The Effects of Equality Act 2010 on NHS Employment - Dissertation Example

The Effects of Equality Act 2010 on NHS Employment The equality act 2010 introduced in UK on 1 October 2010 comes with very particular regulations for organisations like NHS who work in the service industry. The aim of the act is to make the service industry staff treat every person alike without any discrimination based on race, disability or age. The act was a result of nearly 14 years of constant campaigning by various human rights organisations and NGOs who raised their voice in concern for equality in UK. The purpose of the law is to remove all discrimination against people based on certain protected characteristics. It ensures both the staff working for all the public sector companies as well as the customers who receive the service from the industries gets equal treatment without any discrimination whatsoever. According to the law refusing to help or appoint a person because they have a disability or they belong to a particular community is a crime. Delaying the help given to them because of such protected characteristics or treating them with contempt is totally unacceptable. Equality act 2010 all the public service organisations operating in the UK directly or indirectly. The company's have to reframe their customer service standards, change the method of complaint handling and pay more attention to employee related issues. Every company has to support a report ensuring there is no gender-based, race-based or disability-based discrimination in their office proving the same through statistical data (Briefing 74, 2010). NHS or National Health Service is a very famous trust providing health services for certain people in the UK. The trust handles nearly 9 million telephone calls a year and over 1.5 million website oriented requests. Over 3000 staff works with NHS answering the telephone calls, booking appointments and attending emergency cases (NHS Direct, 2011). People from different type of classes, races and financial background call NHS daily. NHS is the best organisation to monitor how the equality act 2010 affects the employment strategies of an organisation directly and indirectly. Before dwelling deep into the research methodology let us analyse the history of the Equality act 2010 in detail. The Equality act 2010 was framed after precise evaluation of various political and social circumstances. The team of experts analysed the historical basis on which the previous laws were formed and eliminated over 100 small classes and subsections to grow them all under one single act. Several notable pieces of antidiscrimination laws like Equal Pay Act 1970 The Sex Discrimination Act Drawn In 1975, Race Relations Act 1976, Disability Discrimination Act Of 1995, Employment Equality (Religion Or Belief) Regulations 2003, Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, Equality Act 2006, Part Two And Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 where all merged together under the Equality Act 2010 (Briefing 74, 2010). The government proposed such a major revision in the legislation because it believes even today many people face severe discrimination based on gender, race and religion. The government wants to help the children who are discriminated based on their social background. The proposal to such an act was made before a decade. The government decided to take a concerted action to create a better society without any discrimination only now. Some of the salient features of the Equality act 2010 are given below. Implementing an integrated perception of equality law controlled by a single body or committee and creating new ways to take effective actions against discrimination The law clearly states what the protected characteristics are and defines what will be termed as discrimination or harassment. It clearly defines the position of the victims as well as the convicts. Educating the authorities working in the public sector regarding their responsibilities and duty against discrimination and empowering them to take strategic decisions which allow them to create an equal society (NHS Direct, 2011) Is this act a perfect answer to all the discrimination related issues in the country? The Equal Rights Trust (ERT) represented by "moral and professional consensus among human rights and equality experts" feel there are still some vital gaps to be field between the way the act is enacted and the purpose behind framing it (Hepple, 2010). History of the Equality Act 2010 The very first generation of British legislation put 'formal equality' as its central vision. The scholars of the time noted that certain groups of the UK population are forced with have less in terms of everything not because they choose to, but because the other classes does not let them have the best (Abrams, 1982). There were plenty of Asians from the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the Caribbean countries working in UK by 1950's. They faced various discriminations in their workplace, salary and the procedures to acquire citizenship in the UK. The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 provided some sort of security to them as they set up committees to look into discrimination against immigrants. The first prominent act which was framed to eliminate inequality in UK was The Race Relations Act1965. The second generation legislation framed the Race Relations Act 1968. The committees set up by the previous