Active Equality

Equality Act 2010 Shakirah Ullah Diversity and Access Coordinator

What’s in place now Majority of the Act enacted: October 2010 Extended ‘equality grounds’ to cover 9 ‘protected characteristics’ –Now includes Marriage & Civil Partnership; Pregnancy & Maternity + the 7 equality strands Extended definitions for discrimination –Associative and perceptive direct discrimination –Indirect discrimination –Indirect disability discrimination & discrimination arising from disability + strengthened ‘reasonable adjustments’ provision

From April 2011 Equality Act 2010 Specific Duties –All previous equality legislation rescinded Public bodies: Schedule 19 (tbc) Helps public bodies to meet the general duties and have ‘due regard’ to: –Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; –Advance equality of opportunity between different groups; and –Foster good relations between people from different groups.

However… ‘New approach’ by the government: –Fairness – from equality to ‘fairness’ –Reducing ‘bureaucracy’ & the ‘burden’ of equality on business –Equality objectives –Deregulation –Transparency

How we can use the Act Equality Duty obliges public bodies to produce ‘accessible’ equality data –This could be used to hold public bodies to account Duty to involve the VCS when setting equality objectives –Obligation to engage with the relevant agencies Provision for the VCS (or any other ‘interested’ body) to question information if inadequate or inaccurate Evidence and case studies – GEO

Where will we access this data? Data from the Greater Manchester City Region should appear on the GM Data Store: Populated more in the run up to July 31 st 2011?

Why we are doing this 1 in 4 children in the GM region live in severe poverty Double the national average lone parents: 91.8% are women Manchester 3 rd most deprived district in the UK 7% identify as lesbian, gay or bi-sexual Religious diversity – links to poverty Higher than the national average: Black and minority ethnic Higher than national average: disabled people Some of the highest levels of hate crime in the UK

The importance of ‘equality’ The Equality Act is just one mechanism Purpose of today’s event to ensure that equality remains a priority Time to get creative… Time to embrace ‘Active Equality’ It’s not going to be easy, but…