Equality Act 2010 Summary For Education Providers

The Equality Act repeals practically all previous pieces of equality legislation that exists in Britain. For instance, the two most common pieces of equality legislation referenced in schools and other education settings are the Disability Discrimination Act and Race Relation Amendment Acts. Both of those pieces of legislation have now been repealed, along with legislation referring to sexual orientation and others pieces of law related to equality and diversity.
What is the Purpose of the new Law?
Until the Equality Act came into being, the equality and diversity legislation that existed was, essentially, unequal. Different groups of people were protected under different pieces of law to a lesser or higher degree. For example, disability discrimination protection and sexual orientation protections did not protect disabled people and gay people to the same extent – and this could be seen across all of the different groups protected.
All of these previous laws have now been redrawn, harmonised and added to with a range of additional “protected characteristics” to form the Equality Act 2010. The intent is that all groups are now protected equally.
Education is a Devolved Function, but The Act Still Applies.
In the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament, education is a devolved function. Often, there is a discrepancy between education provisions in the different parts of the UK. There can be a tendency, because of that, to refer to statutory guidance that comes from the devolved governments as it applies to education, rather than national legislation
The Act, importantly, makes the point that, although education is devolved, equal opportunities is not. Therefore, this legislation applies across the whole of the UK in full, including in education. However, the devolved governments can add to the Act and some additional duties are expected from them.
Some Key Aspects of the Equality Act
Protected Characteristics: The “protected characteristics” or “strands” that are protected are listed as: Race, Disability, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Religion or Belief, Age, Gender Reassignment, Marriage or Civil Partnership, Pregnancy and Maternity.
All of the strands are now offered equal protection against “direct” and “indirect” discrimination in all areas, including education.
Third Party Harassment: Teaching staff and all other staff employed by schools are now protected from “third party harassment” if they fall within one of the nine strands. This means that, for example, a teacher or youth worker can sue their employer for racist or homophobic (for instance) harassment by pupils or parents if the harassment has occurred on more than two occasions, and the employer is aware of that.
Discrimination by Association: The protection in education or employment now extends to discrimination “by association.” An example might be a religious school treating a pupil differently in its selection criteria because his or her parents are in a Civil Partnership rather than a marriage – even if the pupils themselves were not gay. The legislation applies to private and public schools.
Another example might be a pupil who is treated differently because an older sibling has ADHD or other learning difficulty; or a man being treated differently when applying for a job due to his partner’s pregnancy. “By association” also extends to the third party harassment described above.
Dual Discrimination: There is now a provision for claims to be made for “dual discrimination.” This means that someone can make a claim for being discriminated against if they fall into more than one protected characteristic. Discrimination in this case might be someone being turned down for promotion due to being an older, disabled person.
Recruitment and Selection: Questions related to disability and health at recruitment are illegal under this new legislation, whereas “positive action” in employment is to be extended in certain circumstances.
If people from a particular strand are under-represented in the workforce and there are two equally good candidates for a position, it will now be legal to choose the person from the under-represented group based on that fact. An example might be employing a male teaching assistant, if he is equally qualified and does equally as well as a woman during interview. The justification for this is that men are under-represented in those jobs. Employing someone on the grounds of belonging to an under-represented group alone (i.e. while being under qualified or performing badly at interview) will still be illegal.
Reasonable Adjustments: Schools will already be familiar with the requirement to make reasonable adjustments under the Disability Discrimination Act. However, the requirement to make reasonable adjustments seems to have been strengthened. There now has to be a “material and substantial” justification for not making adjustments or discriminating against disabled pupils, learners, service users and employees.
The Duty to Promote Equality
Whereas private businesses – either within or outside the field of education – are affected by this new legislation, and are required not to discriminate and comply with the new law on equality and diversity, schools and local education authorities are required to go one step further. Any state run institution has a legal Duty under the legislation to promote equality for the first six protected characteristics.
This means that it is not enough simply to tackle racism or homophobia, for instance. Schools will be required to actively promote equality for different races and for people of different sexual orientations, as well as for disabled people, people of all genders, people of all religions (and no religion) and people of all ages.
Importantly, the legislation introduced a new duty to promote equality based on socio economic status. Pre-election the Conservative party said that they would drop that Duty. It remains to be seen what the Conservative/Lib Dem Alliance will do. Regardless, the rest of the Act will remain in tact.

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