Equalities impact assessments (EIAs) are:
“assessments that public authorities often carry out prior to implementing policies, with a view to predicting their impact on equality. The Equality Act 2010 does not specifically require them to be carried out, although they are a way of facilitating and evidencing compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.” The Public Sector Equality Duty and Equality Impact Assessments – House of Commons.
It's the delivery officer’s responsibility to confirm whether an EIA has been considered. An EIA is needed when certain pupils may be particularly affected by the academy transfer.
For conversions projects, delivery officers (DOs) can check the Apply to become an academy form submission to see whether the school considered an EIA.
Confirming EIAs in transfers projects
For transfers projects, the transferring academy does not submit an online application. Therefore, the DO cannot confirm in our digital service whether an EIA has been considered.
We added a radio button question to allow DOs to confirm if an EIA has been considered:
We worded the question the same as it appears in conversions projects for consistency.
We added the transfers EIA question to the Benefits and risks section of the task list. This is consistent with conversions projects where the school’s answer to whether an EIA has been considered is pulled into the Risks and issues section of the task list.
Next steps
- Confirm who DOs would contact to confirm if an EIA has been considered.
- Learn from user research whether DOs know how to answer our EIA radio button question.