Public Services and Legislation

Learn about the legislation surrounding the public sector and equality duty. This course is ideal for intermediate learners.

Introduction 

All public services have to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and this states that they must also comply with the public sector equality duty. The equality duty ensures that public services think about how they deliver their services and how this will impact on those who are disadvantaged or within the protected characteristics group. 

As with discrimination exceptions, there are situations where public services do not need to comply with these duties. These include the following areas:

Judicial Events – The courts do not need to think about the equality duty when making decisions or when and how they conduct the proceedings. 

Age in education or children’s home – Schools do not need to think about how to develop good relationships between pupils of different ages. However they need to consider this between pupils of different religions.    

Immigration - When involved in immigration proceedings, public services would not need to think about the advance equality of opportunity (treating one group more favourably than another because of their disadvantage) to those in the following protected groups:

• ·       Age
• ·       Religion
• ·       Race

You will learn 

1. Public sector equality duty exceptions
2. Types of legislation under the equality duty
3. Policy and decision making processes