Equality Impact Assessment

EIAs make our work fairer and protect us from legal challenge.

• By checking that our work doesn't disadvantage any group, and how it might support inclusion, EIAs help to design and deliver better and more inclusive services, projects, and procedures. This is crucial for us to drive the structural changes required to see everyone living Warwick’s values and nurturing a culture that truly thrives on difference.
• Conducting EIAs helps us to meet our legal responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), as an EIA demonstrates how we have had "due regard to the need to" eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between groups.
• Inequality will persist unless we identify potential negative equality impact and make changes, and most people will miss something if they don’t take specific time out to think about this. That’s why we have the EIA process; to help people think through any implications of their work.

EIAs should be used for new work, or existing work that is being significantly changed

• Use EIAs for work which has an impact on people, where different groups may have different needs or experiences, and/or when the work could support our Social Inclusion Strategy objectives to increase diversity and create an inclusive culture.
• EIAs should be conducted early in the work’s development - insights from the EIA should go to committees at the point that the work is seeking approval (include this in the committee report – there is guidance on the report template).
• They should also be updated throughout planning the work and as it is carried out and reviewed. Keep a copy in case it is requested at any point.

A good EIA explains how equality impact has been explored, responds to negative impact, and builds in review.

• Trying to simply think of equality impacts is difficult and limited by your own knowledge (and no one knows everything). Good EIAs are clear on how a thorough attempt has ben made to uncover and assess any impact.
• Finding negative impacts won’t mean work can’t go ahead, so long as changes or mitigations are made. Good EIAs show changes have been genuinely considered.
• An EIA is a process of trying to uncover and deal with any impacts - this is an ongoing process, not a one off. Good EIAs show when review is planned.

There is more on how to complete an EIA in the guidance linked above.

A good EIA explains how equality impact has been explored, responds to negative impact, and builds in review.

• The owner of an EIA (usually the person leading the work being assessed) is asked to keep a copy of the completed EIA to produce on request. As such, if you would like to see an EIA for a piece of work, feel free to contact people directly to request it. If the work is presented at a committee meeting, findings from the EIA should be referred to in the paper.
• If you are looking for the old EIA Portal, you can find it here - but please note this has not been in use since February 2023 so is not an up to date record of EIAs.

See examples of completed EIAs below.

Our Values-Based EIAs guidance outlines how to apply our values and behaviours to EIAs. By embedding these values into EIAs, we ensure that our policies, decisions, and actions not only meet legal requirements but also align with our vision for a better world

This LGBTQ+ Considerations for EIAs resource from the WIHEA Queering University project offers a set of reflective and practical question prompts to aid you in identifying risks and mitigating any negative impacts of your work on LGBTQ+ people.

For an idea of what a completed EIA form might look like, see these (fictional) examples - Built Environment, Policy, Project, Software.