What is the Thanet College Single Equality Scheme?
Thanet College strives to provide a working and learning culture which celebrates diversity and which recognises, tackles and eliminates all forms of discrimination.

The Single Equality Scheme (SES) describes how Thanet College intends to fulfil its legislative duties to promote and mainstream equal opportunities in all aspects of the organisation. This is Thanet College’s first SES ; it will bring together the current plans for the strands of race, disability and gender under one umbrella and will also demonstrate our intentions towards ensuring equality for the strands of sexual orientation, age, gender reassignment and religion and belief. It is a living document which demonstrates how the college is embedding equality and diversity in the college’s culture. As such, any new or ongoing actions related to equality and diversity will be incorporated in this scheme.

In creating a SES it is our intention to ensure that the objectives of the various strands are not diluted in any way and that emphasis is placed on embedding all strands fully and effectively. In essence the SES will act as a framework from which to improve the experience of staff, learners and other users of the college and to facilitate a holistic, quality approach to day-to-day delivery of the college’s objectives.

The key principles of the SES are as follows:

• Developing a working and learning culture where everyone is treated with respect and integrity and has opportunities to fulfil their potential
• Recognition and celebration of people’s differences (ethnicity, gender, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age, gender identity, disability, socio-economic status) and breaking down barriers which inhibit respect and understanding of those differences
• Developing a culture where consultation with stakeholders is key so that needs are proactively anticipated and fully meet the requirements of users
• Ensuring that equality is at the forefront when planning service delivery 
• Ensuring that all learners, staff and stakeholders understand that they have responsibilities to embed equality and diversity
• Creating a diverse learner and staff profile which reflects the local population

This SES will be effective from 1st December 2010 to 1st December 2013.

Why do we need a Single Equality Scheme?
The drive for creating a SES at Thanet College is threefold:

• Changes to equality legislation implemented in April 2010 mean that all equality strands are now covered under one piece of legislation; In addition, updates to Public Sector equality duties which are expected to come into force in April 2011, mean that having a SES which covers all the strands will ensure that the college is well placed to demonstrate its legislative commitments.
• Having a SES in place should make the embedding of equality clearer and help all stakeholders to understand and fulfill their commitments to equality and diversity.
• The SES will help to ensure that Thanet College places equality at the heart of everything it does; this means that equality will be integrated into organisational plans, the curriculum, our relationships with stakeholders, staff development and management and operational service delivery. In so doing, it will help to ensure that Thanet College is a competitive, business focused organisation that potential staff, learners and stakeholders want to engage with.

About Thanet College
Thanet College is a general further education college located in the east of Kent providing an extensive range of full, part-time, distance learning and community based courses for approximately 1,900 full-time and 6,100 part-time students . Most students are 16+ with the majority of full-time students in the 16-19 age group.  However there are a large number of mature students across the range of courses, particularly on higher education, part-time, evening, and corporate training courses.  The college, in partnership with local schools, also provides training for groups of 14-16 year olds who come to the college as part of their studies to take advantage of the specialist training and resources available.  

The primary focus for the college is to provide quality education for the 16-18 age group. Thanet College operates in an area that has high levels of social and economic deprivation. The unemployment rate is between 4% -6% higher than the national average and the area receives significant funding to assist its regeneration. At 16%, the college has the highest level of learners with disabilities in Kent and Medway and around 30% of learners in the college are at key and basic skills levels.

College vision and values
The organisation’s vision and values are integral to the embedding of equality and diversity.

The colleges vision is to:
‘raise aspirations, develop skills, deliver quality.’

The college’s values are:

• High performance and top quality in all that we do
• A culture of mutual respect and fairness
• Professionalism with a strong customer focus
• Celebrating the diversity of our learners and staff
• Inspiring and empowering all to achieve their potential

Legislation
There are three pieces of legislation central to the SES:

• Equality Act 2006 and the Equality Act 2010
• Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005
• The Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 (RR(A)A)
• Gender Equality Act

These laws impose positive duties on Thanet College, as a public body, to promote disability, race and gender equality in everything we do and to eliminate discrimination. Thanet College has also developed polices to cover obligations relating to age, sexuality and religion or belief as described in:

• Employment Equality (Age) Regulations) 2006
• Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003
• Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003

The college will bring these six strands together under one SES along with the duty related to gender identity. The objective of the SES is to apply the highest standards from each of the duties to all equalities groups.