acts, took up complaints which adhered to direct racial discrimination or insult only. But, these laws provided some equal rights in gaining good housing services, purchasing quality goods and demanding better services. The young generation of the UK might be surprised to know the African Americans were not allowed in most clubs and high class restaurants just before 50 years in their country. Similarly, access to high class hotels, resorts and clubhouses were strictly limited to the elite UK society. The immigrants and the other class people were not allowed to use such services no matter they were ready to pay or not. Even wealthy and educated immigrants like doctors and lawyers were not rented posh homes and allowed to own various other luxuries. The Race Relations Act 1968 was a result of long campaigning by various parties and human rights activists groups. It bought several such discriminations to an end in the country and opened up equal opportunities for the immigrants children (Hepple, 2010). The third generation of British legislation was highly gender oriented. Various feminist movements joined hand with trade unions demanding equal pay and opportunities in the work for women. The Equal Pay Act 1970 made it compulsory for every organization to pay their employees based on their educational qualification rather than gender or race. The act also sowed the seeds for equal opportunities in the workplace for both men and women. The laws which followed it strictly condemned promotions and other work related benefits being discriminated on gender or racial basis. Another prominent law which came into action during this time was Sex Discrimination Act 1975. Shortly known as SDA this act is wide known as the first one to transition "formal equality to substantive equality" (Hepple, 2010). A special committee called the Equal opportunities commission (EOC) was setup which undertook individual or collective discrimination based on gender. The Race Relations Act of 1796 and Disabled discrimination Act 1995 further extended the base of discrimination from gender to race and physical ability limits. Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) and Disability Rights Commission (DRC) were set up to act on complaints against racial discrimination and disability discrimination complaints respectively. The third generation of British legislation is considered as the most versatile and vital one in the nation’s history by far as they addressed all forms of discrimination. All the four prominent laws paved way for many other countries in the European Union to follow the same. These were the first set of laws to be based on the US legislation because it was the US which usually followed the European laws mostly. These laws paved way for a secure and dignified working community, empowered to safeguard itself with the help of legislature. Several women, ethnic minorities and the disabled people who were held up because of minor reasons came out to seek legal help only after these laws. These laws clearly defined no service providing company should ever discriminate against a person on behalf of their particular characteristic be it a disability, colour, race or gender (Hepple et al, 1997). The fourth generation of British legislation aimed in giving equal rights to alternate living styles and acknowledging different beliefs. The LGBT communities battling for the gay, lesbian rights, the Muslim minorities demanding their right to follow certain rituals which does not coincide with the British laws and demands against age discrimination were all addressed through the laws framed in this generation legislature. The most important legislative act of the era was the Article 13. It was drawn on the base of Treaty of Amsterdam and was instrumental in implementing many Race Directives (Council Directive, 2000). The Framework Employment Directive connected to Article 13 extended better protection against discrimination from religion or belief, gender, physical limitations and age. It clearly defined what is anti-discrimination and victimising is and framed rules about the basic rights every citizen is entitled to have in UK. Certain points or clauses in Article 13 EC were important for framing laws related to LGBT community’s rights in late 2007. Many laws in this legislation were drawn in the past decade and is still a matter of great public debate. This legislation makes substantial equality transform into comprehensive equality. The conservative group of the country still view these laws as a bad influence from the US. The Equality Act 2010 belongs to the fifth generation legislation. It aims in making extending equal rights to certain rival nationals like the people from Northern Ireland and promoting equal rights to Catholics as well as Protestants. Though these pacts might seem very simple, they are in direct conflict against some deep rooted beliefs on the nation. Hence the laws of this generation are known to be inducing transformative equality. Certain territories like Scotland and Northern Ireland are in constant clash with the UK government for one reason or another. On the other hand, several immigrants from these countries are working and trading with the UK. The first voice about fair treatment of Northern Ireland workers in the UK started to appear as early as 1989. Strong pleas to remove the quota system in employment stared to emerge. This actually proved beneficial to both the