Equality & Diversity Services

The Single Equality Act is legislation that streamlines and strengthens the existing legislation that is traditionally, gender race and disability. However the Government have brought new measures in to bring the UK up to date with a modern society. So we now look at a cross cutting relevant legislation that includes sexual orientation, ageism and religion and belief. The majority of this provision comes into force on the 1st October 2010. What this means is that there will be more harmonisation for what we refer to as equality strands.

The public sector will be affected by this and should already be putting strategies in place to deal with the Act, however the privater sector should be aware of the Act also, especially when tendering for the public sector. If you are a small to medium sized company for example that is considering public procurement then you will be expected to have your own Single Equalities Scheme in place.

At Equality and Diversity Services we have a suite of courses that are relevant to the needs of front line staff, middle management and senior management. The courses are customised and written by Equality and Diversity Services for the relevant sector and accredited by the NCFE. They range from levels 2-5. They specifically cover the main framework of the Single Equalities Act and legislation giving the learner the tools to then understand and implement their own robust Single Equalities Scheme. We give a consultation as part of the training to be more effective in equality and diversity and how to make the Single Equalities Act work for your own organisational needs.

At the moment in the North East there is limited funding available for training which is up to 100 per cent free for Small to Medium Sized companies- for more information please contact Equality and Diversity Services Ltd.