COALITION GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY?

Guess how many times the Coalition government’s new equality strategy Building a Fairer Britain mentions pregnancy **** Discrimination against pregnant women is one of the new ‘protected characteristics’ defined in the Equality Act which came into force in October, we’d expect it to feature strongly in government plans.  The Equal Opportunity Commission’s investigation in 2005 found 30,000 pregnant women per year were forced out of their jobs.   

The government has abolished ‘equality of outcome’ as a concept, preferring to concentrate on equal treatment and equal opportunity.   So far, the jury is out as to the extent that inequality will deepen, or not, in the years to come, and the previous government’s track record was somewhat patchy to say the least. 

Infrastruct will continue to publish updates on building diverse ‘people infrastructures’  in organisations which respond to society’s diverse needs.  Watch this space to see whether government action helps or hinders this process.

*****Answer: Once 

From Michael Keating, Local Government Improvement and Development re Building a Fairer Britain:

‘……..apart from a couple of references to CLG, an action about challenging councils to provide personal payments for adult social care and one about support for disabled people to become councillors there is no mention of effective local government as a vital ingredient in delivering a fairer Britain.  Over the coming months, as we know, many of the hard spending decisions are going to have to be made in local places and equality has to sit at the heart of these if they are to be truly effective.  I remain convinced that as a sector we have the expertise to get this right.’