GENDER EQUALITY DUTY

KEY POINTS

The Gender Equality Duty is the biggest change in sex equality legislation for 30 years and  is designed to help everyone regardless of gender.

The duty is due to come into force in April 2007 and will build on previous legislation ensuring all public bodies take action to eliminate discrimination and harassment and promote equality for men and women.

1. General Duties

1.1.                The Equality Act 2006 amends the SDA to place a statutory duty on all public authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need:

·         to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment

·         to promote equality of opportunity between men and women.

1.2.                This is known as the 'general duty’ and will come into effect on 6 April 2007. 

1.3.                The duty applies to all public authorities in respect of all of their functions. This means it applies to policy-making, service provision, employment matters, and in relation to enforcement or any statutory discretion and decision-making.  It also applies to a public authority in relation to services and functions which are contracted out. In addition, it applies to private and voluntary bodies which are carrying out public functions, but only in respect of those functions. 

1.4.                Notre Dame is expected to have 'due regard' to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment and promote equality of opportunity between men and women in all of their functions.  Due regard comprises two linked elements: proportionality and relevance.  The weight which we give to gender equality should therefore be proportionate to its relevance to a particular function.  The greater the relevance of a function to gender equality, the greater regard which should be paid to it. 

1.5.                As part of the duty, public authorities are required to have due regard to the need to  eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment in employment and vocational training (including further and higher education), for people who intend to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone gender reassignment.  For the purposes of this Code, the expression ‘transsexual people’ is used to refer to the people who are covered by those provisions. 

1.6.                To support progress in delivering the general duty, there is also a series of ‘specific duties’ which apply. The Order sets out steps those authorities must take to help them meet the general duty. 

1.7.                Those specific duties, in brief, are: 

·         To prepare and publish a gender equality scheme, showing how it will meet its general and specific duties and setting out its gender equality objectives.

·         In formulating its overall objectives, to consider the need to include objectives to address the causes of any gender pay gap. 

·         To gather and use information on how the public authority's policies and practices affect gender equality in the workforce and in the delivery of services.

·         To consult stakeholders (i.e. employees, service users and others, including trade unions) and take account of relevant information in order to determine its gender equality objectives.

·         To assess the impact of its current and proposed policies and practices on gender equality.

·         To implement the actions set out in its scheme within three years, unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so.

·         To report against the scheme every year and review the scheme at least every three years.

2.              Notre Dame believes that by addressing the General and Specific    

         Duties, we will ensure that men and women continue to be treated   

         fairly and improve the experience of all, in accordance with our   

          Mission.

2.1     To achieve this, we intend to address any current issues and    

          equality gaps that we have identified so far and to plan a     

           programme that  allows us to review and rewrite our policies,     

           procedures, practices and plans, having assessed how they impact  

           on men and women.

2.2    In our efforts to build on current practices and progress, the priority       

        areas we need to address, including those specifically identified to  

        date are:

• Work  to prioritise impact assessments
• Embed gender equality within quality improvement and planning processes
• Gather and use information about gender more effectively and earlier to effect change
• Improve publicity about what Notre Dame does to support gender equality, particularly pre-enrolment publicity

• Review materials used to support all students