Catholics as well as the Protestants. The Northern Ireland Act 1998 declared discriminating Irish people and treating them indifferently a crime. But racial clashes prevailed still. The death of Stephen Lawrence a Black teenager exposed wide spread racism among the important departments like police (Macpherson, 1999) Required amendments in law to bring all public sector departments comply with anti-discriminatory laws to prevent racism were imposed after 2000 (Section 71 of the Race Relations, 2000) The SAD and the Disability act were modified in 2007 and 2005 to ensure both the disabled people and the women were also treated equally by all the public sector officials in the UK (0 Section 49A of the Disability Discrimination Act, 2005 & Equality Act 2006). The final and the recent one in this legislation is the Equality Act 2010. It has merged together all the previous acts which were drafted against inequality and discrimination presenting a single law which can be used for all types of unequal treatments meted out to the victims. For example, an Irish person calling an emergency service in NHS will have a very different accent than the normal UK people. The agent attending the call should not refrain from providing the necessary details to them or treat them with contempt because they are Irish. Oftentimes huge misunderstandings occur due to problem in language. This prevents the person calling the NHS office from receiving the required help they get or delay the help. The Equality Act 2010 strictly underlines the person responsible to help the callers should spare no effort to help them just because they have a different characteristic than others. If a disable person is denied entrance into a hall, restaurant or clubs, they can very well seek the help of the law. If any service industry denies providing a certain item just because the person demanding it belongs to a particular class or race, it is deemed unjust under the Equality Act 2010. The Equal Rights Act 2010 did not get implemented in a day. The calls regarding integrating all the discrimination laws started way back in 1997. Human rights activists working under Justice and the Runnymede Trust were the first to propose such plan under the Blair government (Hepple, 1997). The governments which follow felt there were other important matters the government had to concentrate on. The Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw spoke publicly about the same (Hepple, 2000). The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) started taking about it in 2007 with interest. Various bills were passed regarding such an act. In 2007, the Liberal Democrats actually published their views regarding such an act in Equalities Review (Department of Communities and Local Government, 2007). More than 4000 people and NGO's responded to the review. The Discrimination Law review which contained pacts for a single equality bill was (Department of Communities and Local Government, 2007) was finally proposed in the parliament in 2009 by Harriet Harman, the minister for Women and Equalities. Importance of Equality Act 2010 The long struggle for the implementation of the act was not vain. The most important use of the pact is that they will make the legal proceedings much easier for the immigrants or any person who is complaining against the discrimination. They will be able to understand their rights better in a very simplified form. They need not run from one committee to other wondering who will help them finally. Every discrimination complaint will be addressed by a single body in a swift way. Be it a racist comment or a sexual act degrading a person or simply a harsh comment on their sexual preference, they can call the law for their support easier than ever now without having to bear the bullying with tears. The Equality Act 2010 will ensure every person gets a fair life if they choose to fight for the same. Effects of the Equality Act 2010 on NHS The NHS or the National Health Service is an important public body in the UK which appoints over 3000 people. As a public service organization they are bound to follow the act in every possible way. They should educate their employees regarding what actions the law first. Then they are expected to change their policies and service structure as deemed fit by the law. Next they should implement the changes in the organization and submit a proof for the same to the government. The section 149 of the Act requires all the higher authorities in the organization to Draw plans which boost good relations among employees and remove any discrimination between them based on race, sex or disability. To draw plans which promote equality and fair opportunity to all the employees To restructure their service models to avoid victimisation even by mistake (NHS Direct, 2011) As a service providing organization NHS is in a vulnerable state to commit various mistakes against its employees as well as the customers. Any employee acting rudely or refusing to do everything in their power to help the caller can be tainted of being discriminating even though they do not have such motives in their heart. The best way to prevent it is to train the employees perfectly on the aftermath and the effects of such acts. Enhancing the employee welfare programs will also help them work in a peaceful way serving the customers better. Complaint cells should be given more power to handle the grievance of the customers in a much