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Equality, Diversity and Community Cohesion
Guidance for Merton Schools
October 2009
“Making All Children Matter”
Contents
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Section 1. Context
1.1 Introduction and purpose
1.2 Legislative background
1.3 What is Community Cohesion?
Section 2. A Model Framework for a Single Equality, Diversity and Community Cohesion Policy Structure for schools
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The School Context – What sort of school are we?
2.3 Our approach to promoting equality and diversity
2.4 A cohesive community
2.5 Race Equality
2.6 Disability Equality
2.7 Gender Equality
2.8 Roles and responsibilities
2.9 Monitoring, reviewing, assessing school practice implementation
Section 3. Summary of schools’ statutory duties and good practice requirements
3.1 Whose responsibility is it?
3.2 Community Cohesion
3.3 Race Equality and the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000
3.4 The Disability Equality Duty
3.5 The Gender Equality Duty
3.6 Discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief
Section 4. Appendices: Putting the Equality, Diversity and Community Cohesion Single Policy together
4.1 Developing equality schemes
4.2 Community Cohesion Standards: audit for schools
4.3 SEF Guidance: The effectiveness with which the school promotes equal opportunity and tackles discrimination
4.4SEF Guidance: The effectiveness with which the school promotes community cohesion
4.5 Useful documents, websites and contacts
Section 1: Context
1.1 Introduction and Purpose
This document provides schools with guidance and a model framework for responding to current equality, diversity and community cohesion legislative requirements on school practice. The document also provides ideas and suggestions to assist and support schools in meeting their statutory and practical duties to promote community cohesion, equality and diversity, while incorporating their disability, gender and race equality duties into school practice. It also acknowledges, updates and builds on any relative and relevant work that schools have undertaken thus far, in response to all their legislative practice requirements.
The new Ofsted framework (Sept 2009) underlines the importance of these policies. Ofsted inspections will now include a judgement on:
- “the effectiveness with which the school promotes equal opportunities and tackles discrimination”(refer to Appendix 4.3)
- “the effectiveness with which the school promotes community cohesion” (refer to Appendix 4.4 )
- consideration of the outcomes for all pupil groups within the achievement judgement
Schools are reminded that the Equal Opportunities judgement is a limiting judgement ie. the grade can affect the overall school grade.
Schools should note that they may either have single overarching or separate and distinct Equality, Diversity and Community Cohesion policies/schemes and action plans, as long as they have gone through the required stakeholder/partnership participatory and consultative processes of how they should develop their equality and diversity policies/ schemes and action plans.
However, Merton Local Authority’s current advisory approach for schools is based on a single overarching policy and has been chosen to primarily provide schools with a model framework for a single equality, diversity and community cohesion policy which recognizes that all and any actions resulting from a policy are what make a difference and should not be hierarchical in how they subsequently need to be implemented, in order to influence school practice accordingly.
What is needed is the effective ability of school practice, based on their equality, diversity and community cohesion policies and action plans, to establish and address the real needs of all stakeholders, in order to deliver under the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda.
It is therefore advised that schools’ Equality, Diversity and Community Cohesion Policies should:
• set out in detail how the school will meet all the statutory duties and clearly define the • responsibilities for this (refer to Section 2.8)
• summarize the school’s approach to equality, diversity and community cohesion, across the whole school community
• be evaluated annually as part of the school’s self evaluation process to identify priorities for the school development plan(refer to Appendix 4.3 and Appendix 4.4)
Schools may, as is being advised in the model policy structure, also choose to incorporate their Disability Equality and Gender Equality Schemes into their single overarching Equality and Diversity Policies.
This document should be used as a starting point for discussion, along with ideas that schools may wish to develop further, relative to their own unique identified needs. Schools should discuss and consult with all their stakeholders, particularly the users of their services. Throughout this document the term ‘parents’ includes carers and guardians.
1.2 Legislative Background
This document has been produced taking account of current and relevant legislation that affects school practice:
• Equal Pay Act 1970
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Race Relations Act 1976 as amended in 2000
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 as amended in 2005, Disability Equality Duty (2005)
• Code of Practice for Schools 2002
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001
• The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003
• The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
• Equality Act 2006
• Education and Inspections Act 2006 (Duty to promote community cohesion)
• Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007
•The NationalCurriculum (1999), which incorporates a statement on inclusion, ‘Providing effective learning opportunities for all children’.
The only specific requirement is for schools to publish schemes or policies in the three areas of race, gender and disability. Schools should, however, take account of and make reference to other equality strands such as age, religion or belief and sexual orientation, within their equality and diversity policies and procedures and when assessing and evaluating the implications of all their policies and procedures on all their school practice. Particular attention will need to be paid to the monitoring of data on all incidents that occur during practice implementation.
