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Equality Legislation

Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 provides a new cross-cutting legislative framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all; to update, simplify and strengthen the previous legislation; and to deliver a simple, modern and accessible framework of discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society. Main provisions of the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 4 October 2010.

NHS Wiltshire - Equality Act 2010 brief

Introduction
NHS Wiltshire is committed to promoting equality, diversity and human rights in everything it does. The Trust Board is determined to ensure that NHS Wiltshire offers equal access to health care and employment opportunities to everyone it serves. We have published a three-year Single Equality Scheme and action plan. This scheme meets and goes beyond our statutory duties. Through this scheme we endeavour to promote equal access and tackle discrimination against different protected groups.

The Single Equality Scheme highlights how we involve and engage with our diverse communities. We regularly update progress against our action plan specifying work we have undertaken through our Joint Strategic Needs Assessment to enhance our understanding on health care needs of our communities and what we are doing to continue to improve equal access to our services and equality of opportunity in employment. We accept that we are on a journey towards the delivery of completely equitable services and that we can always do more.

Equality Act 2010 Update 
The Equality Act 2010 received Royal Assent on 8th April 2010, and came into effect on 1 October 2010, bringing together and strengthening the previous equalities legislation. The Act gives the UK a single Act of Parliament, requiring equal treatment in access to employment and provision of public services, irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, maternity or pregnancy, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. It has particular implications for employers and statutory bodies such as NHS Wiltshire.
 
The Equality Act will be the primary reference point for employers in England in relation to discrimination, harassment and equality in the workplace.
 
It introduces some new provisions; changes and extends the coverage and protection for certain groups; and clarifies and simplifies certain concepts and definitions. 
 
It requires equal treatment for everyone in relation to access to employment and provision of services, irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, maternity or pregnancy, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

What NHS Wiltshire needs to do?
There are several things we must do to comply with the Act, especially as an employer, commissioner and service provider. Key critical steps include:
 
As an employer we need to:

• Review and revise our pre employment checking procedures in line with legislation – On 1st October 2010, s60 of the Equality Act 2010 came into force. This made asking questions about the health status of an individual applying for a post illegal until after they have been made a conditional offer of a post. Please click here for further information from NHS Employers
• Review our induction and training materials to ensure that they reflect all of the protected characteristics covered by the Act. Please click here for further information from the Equality and Human Rights Commission 
• Work with our internal communications team to include information in staff briefs to update staff about the Act.
• Review all of our HR & recruitment policies and materials so that they reflect the new protected characteristics in the Equality Act
• Review all of our induction and training policies and materials so that they reflect the new protected characteristics in the Equality Act

As a commissioner we need to: 

• Review and revise our commissioning policies and procedure to ensure that they are compliant with new legislation
• Ensure that our successor commissioning bodies reflect the need to use commissioning process to promote equality of opportunity for all protected characteristics

As a service provider we need to:

• Ensure that our successor will review and revise existing policies and practices with respect to service provision to ensure that they are in line with legislation – the new Public Sector Equality Duty is expected to come into force on 4 April 2011 
• The ban on age discrimination in provision of services and public functions is expected to come into force on 2012 (TBC)
• We need to ensure that we have revised our equality impact assessment procedure so that it covers all protected characteristics

Much of this work is currently in progress as part of the SES action plan and the Workforce Committee work plan. A report of progress against the priorities will be regularly updated and posted on this webpage.

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