8 June 2010
From April 2007 amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (as amended by the Equality Act 2006) has obliged all public authorities, including NHS organisations, to comply with a general duty to pro-actively promote gender equality. In order to comply with the general duty, NHS organisations have to produce a Gender Equality Scheme (“Scheme”). The Scheme should outline the general and specific duties and setting out its gender equality objectives. The specific duties within Schemes are to:
- Gather information on how our service affects women and men
- Consult employees, service users, staff organisations and other stakeholders
- Assess the different impact of policies and practices on both sexes
- Identify priorities and set gender equality objectives
- Plan and take action to achieve those objectives
- Publish a gender equality scheme and review progress every three years
- Develop and publish an annual report of the progress of the Scheme and to revise and renew it within 3 years
A number of Schemes were created in April 2007 following the coming into force of the Equality Act 2006 and many are due for revision and renewal in the next few weeks. Have you revised and renewed your Scheme?
Equality Act 2010: update
In a
previous insight we informed you about how the Equality Act
2010 had reached Royal Assent to become legislation but had not in
fact been brought into force by the previous Labour Government. The
new Coalition Government has mixed views about certain parts of the
Equality Act 2010. For instance, the Conservative Party criticised
aspects of the Equality Act 2010 during its passage through
Parliament. We suspect that a review of the Act by the Coalition
Government is likely before any of the provisions come into
force.
Hill Dickinson has a wealth of experience in dealing with the full
range of employment and pensions issues. If you have any queries
relating to the above, or any other legal matter, please do not
hesitate to contact us
for advice.