better way. The customer can be convinced they are not treated indifferently only after their concerns are resolved. An empathetic behaviour is what most of the callers to NHS will expect. The organization is keen on training their employees about the same. NHS being a public organization will be expected to make some core changes in its administration strategies (Briefing 74, 2010). They will be expected to develop flexible policies, evaluate them periodically and get unbiased review about them from the employees as well as the customers. They should be careful on providing good services to both the employers and the customers. There are several ways to do this from maintaining proper statistics to checking whether any race or gender is overrepresented or underrepresented in the statistics. NHS takes careful steps to follow the stringent laws carefully to avoid getting into problems. Here are some evaluations on the general way NHS dealt with discrimination earlier and the measures they have now taken to adhere to the Equality Act 2010. Setting up a Monitoring Team The NHS aims in creating an ambience which provides equal opportunities for all the diverse people working with them. An Equality and Diversity working group is established which meets with the Chairman on a quarterly basis. This monitoring committee is responsible for ensuring the implementation of Equality act 2010 in the organization. They have an annual plan which will be updated regularly based on their monitoring. The plan will be revised accordingly if necessary on a yearly basis. The main responsibilities of the group are To make the NHS authorities develop a comprehensive strategy that will make all their actions compliant to the Equality Act. To monitor whether the NHS implements the strategies effectively and help them by giving them necessary advice. To ensure every part of the NHS from service, consultation, contract and HR is covered under the same (Briefing 74, 2010) Age discrimination When a person falls sick, either they or any other person around them can call NHS. The data collected by NHS states age groups ranging from 0 to 5, people aged 17 - 30 as well as people aged above 81 use the service extensively rather than the other age groups. Naturally the callers for this age group will be their caretakers like parents or children aged 30 to 60. Nearly all the telephonic service industries receive high call volume from this age group only as they constitute more than 40% of the nation's population. (NHS Direct, 2011) NHS employees are well trained to answer their queries and deal with their unique requests. After the Implementation of the Equality Acts 2010 law, the employees were briefed specially on how to deal with people calling them who falls out of this category. For example, a child might call in emergency if its mother or brother is wounded. Similarly, an elderly person might call. The staffs are required to treat them as special people and give more time to their concerns than before. They are required to cross check whether their problem got resolved if they are transferred to some other department. The monitoring committee set up to ensure the implementation of the law also crosschecks the same to ensure no complaints about age discrimination occurs. NHS gives ample importance to training its staff on the various requirements of the Equality Act 2010. They make certain experts develop very good policies and procedures and provide training to the employees on preventing age and race discrimination. Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) should be done regularly to ensure the employees are well trained and know everything about the law and the strategy amendments made in their organization regarding the same. They are briefed about their specific roles to prevent age discrimination in the overall plan and how their growth parameters will get affected if they do not adhere to it strictly. Monthly meetings provide presentations on the progress and details about core issues related to the topic (NHS Direct, 2011, p23 -24). Disability discrimination More than 35% of the NHS callers have some sort of physical limits. They suffer from permanent or temporary mobility issues like paralysis, arthritis, stroke etc. NHS website had various facilities for them like websites with large fonts, text to speech conversion services and round the clock service. However, these facilities provided only limited help to the disabled people. NHS now has young, specially trained people to handle such calls. They are prompted to ask minimum questions to the patients and provide the best possible help. Their probing scripts are revised to make the disabled people move very little to collect required documents. They have also giving priority for such users in the call queue. The employees are kept informed if any person is punished for disability or race discrimination. They are asked to suggest measures to avoid such instances in future. An open debate about the discrimination committer’s plight and what prompted them to do it is conducted. Employees understanding about the topic are confirmed through small tests conducted after the presentations. All the details regarding the law and the strategies linked with it are available in the general website of the NHS. Any employee who has a doubt regarding their doubt in the issue can get a printout of it for reference. They are also free to contact the person next