Public Sector HR Podcast

After much anticipation, the new Equality Bill will be introduced in to Parliament as soon as it is ready this year. The Bill started off as a radical overhaul of all our discrimination law, but has got less ambitious as time has gone on. In this episode we find out more about the proposed Bill and its likely implications for the public sector, from respected experts in the areas of Equality and HR.

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Angela Mason OBE, is currently National Advisor for Equality and Diversity at the IDeA and if you look her up on Wikipedia, you’ll see she has spent over 30 years at the forefront of developing Equalities Policies in this country.

Although a lot of the detail is still unclear, Angela believes there are some interesting areas that will have a particular impact on public services and these are:

• A NEW GENERIC PUBLIC DUTY - all public bodies will have a duty to promote equality of opportunity and to end harassment in relation to all of the protected groups i.e. gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age

• EXTENTION OF PROTECTION ON THE GROUNDS OF AGE IN RELATION TO THE PROVISION OF GOODS, FACILITIES AND SERVICES - this will have an large impact on local government as they provide a lot of services for both younger and older people

• POSITIVE ACTION - this will extend the circumstances in which people can discriminate and the effect will be, that more serious thought will need to be given about using positive action to remedy the current imbalances

• PROCUREMENT - when procuring services or goods an organisation can ask various equality questions in order to encourage the suppliers to promote equality themselves. Anglea’s prediction for this is, that whatever way procurement is dealt with in the Bill, there will be more pressure on public bodies and local authorities to use their procurement powers to promote equality

• SIMPLICATION OF THE LAW - this will make the task easier for everyone e.g easier to write single codes of guidance

Angela believes that the parts of the Bill that will have the most impact for HR Teams are:

• PROPOSALS AROUND TRANSPARENCY - in relation to pay, for example employers will have to publish the average earnings of men and women

• SIMPLIFICATION OF THE LAW - a lot of technical inconsistencies will be ironed out

• POSITIVE ACTION - this will be a bit of an HR minefield, so try to gather some of the good practice and experience that is around

To get more information on the Bill go to the Government Equalities Office or Local Government Employers. To find out more about Angela’s work visit www.idea.gov.uk

Angela O’Connor is Chief People Officer at the National Police Improvement Agency and she believes that there will be a number of differences that the bill will make for HR. These include:

• BRINGING TOGETHER THE LEGISLATION COVERING DISCRIMINATION - which should mean greater transparency and strengthening of the requirement for public bodies to tackle discrimination through their purchasing function

• ENFORCEMENT TRBUNALS - will be able to make recommendations that impact on organisations rather than just on the individuals

• DECLUTTERING THE LAW - legislation will become simpler, more focused on outcomes and move away from the obsession with process

• PAY AUDITS - are a positive opportunity for the public sector to get it’s act together in terms of equalities and to make a difference

Some of the things HR teams need to consider in preparation for the introduction of the bill are:

• CLEAR ABOUT BASIC DATA - in terms of what you know about the make-up of the organisation, how they are paid. what they do and the activities they impact on

• LOOK AT TRENDS ANALYSIS - identify what the information means in terms of recruitment and progression

• UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN QUALIATIVE AND QUANTATIVE DATA - and use both in order to understand the journey that people make in the organisation as well as looking at the numbers

• LONG TERM PLANNING - don’t jump to the legistative tune, this is about sustainable, long term improvement so look at the 5, 7 and 10 years range

• LOOK AT ROLE MODELLING - the HR Community should be taking the lead and role modelling within their departments

• SHARE GOOD PRACTICE - there are great examples of public sector organisations already doing this brilliantly - do more sharing, stealing and borrowing

To play Angela’s quick video message, click in the middle of screen below.

To contact Angela or find out more about the NPIA, visit www.npia.police.uk

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