SCIE media statement

Equality Act strengthens personalisation

07 April 2011

New resources from SCIE guide you through the Equality Act

Personalised care is strengthened as additional duties of the Equality Act 2010 come into effect from April 2011.

Two new resources help employers and staff to implement the continuation of the act. The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) have launched an At a glance briefing and an equality web hub. There’s also a SCIE opinion on the issue. The resources are being launched as part of SCIE’s focus on equality issues throughout April.

At a glance

The SCIE briefing examines the implications of the Equality Act for personalised adult social care. It provides information and advice for those who are providing adult services, giving real life examples of discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

SCIE director of adult services, David Walden, says:

The Equality Act provides a legal framework which can support personalisation in adult social care. This is about ensuring individuals receive services that are respectful, effective and accessible. It is essential that care providers from all sectors understand the implications for their work. But interpreting legislation can be challenging. SCIE’s new briefing for social care providers explains what the Act means for adult social care, and includes many examples of how to interpret the Act in practice.

Equality hub

The equality pages combines all of the SCIE publications and Social Care TV films that embrace equality issues. The Equality Act 2010 and personalisation summarises the key points of the Act and is available online. The briefing will be updated when the specific duties of the Act have been finalised later this summer.

SCIE resources on equality include:

• films about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who use social care services
• research on older people using personal budgets
• guidance on the spiritual needs of people with dementia
• briefing on Black and minority ethnic people’s access to dementia care.

The Equality Act 2010 relates to all providers of public services – statutory, private, voluntary or community organisations.

Equality opinion

The SCIE opinion, by SCIE’s Participation Support Manager, Michael Turner, talks about why SCIE must be your first point of call if you work in social care and want to know about equality legislation.

Policy context

The continuation of the Equalities Act 2010 comes into effect from 5 April 2011. This affects everyone working in, or delivering, public services and moves to streamline existing equalities legislation, supporting people who have ‘protected characteristics’ such as race, age and disability. The new Public Sector Equality Duty means public, private, voluntary and community sector organisations that provide public services will have to:

• remove / minimise disadvantages experienced by people due to their protected characteristics (see above)
• take steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people
• encourage people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.

Links

• Visit the Equality Act 2010 website
• See the latest opinion on equality
• Visit SCIE's Equality section.
• Read SCIE’s At a glance briefing on the Implications of the 2010 Equality Act

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