The Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 requires the council, along with other public sector organisations, to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty, which came into force in April 2011.
This builds on the previous equality duties which covered different strands of equality such as race, disability and gender by bringing them together in law under one Equality Duty, which has both a general and specific elements.
The new duty covers nine protected characteristics:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- race
- religion or belief
- pregnancy and maternity
- sex
- sexual orientation
In Gateshead we agreed that care experience should be treated as if it were a protected characteristic at a local level. A care experienced person is someone who, at any stage of their life and for any period of time, was in care. The commitments made in our Corporate EDI policy will equally apply to any person with care experience in Gateshead.
This states our intent as a council to give equal priority to care experience when making local decisions, delivering our services and developing our policies. However, this recognition does not give people who are care experienced the same level of legal protection as the nine protected characteristics provide under the Equality Act 2010.
The general duty requires the council to have due regard to the need to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- advance equality of opportunity
- foster good relations - including tackling prejudice and promoting understanding
The specific duties require the council to:
- publish information annually to demonstrate its compliance with the general equality duty
- publish and prepare one or more objectives that it thinks it needs to achieve to further any of the aims of the general equality duty. This must be done at least every four years.
If you would like to know more about our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion at Gateshead Council please contact [email protected]