Using the Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) Toolkit

1. Using the Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) Toolkit Equality and Diversity Team Gartnavel Royal Hospital 1055 Great Western Road GLASGOW G12 0XH

2. Equality Impact Assessment This presentation explains: • what an EQIA is • the process of EQIA within NHSGGC • the role of the Equality and Diversity Team in supporting this process.

3. What is an EQIA? • EQIA is a legal requirement which identifies actions that are required to address discrimination and promote equality across all major equality groups. EQIA considers discrimination on the basis of “Gender, Ethnicity, Disability, Sexual Orientation, Religion and Belief, Age, Socioeconomic Status, Additional marginalisation”

4. Why conduct an EQIA? In addition to legislative requirements, an EQIA can • Help drive out inequalities in health; • Develop equitable services; • Improve the quality of your service by identifying gaps and barriers; • Stimulate new ways of thinking and ways in which services can be delivered; • Target finite resources more effectively; • Help develop inclusive policies and procedures.

5. What needs to be EQIA’d There are a number of areas which can be EQIA’d including: • Frontline services • Strategies • Development Plans • Service Specifications • New services The E and D Team have produced a checklist that can help you prioritise what should be EQIA’d within your service area/ organisation.

6. Who is responsible for EQIA? • EQIA is a devolved responsibility. }CEO} Directors} Equality Leads} • In most cases the person(s) leading/managing the service will be responsible for the EQIA in that area. This person would have detailed knowledge about their service area. • In the EQIA toolkit, they are referred to as the “Lead Reviewer” • The “Lead Reviewer” will review the EQIA will also monitor progress against agreed actions

7. Who else needs to be involved • The lead reviewer will: • need to bring together a team of people which can give various perspectives on the service/ policy/ strategy; this can be a pre-existing group • need to liaise with appropriate Equality Leads for support/ advise/ guidance on the EQIA; • need to consider whether additional supports are required, e,g. facilitators for the day.

8. Example • An authority’s Social Services Department has decided to impact assess all of its services for children and families over the next 18 months. They are considering how best to cater for the growing need for services from the growing number of refugees settling permanently into the area. The team for reviewing these services has been selected by the Assistant Director and will include: • Service Manager, Fostering and adoptions • Team leader, Children Looked After • Human Resources Officer, Social Worker • After care support adviser • A community representative from the BME community or refugee forum • A manager from Barnardo’s as a critical friend

9. Process of Completion • From your local service area, identify good practice. This can include: • Diversity Monitoring of patients; • Ongoing consultations with marginalised groups; • CPD/Learning and Education opportunities for staff; • Accessible Information; • Loop systems to support communication with Hard of Hearing; • Others.

10. Identify Negative Impacts There is also a need to identify negative impact. There are two types of negative impact. Primarily these are known gaps e.g. • Services aren’t equally accessed by men/women/ minority ethnic groups • Information about services not available in different formats/ language that people understand

11. Additional Negative Impact • There is also additional negative impact. This is where something that is proposed or currently practiced could disadvantage some or more equality groups • E.g. A hospital regularly holds consultation events/ board meetings in a building with no induction loop facilities. This would have a negative or adverse impact on some attendees with a hearing impairment.

12. Recording Actions • From the discussion at your EQIA session, you will need to record two types of action • Cross cutting (actions that cut across all diversity/ inequality strands) • Specific (actions relating to one equality group)

13. Actions • Cross Cutting • Improve diversity monitoring of patients (gender, age, race, language, sexual orientation, religion) • Improve PFPI/ engagement processes

14. Actions • Specific actions • Installation of Loop Systems • Provision of halal meals • For more detailed actions relating to each equality group, please access our factsheets.

15. Completion • The Lead Reviewer must • Collate feedback from the group • Write up the EQIA report with appropriate timescales and responsibilities • Circulate for additional comments and amend as necessary • Sign off document and send to the Corporate Inequalities Team • Keep the EQIA under the review

16. How The Equality and Diversity Team Can Support You • Checklist • The EQIA checklist allows you to prioritise where an EQIA will have the biggest impact on the promotion of equality. • Factsheets • There is additional guidance on each Diversity Strand that identifies good practice in relation to service delivery. This can help you identify what equality areas you currently address and importantly where you need to improve.

17. How The Equality and Diversity Team Can Support You • Monitoring • We monitor the number of proposed, current and completed EQIA’s across NHSGGC. We can identify common actions across the system to prevent duplication. • Presentations • We can arrange presentations or one to one meetings to answer any questions you have about EQIA

18. How The Equality and Diversity Team Can Support You • Good Practice • We can identify and share good practice across the NHSGGC system in relation to EQIA and wider Equality and Diversity issues. • Negative Impact • We can support you to identify examples of negative impact of proposed services/policies

19. Support For further help and guidance, please contact: Imran Shariff 0141 211 3598 Imran.shariff@ggc.scot.nhs.uk www.equality.scot.nhs.uk