More detail about the legislation that is particularly relevant for schools is included in Section 3.
1.3 What is community cohesion?
A cohesive community is defined as one where:
• There is a common vision for all communities, an emphasis on articulating what binds communities together rather than what differences divide them, a sense of belonging, of identifying with the neighbourhood and of ‘looking out for each other’.
• There is a practical and evidential commitment to equality, diversity and social justice.
• The diversity of people’s different backgrounds and circumstances is appreciated, respected and protected in all practice, in order to support integration and cohesion in changing and emerging communities.
• People have similar life opportunities and choices, irrespective of background.
• Everyone understands their rights and responsibilities and is given the opportunity and
encouraged to participate at all levels.
• Strong and positive relationships are being developed between people from different
backgrounds in the workplace, in schools and within neighbourhoods.
Definitions extracted from Community Cohesion Education Standards for Schools (Home Office; DfES; CRE, 2004), Our Shared Future (Commission on Cohesion and Integration, 2007), Guidance on the duty to promote community cohesion (DCSF, 2007), Local Government Association, (2002), Department for Communities and Local Government, 2006)
The national Community Cohesion Standards are framed by four strategic aims, which are to:
• Close the attainment and achievement gap between different pupil groups.
• Develop common values of citizenship based on dialogue, mutual respect based on the acceptance of diversity.
• Contribute to building good community relations and challenge all types of discrimination and inequality.
• Remove the barriers to access, participation, progression, attainment and achievement.
The DCSF Guidance on the duty to promote Community Cohesion (2007) suggests schools’ contribution to community cohesion can be grouped under the following three headings:
• Teaching, learning and the curriculum – to teach pupils to understand others, to promote common values and to value diversity, to promote awareness of human rights and of the responsibility to uphold and defend them, and to develop the skills of participation and responsible action.
• Equity and excellence – to ensure equality of opportunity for all to succeed at the highest level possible, removing barriers to access and participation in learning and wider activities through the elimination of detrimental variations in outcomes for different groups of learners.
• Engagement and extended services – to provide a means for children, young people and their families to interact with people from different backgrounds and build positive relations, including links with different schools and communities locally, across the country and internationally, where appropriate.
The Ofsted criteria for judging Community Cohesion is in Appendix 4.4
Section 2: A Model Framework for a Single Equality Policy Structure
2.1 Introduction
This single Equality Policy structure sets out a model framework that schools can adapt to their context, policies and practice, to promote community cohesion, equality and diversity. It also covers a possible response by the school to meeting its statutory responsibilities in relation to disability, gender and race, as part of the same single policy. It may be that other school policies have covered parts of what is required. If so, schools should cross-refer, rather than reproducing material in full.
The framework and settings allow schools to produce their own single equality policies. Schools will be at different stages of developing their policies/ schemes so the model framework is designed in such a way:
- that schools can use as much or as little of the framework as necessary to ensure they have a comprehensive over-arching policy and
- should they choose, they can incorporate their already written equality, diversity and community cohesion policies/schemes into the single document (refer to sections2.5- 2.7 and Appendices 4.1 – 4.2).
Suggestions in this section for wording the policy are in ordinary type [ordinary type], those about the policy are in italics.
Suggested preamble to policy
The over-arching single Equality Policy statement sets out:
• The school’s context.
• The school’svision, mission, aims and values. This should articulate the schools commitment to the best possible outcomes for all pupil groups
•The school’s approach to promoting equality, diversity and community cohesion, recognizing and celebrating diversity and tackling all forms of unlawful discrimination within school practice as required under all the legislative requirements.
• Specific reference to community cohesion, race equality, disability equality and gender equality.
• Roles and responsibilities for all those who will be involved in the implementation of equality, diversity and community cohesion relevant school functions and activities.
• Monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the impact of school practice on all of the school’s stakeholders through continually recorded data, feedback from stakeholders and annual evaluation set put in the school’s SEF.
2.2 The School Context – What sort of school are we?
This section can be based on the context section of the SEF It could include a summary of information about:
• The geographical location of the school.
• The communities served by the school and parental involvement with school practice.
• Ethnic composition and data on pupils, staff and members of the school governing body in context of the local and any other community that is served by the school.
• Any travellers, refugees, asylum seekers and any other new arrivals who are part of the school’s stakeholders.
• Disability data, including information on numbers of disabled pupils and staff
• Gender data.
• Socio-economic background(s) of pupils, including FSM
• Attainment and progress levels of different groups of pupils
• Religious and linguistic diversity of pupils in context of the local and any other community served by the school.
