The EHRC, as the regulator of the equality duty, has announced plans to review public sector websites in February 2012 to evaluate the approach that is being taken to comply with the duty to publish equality information. The Commission will be particularly interested in looking at:
- How easy it is to find the equality information and whether it is also easy to understand.
- How comprehensive the equality information is, with regard to its potential and actual service users as well as its employees.
- Whether public bodies have identified what their information gaps are and whether they have clear plans to address them.
- Whether public bodies have published any information to demonstrate how they have used their equality data to inform decision-making.
The EHRC will publish its evaluation criteria in January and is hoping to produce a report of findings by the end of March 2012. The report will seek to identify examples of particularly helpful approaches as well as potential trends and differences between sectors and/or regional variations in England.
Public bodies, including NHS organisations, have until 31 January 2012 to publish information to demonstrate compliance with the public sector equality duty. Advice on how to meet the equality duty is included in Equality information and the equality duty: A guide for public authorities which is available to download from the EHRC website. The guide was updated in December 2011 to reflect the final version of the specific duty regulations.
NHS Employers has also produced guidance to help NHS organisations with the public sector equality duty and the wider requirements of the Equality Act 2010.