in authority for any clearance regarding their role or action. The employees are encouraged to contact the superiors before committing the action instead of contacting them after committing a mistake or a discrimination act (NHS Direct, 2011, pg- 25). Race discrimination Discrimination based on race is not prevalent in NHS. The organization takes proper measures to ensure there is no complaint against racial discrimination both at the service level as well as the employee level. At the customer level they aim in treating every person equal no matter what their accent sound like. A survey done among the most frequent user group of NHS states that mostly mixed ethnic users who constitute a very small percentage of the total population are their main callers. (NHS Direct, 2011) (NHS Direct, 2011) Most of these people speak, Irish, Punjabi, Urdu or have Caribbean accent. NHS has installed good interpreting services to people who are non-English speakers. The staffs handle most of the calls effectively as they are trained to understand various linguistics easily. But, they are asked to transform such calls to people with good language efficiency in those languages these days to avoid annoying the customers and make them feel at home. Care is taken to avoid any discrimination between the employees handing the other language calls and the normal calls. The institution promotes various mingling opportunities between the various working groups. Since mostly ethnic minorities and immigrants are appointed in the sections handling such language oriented calls, they are briefed about their rights and the benefits the company offers them regularly. Care is also taken to give equal promotions, and the monitoring committee overlooks whether the grievances from such employees are also handled with care (NHS Direct, 2011, p-30). The work of the monitoring team set up in NHS is necessary to ensure it does not get into any troubles with the law by mistake or by carelessness for racial discrimination as it might spoil their image among the general public. NHS staffs are not blamed for racial discrimination, but so claims all the other departments. It was not until the death of the black teenager the arrogance of racism prevailing in the police industry came out. Hence, strict monitoring is necessary to make sure a just society is crated which treats human being as an equal person. NHS has successfully incorporated the services of this monitoring group with various fields of operation to avoid any slightest acts resembling racial discrimination (NHS Direct, 2011). How NHS is affected? As an organization NHS has to spend more money and time on the topic. However, the training team which overlooks such issue will easily incorporate the necessary changes into the NHS schedule easily. They will make the staff understand anything and everything necessary regarding the issue through their monthly gatherings, periodical tests and team meetings conducted specifically for the same. NHS does not need to spend much monetarily but should put in a lot of effort and ensure every effort is documented to be presented before the monitoring committee and the government. Conclusion The effects of Equality Act 2010 will be mixed concerning any public service department. However, it will not have adverse effects on the NHS as the trust is already keen on providing a fair environment to all those who are considered with it. The act eliminates any small limitations for the ethnic minorities, aged people and the women to demand their equal rights. NHS had made it a point to simplify its strategies as much as possible for the benefit of all its employees. Though the effect on employment by the law in NHS is low, it will definitely create a more secure environment to work. References 1. Hepple, Bob. 2010. The New Single Equality Act in Britain. Retrieved from http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/bob%20hepple.pdf 2. 2008. Declaration of Principles on Equality. London: The Equal Rights Trust, p. 2. 3. Abrams, P. 1982. Historical Sociology Open Books, p. 15. 4. 2000. Council Directive 2000/43/EC. OJ L180/22 5. 2000. Council Directive 2000/78/EC. OJ L303/16 6. 2006. European Parliament and Council Directive 2006/54/EC 7. McCrudden, C., Muttarak, R., Hamill, H., Heath, A. 2009. Affirmative Action without Quotas in Northern Ireland”, Equal Rights Review, Volume 4, pp. 7-14. 8. Sir Macpherson, W. 1999. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: Report of an Inquiry. Stationary Office. 9. Section 71 of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. 10. Section 49A of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. 11. The public sector positive duties for gender were introduced by sections 84 and 85 of the Equality Act 2006 and came into force in 2007. 12. Hepple, B., Lester, A., Ellis, E., Rose, D., and Singh, R., Improving Equality Law: the Options, Justice and Runnymede Trust, 1997. 13. 2011. "NHS Direct". Equality Act 2010: Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) Publication of Information. Retrieved from http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/About/WhatIsNHSDirect/~/media/Files/AboutUsPDFs/Public_Sector_Equality_Duty-PSED-Publication_of_Information_NHSDirect.ashx 14. October 2010. "Briefing 74". Equality Act 2010: Employment Implications for the NHS. Retrieved from http://www.nhsemployers.org/Aboutus/Publications/Documents/The_Equality_Act_2010.pdf Read More