Equality Impact Assessments (EIA)
1. What is an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA)?
An EIA is a means of refocusing services or employment practices on the needs of diverse communities or diverse groups of staff.
An EIA is a process of analysing a proposed or existing service, strategy, policy, or project. The aim is to identify any effect or likely effect on different groups within the community. EIAs remain the responsibility of the Leeds City Council and WestNorthWest Homes whether functions are provided in house or contracted out.
Equality Impact Assessments are concerned with anticipating and identifying the discriminatory or negative consequences for a particular group or sector of the community on the grounds of race, disability, gender, age, religion and belief, and sexual orientation. Information gathered may show that there is over or under-representation by certain groups. Either way this would need to be looked into unless the service is targeted to a specific group. The outcome of an EIA is to make sure that, as far as possible, any negative consequences are eliminated or minimised and opportunities for promoting equality are maximised.
2. Why ‘Impact Assess’?
Undertaking EIA is a requirement of the Equality Standard for Local Government and a Best Value Indicator. Success is measured through the Audit Commission Inspection process and by Leeds City Council’s Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA).
Public bodies (including the Health Service) also have a legal responsibility to assess their policies and functions, and to set out how they will monitor any possible negative impact on race, disability and gender, age, religion and belief and sexual orientation equality. They also have to consult on proposed policies and train their staff in these duties. The public duty requires that the following issues are addressed:
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Is the strategy/policy/service/function discriminatory?
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Does it promote equal opportunities (proactively advertise and encourage participation by all)?
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Does it help promote good relations between different communities?
For disability three more issues need consideration under the public duty:
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Can measures be included to eliminated harassment?
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Can steps be taken to encourage participation in public life?
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And do any adjustments need to be made to enable disabled people to have access to the service?
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Undertaking EIAs will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of WestNorthWest homes by ensuring that service user’s needs are met and staff are representative of the community.
Equality Impact Assessments also link in to our business objective on equality & diversity and is part of our Equality & Diversity Strategy, in which there is commitment to celebrate diversity and to practice equality in everything we do. In providing or commissioning services and as an employer.
Other reasons
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It increases customer and staff trust
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It enhances value for money
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It informs business plans
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It increases social inclusion
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It promotes understanding and sensitivity
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It promotes good practice to other organisations
3. Who is responsible for EIA?
Heads of Service are responsible for ensuring EIAs are done. Managers and policy holders are responsible for undertaking EIAs in their area of responsibility.
Final responsibility rests with our Board of Directors and the Chief Executive.
Our Senior Management Teams (SMT) agree a programme of EIAs as part of their business planning process
There are two stages to an EIA:
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Screening strategies, policies, services or projects to see if they are likely to have a detrimental impact in terms of race, gender, disability, age, religion and belief and sexual orientation
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A full impact assessment should be undertaken if the screening shows that there could be significant detrimental impact.
Templates for both stages can be accessed from the links on the right.
4. Stage one: Screening for Relevance
Before carrying out a full EIA, all strategies and policies are screened for relevance as some will have no relevance to race, gender, disability, age, religion and belief, or sexual orientation.
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Policies and projects that each Head of Service identify as part of the business planning process each year as likely to require an EIA. These are policies and projects, strategies and functions that are of relevant to the work of WestNorthWest homes
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Policies, services, fucntions and projects that are in their initial planning stages or undergoing a revision
Once the Initial Screening Form has been completed, a full EIA is undertaken if:
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Any equality target group or sub-section of an equality target group would be negatively affected, and
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That impact is assessed as of medium or high significance.
A strategy, service, function or policy could have a positive or neutral impact in terms of race, gender, disability, age, religion and belief or sexual orientation. In such cases a full EIA is not necessary.
5. Stage Two: Carrying out a full EIA
A full EIA involves three stages:
Information gathering can be done through monitoring, consultation or research.
Information can be:
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‘Quantitative’ (statistical) such as the number of users of a service (or staff number if the EIA is about employment) by gender, ethnic group, disability etc. This information can then be measured against known data such as the census information. WestNorthWest homes already uses performance indicators to measure service improvements. This is the same process.
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‘Qualitative’. This is information that captures people’s experiences of the service or employment practice. It is usually gathered through consultation.
Much information already exists within the business and more can be obtained from other similar authorities or other bodies (government departments, the Audit Commission, local government associations). Complaints, Employment Tribunal cases, other litigation, best value reviews, inspection reports etc can also be used.
Some questions can be difficult to answer, for example in areas where there is little or no information. In cases where no monitoring information is available, consultative methods can be used. The lack of data is not a reason to halt the process but action is planned to acquire that information in the future so that a proper review can take place.
What is relevant when assessing ‘impact’?
The degree of relevance or adverse impact is decided upon by comparing monitoring information and data about Leeds population (for example: census data, labour force survey or Yorshire wide data) and by considering prior research, good practice guidance and consultations information.
The following considerations are included in the decision:
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The specific relevance on the equality target groups
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Where a policy disadvantages, one or some of our equality target groups.
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Whether the negative impact on people’s lives is significant and extensive
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Whether issues around harassment can be addressed
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Whether issues around public participation can be addressed
Once the EIA is complete, if there is a negative impact, a decision is made on what action should be taken to change or mitigate the strategy, policy or service. This can be about plugging gaps in information as well as any changes that need to be made to ensure that it has no detrimental effect on any group of people. For disability this should include any reasonable adjustments which can be made to enable access for all. This section should also indicate when reviews of the policy or service will take place.
Areas that WestNorthWest Homes have Equality Impact Assessed
The areas that we have completed Equality Impact Assessments for Stages 1 and 2 are listed in the attached document 'List of Equality Impact Assessments'.
Where gaps have been identified for a particular group, a number of actions have been drawn up and placed into our Service Improvement Plans.