How to consider equality in policy making: A 10-step guide for public bodies in England

Who this guide is for

This guide is for public authorities and organisations delivering a public function in England. A public function may be carried out by private and voluntary organisations, for example,

• when a private company manages a prison,
• or when a voluntary organisation takes on responsibilities for child protection

This guide refers to these public authorities and organisations delivering a public function as ‘public bodies’ throughout.

There is separate guidance for public bodies in Wales and Scotland:

Read the Wales guidance

Read the Scotland guidance

This guide is primarily targeted at people in public bodies who:

• develop new policies 
• review the effectiveness and impact of existing policies

However, it may also be useful to people who:

• make decisions on introducing new and existing policies (for example, councillors, board members and ministers)
• review how other public bodies consider equality within their work (for example, regulators, inspectorates and ombuds)

What this guide is about

This 10-step guide provides information about how to consider the equality impact of policies in a structured, consistent and accountable way. This will help you to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (‘PSED’) as set out in the Equality Act 2010 ('the Act'). 

The term ‘policy’ refers to any activity in your organisation. It should be understood to cover the full range of your policies, provisions, criteria, functions, practices and activities, including the delivery of services.

The amount of time and resource your organisation puts into considering the equality impact of a particular policy must be proportionate to its potential impact on people with protected characteristics and its relevance to the three aims of the PSED. The guide will help you understand how you can take a proportionate approach to considering the equality impact of a policy at key stages in the process.

The 10-step guide includes:

• practical guidance on how to comply with the law and how to demonstrate best practice
• tips and reminders on legal principles
• advice on how to keep your equality considerations relevant and proportionate
• examples to illustrate how organisations can implement the steps in this guide

The PSED general duty includes three aims. They are to make sure that public bodies have due regard to the need to:

The Act describes fostering good relations as tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups.

The Act also explains that advancing equality of opportunity involves having due regard to the need to:

• remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics
• take steps to meet the needs of people with certain protected characteristics, where these are different from the needs of other people
• encourage people with certain protected characteristics to participate in public life, or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low

To meet the needs of people with certain protected characteristics, public bodies may consider treating some people more favourably than others. Public bodies must also have due regard to the requirement to take steps to meet the needs of disabled people.

Public bodies should have due regard to the three aims of the PSED in their day-to-day business. Having due regard means that:

• you have made yourself fully aware of the potential equality implications of a policy
• you have used this understanding to inform your decision making

The amount of time and resource your organisation puts into considering the equality impact of a particular policy must be proportionate to its potential impact on people with protected characteristics and its relevance to the three aims of the PSED. This 10-step guide will help you achieve this.

When to use this guide

You should use this guide as soon as you start developing a policy and to inform key decisions on whether and how to implement the policy.

Case law has established that considering equality must be at the centre of policy formulation and should start early in the policy cycle.

Assessing the potential equality impact of a new policy should involve more than just considering whether or how you can justify a decision after it has been taken. This is likely to lead to less informed decision making and may result in a legal challenge that you have failed to comply with the PSED.

You should continue using this guide throughout the policy cycle, including when you monitor and review the actual equality impact of your policies after implementation. 

For example, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used more and more. It is important that public bodies understand how this may impact people with different protected characteristics. These technologies can improve the efficiency, availability, and effectiveness of public services. They also have the potential to create inequalities and make existing inequalities worse. If the policy you are considering involves using AI and other data-driven technologies, you should:

• assess how using these technologies may impact people with different protected characteristics before you decide to adopt them
• monitor them on an ongoing basis, once implemented 

Why you should use this guide

The PSED requires public authorities to consider how they can systematically eliminate discrimination, promote equality and foster good relations when they design, implement and review policies.

Legal cases involving the PSED have established the importance of having a rigorous process for assessing the equality impact of policies and being able to evidence how this has been done. This guide should help you to do this.

Read more about these legal cases in our technical guidance on the PSED.

This guide will help you consider the equality impact of your policies in a way that:

• complies with the law
• responds to employee and service user needs in a transparent and accountable way

Making equality considerations a key part of designing and reviewing policies should help you ensure that everyone can access your services. It should also improve users’ experience and outcomes.

