Equality And Diversity For Schools

Equality and Diversity Toolkit for Schools

On this CD-Rom is provided a series of document for Schools to use in the development of their equality and diversity policies and procedures.

The legislative requirements of schools with regard to equality and diversity has increased significantly of late. This resource seeks to combine all requirements into a single strategy framework.

Contents

What does the Toolkit include? p.2 1. The Equality and Diversity Strategy p.3 a. Audit of Functions and Policies p.4 b. Action Plan (Three-Year) p.4 c. Appendices p.5 2. Model Policies p.5 3. Equality Impact Assessments p.6 4. Supporting Information p.6 How to use the documents provided p.7

Toolkit and all its contents developed for Lincolnshire County Council with the support of:

Novitas www.novitas-solutions.co.uk WhatSolutions does the Toolkit include? Plus The documents provided are split between four folders. Link to Folder In the first folder, ‘Equality and Diversity Strategy’ is provided all documents necessary which, when taken together, comprise all policy requirements to meet legislative requirements of schools.

In the second folder, ‘Model Policies’ is provided several draft policies which schools may choose to adopt to support their Equality and Diversity Strategy.

In the third folder, ‘Equality Impact Assessments’ is provided draft Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) on school policies and strategies in order to progress your adoption and implementation of the Equality and Diversity Strategy and action plans. In the final folder, ‘Supporting Information’ is provided a series of aides to communicate equality and diversity information throughout school staff, these include summaries of legislation, a brief presentation, and a comprehensive analysis of socio-economic statistics in Lincolnshire into which to put the context of your school.

1. The Equality & Diversity Strategy

2 The term ‘Strategy’ is used to describe several documents taken together. The Strategy thus comprises the ‘Equality Scheme for Schools’ in addition to its ‘Audit’. ‘Action Plan’ and three guidance appendices. Link to Folder

The Equality & Diversity Scheme is written in such a way that it includes statutory policies anticipated of the school (two versions are provided, one in accessible font size, and another more condensed):

 Race Equality Policy  Disability Equality Scheme  Accessibility Plan  Gender Equality Scheme  Equality policies on: o Age o Religion or Faith o Sexual Orientation  Racist Incidents Policy  Inclusions Statement  SEN Policy

The narrative sections of the Strategy include all areas that the School would be expected to cover, these are generic to cover all ‘strands’ of equality, but specific chapters add detail where needed

The Educational Inclusion Policy meets schools’ requirements for an Inclusion Policy and an SEN Policy.

3 Audit of Functions and Policies

An audit of functions and policies is provided which gives a proven means of identifying what actions are needed for the action plan (again, an expectation for the development of equality schemes). Link to Folder

Statutory equality schemes require that such an audit is undertaken on ‘functions and policies’ in order to identify both what the school needs to undertake equality impact assessments on, and also to prioritise the importance of these. Thus, the draft audit attached seeks to identify all those policies that you have in place, and the functions that you deliver where there might not be written policies. An assessment of ‘relevance’ is made for each function/policy, that is to say, whether that function/policy is relevant to the legislative requirements i.e. eliminate unlawful discrimination, promote positive attitudes.

Action Plan (three-year)

In order to comply with the requirements for a Disability and Gender Equality Scheme, a 3-year action plan is required (you do not have a Scheme in place without)

An action plan is included also. The structure of this plan is such that it also provides you with an Accessibility Plan by virtue of the sub-section headings used. A column is included which shows which ‘strand’ of the equality agenda the action is designed to deliver. Thus, all actions reading ‘disability’ comprise the Disability Equality Scheme and Accessibility Plan.

4 The actions included stem from the results of the audit of functions and policies, and include statutory requirements also. Link to Folder

Appendices

Three appendices are provided; these document the school’s guidelines on key areas of legislative requirement. The first documents the procedure for undertaking Equality Impact Assessments. The second gives guidance on how to develop monitoring, where required. The third gives guidance on consultation and engagement with stakeholders and the school community from an equality and diversity perspective.

Link to Folder

2. Model Policies

Three model policies have been developed which schools may choose to develop. These are in areas of school activity where there is more discretion and variance between schools, but they are mandatory policies with relevance to equality and diversity:  Child Protection Policy  Collective Worship Policy  Sex Education Policy

5 These policies are only provided as ‘model’ policies and so are still subject to school development, consultation and necessary procedure.

Link to Folder

3. Equality Impact Assessments

To further assist schools, Equality Impact Assessments have been undertaken on the Strategy, Racist Incident Policy and Educational Inclusion Policy (as well as the model policies for Collective Worship and Child Protection). Link to Folder

Also in this folder is provided the template for undertaking Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) and a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page on EIAs.

4. Supporting Information

Within this folder is a series of condensed and accessible guides to the equality and diversity legislative context. One for each of the six ‘strands’ of equality, and another that gives an overview to them all. There is also guidance on the National SEN Code of Practice, and what a Race Equality Policy for schools is. The intention of these documents is to provide a resource which teachers, staff and Governors can use to familiarise

6 themselves with the equality and diversity context, and whereupon further sources of information are provided for those seeking further detail.

There is also a copy of the Local Labour Market Assessment undertaken for Lincolnshire County Council. This document assesses the population and economy of the County and its Districts from an equality perspective, and though sizeable, enables the school to locate comparative data which it may need on age groups, skills, population etc.

Link to Folder

How to use the documents provided

1. Insert School’s own name and logo In the first instance, all documents have areas highlighted which need Schools to insert their own details to brand the documents as their own.

