Park Road
Academy Primary School
Pride, Respect, Achieve, Perform, Succeed
Equality & Accessibility
Promoting the Nine Protected Characteristics
The Equality Act became law in 2010. It covers everyone in Britain and protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Everyone in Britain is protected. This is because the Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. Under the Equality Act, there are nine Protected Characteristics:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Marriage or civil partnership
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
- Pregnancy and maternity
Under the Equality Act you are protected from discrimination:
- When you are in the workplace
- When you use public services like healthcare (for example, visiting your doctor or local hospital) or education (for example, at your school or college)
- When you use businesses and other organisations that provide services and goods (like shops, restaurants, and cinemas)
- When you use transport
- When you join a club or association (for example, your local tennis club)
- When you have contact with public bodies like your local council or government departments
The 9 Protected Characteristics are actively promoted in school through:
- Our school ethos statements, SDP, and SEF
- Our school core values
- Our school behaviour policy
- Conscious role modelling by all adults in the school community
- Active engagement and communication with parents and carers
- Assemblies
- British Values themes for a day, week and term
- Discussion within curriculum subjects, taking a cross-curricular approach
- Promoting articulation by building appropriate language and a coherent vocabulary
- Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) sessions
- Religious Education (RE) lessons, RSE lessons and Protected Characteristic talks
- Sporting, Art and Cultural Events
- Pupil Voice
- Educational visits
- Real-life learning outside the classroom
- Guest speakers
- Developing links with local, national and international communities
- Extra-curricular activities, after-school clubs, charity work and work within the local community
Embedding Protected Characteristics into the whole ethos of Park Road Academy promotes:
- Self-esteem, self-knowledge and self-confidence
- Respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic process
- Acceptance of responsibility for their own behaviour
- Respect for their own and other cultures
- Understanding of how they can contribute positively to school and home life and to the lives of those living and working in the locality and further afield
- An understanding of Equality, Human Rights and Protected Characteristics
- An understanding of how citizens can influence decision-making through the democratic process
- An appreciation that living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is essential for their wellbeing and safety
- An understanding that the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law
- An acceptance that other people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour
- An understanding of the importance of identifying and combating discrimination
Key Documents
Public Sector Equality Duty Statement 2023/24
1 Introduction
1.1 This document describes how the Governing Body of Park Road Academy Primary School intends to fulfil its responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty with regard to its workforce. The Equality Objectives will be part of the School Development Plan.
1.2 We will have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act;
- Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and
- Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it.
1.3 We will collect and use equality information to help us to:
- Identify key issues;
- Understand the impact of our policies, practices and decisions on people with different protected characteristics, and thereby plan them more effectively;
- Assess whether you are discriminating unlawfully when carrying out any of our functions;
- Identify what the key equality issues are for our organisation.
Assess performance
- Benchmark our performance and processes against those of similar organisations, nationally or locally.
Take action
- Consider taking steps to meet the needs of staff who share relevant protected characteristics;
- Identify if there are any actions we can take to avoid discrimination and harassment, advance equality of opportunity or foster good relations;
- Make informed decisions about policies and practices which are based on evidence about the impact of our activities on equality;
- Develop equality objectives to meet the specific duties;
- Have due regard to the aims of the general equality duty by ensuring that staff have appropriate information for decision-making.
1.4 We will work towards developing an equality profile of staff to help us to understand key equality issues in our workforce, including any evidence of pay gaps or ‘occupational segregation’ i.e. staff with certain protected characteristics being over-represented in particular roles, for example, women as cleaners, or at certain grades. In addition, we note that it is likely to be useful to collect and consider information, appropriately disaggregated, about:
- recruitment and promotion
- numbers of part-time and full-time staff
- pay and remuneration
- training
- return to work of women on maternity leave
- return to work of disabled employees following sick leave relating to their disability
- appraisals
- grievances (including about harassment)
- disciplinary action (including for harassment)
- dismissals and other reasons for leaving.
2 Publication of Equality Information
2.1 We will collect and use enough workforce information to effectively meet the general equality duty. Where relevant and proportionate we will publish on our website some information about the impact of our employment functions on people with the different protected characteristics in order to demonstrate compliance with the general equality duty.