Gateways guidance: 5.3 Disability Equality Scheme
A Disability Equality Scheme (DES) offers institutions the positive opportunity to set out a vision and to define really challenging goals for the removal of barriers and the total inclusion of disabled people.
Under the Equality Act 2010, public authorities are no longer required to prepare and publish discrete equality schemes. However, we suggest that medical schools continue to publish a DES until this is overtaken by alternative arrangements under the Equality Act.
Universities as public authorities had a duty to publish a DES every three years and to review it annually, to show how they intend to fulfil both their general and specific duties. The DES should be signed off by the Vice-Chancellor or someone of similar authority. Disabled people and their organisations had to be involved in preparing, monitoring and evaluating the impact of the DES.
The purpose of the DES is to eliminate disability discrimination from institutional practice and to promote positive attitudes towards disabled people. This is true in both academic and social terms, and should encompass the activities of students and staff. Isolation, harassment and bullying on the basis of disability are potential problems for institutions and require specific attention. Prospectuses, advertisements, departmental handbooks and similar publications, whether printed or online, should contain stories, images and policies that remind prospective and current students and staff of their responsibility to promote equality. The school’s success in relation to disabled students should be a point of pride.
There are slightly different arrangements for Northern Ireland. These are set out in section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 - A Guide for Public Authorities.
Educational public authorities were required to set out in their DES:
- the arrangements in place for gathering information on the effect of their policies and practices on the educational opportunities available to, and on the achievements of, disabled students
- the arrangements in place for gathering information on the effect of their policies and practices on the recruitment, development and retention of their disabled employees.
The information gathered had to be analysed and used as the basis for preparing disability action plans, and for reviewing the effectiveness of those actions taken. The DES should also include a statement of the arrangements for making use of the information gathered. In particular, it should include arrangements for reviewing on a regular basis the effectiveness of the action plan and for preparing subsequent DESs.
Monitoring is therefore essential if an equal opportunities programme is to be effective. It is important to know the composition of an organisation to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged or under-represented. This is true in relation to medical school applicants and students and the composition of selection panels. Without monitoring it is not possible to track positive steps and their effects. Monitoring should be regular, standardised and recorded.
The case for a purposeful, systematic, inclusive and documented approach to tackling disability discrimination along these lines will continue to hold good after the legal provisions relating to the DES format no longer apply.
It is fundamental to meeting the requirements of the duties that public bodies assess the impact of what they do on different groups.
Under the Equality Act 2010 there is a move away from an emphasis on describing process to requiring public bodies to demonstrate, in a transparent and accountable manner, outcomes and impact. Organisations can decide what process they take to achieve the latter. Public bodies must demonstrate how they have taken into account evidence of the impact on equality in the design of key policy and service delivery initiatives, and what difference this has made.
We suggest that medical schools continue to conduct equality impact assessments until the new arrangements have come into force in April 2011.