Corporate report

DH public sector equality duty compliance: 2015

Published 29 January 2016

© Crown copyright 2016

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dh-public-sector-equality-duty-compliance-2015/meeting-the-public-sector-equality-duty-in-2015

Meeting public sector equality duty

The Department of Health helps people stay in good health and live independent lives. We lead, shape and fund health and care in England, making sure people have the support, care and treatment they need, with the compassion, respect and dignity they deserve.

As steward of the health and care system, it is our job to ensure that the system as a whole delivers the best possible health and care outcomes for the people of England. We work with our partner organisations to develop policies that ensure that services continue to meet the expectations of patients, carers, users and the public regarding fairness, efficiency and quality.

Every year we publish information to demonstrate our compliance with the public sector equality duty (PSED) as required under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011. PSED is an important lever for ensuring that public bodies take account of equality when conducting their day-to-day work. When delivering their services and performing their functions, bodies subject to the PSED must have due regard to the need to:

  • eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Act
  • advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and people who do not share it
  • foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not share it

The protected characteristics covered by PSED are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage and civil partnership (only in respect of eliminating unlawful discrimination).

In line with the Specific Duties Regulations 2011, we must annually publish information relating to:

  • people who are affected by our policies and practices who share protected characteristics
  • our employees who share protected characteristics – this is published separately on the Equality and Diversity pages of the department’s website

The Regulations also require us to set equality objectives every 4 years. Our current set of equality objectives can be found on page 17 of Equality in DH 2014.

In addition to PSED, the legal duty for the Secretary of State to have regard to the need to reduce health inequalities, introduced in the Health and Social Care Act 2012, is a tool to achieve change and sits alongside similar duties placed on NHS England and clinical commissioning groups. Since the duty came into effect in April 2013, the focus has been on putting systems in place to drive action to reduce health inequalities in the short and long term.

The criteria that Secretary of State has set for assessing his and NHS England’s fulfilment of the duties to date have focused on making the need to reduce health inequalities a part of core business through appropriate governance, strategy, leadership, evidence, monitoring and partnership arrangements. This builds on earlier work to include the need to reduce health inequalities in the NHS Constitution, the NHS Mandate, Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies. The Secretary of State’s most recent assessment of its performance in meeting this duty can be found in our annual report and accounts.

Current assurance arrangements

DH introduced a new, outcomes based, Equality Assurance Framework in April 2013. This included the introduction of director level assurance leads (DLALs) across the department. We have subsequently strengthened the framework further through the introduction of deputy director level assurance leads, who work alongside DLALs, to ensure directorates are compliant with equalities legislation. DLALs meet with the senior responsible officer (SRO) for equality in DH on a quarterly basis to discuss any areas of concern. If necessary, issues can be escalated to the DH Executive Committee.

DLALs are responsible for assuring the SRO for equality in DH, that they are capturing evidence of ongoing compliance and ensuring equality is embedded into their local business planning processes. A small central team continues to provide advice to support the work of assurance leads and policy teams across the department and detailed guidance is available on our intranet and as part of a policy certificate training module.

Through our sponsorship discussions with our arm’s length bodies we make sure that strong equality assurance arrangements are in place across the health and care system in England. Equality related risks and issues, which emerge during such discussions, are considered for inclusion in the overall departmental risk register and as part of triennial reviews.

The Spending Review

Along with other government departments, we undertook a review of the impact of the Spending Review on people sharing protected groups. This culminated in the HM Treasury’s publication Impact on equalities: analysis to accompany Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015. This document highlights that over the last parliament, the government protected spending on the NHS. The Spending Review and Autumn Statement went further, confirming that the NHS will receive £10 billion per annum more in real terms by financial year 2020 to 2021 than in financial year 2014 to 2015. This additional investment will support the NHS in England in delivering a 7 day service, improving access for all, including those who are more likely to use NHS services such as women, the elderly and people with disabilities.

The Spending Review will prioritise supporting public services that are disproportionately used by those with care needs, such as social care. A new social care precept, and additional funding for the Better Care Fund, will help ensure local authorities have access to the funds they need to increase social care spend in real terms by the end of the parliament. This will improve care for patients, including older people and those with disabilities.

Access to mental health services remains a government priority, and investment here benefits not only those with a disability, but also children, adolescents and older people, perinatal and postnatal women, LGBT groups and some ethnic minorities, all of whom are more likely to use mental health services than the general population. New investment to expand the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme over the next 5 years will therefore have a positive impact on individuals across a range of protected characteristics.

Community Pharmacy Review

We are consulting with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, pharmacy stakeholders and others, including patient representative groups, on proposals to make changes to the community pharmacy contractual framework for financial year 2016 to 2017 and beyond, linked to the Spending Review. This includes bringing pharmacy more closely into the wider primary care and community health system, by introducing a Pharmacy Integration Fund to help transform how pharmacists and community pharmacy will operate in the NHS, bringing clear benefits to patients and the public.

Community pharmacy also has to play its part in delivering the efficiencies required by the government’s Spending Review and to support the need for greater efficiency and productivity – as outlined in the Five Year Forward View. This will involve reductions in NHS funding for community pharmacies in England, but funding remains significant in a period when the NHS and public services have to become more efficient. The government believes those efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without comprising the quality of services or public access to them.

The proposals seek to make sure those community pharmacies, upon which people depend, continue to thrive. The department is discussing the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which is expected to mitigate the impact of any pharmacy closures for people with or without protected characteristics, so that patient and public access should not be materially affected.

The process for developing proposals and reaching decisions will take into account the need to iterate and provide a fuller assessment of the impact on the PSEDs, as well as the other Secretary of State duties. This will involve a collaborative approach, engaging with stakeholders, including discussions with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the body recognised by the Secretary State for Health as representing pharmacy contractors.

Equality analyses published in 2015

We publish equality analyses for major decisions that are likely to have a significant impact on people sharing protected characteristics. Equality analyses published in 2015:

Requesting further information

If you would like to find out more about how we meet our equality duties, please make a request using the contact form or write to us at:

Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries Unit
Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London, SW1A 2NS

You can also contact us on:

Telephone: 020 7210 4850

Fax: 0115 902 3202

Textphone: 0207 451 7965

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