Under the Gender Equality Act, public authorities are required to have due regard to

• eliminate discrimination and harassment that is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act and discrimination that is unlawful under the Equal Pay Act
• promote equality of opportunity between men and women

In addition, the legislation introduces specific duties which require us to 

• publish and produce an equality scheme identifying gender equality goals and action to meet them, in consultation with employers and stakeholders
• monitor and review progress
• review the scheme every three years
• develop, publish and regularly review an equal pay policy, including measures to address promotion, development and occupational segregation
• conduct and publish gender impact assessments of all legislation and major policy developments, and publish their criteria for conducting such impact assessments

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, public authorities are required to have due regard for the need to:

• promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people;
• eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Act
• eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disabilities;
• promote positive attitudes towards disabled people;
• encourage participation by disabled people in public life;
• take steps to take account of disabled people’s disabilities, even when that involves treating disabled people more favourably than others;

In addition, the legislation introduces specific duties which require us to

• produce a Disability Equality scheme and equality action plan;
• involve disabled people in the development of the DES and action plan;
• explain the method of assessing the impact of policies upon disabled people;
• explain how we will gather information on staff and student recruitment and progression;
• explain how we will publish the results of steps taken to achieve our plans within the DES and equality action plan on an annual basis
• ensure we carry out steps set out in our equality action plan ( unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so);
• fully review the DES every three years

The Race Relations Act 1976 makes it unlawful to discriminate against any person on the grounds of colour, race, nationality, or ethnic or national origins. The amendment introduces the general duty to

• eliminate unlawful racial discrimination
• promote equality of opportunity
• promote good relations between people of different races

In addition, the legislation introduces specific duties which require us to

• prepare and maintain a written statement of their race equality policy for promoting race equality and have arrangements in place for meeting their duties
• assess the impact of their policies (including the race equality policy) on students and staff from different racial groups
• monitor by racial group student admission and progress
• include in their written race equality policy arrangements for publishing the race equality policy and the results of assessments and monitoring

How the SES has been developed 
The SES has been developed via a steering group lead by the Deputy Principal. The steering group’s remit was as follows:

• Draft the core content of the SES
• Involve members of various communities of interest so that their priorities and concerns could be identified and translated into action planning
• Gather data for analysis and monitoring, to establish what different groups experience in terms of recruitment, retention and success in their career as a learner or member of staff
• Carry out an equality impact assessment on the single equality scheme, to establish whether existing and new policies, practices or procedures have a positive, negative or neutral impact on people of different communities, the aim being to eliminate negative impact and improve positive impact
• Produce an action plan with consultees 
• Create a communications strategy and publish and market the scheme to the college’s community and keep them informed of progress. 
• Support staff and learners in the ongoing implementation of the scheme and ensure compliance against the college’s public sector duties and development of ongoing activities to support the scheme.

How the Single Equality Scheme will be managed
 

• Thanet College’s existing policies in relation to gender (including gender identity), age, race, disability, sexual orientation and religion and belief will form the basis of the SES. The SES cannot be read without reference to these documents’ context. In addition, strengthened public sector duties relating to socio-economic status, pregnancy and maternity and protection for carers will be covered in the action plan.
• The action plan has been developed in consultation with stakeholders and represents their requirements. In addition, inputs from the Learner Voice, surveys, questionnaires, audits, complaints, compliments, data evaluation and impact assessments will contribute to the ongoing action plan.
• The SES action plan will be reviewed termly by the Equality Committee and a progress report will be presented to the Board of Governors. Actions will be SMART and assigned to named personnel to ensure accountability.
• The SES will be available on the college’s website, intranet, in hard copy and in a variety of formats.
• The SES will be reviewed formally every three years, or earlier if there are any changes in legislation which impact on the SES.
• Pertinent actions from the SES action plan will be incorporated in annual self assessments and quality review cycles. Where evidence shows that processes are not working and individuals are subject to actual or possible discrimination, the action plan will be updated accordingly

Who is responsible for the Single Equality Scheme?

The Board of Governors is responsible for ensuring that equality and diversity plays an integral role in the college’s strategic plans. Committing to the college’s statutory responsibilities in relation to equality legislation as an employer and service provider. Providing leadership on equality and diversity 

The Principal & Senior Management Team are responsible for leading on the development of a positive, inclusive ethos which challenges discriminatory attitudes and behaviour at all levels; role modeling the principles of the SES. Ensuring that processes are in place to support the college in the fulfillment of its legislative duties. Ensuring that equality and diversity awareness is a key element of staff training and development

The Equality Committee, is responsible for the co-ordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the SES and Single Equality Action Plan in collaboration with the Head of Human Resources and the Equality and Diversity Coordinator

Heads of Section are responsible for putting the scheme into practice and for ensuring that their staff understand and implement the associated actions. They are also responsible for ensuring that action is taken against staff or students who discriminate for reasons of any equality strand,
Teaching staff are responsible for ensuring that the content of their curriculum, teaching methods and materials, classroom values and assessments promote equality of opportunity and inclusive practice.

All employees are responsible for promoting an inclusive working environment, and for not discriminating against anyone on any basis. This will include taking up
training and learning opportunities that further this goal.

All learners are expected to ensure that their behaviour promotes positive relationships between people of all groups. Students should also refer to the College’s policy on Equal Opportunities and codes of conduct for students.

Report on Public Sector Duties