Equality Objectives

Our General Equality Duty

In October 2010, the new Equality Act introduced a Public Sector Equality Duty, which requires the Academy to have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act;
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not;
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Protected Characteristics

There are 9 Protected Characteristics under the Equality Act; Age, Disability, Gender Reassignment, Marriage and Civil Partnership, Pregnancy and Maternity, Race, Religion or Belief, Sex and Sexual Orientation. The Equality Duty requires the Academy to consider how our activities affect the people who share these different protected characteristics and to publish information to show how we do this.

Equality Information

In order to meet our Equality Duty, we are required to publish Equality Information about how our policies and practices affect those with Protected Characteristics. To this end we have conducted an Equality Analysis to assess and demonstrate our compliance with our Equality Duty.

Business Planning

During our business planning process we ensure that we take into account the effect of our decisions on different groups. We consider if there are any unintended consequences for some groups and whether our business plan will be fully effective for all target groups