Equality Impact Assessment Training

Background

In 2009 Infrastruct produced a gap analysis for Standards for England – the regulatory body for councillors’ code of conduct.  Our report  identified what action the organisation needed to take in order to comply with its public duties required by equality legislation.  We then worked with a small group of key staff to develop Standards for England’s statutory Equality Scheme. 

The organisation’s approach to equality impact assessment (EIA) was one area that needed attention.

Equality impact assessment is an analytical tool whereby an organisation assesses how a policy or procedure might impact differently on people from different communities.  The proposed course of action often changes as a result of the information from the EIA.

Our Interventions

Infrastruct designed an Equality Impact Assessment procedure and templates that were fit for a small organisation (80 employees), but still met statutory requirements.

We then ran a training session for all the managers at Standards for England who would have an input into carrying out equality impact assessments.  The training concentrated on real policies and functions that would need an EIA in the coming months.  Managers therefore left the training having done some of the work they would need to do.