Equality Impact Assessment form (Part 2)Full assessment

Section one: Summary of impacts

Name of strategy/policy/procedure/project/function:

Sickness Policy & Procedure

Name and telephone number of officers completing assessment:

Jackie Relffe-Arnold – Personnel Advisor x 6095
Kate Brown – Personnel Advisor x 6092
Mari Roberts – Senior Personnel Advisor x 6030
Steve Williams – Head of Personnel & Support Services x 6088
Kevin Hetherington – Head of Housing & Leisure Services x 6315

In Part One: Screening, which were the areas of concern?

Gender / Race / Disability / Sexual orientation / Age / Religion and belief / All groups

What are thelikely negative impacts?

Older and disabled people (including those with a long term health impairment) likely to have increased sickness.
Section two: Consult stakeholders

Managers can used any existing mechanism for consulting stakeholders, however these mechanisms should be fully representative.

Some duties require a more in depth involvement and managers should be looking to reach a diverse range of people, taking into to account age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief and disability (including those with long term health impairments).

To involve and consult stakeholders you could organise events, workshops or conduct one to one interviews, this should be co-ordinated through the Equalities Steering Group.

Partnership work with other organisations, such as neighbouring local authorities, Surrey County Council departments and voluntary sector organisations may assist the process; this networking may lead to a much wider consultation and engagement process.

What additional research or consultation is desirable to investigate the impacts of the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function?

  • Consultation to review the Sickness Policy is done on a tri-annual basis with Unions, Staff Association, Managers and Members. Through this consultation the sickness policy was recently updated, to include far greater information on Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and management discretion to ensure equality and consistency.
  • Review recent case law and its impact on the sickness policy.

What does further research/consultation indicate about the negative impact of the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function?

  • The negative impacts are justifiable.
  • Employmentis still affected if sickness absence is not resolved. This is permitted within the law providing reasonable adjustments are met.
  • Regularpolicy reviews done recently have reduced the negative impacts to the minimum.
  • Further reviews of the policy are required to continue to monitor any negative impacts are corrected.

Section three: Consider alternatives

If the research or consultation shows that the policy is likely to have an adverse impact, you must consider how to address this. Before making a decision, it is important to make sure that reducing the adverse impact on one particular group does not create an adverse impact on another group.

If this is unavoidable you will have to show that this can be justified on non-discriminatory grounds. It may be necessary to seek legal advice.

The following questions may assist with this part of the process:

  • Can changes be made to the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function?
  • Can it be implemented in a different way?
  • Would a different strategy/policy/procedure/project/function still achieve the aims and objectives of the original proposal, but avoid any adverse impact on equality?

If there is no evidence at present that the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function promotes equalities question 9 provides an opportunity for managers to consider how it can or could be adapted to actively promote equalities.

What changes do you propose to make to the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function as a result of research/consultation?

None at this stage

Have you consulted on the proposed amendments?

YesNo

Would the proposed amendments impact on other groups in society or on the ability of the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function to achieve its purpose?

No

Will the planned changes to the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function:

Lower the negative impact? Or
Ensure that the negative impact is legal under anti-discriminatory law?
Provide an opportunity to promote equality, equal opportunity, and improves relations within equality target groups?
Section four: Make a decision

The next step is to summarise the findings and give an overview on whether the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function will promote equality and diversity as a component part of delivery. It is at this part of the assessment process that a decision should be made on the effectiveness of the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function. The decision should be based on the aims and objectives of the policy, the results of the data gathered and the results of the consultation and involvement with stakeholders.

Below are some important points that should be considered before deciding whether to introduce the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function, especially if adverse impacts have been identified:

  • Direct discrimination in any of the areas – this would be unlawful and the proposal should be rejected.
  • Indirect discrimination in relation to any of the areas. This should be rejected, unless it can be justified under the legislation, such as: a) It was necessary to the organisation effectively carrying out its function, b) The organisation was unable to find another way of achieving the aims and objectives that had a less discriminatory effect, c) The organisation considers that the means it employed to achieve its aims and objectives were proportionate, necessary and appropriate.

The following questions can help in deciding whether or not to introduce the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function:

  • Has any adverse impact been identified?
  • What are the main consultation findings and what influence do they have?
  • Can the adverse impact or indirect discrimination be justified?

Following consultation what is the final decision?

Reject the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function
Introduce the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function
Amend the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function (an impact assessment should be made on amendments)
Other – please explain
Section five: Action planning

In order to ensure that agreed actions are taken forward, you are required to produce an action plan as part of your assessment, and the actions from this plan need to be added to your service area plan, so that they can be tracked and mainstreamed.

You should not wait until you write your next service plan to do this.

In drawing up your actions you should attempt to ensure that they are “SMART”. This means setting objectives against which you can measure over time to see if the changes you want to happen are taking place.

Please outline your proposed action plan below:

Issue / Action required / Officer / Timescale / Resource implications / Comments
Disability and Age / Monitor application of the sickness policy to ensure justifiable negative impacts
Monitor how new flexibility on discretion is going to be applied. / Jackie Relffe-Arnold
Jackie Relffe-Arnold / Tri-annual (last done late 2008)
Ongoing / Personnel resource - as part of the strategy
Personnel resource - as part of the strategy
Management Training / Provide management training on the use of discretion within the sickness policy / Jackie Relffe-Arnold / March 2009 onwards / Personnel resource - as part of the strategy / Requested by Unison Union as part of the consultation on the sickness policy
Section six: Monitoring and reviewing

Before finalising your action plan you must identify how you will go about monitoring the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function or the proposals, following the assessment, and including any changes or proposals you are making.

It is important that any monitoring should be able to tell a story in the future about how the policy, service or function, or proposals impact on communities, customers or employee groups, so that it can help you to further refine and improve your service.

Simply collecting data is of little benefit. A review should aim to consider whether you have made the right changes or whether there is further action that needs to be taken. It should enable you to report on the success or failure of your changes.

What equality monitoring/evaluation/review systems have been set up to carry out regular checks on the effects of the strategy/policy/procedure/project/function?

Please outline your arrangements for future monitoring and review below:

Agreed action / Monitoring arrangements / Timeframe / Responsibility / Added to Service Plan
Monitor sickness policy to ensure justifiable negative impacts / Tri-annual (last done 2008) / Tri-annual (last done 2008) / Jackie Relffe-Arnold / Already part of Personnel Service Plan
Monitor how new flexibility on discretion is going to be applied. / Monthly sickness meetings / Ongoing / Head of PASS & Personnel Advisors / To be arranged
Review the data Personnel use to monitor age and disability sickness absence cases / Yearly Digest / July 2009 / Personnel Team / To be added to 09/10 plan

Please send a copy of the completed form to the Equalities Steering Group, via Lorraine Hatton at .

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