Joint Equality Monitoring Guidance

September 2016

Contents

1 / Introduction / p3
2 / Public sector duty / p3
3 / What is equality monitoring? / p4
4 / Why collect equality information? / p5
5 / When to monitor / p5
6 / How to monitor / p5
7 / What to monitor / p6
8 / What to do with the equality information you have gathered / p6
9 / Publishing information in appropriate formats / p7
Appendix 1 / Best practice examples of equality monitoring / p9
Appendix 2 / Equality monitoring form / p14
  1. Introduction

Equality monitoring is often not carried out because it is believed to be time-consuming, confusing, lacking in purpose or intrusive to customers. This guidance has been developed with these concerns in mind and as such has the following underlying principles behind it:

Keep it simple and straightforward

Be clear about its purpose and make sure it supports clear equality objectives for the service

Carry out monitoring alongside other processes within services, part of the usual information we use to shape services and policies

All staff and customers involved in equality monitoring should understand why the information is being collected

Once we have equality data on a customer we should remember this information so we do not need to ask the customer again

All equality monitoring information should be confidential

Be clear about what is ‘personal’ information about a person using the service to meet their individual needs and when you are collecting monitoring information

  1. Public sector equality duty

The public sector equality duty is a statutory duty under the Equality Act 2010 which requires public authorities to consider equalities in exercising all their public functions.

Decision-makers should also review policies or decisions if circumstances change (e.g. if the make-up of service users alters). This is vital as the public sector equality duty is a continuing one.

The equality duty cannot be delegated; it falls on decision makers personally.

You should also consider other legal duties such as promoting human rights, which require us as public authorities to respect, protect and fulfil human rights in all our public functions. We also have a duty to safeguardchildren and vulnerable persons at risk of violence and /or serious harm.

Protected characteristics

There are nine protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010. Everyone has several of these ‘protected characteristics’ so we are all covered by anti-discrimination law. This guidance focuses on seven of the characteristics:

  • Age
  • Disability
  • Race
  • Religion or belief (including non belief)
  • Sex / gender
  • Gender reassignment / transgender
  • Sexual orientation

Best practice examples of equality monitoring for each of these seven characteristics can be found in Appendix 1.

This guidance does not include marriage and civil partnership or pregnancy and maternity as the Councils would rarely need this information for equality monitoring purposes.

  1. What is equality monitoring?

Equality monitoring is a process that is used to collect, store and analyse data about age, disability, gender, race/ethnic background, religion or belief and sexual orientation of service users or potential service users, employees or potential employees. It also forms a basis for setting objectives and targets by providing a baseline from which to measure change. It is:

  • Central to the principle of ensuring continuous improvement and meeting the Councils’ statutory equality duties
  • A vital part of the effective performance management of our organisations
  • A fundamental requirement of the Councils’ Joint Equality Impact Assessment process and Joint Equality and Diversity Policy for Service Delivery.

Research such as the Census provides a profile of the populations of Bolsover and North East Derbyshire Districts which enables us to make comparisons with corporately and service held profile information.

  1. Why collect equality information?

Public authorities must ensure that they have sufficient information about equality issues to make informed choices and decisions, and to ensure that this is rigorously considered before and at the time decisions are taken.

Equality monitoringinformation can help the Councilsgain an insight into who its customers are and what their needs may be. It can also tell us who is not using our services.

It helps the Councilsto:

  • Ensure our policies work
  • Plan services
  • Reveal and address any discrimination or unfair treatment.

The monitoring information needed may vary from service to service.Key questions you should ask before commencing equality monitoring are:

  • What information will lead to improvements in service planning for different sections of the community?
  • What will the information tell us about our customers and about our service?
  • How often can the data be collected and analysed?
  • Who is using the service?
  • Are different communities accessing the service differently?
  • Who are most / least satisfied with the service?
  1. When to monitor

Equality monitoring should become part of an existing process whenever possible. The frequency of monitoring will vary depending on what’s being monitored and can be:

  • A snapshot - a one off exercise,
  • Periodic, regular monitoring, or
  • Ongoing, continuous monitoring with regular reviews.
  1. How to monitor

The Councils have produced Joint Equalities Monitoring documentation (Appendix 2 - Corporate Equalities Monitoring Form) which sets out the categories we think we need to make our services fairer for all. These categories are broadly based on Census 2011 and other national research, so we can compare our monitoring information against wider population data.

Please note that this documentation does not include a transgender category.

We recommend that you use all the equality monitoring categories for most purposes. All equality monitoring information is discretionary – there is no obligation for customers to comply. We offer customers a ‘prefer not to say’ option for some protected characteristics so they can choose exactly what they disclose to us.