2. Assess Scheme Content Secondly, the content of the ‘Equality Scheme’ (1.1) needs to be assessed to ensure that you are comfortable with the phrasing and commitments. I have sought to produce documents which any school, secondary or primary, maintained or otherwise, can adopt. As such, you may feel that you wish to add to some of the content locally.

3. Assess Audit of Functions and Policies The audit (1.3) needs to be reviewed to ensure that you are comfortable with its content, and to add anything further that you wish (if you are adding actions that are ‘relevant’, you will need to develop further actions for the action plan)

7 4. Assess Action Plan The action plan (1.4) needs to be assessed against your capacity, and to check accuracy. Being a 3-year plan, the start date can be when you adopt the Strategy, or you may choose to vary the length of Year 1 to converge with the school year. Please bear in mind that the additional resources that we provide in this toolkit will directly deliver some of these requirements for you.

5. Consultation Once you are content with the documentation. Staff should have the opportunity to comment, and you may wish to undertake local consultation with parents and pupils. Strictly, consultation is seen as part of the development of Equality Schemes, however as an annual review is anticipated, I have built in actions for consultation which give you the opportunity to ‘commence’ and revise the action plans dependent on the output of such consultations.

6. Adoption of the Equality Scheme (inc. Action Plan) Thereafter, the management team and Governors need to adopt the Strategy, it then needs to be published (these actions and those related are included in Year 1 of the Plan). This adoption includes the Equality Scheme document and the relevant Equality Impact Assessment, together with the Action Plan (without which, you do not have a statutory scheme). In your report, you may wish to include your audit of functions and policies and any comments arising from your consultation. The report should also iterate the timetable for progress reporting, and the triennial review of the Scheme.

7. Model Policies The model policies provided are for areas of school administration whereupon more discretion and local variance is anticipated, these are

8 however policies mandated of schools, and have links to the equality and diversity agenda. As such, model policies (and EIAs for them) are provided which the School may choose to utilise.

8. Supporting Information The information provided should be made available to teachers, staff and Governors to give them ready access to overviews of the legislative context into which the School’s Equality Strategy fits. In particular, those teachers and staff with specific responsibilities for parts of the agenda i.e. HR, SEN, pupil data should be given the information as part of their development needs. A brief slideshow presentation is provided which can be used to give a context to the development and adoption of the Equality Strategy.

9. Implementing the Action Plan Following adoption of the Strategy, the action plan needs to be implemented, and progress reported, over a three-year period as the plan is structured. This will require actions to be cascaded to relevant persons. Many of the actions, particularly in the first year of the plan, can be delivered using the information provided and/or will already be in place. Further activities on monitoring and HR practice, can be delivered with support from Lincolnshire County Council who have undertaken relevant EIAs and development to the HR support they provide to schools and are developing a revised monitoring system. It is important to notice the incremental nature of the action plan i.e. that in the second year, actions are in place to analyse the output of monitoring systems put in place in the first year, thus there are dependencies year-on- year within the plan.

10. Monitoring With the output of monitoring information, the school should undertake an impact assessment on the output i.e. is there a higher percentage of disciplinaries taken against ethnic minority pupils than the proportion they represent in the school. It can be seen therefore that it is important to get the ‘baseline’ information on pupils, staff and potentially also parents in order to conduct future work necessary under statute.

9 Following such activities, it is possible that discrepancies will be identified, these will require new actions to be inputted into the action plan, whether they are positive action, research, revisions to processes or continued monitoring. Where such exercises are undertaken, and monitoring data is analysed, it should be included into the annual report process described in the Scheme and reported to relevant decision-makers, Lincolnshire County Council where such data is needed at a Countywide level (and to enable the development of a Countywide comparator), and to stakeholders such as parents as is relevant.

11. Annual Reporting The Scheme suggests that progress be reported in the School Improvement Plan and Self-Evaluation Form (where applicable) and wherever the School feels it appropriate. You may feel that a separate stand-alone annual report is more appropriate. Such a report should detail progress against your action plan – those activities undertaken, the results of any impact assessments and monitoring outturns, the results of consultations, new policies developed during the year (these should have EIAs included and also consultation results), and proposed actions for future years. The report needs to go to your decision-makers, and be made available to all stakeholders of the School.

12. Review of the Scheme The action plan can be revised to include any new actions you identify, you may choose therefore to review it annually to have a continual 3-year plan, in effect therefore having a new Equality Scheme each year as opposed to every three years. In this circumstance, you must ensure that you consult on the new Scheme (this is the practice of Lincolnshire County Council). Otherwise, every three years, you need to review your Scheme in its entirety. This involves reviewing all policies to ensure that they are up-to- date, engaging with stakeholders to both confirm your proposals and also to proffer their priorities and views to you on what should be done. In such exercises, and throughout the lifetime of your Equality Scheme, you should

10 make every effort to engage with all users, but particularly those affected by the Scheme (and those that represent them) i.e. disabled pupils, disabled parents etc. There are Countywide fora which the School can access if local arrangements are not viable, however the School will need to factor in the timescales necessary for such groups to receive, and comment on, school proposals.

13. Consultation This is an area within the action plan, and explicit within legislation. The School needs to identify, develop or access consultative arrangements that are pertinent to the School’s development and equality activities. As such, the School may need to develop the means to consult with disabled pupils, disabled staff and also disabled parents – disability itself can be physical, sensory or learning related, as such, a single mechanism may not be appropriate. In all consultation activities, the School therefore needs to be certain that that which it proposes for consultation is accessible to those groups and is conducted in whichever way is most appropriate. Therefore, to consult such groups on how they wish to be consulted is potentially the best starting point (where localised). Countywide groups exist which Lincolnshire County Council Children’s Services can assist you in identifying and accessing.