Equality analysis
Collecting information and consulting staff and students
All public bodies must collect workforce and other data across all the protected characteristics in order to assess the impact of their policies on all aspects of equality and help develop their equality objectives. Employers of fewer than 150 staff are not obliged to publish workforce data but must still publish ‘information’ – which may be both quantitative and qualitative – to demonstrate their compliance with the general equality duty.
For the University, the data collected and consulted is likely to include many of the following elements:
- Statistical data on the composition of the staff and student bodies
- HR records
- Recruitment monitoring
- Pay audits
- Student admission and attainment rates
- Comparison with national sector data (e.g. Equality Challenge Unit, Higher Education Information Database for Institutions (HEIDI))
- Complaints and grievances
- Student representatives on college committees
- Student and staff surveys
- Feedback from consultation and engagement exercises
- Feedback from the unions
- Outreach activity
- Training, workshops and seminars
- Self-assessment, e.g. disability audits
- Communications from local or national special interest groups
- Internal information sharing across the University
- Descriptive evidence of the process by which the institution has assessed the impact of its policies and practices on people with different protected characteristics.
EHRC guidance
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published non-statutory guidance for public authorities on Meeting the equality duty in policy and decision-making, which focuses on equality analysis, and Engagement and the equality duty, which offers guidance on consulting groups with protected characteristics. Both of these may be downloaded from the EHRC website.