Impact assessments

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust will identify which of its functions, services and policies are relevant to equality and diversity, prioritise these and then assess all that are relevant for their impact on equality. Where any unjustifiable significant impact is identified, we will make changes to meet any statutory duty.

Assessment criteria
We will assess each function, service or policy using the following criteria:
• Is there any evidence of higher or lower participation or uptake by different ethnic groups, between men or women or by age, religion, language or disability?
• Is there any evidence that different groups have different needs, experiences, issues and priorities in relation to the particular policy or service?
• Is there an opportunity to improve equality by altering the policy or service or working with others internally or the community at large?
• Have consultations in the past with relevant representatives, organisations or individuals within groups indicated that particular policies or services create problems that are specific to them?

All new service and workforce policies, processes, proposals or functions need to be screened to assess whether they have the potential to negatively and unjustifiably impact on equality. We will involve people, patients, public, staff and other stakeholders in our equality impact assessments, and we will monitor the effectiveness of our action plans.

Assessment results
We will publish the results of our impact assessments as they are completed. Read more in the assessment results section.

Assessment guide
We have produced an equality impact assessment guide (PDF, 797KB, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, free download) to help our health professionals carry out robust and integrated equality impact assessments. The equality impact assessment form is used in conjunction with the guide.

Quality standards
All equality impact assessments must meet a set of nine quality standards before they are published on the Trust website. The standards largely relate to ensuring the equality impact assessment form has been completed correctly.
• Download a list of the quality standards