Public Sector Equality Duty: guidance for schools

This guidance is for:

• governing bodies
• academy trust boards
• management committees for pupil referral units
• headteachers and staff at all state funded primary and secondary schools

It applies to:

• maintained schools
• state-funded faith schools
• special schools
• pupil referral units

Below you will find five obligations of the PSED you must meet as an education provider:

1. Have ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
2. Have ‘due regard’ to the need to advance equality of opportunity
3. Have ‘due regard’ to the need to foster good relations
4. Publish equality information
5. Publish equality objectives

The guidance on this page is non-statutory. This means that schools are not legally required to follow it, however it may help schools in England meet their their legal obligations. Whilst schools are not legally required to follow this guidance, it could be used as evidence in legal proceedings.

For the purposes of this guidance, we use two types of examples:

• case law examples are real legal cases which show what has happened to schools who have failed to meet the PSED. For cases settled in court, a link to the case’s judgement is also provided in this guidance; and
• good practice examples are scenarios we have created to demonstrate how schools can meet their PSED obligations.

This guidance does not cover how schools can meet the PSED as employers or when supplying or purchasing goods and services.

For that information, please refer to our other guidance:

• the essential guide to the Public Sector Equality Duty in England
• guidance on public sector procurement