Equalities Information and Objectives

Aims

Our school aims to meet its obligations under the public sector equality duty by having due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
• Foster good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it 

Legislation and guidance 

This document meets the requirements under the following legislation: 

• The Equality Act 2010, which introduced the public sector equality duty and protects people from discrimination
• The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011, which require schools to publish information to demonstrate how they are complying with the public sector equality duty and to publish equality objectives.

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This document is also based on Department for Education (DfE) guidance: The Equality Act 2010 and schools.  

Roles and responsibilities 

The Governing Body will:

• Ensure that the equality information and objectives as set out in this statement are published and communicated throughout the school, including to staff, pupils and parents, and that they are reviewed and updated at least once every three years 
• Delegate responsibility for monitoring the achievement of the objectives on a daily basis to the headteacher

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The equality link governor is Eirini Bailey. She will:

• Meet with the designated member of staff for equality every term, and other relevant staff members, to discuss any issues and how these are being addressed 
• Ensure they’re familiar with all relevant legislation and the contents of this document
• Attend appropriate equality and diversity training
• Report back to the full Governing Body regarding any issues

The headteacher will:

• Promote knowledge and understanding of the equality objectives amongst staff and pupils
• Monitor success in achieving the objectives and report back to governors

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The designated member of staff for equality will:

• Support the headteacher in promoting knowledge and understanding of the equality objectives amongst staff and pupils
• Meet with the equality link governor every term to raise and discuss any issues 
• Support the headteacher in identifying any staff training needs, and deliver training as necessary

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All school staff are expected to have regard to this document and to work to achieve the objectives as set out below

Eliminating discrimination

The school is aware of its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and complies with non-discrimination provisions. 

Where relevant, our policies include reference to the importance of avoiding discrimination and other prohibited conduct. 

Staff and governors are regularly reminded of their responsibilities under the Equality Act, for example during meetings. Where this has been discussed during a meeting it is recorded in the meeting minutes.

New staff receive training on the Equality Act as part of their induction, and all staff receive refresher training every year. 

The school has a designated member of staff for monitoring equality issues, and an equality link governor. They regularly liaise regarding any issues and make senior leaders and governors aware of these as appropriate. 

Advancing Equality of Opportunity

As set out in the DfE guidance on the Equality Act, the school aims to advance equality of opportunity by:

• Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people which are connected to a particular characteristic they have (e.g. pupils with disabilities, or gay pupils who are being subjected to homophobic bullying and young carers)
• Taking steps to meet the particular needs of people who have a particular characteristic (e.g. enabling Muslim pupils to pray at prescribed times) 
• Encouraging people who have a particular characteristic to participate fully in any activities (e.g. encouraging all pupils to be involved in the full range of school societies including young carers) 

In fulfilling this aspect of the duty, the school will:

• Publish attainment data each academic year showing how pupils with different characteristics are performing
• Analyse the above data to determine strengths and areas for improvement, implement actions in response and publish this information
• Make evidence available identifying improvements for specific groups (e.g. declines in incidents of homophobic or transphobic bullying) 
• Publish further data about any issues associated with particular protected characteristics, identifying any issues which could affect our own pupils 

Fostering good relations

The school aims to foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it by:

• Promoting tolerance, friendship and understanding of a range of religions and cultures through different aspects of our curriculum including the role of young carers. This includes teaching in RE, citizenship and personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, but also activities in other curriculum areas. For example, as part of teaching and learning in English/reading, pupils will be introduced to literature from a range of cultures.
• Holding assemblies dealing with relevant issues. Pupils will be encouraged to take a lead in such assemblies and we will also invite external speakers to contribute
• Working with our local community. This includes inviting leaders of local faith groups to speak at assemblies, and organising school trips and activities based around the local community
• Encouraging and implementing initiatives to deal with tensions between different groups of pupils within the school. For example, our school council has representatives from different year groups and is formed of pupils from a range of backgrounds including young carers. All pupils are encouraged to participate in the school’s activities, such as sports clubs. We also work with parents to promote knowledge and understanding of different cultures
• We have developed links with people and groups who have specialist knowledge about particular characteristics, which helps inform and develop our approach.

Equality considerations in decision-making

The school ensures it has due regard to equality considerations whenever significant decisions are made. 

