We are committed to treating our service users and employees fairly with compassion, respect and dignity. Equality analysis helps us understand the needs, experiences and outcomes of different staff and service users so we can put this commitment into practice. We use a tool called an equality impact assessment (EIA) to do this.

Equality impact assessments

An equality impact assessment (EIA) is a way of analysing the way a policy or service change will affect equality and people with different protected characteristics.

Why we use equality impact assessments

Using EIAs helps improve our understanding of the needs and experiences of different staff and service users. This helps us make fairer decisions, better policies and improve our services. It also helps have greater consistency in the way we do this across the Trust.

The public sector equality duty requires us to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations in all relevant day to day business. Using EIAs helps us comply with this law.

When we use equality impact assessments

We use equality impact assessments when:

• developing new policies or reviewing existing policies
• considering service developments
• developing our other plans and strategies
• we are required to implement a decision over which the Trust has no control. For example a change in funding that may have been decided elsewhere but still requires us to consider mitigating measures or alternative ways of doing things to minimise the impact on services and equality.

How the equality impact assessment process works

The equality impact assessment process has three steps:

• assess whether the policy, practice or decision is relevant to equality
• assess what the equality impacts of the policy, practice or decision are (if relevant to equality)
• produce an action plan to maximise positive and minimise negative equality impacts of the policy, practice or decision.

Here is the equality impact assessment template we use.

Equality Impact Assessments for policy development

We use equality impact assessments when developing or reviewing policies. These can be found in the appendicies of each policy available at policies and procedures.