Equality Impact Assessment Guidance

Background - Start with what you know

The first part of the process is about the work itself – you start off with identifying the purpose/aims, what’s involved, and who is affected.

This helps inform what you need to do i.e., ensuring all relevant aspects of the work are considered (e.g., an award is not just the result it’s also the nomination process, selection, presentation, and communication)

It is also useful to gather anything you already known about the impact of the work e.g., existing feedback, learning from previous similar work.

Impact - Look for what you don't know

Trying to simply think of equality impacts is difficult and limited by your own knowledge (and no one knows everything). So, instead this part is about trying to uncover any impact.

Look for any potential impact by, for example:

• Analysing data to check for differences between groups. Look at diversity – including the characteristics protected in the Equality Act – and employment/study factors e.g., grade, full/part-time (these can indicate indirect discrimination).
• Learning from others e.g., search for relevant guidance/research, ask in professional networks (such as Advance HE’s Connect platform), ask specialist organisations, seek learning from similar work, etc.
• Testing by creating user profiles and then thinking about how those individuals would experience engaging with the work and using Microsoft software to test accessibility, get readability statistics, and check for inclusive language (to find this go to File, then Options, in the Proofing section click Settings under 'When correcting spelling and grammar in Word', in the Settings dialogue box scroll to find the section on Inclusiveness and tick all areas you'd like to check for).
• Consulting with people affected by the work e.g., through focus groups or an online survey. Be sure also to make use of any existing feedback e.g., from earlier consultation or complaints.

The key thing to remember is that an Equality Impact Assessment is a process, not a form. The assessment should be clear on how a thorough effort has been made to uncover potential equality impacts. If it is treated as a tick box, then it becomes a tick box.

Mitigation - Make any changes/mitigations to remove negative impact

In the third part of the process, it’s important to remember that the purpose of the Equality Impact Assessment is check for and deal with any negative impact. So, don’t be afraid to find negatives – it won’t automatically mean the work is stopped, as long as it’s addressed.

Where negative impact is found you should to take active steps to mitigate it by e.g.,

• Considering alternative approaches (i.e., is there a different way you can achieve the same aims?),
• Making amendments to the work as it is currently planned, and/or
• Putting in place extra provisions such as exceptions, substitutes, etc.

If you identify negative impact but believe there is a valid reason why the work can't be changed, you will need to justify not making changes/mitigations to remove negative impact by explaining:

• Why the aim(s) of the work are legitimate (i.e., genuine and non-discriminatory).
• Why the proposed approach is proportionate (i.e., appropriate and necessary).
• The reason(s) that changes can’t be made (e.g., have you explored other options and identified why they wouldn’t work).

Review - Check what happens in practice

Finally, it’s important to update the Equality Impact Assessment as the work is developed (to make sure you are continuing to check for any potential impact as it evolves) and to review it after the work is implemented (to check for any issues which weren’t anticipated and to ensure mitigations are working).

Ongoing review of equality impact is important to any work, especially if the potential impacts are not yet clear. All Equality Impact Assessments should include information on how and when they will review.

When/how often they should be reviewed will depend on the nature of the work; you can use your judgement.

Don't forget to save a copy of the completed Equality Impact Assessment

The owner of the Equality Impact Assessment should keep a copy in order to continue to update it as the work is carried out and reviewed and in anyone requests to see it at any point in the work.