Equality Information
What is the Public Sector Equality Duty?
The single Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) came into effect in April 2011 as a result of the Equality Act 2010. It requires public bodies to promote equality and replaced three pre-existing duties relating to disability, race and gender equality.
The way Kennet Valley achieves the PSED is set out in: Equalities Policy KVPS 2022.
The PSED is a duty on public authorities (including schools) to consciously consider how their policies or decisions affect people who share protected characteristics. This means aspects of a person’s identity that are protected under the Equality Act 2010. For school pupils, these are:
- disability
- gender reassignment
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation.
The general equality duty says that schools must consciously consider (have due regard for) their need to:
- eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any 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 protected characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
Due Regard
Paragraph 5.4 of the Department for Educations advice says that 'due regard' has been defined in case law and means giving "relevant and proportionate consideration to the duty".
For schools, this means:
- Decision makers must be aware of the duty to have due regard when making a decision or taking an action, and must assess whether it may have implications for people with particular protected characteristics.
- Schools should consider equality implications before and at the time that they develop policy and take decisions, not as an afterthought, and they need to keep them under review on a continuing basis.
- The PSED has to be integrated into the carrying out of the school’s functions, and the analysis necessary to comply with the duty has to be carried out seriously, rigorously and with an open mind.
Schools must do the following:
- publish equality information by 30 March every year (schools with fewer than 150 employees do not have to publish information on their employees, but they may wish to do so anyway to improve their equality information);
- prepare and publish one or more specific and measurable equality objective (this came into effect on 30 March 2018 and needs to be completed at least once every four years);
- publish information, annually, on the gender pay gap of employees, where the school employs 250 or more staff.
Kennet Valley Equality Information
At Kennet Valley Primary School we undertake our duty to act on all opportunities to promote lasting community cohesion and welcome our obligations under the Equality Act 2010 to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations within and beyond our school community.
Equality Statement
In accordance with the aims and ethos of Kennet Valley Primary School we pledge to:
- respect the equal human rights of all our pupils and to educate them about equality
- respect the equal rights of our staff and other members of the school community
- comply with relevant legislation and implement school plans in relation to race equality, disability equality and gender equality.
For further information, please see the Equality Policy below.