The Equality Act 2010  has changed the way the public sector must address equalities, and there were some significant changes for schools. A summary slide of the three main purposes of the new law can be dowloaded here. The Equalities Team helps any school in Northumberland that would like help or support with this aspect of their work. The most comprehensive advice and documentation about the act is found on the Equality and Human Rights Commission web site. The Equality and Human Rights Commission have also produced specific guidance to schools about the PSED

To comply with the law, schools should have:

• Published equality information by 6 April 2012. To see an example of one Northumberland's school's published information, follow the link. There is no prescribed format for this. It is also an opportunity to mention strategies you have already implemented to promote equality.
• We have created a template of questions to consider which is a useful starting point to use to capture this information for publication.
• This information helps schools to recognise SMART equality objectives. There is no set number of objectives that schools are expected to have. There should be at least one, which should be stretching (and achievable) and should focus on the most significant equality challenges the school faces.
• Gaps in achievement are an obvious target, and the protected characteristics to address are most often gender, race, religion and belief and disability. 

• It may also be necessary from time to time to complete an equality analysis of the effects of new and amended policies and practices, or key decisions on protected groups.  This process was formerly known as equality impact assessment (EIA).

A suggested pro forma for an Equalities Analysis can be downloaded to print here. You may find it helpful to see an example analysis using this guide. An example of a school's updated dress code analysis can be viewed by following this link.

There is now no legal requirement to publish an equality scheme. You may still find it useful to publish a policy. There is a very good example of a school policy which can easily be adapted on the Insted web site.

It is still a requirement that a school should maintain an accessibility plan. Here is the government guidance to schools.

From September 2012 a revised Ofsted Inspection Framework has been implemented.  The separate equalities judgement is no longer part of the framework, although closing gaps in achievement for vulnerable groups of pupils and the impact of a school’s anti-discriminatory work now have a high profile. A recent 

briefing to inspectors about inspecting equalites