Equality Bill
by Philip
The Government are consulting on the Equality Bill until the end of September. The Bill will impact on everyone, particularly employers,so use the response form available here to have your say. Consultation can make a difference so if you feel you would like your views heard and ideas adopted, act now.
I will be reviewing the 9 parts of the Bill over a series of 9 posts. In part one there is a duty on public bodies to consider reducing social economic inequalities. This duty will operate at a strategic level rather than an operational level, eg: Public bodies could set a strategy to ensure that children from less well off areas have a chance of going to the “best” schools by ensuring that parents in those areas have access to resources to help navigate their way through complex admission arrangements.
This section appears to me an admission that in prioritising sex/sexual orientation and race equality, the government have overlooked class inequality. Overall this section’s impact on employers is minimal but I can see that it could be controversial.
In particular in considering say socio economic deprivation of children, which child is more deprived?:
Child A who is from a one income household earning below the national average whose parent or parents take a great interest in the child and attend school activities regularly and encourage participation in sport and other interests.
Child B who is from a dual, high income family, whose parents do not get in from work, after a long commute from London, until 8.00pm and who have little or no time to see their children in the week.
Most people would say Child B is more deprived, but local authorities and other public bodies will consider targeting resources at Child A.
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