The school always considers the impact of significant decisions on particular groups. For example, when a school trip or activity is being planned, the school considers whether the trip: 

• Cuts across any religious holidays
• Is accessible to pupils with disabilities
• Has equivalent facilities for boys and girls
• Is accessible to Young Carers

The school keeps a written record to show we have actively considered our equality duties and asked ourselves relevant questions. This is recorded on the risk assessment when planning school trips and activities. The record is completed by the member of staff organising the activity and is stored electronically with the completed risk assessment.

Equality objectives

Objective 1: 

Undertake an analysis of recruitment data and trends with regard to race, gender and disability by July, and report on this to the staffing and pay sub-committee of the governing board.

Why we have chosen this objective: Because this is something new for us as a school to do and it would provide us with new data on how we are performing as a school at making ourselves of interest to other cultures within our community.  It would also allow us to explore the trends and compare with other local schools to see how we compare.

To achieve this objective we plan to: We intend to analyse the data from any job adverts that we have advertised over the coming year.

Progress we are making towards this objective: Currently this is beginning with the office manager being responsible for collating this information each time we advertise a job.

Objective 2: 

Have in place a reasonable adjustment agreement for all staff with disabilities by July, to meet their needs better and ensure that any disadvantages they experience are addressed.

Why we have chosen this objective: Because as a school we want to ensure that we are fully accessible to all staff to set the example to our pupils of how everyone is different and we are all accepted at Spring Meadow.

To achieve this objective we plan to: Check the pay and conditions of employment policies and take these for discussion to the governors.  Also to have a Well-Being policy written and adopted for the staff.  We are also working towards evaluation for our Well-Being award as a school to clearly demonstrate and evidence our inclusive nature.

Progress we are making towards this objective:  The Well Being policy has been written and we are awaiting it to be adopted at the next governing body meeting.  We are currently halfway through applying for our Well-Being award as a school which considers all our stakeholders.

Objective 3:

To review levels of parental and pupil engagement in learning and school life, across all activities to ensure equity and fairness in access and engagement.

Why we have chosen this objective: Parental engagement of any kind is very difficult for us to achieve due to the hard to reach families that we work with.  Therefore, it would be a good opportunity for us to review how we are trying to engage parents and question what we currently deliver to explore new possible ways forward for us as a school.

To achieve this objective we plan to: Explore all the ways in which we try to engage parents throughout the academic year.  Then chart which parents we are successful in engaging. We will need to also go out to families and ask them for things that they may like us to do to help them engage with us more actively.

Progress we are making towards this objective:  This will be discussed during SLT to find a way forward with this objective and allocate tasks in accordance to help us work towards increasing our parental involvement.

Objective 4: 

Train all members of staff and governors involved in recruitment and selection on equal opportunities and non-discrimination by the beginning of the next academic year. Training evaluation data will show that 100% of those attending have a good understanding of the legal requirements.

Why we have chosen this objective: Because we have changed the job roles of some staff within the school and they are now being given more professional development opportunities and included in this will be the option to be on the panel for interviewing for new staff.  Therefore, we need to train staff to ensure they are fully aware of the equal opportunities and non-discrimination process required in this situation.

To achieve this objective we plan to: Purchase and undertake Safer Recruitment training for all staff that will potentially be involved with interviewing and recruitment within the school.

Progress we are making towards this objective: We have currently purchased the training package that can be accessed online and staff have been given time to work through this to achieve their certification of completion.

Objective 5

Include the 'Two Ticks' positive about people with disabilities symbol on all job adverts, application forms and information by January of next year, to help address the under-representation of people with disabilities in the school workforce.

Why we have chosen this objective: because we want to make it clear to everyone who is looking to work at our school that we are fully inclusive and non-discriminatory.

To achieve this objective we plan to: Investigate how we can obtain the ‘Two Ticks’ and check this is allowed with County.  We will then explore how to get this onto our job adverts.

Progress we are making towards this objective: Our office manager will investigate this and explore how we can move forward and achieve this objective.

Monitoring arrangements

The head teacher will update the equality information we publish, at least every year. 

This document will be reviewed by the SENCO, Governing Body and the Headteacher at least every 2 years. 

This document will be approved by the SENCO, Governing body and Headteacher.

Links with other policies

This document links to the following policies:

• Accessibility plan
• Risk assessment 
• SEN Policy
• SEN Information report

Reviewed:  Spring 2021

Next Review:  Spring 2023