Originally published here.

About this departmental advice

This is non-statutory advice from the Department for Education. It has been produced to help schools to understand how the Equality Act affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the Act. It has been updated to include information on same-sex marriage.

On 1 October 2010, the Equality Act 2010 replaced all existing equality legislation such as the Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act and Sex Discrimination Act. It has consolidated this legislation and also provides some changes that schools need to be aware of. Expiry/review date Current version dated May 2014.

This advice will next be reviewed before April 2016. Who is this advice for? This advice is for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies in maintained schools and academies but may also be useful for local authorities and parents.

Key points

· The Equality Act 2010 provides a single, consolidated source of discrimination law. It simplifies the law and it extends protection from discrimination in some areas.

· As far as schools are concerned, for the most part, the effect of the current law is the same as it has been in the past – meaning that schools cannot unlawfully discriminate against pupils because of their sex, race, disability, religion or belief or sexual orientation.

· The exceptions to the discrimination provisions for schools are all replicated in the current act – such as the content of the curriculum, collective worship and admissions to single sex schools and schools of a religious character.

· Schools that were already complying with previous equality legislation should not find major differences in what they need to do. However, there are some changes that will have an impact on schools as follows:

Protection in schools

Protection against discrimination is now extended to pupils who are pregnant or have recently given birth, or who are undergoing gender reassignment.

Health related questions for job applicants

It is now unlawful for employers to ask health-related questions of applicants before job offer, unless the questions are specifically related to an intrinsic function of the work. This means that schools should no longer, as a matter of course, require job applicants to complete a generic health questionnaire as part of the application procedure. There are potential implications in relation to establishing teachers’ fitness and ability to teach (as required by the Health Standards (England) Regulations 2003). Schools are advised to review their existing practices to ensure they are complying with both the Health Standards Regulations and Section 60 of the Equality Act. Schools may decide to ask necessary health questions after job offer. In any case, they should ensure that any health-related questions are targeted, necessary and relevant to the job applied for.

Positive Action

Positive Action provisions allow schools to target measures that are designed to alleviate disadvantages experienced by, or to meet the particular needs of, pupils with particular protected characteristics. Such measures will need to be a proportionate way of achieving the relevant aim. Previously a school providing – for example - special catch-up classes for Roma children or a project to engage specifically with alienated Asian boys might have been discriminating unlawfully by excluding children who didn’t belong to these groups.

Victimization

It is now unlawful to victimize a child for anything done in relation to the Act by their parent or sibling.

Auxiliary aids

The Act extends the reasonable adjustment duty to require schools to provide auxiliary aids and services to disabled pupils. Following consultation on implementation and approach, the duty came into force on 1 September 2012.

Equality duties

The three previous general and specific equality duties on schools (race, disability and gender) to eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity have been combined into a less bureaucratic and more outcome-focused duties covering an expanded number of protected characteristics. The general duty, public sector equality duty, is explained in chapter 5 of this advice. As is the lighter touch specific duty.

You can read the complete advice here.