Public Sector Equality Duty

The Equality Act 2010 requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:

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

We welcome the opportunity to work to these aims and our Equality and Diversity strategy 2010 Strategy was developed to anticipate the duty.

Harassment and victimisation

For further information about the support we provide to victims of domestic violence and hate crime please see our anti social behaviour page

Protected characteristics

The protected characteristics covered by the Equality Duty are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation
• pregnancy and maternity
• marriage and civil partnership (but only in respect of eliminating unlawful discrimination)

We consider these protected characteristics, for example:

• by monitoring our recruitment process to ensure it remains fair
• by adjusting a service such as sending large print or translated information to some of our residents

• when we review our services and policies we carry out assessments (known as Equality Analysis Assessments) to help us consider the impact of our work on residents and staff. Where appropriate, we go on to take action to eliminate any potential discrimination or take opportunities to advance equality
• We have recently assessed the impact of welfare reforms/cuts including non-dependent deductions, changes to entitlement and the impact of direct benefit payments to tenants and run regular welfare surgeries to promote financial inclusion for our residents.

Good relations

We promote good relations between people from different backgrounds, for example by planning community events such as ‘get to know your neighbour days’.