Equality Act and PSED

Equality Act (2010) - Public Sector Equality Duty

The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) replaces previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act. The Act’s aim is to simplify the law, remove inconsistencies and make it easier for people to understand and comply with, as well as strengthening the law to help tackle discrimination and inequality. The majority of the Act came into force on 1st October 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty came into force on 5th April 2011. The Equality Duty ensures that all Public Bodies play their part in making society fairer by tackling discrimination and providing equality of opportunity for all.

The Equality Duty is a duty on Public Bodies and others carrying out public functions. It ensures that public bodies consider the needs of all individuals in their day to day work-in shaping policy, in delivering services and in relation to their own employees.

The new Equality Duty covers the following protected characteristics:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Gender Reassignment
  • Marriage and Civil Partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race-this includes ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality
  • Religion or belief-this includes lack of belief
  • Sex
  • Sexual orientation

The Equality Duty has three aims. It requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:

  • Eliminate unlawful discrimination-harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act
  • Advance equality of opportunity between people who share protected characteristic and people who do not share it
  • Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

As part of the Act, public sector organisations must publish evidence to confirm they are meeting the three aims of the Act as highlighted above.

Download our Public Sector Equality Duty report 

The evidence presented by the Trust has been collated as part of the implementation of the Department of Health’s Equality Delivery System (EDS). The EDS is designed as a tool to be used to help all staff and NHS organizations understand how equality can drive improvements and strengthen the accountability of services to patients and the public. It will help ensure that everyone - patients, public and staff - has a voice in how organizations are performing and where they should improve.

The EDS encourages us to work with their service users, staff and stakeholders to gather and analyse information on equalities; set equality objectives and make the changes required to become better employers and improve the way frontline health services deliver good health outcomes for the protected groups who experience the greatest inequalities.

The EDS has been designed to enable compliance with the Equality Act (2010) and ensure that NHS Trusts follow their legal obligations with regard to producing equality objectives.