Demystifying equality
- 1. Demystifying Equality: An introduction to Equality & Diversity Facilitated by Equality South West
- 2. Introductions • Name • Job Title • What experience have you had of equality and diversity?
- 3. Workshop objectives • To understand what is meant by equality & diversity • To understand what is meant by discrimination, victimisation & harassment • To understand the different types of discrimination • To understand the basic legislative requirements around equality & diversity • To better understand how equality & diversity impacts on the work of your organisation
- 4. We hope that the session will be... • • • • • Interactive (no question too daft) Accessible for all Jargon free (ish) Uninterrupted by phones (unless urgent) Respectful of everyone in the room
- 5. Diversity Bingo • Collect 5 signatures, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. • The same person can sign more than once, but not in the same line. • You may not sign your own sheet. • The facilitators may sign it too. • The first person with 2 complete lines wins.
- 6. What is Equality & Diversity?
- 7. What is Equality? Equality is...? a)Treating everyone the same b)Treating everyone according to their needs c)Treating everyone nicely
- 8. Equality is treating everyone according to their needs.
- 9. 9 ‘Protected Characteristics’ • • • • • • • • • Age Disability Gender reassignment Marriage and civil partnership Pregnancy and maternity Race Religion or belief Sex Sexual orientation
- 10. Real life experiences A transman talks about his transition from female to male and his experiences. You Tube – Stephen Whittle
- 11. What do the protected characteristics mean to you? Age Marriage & Civil Partnership Disability Se x Rac e Sexual Orientation Religio n or Belief Pregnancy & Maternity Gender Reassignmen t
- 12. What is diversity? • the way in which we all differ ” – Clements and Jones (2000)
- 13. Real life experiences A young woman who is a natural size zero describes how she was bullied at school and has had to constantly justify her weight to others. You Tube – Sarah Whitehurst
- 14. What is Discrimination, Harassment & Victimisation?
- 15. What is discrimination? “…people being thought of as having different worth or value, being treated differently or given fewer opportunities because of their identities”. (Learner Voice, LSC) Three types of discrimination: •Direct •Indirect •Institutional
- 16. Direct Discrimination Direct discrimination occurs when you treat someone less favourably than you treat (or would treat) another because of a protected characteristic. E.g. Refusing to serve a customer because they are Asian.
- 17. Indirect Discrimination Indirect discrimination occurs when an organisation has criteria, policies, procedures or practices which, although they apply to all employees or service users, have the effect of disproportionally disadvantaging a particular group or groups of people. E.g. Putting in a job advert that a full UK drivers license and access to a car is essential.
- 18. Institutional Discrimination Institutional discrimination occurs when the culture, policies, systems and procedures in an organisation inherently discriminate against a group or groups of people. E.g. A garage that only recruits male mechanics.
- 19. Real life experiences A former self-harmer describes her experience and why she now wants to help others to stop. You Tube – Tyfanny Booker
- 20. Harassment Harassment is “unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual”. E.g. A manager making homophobic jokes in
- 21. Victimisation Victimisation occurs when an employee is treated badly because they have made, supported or are suspected to have made or supported a grievance under The Equality Act. E.g. Being ignored by colleagues because you took a grievance out against your manager for sexual harassment.
- 22. Equality and The Law
- 23. Main purposes of The Equality Act 2010 “To harmonise discrimination law, and to strengthen the law to support progress on equality". • Streamlines and combines previous legislation to make things easier for businesses; • Provides new measures to fight discrimination • Extends previous protections to cover 7 equality ‘strands’ plus marriage and civil partnerships, pregnant women and new mothers.
- 24. Headline provisions include • • • • • • • • • • New ‘Protected characteristics’ Age discrimination: goods, facilities and services New definitions of discrimination Banning pay secrecy clauses Protections for carers Positive action Public Sector Equality Duty Public procurement Banning of pre-employment health questionnaires Stronger protections for disabled people
- 25. Public Equality Duty In the design and delivery of public services providers must: • Eliminate discrimination – 9 protected characteristics • Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not • Foster good relations
- 26. Equality & Me
- 27. Reflection, questions and forms
- 28. Workshop objectives • To understand what is meant by equality & diversity • To understand what is meant by discrimination, victimisation & harassment • To understand the different types of discrimination • To understand the basic legislative requirements around equality & diversity • To better understand how equality & diversity impacts on the work of your organisation
Editor's Notes
- #2: Show ESW video using link
- #4: I hope that by the end of the session we will have achieved these objectives.
- #5: We realise that for some E&D can be an emotive subject. This session is an opportunity for us to talk through your experiences , thoughts and opinions in a safe place. Nobody has to share any information about themselves that they don’t wish to.
- #6: You can not ask “which boxes can you tick” or “which of these apply to you”? Q – How did you find that exercise? Opportunity to see how diverse the group is and to show that some differences are visible whilst others are not. Q – How did it feel asking people these questions? Q – Were there some questions that you found more uncomfortable to answer than others? Why do you think this was?
- #9: Misconception that equality is about treating people the same. Equality is actually about treating people differently and sometimes more favourable to ensure that everyone is a given a fair chance. This picture highlights the different needs of the animals to pick the fruit. E.g. Creating an application pack in font size 12 may be fine for a person without a visual impairment, but for someone with a sight related disability their needs will be different. Q – When we talk about Equality we sometimes talk about the ‘equality strands’ or ‘protected characteristics’ as recognised in law. What do you think these strands may be?
- #11: Play video clip.
- #12: Q – How do issues around these protected characteristics affect you in your current role?
- #14: Play video clip.
- #17: Q - Can you give more examples of direct discrimination that could occur in your workplace?
- #18: Q - Can you give more examples of indirect discrimination that may occur in your workplace?
- #19: ‘The way things are done around here’. Ingrained and hard to challenge & change. Q – can you think of any organisations/ services that have been accused of institutional discrimination in the past?
- #20: Play video clip.
- #22: An employee is not protected from victimisation if they have maliciously made or supported an untrue complaint. There is no longer a need to compare treatment of a complainant with that of a person who has not made or supported a complaint under the Act.