Looking into the Future Disability Equality Duty

1
Looking into the Future Disability Equality
Duty

• Caroline Gooding
• Equality Consultant and RADAR Special Adviser

2
Threats

• Poor enforcement
• Need for leadership
• Single Equality Act

3
Need for enforcement

• ODI Research, December 2008
• The Influence of the Disability Equality Duty
  and Guide to Best Practice
• Much of the work described by the
  organisations we interviewed focused on setting
  up the DES and developing the Action Plan. These
  processes are now well established but there
  appears to be little attempt to monitor actual
  outcomes or to change strategy

4
Need for enforcement

• Many organisations would like the EHRC to
  carry on with the good work started by the DRC
  and, specifically, to monitor the implementation
  of the DEDBoth Equality Impact Assessments and
  Action Plans should be monitored to ensure that
  progress is on-going.
• The Influence of the Disability Equality Duty
  and Guide to Best Practice Recommendation

5
Opportunities

• Creative enforcement and partnership
• Single Equality Act

6
Distinctive features of DED

• Requirement to promote equality of opportunity
  spelt out including the need to take steps to
  take account of disabled persons disabilities,
  even where that involves treating disabled person
  more favourably than other persons
• Under-pinning principle

7
Distinctive features of DED

• Need to involve disabled people
• Need to ACT carry out Action Plan
• Secretary of State Reports on progress on
  disability equality in their policy sector,
  including actions to improve co-ordination

8
Value of Involvement

• The public sector equality duties, Making an
  impact (Schneider Ross, 2007)
• At the stakeholder discussions practitioners
  were particularly enthusiastic about the impact
  of the public sector duty in encouraging
  consultation and (more significantly) about the
  on-going involvement of disabled people.
• 72 of respondents said that involvement of
  disabled people contributed to successful
  implementation of the DED.

9
Single Equality Act

• New Equality Duty will bring together the three
  existing duties and extend to gender
  reassignment, age, sexual orientation and
  religion or belief
• It will retain the three broad limbs of the
  existing duties
• eliminating unlawful discrimination and
  harassment
• advancing equality of opportunity and
• advancing good relations between different groups

10
New Equality Duty

• Will unpack equality of opportunity addressing
  disadvantage encouraging a culture which ensures
  that individuals differences are accepted
  meeting different needs and encouraging
  participation and inclusion
• Specific duties will be subject to further
  consultation
• Timing 2010/2011 at the earliest

11
New Equality Duty needs to

• Retain strengths of DED
• Strengthen by
• Explicit coverage of procurement
• Explicit coverage of inspectorates
• Requirement to set targets
• Better enforcement by bodies other than EHRC