Ensure that you:

  • Keep monitoring information separately from any personal information
  • Assure customers that any monitoring information they disclose is confidential and will be stored safely.
  1. What to monitor

It is not necessary to monitor every function or service each Council provides. You should only consider monitoring where it is purposive. For example: measuring customer satisfaction; analysing complaints; undertaking consultation; launching new services or when looking to improve take up of existing services.

Equalities monitoring should only be undertaken where you are confident that you can gather useful information that will be acted upon. Customers should not be asked for personal information unless the information is going to be used to improve services or reveal possibleinequality of access.

It is important to understand the difference between

  • What you are going to record to help you understand who uses your services to help monitor whether the needs of groups of customers are being met

and

  • Personal information that you need to collect to meet the individual customer’s needs and provide a personalised service.

You should always have regard to the protected characteristics defined by the Equality Act 2010. Appendix 1sets out what these protected characteristics are and provides detailed guidance with examples of ‘what works’ to achieve equality outcomes and reduce inequalities through equality monitoring.

  1. What to do with the equality information you have gathered

The information you have gathered and analysed can be used in several ways to achieve positive outcomes for customers. The examples provided in Appendix 1 have been selected from case law and recognised best practice to demonstrate how equality information can improveour services and our decision making.

  • Data can inform Equality Impact Assessments, particularly where there is a potential adverse impact on a protected group and you need to assess whether to proceed with the policy or take steps to mitigate that adverse impact
  • Setting targets for service improvements which can be embedded in service planning and monitored through the corporate performance framework. These always should be SMART
  • Gain customer insight about your service. For example, a profile to determine who uses our services and who does not; or which specific groups the Council(s) should engage with in consultation
  • Developing new services which meet the needs of our customers, for example Webchat.

Equality monitoring data collected through consultation and engagement can be checked against each Council’s individual Census Profile to ensure representativeness. The Census Profile is available from the consultation page of each Council’s intranet.

The important thing is that you actively consider the results of the monitoring exercise and take action as necessary.

  1. Publishing information in appropriate formats

It is important that the equality monitoring information that you have gathered is referenced in a report or a stand-alone document. This ensures that a record exists after undertaking the work for information/evidence purposes. Ideally the equality monitoring analysis (dataset) should be published on the Council’s websites under the Equality page.. The Improvement Officers can provide further assistance on publishing datasets. ICT and Communications teams can also provide advice and guidance on appropriate formats for publishing purposes.

The Councils have a statutory duty under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011to publish equality information at least annually by 31 January, including any monitoring data gathered by services.

Datasets need to be anonymised so that no individual can be identified from the information. For example, publishing anti-social behaviour data in a mapped format may be informative for the public and a vital tool for Community Safety in tackling the problem, but it could also lead to identification of vulnerable victims, particularly in rural locations.

To meet government data transparency standards, you should consider producingstructured data tables e.g. spreadsheet which can be converted by the lead officer/Improvement Officersinto open data formats such as CSV for publication on our corporate websites. This enables customers to access data easily and without the cost of proprietary software.

Please note however, that while the Equality Act requires information to be accessible to disabled people, structured data tables are not always suitable. It is the policy of both Councils that disabled people with specific informationneeds are able to access alternative formats. Customers can register their specific information needs with us or access other formats on request.

This guidance draws on the statutory and non-statutory guidance issued by the Equality & Human Rights Commission. It also draws on guidance from other public sector and voluntary sector agencies.

EHRC, Equality Information and the Equality Duty: A Guide for Public Authorities, Sept 2014

EHRC, Collecting information on gender identity, May 2012

Dept of Health, Trans: A practical guide for the NHS, 2008

Stonewall, ‘What’s it got to do with you?’

Sheffield City Council, Monitoring Guidance

London Borough of Barnet, Understanding Barnet residents better: Using equalities information to inform impact assessments

Appendix 1

Best practice examples of equality monitoring

Protected characteristics

There are nine protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010. Everyone has several of these ‘protected characteristics’ so we are all covered by anti-discrimination law. This guidance focuses on seven of the characteristics; it does not include marriage and civil partnership or pregnancy and maternity as the Councils would rarely need this information.

  1. Age

Equality law refers to persons of a particular age group, which encompasses any age groups of 18 years or more. Age groups can be quite wide (for example, ‘over 50s’, ‘18 - 24 years’) or loosely defined (such as ‘young people’ or ‘pensioners’) or more specific (such as ‘mid 30s’).

There are specific legal exemptions related to age, for example in sport and insurance, so you should seek advice from Improvement Officers if you have any concerns.