• Other disadvantaged groups of pupils e.g. LAC
• Pupil mobility.
The section above should help schools implement their policy in a way that is meaningful for their particular setting and needs. For example, if there is little linguistic diversity in a school, this should be made explicit and a statement relating to the school’s approach to linguistic diversity is likely to emphasize the school’s commitment to enriching the linguistic experiences of all its pupils while recognising and celebrating the linguistic diversity of British society.
2.3 Our approach to promoting equality and diversity
The school’s Equality and Diversity Policy provides a framework for the school’s determination to eliminate all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment; promote equality of opportunity; and promote good relations and positive attitudes between people of diverse backgrounds, in all its relevant functions and activities.
Through the implementation of this policy, the school seeks to ensure that no member of the school community or any other person, in their contact with the school, receives less favourable treatment on any grounds that cannot be shown to be justified. If any issues of less favourable treatment are identified and/or reported, they are dealt with according to a whole school practice approach.
This covers race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, gender, marital status, responsibility for children or other dependants, looked after children, young carers, teenage parents, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, age, trade union or political activities, socio-economic background, where the person lives, spent convictions. The principles of this policy apply to all members of the extended school community – pupils, all staff, volunteers, visitors, governors, parents, community members and business partners.
2.4 A cohesive community
See section1.3 and section 3.2 and insert a paragraph here that reflects the communities served by your school.
Ensure that you include all types of communities served by the school, i.e, the school and its extended communities, the school in its geographical community, the British community, the global community, other communities of interest (for example, environmental groups, faith groups, ethnic groups). You may wish to refer to how you make use of resources within your school clusters. You may also want to add:
In order to contribute practically, to the achievement of a cohesive community, our school aims to:
• promote understanding and meaningful engagement between different communities.
• encourage all children and families to feel part of the school and wider community.
• understand the needs and hopes of all our communities.
• identify and tackle all forms of unlawful discrimination.
• increase life opportunities and choices for all the school’s stakeholders.
• ensure teaching, learning and the curriculum, explore and address adequately, issues of equality and diversity relative to the needs of all stakeholders.
2.5 Race Equality
Refer to Section 3.3 and Appendix 4.5 and use the general and specific duties of the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, to insert a paragraph that reflects the particular context of your school. It would be advisable to incorporate your full Race Equality Policy in this section.
2.6 Disability Equality
Refer to Section3.4 and Appendix 4.5 and use the general and specific duties of the Disability Equality Duty to insert a paragraph that reflects the context of, and approach to disability equality in, your school. It would be advisable to incorporate your Disability Equality Scheme (DES) in this section. Plus DDA and Accessibility Plan
2.7 Gender Equality
See Section 3.5 and Appendix 4.5 and use the general and specific duties of the Gender Equality Duty to insert a paragraph that reflects the context of, and approach to gender equality in, your school. Again, it would be advisable to incorporate your Gender Equality Scheme (GES) in this section.
2.8 Roles and responsibilities
The school’s policy should include details of responsibilities for the policy and its actions (who, when, where and with what aims) and how they will be held accountable
All who work, learn and visit our school are expected to support, and are responsible for, the promotion of equality, diversity and meaningful inclusion in all their dealings with the school, intentionally avoiding all forms of unlawful discrimination.
School governors are responsible for:
• developing and implementing the school’s equality and diversity policy.
• the school’s compliance with all equality, diversity and community cohesion legislative requirements (refer to Section 1.2 and Section 3).
• the single equality and diversity policy and its procedures being regularly monitored through appropriate evidence presented in reports and recorded data.
• ensuring that this policy covers all aspects of school life.
The Head teacher is responsible for ensuring that:
• all aspects of school life reflect a commitment to equal opportunities.
• all the statutory duties are responded to appropriately, by all concerned.
• any policies and their action plans are readily available and that all members of the school community are aware of the equality and diversity policy and their role in its implementation.
• procedures are clear and followed by all staff, based on requirements, through reasonable and practicable evidence.
• regular information is provided for staff and governors about the policy and how it is working to underpin all the relevant areas of school practice.
• staff training needs are identified and addressed.
• all staff and other relevant stakeholders know and understand their responsibilities and receive training and support in carrying these out effectively.
• appropriate action is taken in cases of all forms of harassment and unlawful discrimination in all areas of school practice.
• statutory duties regarding the reporting of racist incidents are implemented rigorously and
regularly.
All staff, including supply, visiting staff and volunteers are responsible for:
• dealing proactively with all forms of unlawful discriminatory practice, recognising and tackling bias, prejudice and stereotyping, as part of implementing good school practice for all.