Guidance

DAO equal opportunities monitoring process policy

Updated 17 November 2022

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dao-policies/equal-opportunities-monitoring-process-policy

Introduction

The Defence Awarding Organisation (DAO) monitors equality of opportunity and access to its qualifications through the following means:

  • consulting with user groups
  • unit and rule of combination development processes
  • reasonable adjustments/special considerations
  • collection of other forms of data that may impact equal opportunities.

Consulting with user groups

Where user group processes identify the need for new units and qualifications, the Business Co-ordinator will ensure that any equal opportunities and/or accessibility issues are taken into account by the Development Managers to identify potential barriers for access so that these may be taken forward to the unit and rule of combination development process and where possible, eliminated.

The DAO has many user groups that it regularly consults with and who provide valuable information regarding access to assessment, diversity and equality. These include:

Centres

  • centres can supply the organisation with information about barriers to assessment or potential barriers based on their experience of delivering qualifications to Learners.

Learners

  • learners themselves will be consulted during the periodic customer satisfaction survey regarding their experiences and any potential barriers to assessment.

Other organisations

  • DAO consults with other practitioners to ensure that any issues related to potential barriers to assessment can be identified.

Unit and rule of combination development processes

During the development of both units and rules of combination, the Development Manager for developing the unit and/or rule of combination will take into account any equal opportunities and/or accessibility issues for the unit/rule of combination and mitigate these where possible by ensuring that language is clear, free from any bias and appropriate to the unit/rule of combination.

Any potential barriers that cannot be mitigated should be presented to the Business Co-ordinator who will record these in the Reasonable Adjustments and Special Considerations Log as potential claims for reasonable adjustments and/or special considerations.

The log will be used as monitoring evidence and informs any potential revisions that need to be made to the unit and/or rule of combination development process to improve equality of opportunity and accessibility.   ##Reasonable adjustments/special considerations

The DAO will monitor all claims for reasonable adjustments/special considerations using the Reasonable Adjustments and Special Considerations Log. DAO will consider whether the amount and type of claims has a relationship to potential barriers to equality of opportunity and/or accessibility which could be resolved through amendments and revisions to: units and/or rules of combination, the format and structure of examinations and assessments, and the quality assurance of assessments and examinations.

If such a relationship is found, DAO will:

  • review process to re-develop the units and/or rule of combination accordingly
  • provide a report to the Responsible Officer proposing changes to the format and structure of assessments or to the quality assurance processes to ensure that identified barriers are minimised. On agreement by the Responsible Officer the proposed changes will be instituted within an appropriate timescale to cause minimum disruption to the assessment and awarding processes.

Records of such instances will be kept and reported in the Reasonable Adjustments and Special Considerations Log, and summarised within the DAO annual performance statement including the number of instances that has occurred and what action has been undertaken to mitigate them.

Collection of other forms of data that may impact equal opportunities

The DAO collates and reviews data on all learners (including age and gender) through the registration process which is monitored regularly to ensure that no groups are being disadvantaged or denied access. In addition, DAO collects data on disability through requests for reasonable adjustments and monitors these as described above.

Staff, who are outsourced, sign a formal contract which contains clauses that they must comply with the Equality Act 2010. Any member of staff or contractor found not complying with the Equality Act and/or DAO Equality of Opportunity Policy will be subject to disciplinary procedures.

The DAO monitors Centres on their compliance through External Quality Assurance visits ensuring Centre’s published equal opportunities policy is current and Centres treat all Learners fairly and that all Learners have fair access to assessment and are not discriminated against in any way. Any practitioner found not complying with the policy will be subject to suspected malpractice investigations as part of the Malpractice Policy.

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