Example:

A council makes a decision to reduce its library services following budget cuts by central government. It carries out an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) to inform its decision making. A legal challenge is brought by local residents who claim that the decision makers have not paid due regard to the public sector general equality duty and that the EIA did not contain sufficient equality information to inform that decision making.

The High Court ruled that while the council had demonstrated due regard in carrying out an EIA, it had failed to undertake a sufficiently thorough information gathering exercise and conduct an analysis of that information in relation to the potential impact on different age groups. It quashed the council’s decision to reduce library services on grounds of direct discrimination and non-compliance with the general equality duty.

Had the council included in the EIA the equality monitoring information it already held on who uses its library services and consulted with relevant representative groups which might have been affected by the reduction in service, the quality and robustness of its decision making would have been improved.

  1. Disability

Disability is defined in the Equality Act as a mental or physical impairment which has a substantial and long-term effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities. With regard to disability and long term ill health, the law says that we are required:

where a provision, criterion or practice … puts a disabled person at asubstantial disadvantage in relation to a relevant matter in comparison withpersons who are not disabled, to take such steps as it is reasonable to haveto take to avoid the disadvantage.

The duty to make reasonable adjustments is a positive and proactive measure which recognises that bringing about equality for disabled people may mean changing the way in which services are delivered, providing extra equipment and/or removing physical barriers. The duty is anticipatory therefore the Council must consider the needs of disabled people beforeimplementing any policy, practice or criterion.

Example

As part of its budget review, a Council decided to review its car parking charges. It proposed to increase charges and introduce a charge for Blue Badge holders. The Council then engaged in a wide public consultation to gather the views of residents in the area. While analysis of the feedback from residents overall suggested that charging Blue Badge holders was felt to be fair, equality monitoring information showed that disabled people felt that they would be disproportionately impacted by the charges as they were more likely to need additional time than non disabled people. As a result, the Councildecided that it needed to better understand the experience, needs and preferences of disabled people using its car parks.

The charging policy was amended to give disabled people more time to park, return from their destination and get back into their vehicle before incurring additional charges or further penalties. This learning then informed the design of more accessible car parksby providing the basis for further discussion with involvement of disabled people in the process.

  1. Race

The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination on grounds of race, colour, nationality or ethnic origins. Anti-discrimination law regarding race has been in place since the 1970s, so most people are accustomed to disclosing this information for monitoring purposes. Example:

A council makes a planning decision on the proposed development of a high street shopping area. This decision is legally challenged by ethnic minority business owners and residents who felt that they were not consulted about the proposal, which would see the demolition of a row of shops with low rent accommodation above and the construction of a shopping mall and luxury apartments. Ethnic minorities felt that this would lead to closure of retail outlets which served their needs and to loss of affordable rental property.

Monitoring information from consultation and engagement on the council’s development plans for the area would have identified that there was a lower response rate from ethnic minority businesses and residents than the equality profile for the area suggested. This information, together with an equality impact assessment of the impact on this group, would have enabled the council to consider more effective engagement methods to gain their views and consider how any adverse effects might be mitigated or avoided.

  1. Sex / gender

Discrimination on grounds of sex / gender has been outlawed for many years, so most people are comfortable with disclosing whether they are male or female in routine monitoring.

Example:

A council Leisure service gathers equality monitoring information from those who sign up as members. From this data, it is evident that more men than women are members. The service takes the opportunity to offer discounts to women on specific activities and promote membership benefits as part of the council’s wider celebration of International Women’s Day. There is increased take up of specific activities and of membership by female customers, resulting in outcomes which are positive and measurable.

Using this information, the Leisure service then sets an annual target in its service plans to further increase women’s membership by 5% each year. Gathering feedback from the International Women’s Day events enabled them to develop activities to support this.

  1. Gender reassignment or transgender

There is a great deal of sensitivity around collecting data on transgender. Some trans people prefer to be counted and welcome inclusion in monitoring as a positive step; others may have concerns about privacy and may be more reluctant to answer monitoring questions. In many cases, transgender people will simply self define as male or female.

The Equality & Human Rights Commission recommend that public bodies:

  • Are clear that all monitoring questions related to gender identity are optional
  • Only collect information that will be used
  • Are clear about why the data are being collected and what the data will be used for
  • Explain how data confidentiality and anonymity will be ensured at all times so no one apart from those who should have access will have access to their data
  • Ensure that the data are anonymous - build in additional safeguards where necessary
  • Ensure the data are protected under the Data Protection Act
  • Ensure that any policies expressly cover transsexual people so that staff and service users are confident about the framework within which they are operating.

EHRC, Collecting data on gender identity, May 2012.