Equalities Impact Assessments (EqIA)

What is an equality impact assessment?

It is a systematic way of taking equal opportunities into consideration when making a decision.

Why we do it?

We do it for three good reasons:

i. It helps us meet our public sector equality duty

The Council has adopted an equal opportunities policy updated to bring it in line with the Equality Act 2010 and the specific duties introduced in July 2011 by the government to support the Act. The policy commits the Council to carrying out equalities impact assessment as a means of ensuring that it meets its general duty enshrined in S149 of the Act - the public sector equality duty.

ii. It is good practice in policy and strategy development

The Council believes that it is good practice when developing a policy or strategy or a new initiative to anticipate the likely effects it may have and to take steps to prevent or minimise any likely harmful effects especially on persons who share any of the characteristics that are protected under the Equality Act. This ensures that disadvantaged groups are not further disadvantaged by the policies and strategies we adopt. It also ensures that councillors are properly advised of the potential effects of proposals before they take decisions that will inevitably affect people’s lives.

iii. It offers opportunity for stakeholder involvement in Council decisions

Consultation is a key part of our equality impact assessment process so service users, staff and others likely to be affected by a proposal have the opportunity to get involved and shape the final decision. As part of the process, officers must obtain the views of people from the 'protected characteristics' to find out how the proposal is likely to affect them and use those views to inform their recommendations to Councillors.

How do we do it?

In Haringey, we do equality impact assessment by working through a number of questions using equality impact assessment templates. There are three templates: one for screening a proposal to decide if a full impact assessment is necessary. The other is for assessing impact on service delivery and the third is for impact on staff that may be affected by a proposed change. We have developed equality impact assessment guidance for officers to follow when conducting EqIA. The guidance and templates can be downloaded from the attached files section below.

Do we publish results?

We publish results of annual equality impact assessment programmes. Follow this link to the assessments carried out in 2010/11 in each directorate.

Attached Files