19th and 20th November 2012, Springfield House, Hackney

This training is part of a range of activity being delivered in response to discussions at the 2011/12 Shaping the Future: Race and racism in 21st century Britain seminar series. Participants will be supported to take action against the key inequalities facing children and young people highlighted at the Hackney seminar.

Only 14 places are available for Hackney groups whose work benefits children and young people, so please book quickly.

Day one: Getting your house in order
19th November 2012, Springfield House, Hackney

Day one will introduce the Equality Act 2010. Participants will gain an understanding of what types of behaviour and discrimination are unlawful, who is protected under the Equality Act 2010, and about important provisions that can help advance equality.

Participants will be introduced to the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and learn about how it impacts on public bodies and private and voluntary organisations in receipt of public money to deliver public functions. Participants will have the opportunity to review their own organisation’s policies and procedures and identify any changes needed in order to comply with the Equality Act 2010.

Day two: Holding public authorities to account using the Public Sector Equality Duty
20th November 2012, Springfield House, Hackney

During day two participants will learn how to use the Public Sector Equality Duty to advance race equality by holding public authorities to account. Participants will explore different methods of obtaining and using data to identify racial inequality faced by children, young people, for example in education. Participants will learn from previous instances where voluntary and community organisations have used the Equality Act to successfully hold public authorities to account. While the focus will be on children, young people and education, the principles on how to work with and hold public authorities to account are replicable across other areas of policy and service delivery.

Participants will receive ROTA’s detailed guide to the Equality Act 2010 and use it during the training course.

Background to the Equality Act 2010
The introduction of the Equality Act 2010 involved the most significant overhaul of equality legislation in more than 35 years. The Act: a) harmonises and simplifies previous anti-discrimination and equality laws; b) introduced new protections; c) clarified the law in important areas; and d) improved the framework for advancing equality of opportunity with new positive action measures and a new public sector equality duty.

It is important for voluntary and community organisations to understand and comply with the Act’s requirements. If your organisation does not comply with the Equality Act 2010, you may be failing funding or contractual requirements and be open to grievances, complaints or even legal challenge from employees and service users.

It is also important for voluntary and community organisations to know that public bodies are subject to the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and its Public Sector Equality Duty, which replaced the old Race Equality Duty, Disability Equality Duty and Gender Equality Duty. A number of voluntary and community organisations have successfully used these duties to promote equality for their beneficiaries.

To book a place please click here.

This training is being delivered by ROTA, Hackney CVS and the Hackney Community Empowerment Network.