Clearly set out:

• the objectives of your proposed policy
• the policy options you are considering
• the outcomes you want to achieve
• how you plan to deliver these outcomes

You need to collect robust and sufficient evidence to inform your initial equality considerations. This will help establish whether your policy:

• could have either a positive or negative impact on people with protected characteristics
• is relevant to one or more of the three aims of the PSED

Evidence can be qualitative or quantitative. It may include internal and external evidence such as:

• information about similar policies implemented in the past and the impact they had on employees, service users and the wider community
• the views of colleagues with relevant expertise or experience, including front line staff who are in direct contact with service users, or formal and informal groups of staff or service users representing the interests of people with particular protected characteristics (for example, an ethnic minorities’ staff network)
• research conducted by experts, academics, think tanks or other impartial organisations on issues relevant to people with protected characteristics likely to be affected by your policy options - this might include reports by national bodies, including inspectorates and regulators
• statistics and trends that are relevant to your policy area, for example in relation to your workforce, local population or service user profiles

It may be helpful to speak to analysts in your organisation to identify relevant sources of data and evidence.

If your evidence shows that your policy may have an impact on people with a particular protected characteristic, we strongly recommend you seek their views, either directly or by consulting with organisations that represent their interests.

Use the evidence you have collected at this stage to assess:

• Whether your proposed policy will impact people with different protected characteristics
• What impact your proposed policy may have on each of the three aims of the PSED

PSED Aim 1 

• Could your policy lead to direct or indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation or any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010?

PSED Aim 2

• Could your policy affect how service users or employees access services or participate in activities relevant to your policy area?
• Could it impact people with particular protected characteristics who have a disproportionately low level of access to services, participation in public life or other activities?
• Could it create or worsen disadvantages and inequalities in your community?
• Could it remove or minimise disadvantages and inequalities in your community?
• Does your policy consider the needs of people who share a relevant protected characteristic, that are different from the needs of people who do not share it?

PSED Aim 3

• Could your policy affect how people perceive or interact with others?
• Could it help tackle prejudice and promote understanding between people with different protected characteristics?
• Could it lead to prejudice, community tensions, conflicts, isolation or segregation?

You should also consider whether people who share more than one protected characteristic, for example, Muslim women, may be impacted.

The close relationship between equality and human rights means it is good practice to think about them together when developing policies. Therefore, you may also want to consider and gather evidence on whether your policy can have a potential impact on:

• groups of people sharing a characteristic that is not specifically protected under the Act, for example, people living in different geographical areas, children on free school meals, asylum seekers, refugees or single parents
• human rights as set out under the Human Rights Act 1998, for example, the right to family life or to be free from torture and degrading treatment

It is good practice to record your initial equality considerations. This may help to inform subsequent decisions. Such action is likely to be important if you are later challenged to explain your decision making.  

If one or more of your answers to the questions listed under the three PSED aims are ‘yes’, then your policy could have an impact on people with protected characteristics. If so, move to Step 4. If your policy does not appear to impact people with protected characteristics, move to Step 3.

The PSED is an ongoing duty. Even when you have assessed that your policy is unlikely to have any impact on people with protected characteristics, you should draw up plans to periodically monitor its actual impact. You should report this to your decision makers if and when you have new information.

When you have completed Step 3, go straight to Step 7, and present your initial equality considerations and monitoring plans to your decision makers before they decide whether to implement the policy.

You are at Step 4 because you identified at Step 2 that your policy:

• could have an impact on people with protected characteristics
• was relevant to one or more of the three aims of the PSED

Check that you have enough evidence to inform your equality considerations, and that your evidence is valid. If there are any gaps in your evidence, or if there are limitations, biases or small sample sizes that would impact its reliability, you should gather further evidence.

An effective way to gather further evidence is to engage with people who are likely to be affected by your policy, or organisations that represent their interests, such as unions or community sector organisations.

This can help you to:

• explain the rationale for your policy
• test your assumptions
• gain feedback and insights that you might not have previously considered
• build relationships for further engagement

Use the evidence you now have to complete your initial equality considerations, using the same questions as listed in Step 2. 

