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You are here: Home / News /POhWER was founded by people with disabilities or who had experienced discrimination. We exist to help create a fairer society by supporting people to know their rights and speak up for themselves. We are pleased to welcome the new Equality Act and look forward to supporting people so that they may benefit from this change in the law.
The ways in which we can help include:
We don’t give advice: we just help you make your views known.
We aim to work with everyone. We have trained staff who work with learning disabled people, people with mental health problems, people who are unwell, frail or physically disabled. We work in all settings – including prisons and secure facilities. We work with people from lots of different communities.
Whether or not we can work with you depends on whether we have a contract in your area. There is more information about this and how we work elsewhere on our website.
Even if we are not in your area, we hope that this article and other information on our website will be of help to you – and you are welcome to call us just to find out more about what we do.
The Equality Act, which contains a series of measures for tackling inequalities, received Royal Assent in April 2010 and will come into force in stages. It focuses on the delivery of equality in the provision of goods, facilities and services as well as in the workplace and aims to make Britain a fairer society.
The Act gives people the right not to be treated less favourably by public authorities because of their age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or transgender status; as well as their disability, gender, or race which were already covered by equality laws.
Before the introduction of the Equality Act, equality and discrimination law was made up of 116 different Acts of Parliament, Regulations, Codes of Practice and guidance. Significant parts of the law were contained in decisions and interpretation by judges in UK and European courts. The Equality Act simplifies and standardises existing legislation.
Key changes to the law include:
When announcing the legislation Harriet Harman, former Minister for Women and Equality, said that the Act would " make Britain a more equal place, and help us build a stronger economy and fairer society for the future."
It is already illegal to deny people access to public services based on their race, disability or gender. The Equality Act introduces a strengthened Equality Duty, extended to bring the same protection to sexual orientation, gender reassignment, age, and religion or belief.
The Equality Act aims to make life easier for disabled people at home, at school and at work; the right to have reasonable adjustments made to communal areas like entrances and hallways in rented homes, and reasonable provision of auxiliary aids at school such as large print books.
Disabled people are twice as likely to be out of work. The Equality Act makes it unlawful for employers to ask job applicants questions about disability or health before making a job offer, except in specified circumstances. This will prevent employers screening potential employees to avoid recruiting disabled people.
The Equality Act requires fair and equal consideration to be given for both younger and older people , who have traditionally been discriminated against in the provision of goods, facilities and services. Financial companies have been allowed to charge higher premiums or deny cover based purely on age. Older people have also been denied access to some health services, such as mental health care, when they need it most.
The Equality Act introduces new protection against socio-economic discrimination and encourages public bodies to reduce the gap in provision between rich and poor by considering how investing in health and education in low-income communities can help break the cycle of deprivation. Money spent on keeping young people in education, employment or training can help reduce the likelihood of their going to prison and all the associated costs to society. Similarly, investing in tackling heart disease and obesity-related illnesses in deprived communities can save the NHS money in the long term.
There may be more employment opportunities for under-represented groups with clarification of the law relating to Positive Action , which allows employers choosing between two equally-qualified candidates to select the successful candidate on the grounds that they are from an under-represented or disadvantaged group. Many employers would have previously worried about breaking either anti-discrimination or positive discrimination laws, potentially leading to lack of diversity in the workplace.
Employment Tribunals have been able to make recommendations to organisations to improve work practices, but only in relation to the individual bringing the case. The Equality Act gives Tribunals new powers to make wider recommendations which can benefit everyone in the workplace, preventing similar cases of discrimination being brought in the future.
Former Community
Cohesion Minster Sadiq Khan said:
"
In the current climate it is more crucial
than ever to have safeguards in place to protect our communities.
Discrimination of any type should not be tolerated.
The Act will aim to remove barriers of opportunity for the most
vulnerable in our communities and outline guidance that employers and
individuals can take forward."
Carers have been a socially-excluded group in terms of services available and in workplace equality. A 2007 study by Carers UK found that carers lost average earnings of £11,000 per year by taking on caring responsibilities.
Existing laws make it illegal to discriminate or harass someone because they are "linked to" or "associated with" a person who is of another sexual orientation, race, or religion or belief, but the Equalities Act extends this association to age, disability, sex and gender reassignment, meaning new protection for people who care for a disabled person.
The legislation obliges local authorities and housing associations to consider carers’ housing needs as well as those of the person being cared for.
Extending this protection to the workplace means that employers will not be able to refuse promotion opportunities to a member of staff who cares for an elderly or disabled relative.
The new legislation sets out an Equality Duty which aims to improve transparency within the public sector, to provide more efficient and effective public services, tailored to the needs of the community. It means public bodies will have to ensure that everybody has an equal opportunity to use and access public services.
Public bodies will have to conduct Equality Impact Assessments to ensure that their policies and practices do not have a negative impact on any disadvantaged group and will lead to policies and practices being designed in a way that eliminates discrimination, harassment and victimisation of people protected under the Equality Act.
The public sector spends around £200 billion every year on goods and services provided by the private sector. The Equality Act allows public bodies to use procurement processes to drive equality in the private sector when buying goods and services by requiring contractors to run positive action programmes.
The Equality Act aims to increases transparency about the diversity of political candidates by requiring political parties to publish diversity data on parliamentary candidate selections as a way of identifying barriers causing or contributing to under-representation of particular groups, such as women, disabled people or people from ethnic minorities.
The EHRC is due to publish Statutory Codes of Practice and other information to help local authorities, educational institutions and landlords become aware of their responsibilities and to prevent them falling foul of the Equality Act.
Trevor Phillips, Chair
of the Equality & Human Rights Commission said:
"
Simplifying legislation and extending
protection to a wide range of groups that face discrimination will help Britain
become a fairer society, improve public services, and help business perform
well
."
If you think you’ve been treated unfairly and want to make a complaint about the service you received from a public organisation but don’t know where to start or who to complain to, please contact us and we will do our best to help you or point you in the right direction.
Find out more about our advocacy services or contact us on 0300 456 2370 to speak to someone.
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