Discrimination is less favourable treatment based on someone's protected characteristic. A protected characteristic is an individual strand of diversity as covered under the Equality Act.
The Equality Act 2010 covers 9 protected characteristics.
In relation to both employment the relevant protected characteristics are:
A person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on that person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
A person who is proposing to, or is currently undergoing, or who has undergone a process to change their gender.
Pregnancy is the condition of being pregnant or expecting a baby. Maternity refers to the period after the birth and is linked to maternity leave in the employment context. In the non-work context, protection against maternity discrimination is for 26 weeks after giving birth and this includes treating a woman unfavourably because she is breastfeeding.
Refers to a group of people defined by their race, colour and nationality, ethnic or national origins.
Religion includes any religion. It also includes a lack of religion (for instance service users and employees are protected if they do not follow a certain religion). Belief includes religious and philosophical beliefs including lack of belief (e.g. Atheism). Generally, a belief should affect your life choices or the way you live. Sex: Being male or female.
Defined as a person's sexual attraction towards their own sex (gay or lesbian), the opposite sex (heterosexual) or to both sexes (bisexual).
In relation to employment only, the protected characteristics also cover:
The Equality Act protects people of all ages. However, if different treatment because of age can be justified and is a proportionate means of meeting a legitimate aim, this will not be considered discrimination. Employers are allowed to have a default retirement age of 67 until April 2011. The prohibition on age related discrimination also covers training and education.
In the Equality Act marriage and civil partnership means someone who is legally married or in a civil partnership. Marriage can either be between a man and a woman, or between partners of the same sex. Civil partnership is between partners of the same sex. Single people are not protected.
This occurs when someone is treated less favourably than another person because of a protected characteristic.
This is a form of direct discrimination and occurs when a person is treated less favourably because they are linked or associated with a person who has a protected characteristic.
This is a form of direct discrimination and occurs when a person is treated less favourably because others wrongly think they have a protected characteristic and treat them on the basis of such perception.
Indirect discrimination occurs when there is a rule, a policy or a practice that applies to everyone but particularly disadvantages people who share a protected characteristic. Indirect discrimination can be justified if the rule, policy or practice can be shown to meet a legitimate objective in a fair, balanced and reasonable way, i.e. that it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
Harassment is unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic, which has the purpose or the effect of violating a persons dignity, or which is hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive.
Deciding what counts as harassment is a matter of reasonableness and people must exercise common sense.
Applies to age, disability, gender, gender re-assignment, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. The Equality Act makes employers potentially liable for harassment of your employees by people (third parties) who do are not employed by you, e.g. customers or contract workers.
Victimisation occurs when a person is treated badly because they are making a complaint, or supporting a complaint or are raising a grievance about discrimination, or they are suspected of doing so.
An organisation must not treat a disabled person unfavourably because of something connected to their disability, where they cannot show that what they are doing is objectively justified.
It is important to recognise that some people with protected characteristics are disadvantaged or under-represented in services and workforces. They may have particular needs linked to protected characteristics or may need additional help or encouragement to ensure they are provided with the same opportunities as others.
The Equality Act recognises that, in order for organisations to ensure equality outcomes are met for disabled people, they may need to consider changing the way in which they deliver services and employ disabled people, for instance by providing extra equipment or removing physical barriers.
The duty to make reasonable adjustments aims to ensure that organisations consider the ways in which they provide services and facilities to disabled people in order to ensure that disabled people can use services and facilities on the same basis as non-disabled people.
This duty is anticipatory. This means organisation should not wait until disabled people want to use their services, instead they should think in advance about what reasonable adjustments disabled people with a range of impairments may reasonably need.
The Equality Act enables organisations to take proportionate steps to help people overcome their disadvantages or to meet specific needs. As a service provider or employer you can use positive action where you believe one of these conditions apply:
Although sometimes used interchangeably, the terms equality and diversity are not the same.
Equality is about creating a fairer society, where everyone can participate and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. By eliminating prejudice and discrimination, the IGP can deliver services that are personal, fair and diverse and a society that is healthier and happier. For the IGP, this means making it more accountable to the patients it serves and tackling discrimination in the work place.
For example, occupational segregation. Women make up almost 75% of the NHS workforce but are concentrated in the lower-paid occupational areas: nursing, allied health professionals (AHPs), administrative workers and ancillary workers. People from black and minority ethnic groups comprise 39.1% of hospital medical staff yet they comprise only 22.1% of all hospital medical consultants.
An equalities approach understands that who we are, based on social categories such as gender, race, disability, age, social class, sexuality and religion - will impact on our life experiences.
Diversity literally means difference. When it is used as a contrast or addition to equality, it is about recognising individual as well as group differences, treating people as individuals, and placing positive value on diversity in the community and in the workforce.
Historically, employers and services have ignored certain differences such as background, personality and work style. However, individual and group diversity needs to be considered in order to ensure that everybody's needs and requirements are understood and responded to within employment practice and service design and delivery.
One way in which organisations have responded to the issue of diversity in recent years has been the development of flexibility in working practices and services. For example, an employer may allow an employee to work a flexible working pattern to accommodate child care arrangements, or a GP surgery may offer surgeries at the weekends to accommodate those who work full time during the week.
These approaches recognise that in order to provide accessible services and to ensure we promote inclusive working environments organisations may need to respond differently to both individuals and to groups.
A holistic approach means making a commitment to equality through the recognition of diversity.
Equality and diversity is becoming more important in all aspects of our lives and work for a number of reasons:
It is important that you consider how an individual's social identity may impact on their experience of the IGP. The ways in which discrimination works include stereotyping, making assumptions, patronising, humiliating and disrespecting people, taking some people less seriously.
To ensure that we value diversity and consider the individual's identity appropriately, the following principles may be useful:
Human rights are the basic rights and principles that belong to every person in the world. Human Rights are based on the FREDA principles: Fairness, Respect, Equality, Dignity and Autonomy. Human rights protect an individual's freedom to control their day-to-day life, and effectively participate in all aspects of public life in a fair and equal way. Human rights help individuals to flourish and achieve potential through:
Intrinsic to these statements should be the principles of equality and diversity.
Since 1998 the UK has also included human rights within its legal framework. The Human Rights Act applies to all public authorities and bodies performing a public function. The Human Rights Acts places the following responsibility on your organisation.
The Human Rights Act provides a complementary legal framework to the anti-discriminatory framework and the public duties.
As a manager you are responsible for making sure that:
We are all responsible for:
Breaches of the Equality and Diversity, or Dignity at Work policies, will be dealt with under our Disciplinary Procedure, and could lead to dismissal in serious or repeated cases.
The Independent General Practice