Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Flashcards
The Equality Act 2010
- protects people from discrimination in the workplace and wider society
- replaced previous acts relating to specific protected characteristics (e.g: Disability Discrimination Act 1995)
- includes protection against direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation
Equality
everyone is equal
Equity
the quality of being fair and impartial
Victimisation
treating someone badly because they have done a ‘protected act’, or because an employer, service provider or other organisation believes that you have done or are going to do a protected act (doesn’t need to link to a protected characteristic)
What is a protected act?
- making a claim or complaint of discrimination
- helping someone else to make a claim by giving evidence or info
- making an allegation that you or someone else has breached the Equality Act
Harassment
unwanted behaviour that you find offensive, where the other person’s behaviour is because:
- you have a protected characteristic
- there’s any connection with a protected characteristic
- to be unlawful, the treatment must have happened in one of the situations that are covered by the Equality Care Act
What are some examples of protected characteristics?
- Age
- Disability
- Sexual orientation
- Pregnancy/maternity
- Race
- Gender reassignment
- Sex
- Marriage/civil partnership
- Religion or beliefs
The Public Sector Equality Duty
- came into force in 2011
- aimed to advance the equality of opportunity
- foster good relations between those with protected characteristics and those without them by:
-> removing disadvantages due to a protected characteristic
-> meet the needs of those with protected characteristics where they are different
-> encouraging people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low
How does the NHS report EDI?
- Equality Impact Assessment
- Workforce Race Equality Standards (WRES) –> report improvements against 9 indicators
- Equality Delivery System (EDS2)
Why is it important for healthcare providers to consider diversity?
- Legal duty
- Diverse workforce more effective
–>Increased patient satisfaction
–>Improved staff commitment and motivation
–> Decreased sickness
–> Decreased disciplinaries and tribunals
–> Decreased waste of resources (finances) - Workforce should be representative of the population it serves
- Encourage those with protected characteristics to use services
- Reduce health inequalities
- Better outcomes and experience for patients
- Reduced costs due to preventable health conditions
- Service design meets needs of population
- Role model for society
- Diverse workplaces are more successful and innovative and sensitive to local health needs
What are some factors that influence health inequalities?
- socio-economic factors
- geography
- protected characteristics
- socially excluded groups (e.g: homelessness)
What are some differences in care that people receive and opportunities they have to enable greater opportunity to lead healthy lifestyles?
- health status
- access to care
- quality and experience of care
- behavioural risks to health
- wider determinants of health (e.g: quality of housing, pollution, education)
Why do health inequalities exist?
Due to discrimination at multiple levels
- Social and political factors (systemic, avoidable, unfair)
- Institutional factors (e.g: Racism)
- Personal factors (unconscious bias)
What is an unconscious bias and how is it related to health inequality?
- convert bias against certain population or characteristic/views of ‘the other’
- psychological and not social
- individual not structural