At this stage, you should also think about the combined effect your policy may have on people with particular protected characteristics, when considered alongside other relevant policies. For example, new parking restrictions alongside reductions in public transport may particularly impact disabled people.

There is no legal duty to record your equality considerations. Doing so may help your decision makers take informed and transparent policy decisions. It is highly likely that such record keeping could also be useful if your organisation’s decision is challenged.  

To finalise your equality considerations, you must consider the actions your organisation could take to:

• mitigate any negative impact your policy proposal may lead to for people with protected characteristics
• meet the needs of disabled people specifically - these actions are called reasonable adjustments and are covered under a separate specific duty in the Act

Finally, you can consider whether there are actions you could take when implementing your policy to alleviate disadvantage or under-representation, or meet the particular needs of those who share a protected characteristic. These are positive action measures.

We recommend ongoing engagement with people who are likely to be affected by your policy (read Step 4 above). This should help you to receive alternative views on:

• mitigating actions that you and others could put in place
• effective reasonable adjustments, and
• voluntary positive action measures

Produce your action, monitoring and reporting plans. These plans should cover:

• the mitigating actions, positive action measures and reasonable adjustments that you are planning to take, with their associated timescale
• the evidence that will be collected to monitor the actual impact of the policy, such as data on service uptake, user satisfaction and complaints
• when and how often your organisation will review and report on the actual impact of the policy

Lastly, if you were looking at several policy options, you should take all your considerations into account when choosing your preferred option.

You must present relevant information to your decision makers, such as ministers, board members or directors. They can then make an informed decision on whether to implement the policy. The decision maker should understand that the PSED legally requires policy to be made with sufficient consideration of its potential equality impact.

It may help you demonstrate how you have had due regard to the requirements of the PSED if you ensure decision makers have access to:

• your policy proposal, the policy options you have considered and your preferred option, where appropriate
• your equality consideration, including the evidence you have used to reach your conclusions
• any reasonable adjustments or actions you suggest should be taken to mitigate negative impact and maximise positive impact
• your actions, monitoring and reporting plans

Once a policy decision has been made, it is good practice to keep a record of:

• your equality considerations and how these have been factored into the decision making process alongside other types of consideration, for example, financial implications
• any agreed reasonable adjustments, positive action measures or mitigating actions to be implemented
• any monitoring and reporting plans

You must collect evidence to monitor whether your policy is actually having an impact on people with particular protected characteristics. You should also collect evidence to monitor whether the actions you took to mitigate negative impact or maximise positive impact have had the intended effect.

You should update your equality considerations according to:

• the evidence you gather on the actual impact of your policy, and
• the effects of the action you have taken to mitigate negative impact and maximise positive impact

Answer the questions listed in Step 5 and consider if the actual impact of the policy is what you expected.

Remember to consider the impact your policy might have on people who share more than one protected characteristic, for example, young Black men.

Remember to also think about the combined effect your policy (as discussed in Step 5).

Present your updated equality considerations and proposal to either continue, stop, or adapt the policy to your decision makers. A proposal to adapt the policy may involve new actions or reasonable adjustments to mitigate any negative impact your policy may have resulted in after being implemented.

If the evidence collected through monitoring the actual impact of your policy indicates that it may lead to risk of unlawful discrimination or other conduct prohibited by the Act, we recommend that you:

• act on this information promptly by escalating the risk of unlawful activity to your decision maker
• review and amend the policy accordingly to ensure it is legal

Record the updated decisions and consider publishing the results of your equality considerations. As the PSED is an ongoing duty, you must continue monitoring and recording the actual impact of the adapted policy or new mitigating actions (Steps 8, 9 and 10).

Publishing an updated version of your original equality impact considerations will also help you ensure:

• transparency
• accountability
• community and workforce trust

You might choose to make this part of the equality information that your organisation publishes each year to demonstrate its compliance with the PSED, in line with the PSED specific duty regulations in England.

For more information on the specific duties and what equality information to publish, read the Technical guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty: England.