘Meet the CEO’ days, and customer feedback forms. Special attention was paid to disability and whether there would be any accessibility issues which included consulting with disabled customers.

After careful consideration of all the evidence and factors, it was identified that the change in this service would have no negative impact on different protected groups. Further removals took place subsequently and despite frequent general consultation exercises, there was no negative feedback regarding accessibility.

In fact, the change positively impacted on those with mobility, visual and manual dexterity issues. This was due to the provision of assistive technology (for example adapted keyboards and ZoomText) in the reading rooms for those using computers. Such technologies do not exist for microfilm usage. For users who have difficulty with computers, regardless of group or need, staff offer assistance and, if necessary, microfilms are available on request.

When a customer contacted The library asking whether they had performed an Equality Analysis and considered the impact on disabled customers, staff were able to clearly show that a robust consultation process had been carried out (a clear paper trail of evidence exists) and illustrate that the proposed changes positively impacted on disabled customers to create more accessible records online where they can be used in conjunction with assistive technology.

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Involvement and consultation

A lack of evidence should not prevent an EA from being undertaken. In cases where something is being introduced for the first time there may be little experience to draw on or other material evidence. In such cases you should make a judgment that is as reliable as possible.

Consultation is one way of strengthening judgments by building a consensus view that can avoid obvious prejudices or assumptions – this can be supported by involving a diverse range of people.

Consultation is very important but it also needs to be proportionate and relevant so that a small policy is not over-consulted on and a more important policy inadequately consulted on.

It is imperative to hear the views of a cross section of those who may be affected by the change. It is important to consult especially with any groups for whom you have identified a potential negative impact.

Different methods of consulting with people are more effective for some groups than others and consideration needs to be given as to when and where consultation will take place.

Saving and publishing findings

EAs should be completed using language that we can all understand. The findings should be written in plain English, free from jargon.

An initial or routine EA should be part of our day-to-day decision making processes. In these instances, a simple paragraph that sets out the relevance of the policy or practice or service, a summary of the questions completed, and the consultation involved will enable the Head of Service to ensure an impact assessment has been undertaken.

Where adverse impact has been found a more thorough EA may need to be considered to include evidence of additional consultation about the impacts identified and decisions made as a result.

If you need advice and guidance on completing an EA, contact the Equality and Diversity Advisor.

When you have completed your EA and it has been signed off, please save it alongside your proposal or project documentation. Bear in mind that you may be asked how you considered Equality and Diversity when developing your proposal.

The Equality and Diversity Advisor may contact you to ask for a copy of your EA, and it may be published to enable knowledge and good practice to be shared externally and across Goldsmiths.

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Equality Analysis Map

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Gather existing information from staff and customers, feedback,

data and statistics

Identify the objectives and outcomes for a new or changing

policy, practice or service

Analyse data, collect further information if necessary – this

may include consultation

Assess impact – identify barriers/impacts for different

protected characteristics

Positive or negative impact identified

Stop, mitigate or justify action (negative impact)

Look at ways to promote or utilise this opportunity (positive

impact)

No evidence that changes have an adverse impact on

equality of opportunity

Document findings

Consult on final changes and proposed actions

Arrange sign off

Publish (if requested)

Monitor and review for impact once proposal is implemented