INCLUSION POLICIES: LEGAL FRAMEWORKS AND EVALUATION

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INCLUSION POLICIES LEGAL FRAMEWORKS AND
EVALUATION

• INFORMATION SOCIAL EXCLUSIONModule code
  SM1061N Lecture 5 4 March, 2008
• Maykel Perez

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OBJECTIVES

• Examine the legal frameworks for inclusion
  policies.
• Discuss general aspects of inclusion policy
  evaluation

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UMBRELLA FRAMEWORKS FOR INCLUSION POLICY

• Human Rights Act 1998
• Equal Pay Act 1970
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Race Relations Act (1976 2000)
• Local Government Act 1988
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995

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HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998

• Article 9 Freedom of conscience declares that
  everyone has the right to
• freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
• Freedom to manifest religion or belief in
  worship, teaching, practice and observance.
• Freedom of conscience rights only subject to
  limitation in the interest of public safety,
  public order, health or morals, or the protection
  of rights and freedoms of others

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HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998

• Article 9 translates into specific regulations.
  Employment regulations, for instance
• Employment Equality (Religion or belief)
  Regulations (2nd December 2003) made unlawful to
  discriminate against workers because of religion
  or similar belief.
• Applies to vocational training and employment,
  including recruitment, terms and conditions,
  promotions, transfers, dismissals and training

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HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998
Employment Equality (Religion or belief)
Regulations (2nd December 2003)

• MAKES UNLAWFUL
• Treat anyone less favourably because of religion
  or belief
• Victimise someone because they have made or
  intend to make a complain or allegation of
  discrimination on the ground of religion
• Discriminate or harass someone after the work
  relationship has ended.
• There may be circumstances where people most
  comply with the belief ethos of the organisation

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HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998
ARTICLE 14 DISCRIMINATION

• Enjoyment of rights and freedoms set forth in the
  Human Rights Act most be secured without
  discrimination on the grounds of

• Religion
• Political opinion
• National or social origin
• Association with a national minority

• Sex
• Race
• Colour
• Language

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Equal Pay Act 1970

• Makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate
  between men and women in terms of their pay and
  conditions
• Payment most be the same where
• Work that is the same
• Work rated as equivalent
• Work of equal value

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Equal Pay Act 1970

• Men and Women have the right to equality in terms
  of contract of employment.
• It covers terms and conditions such as
• Output and bonus payments
• Holidays and sick leave
• Redundancy payments
• Travel concessions
• Employers pension contribution, etc.

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Sex Discrimination Act 1975

• Makes unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of
  sex.
• Sex discrimination is not allowed in employment,
  education, advertising or when providing goods,
  services, and facilities
• Applies to direct discrimination
• And Indirect discrimination setting unreasonable
  conditions that appear to apply to everyone, but
  in fact discriminate against one sex

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Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment)
Regulations

• Came into force in 1999
• Makes it illegal to discriminate against
  transsexuals

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Employment Equality (sexual orientation)
Regulations

• New concept included in the sex equality debate
  (sexual orientation)
• Came into force 1st December 2003
• Means that lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are
  entitled to protection from harassment and
  discrimination

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Employment Equality (sexual orientation)
Regulations

• Employers face legal claims from staff who
• Have been treated less favourably in, for
  example, recruitment, promotion, training or
  dismissal, than others on the grounds of sexual
  orientation.
• Are disadvantaged as a group by workplace
  practice and policy because of their sexual
  orientation, for instance, they fail to qualify
  for certain benefits
• Have been offended, either intentionally or
  unwittingly, by homophobic actions or comments
• The Guardian Most gay teachers suffer abuse,
  poll finds
• http//education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1
  776991,00.html

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Race Relations Act (1976 2000)

• Outlaws discriminating against anyone because of
  their race, colour, nationality (including
  citizenship), ethnic or national origins.
• Applies to
• Jobs and training
• Housing
• Education
• Providing goods, facilities and services

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Race Relations Act (1976 2000)

• Employers are bound by law to prevent
  discrimination in
• Recruitment and appointment
• Terms of employment
• Access to opportunities for training
• Access to benefits, facilities and services
• Discipline and dismissal

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Race Relations Act (1976 2000)

• The Race Relations Act is supported by codes of
  practice that the former Commission for Racial
  Equality (CRE) publish.
• http//www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/Pages/defaul
  t.aspx
• It was amended in 2000 to widen and strengthen
  anti discrimination provision
• The Local Government Act 1988 allows authorities
  to consider race relations matters in the
  recruitment process as selection criteria
  (positive discrimination)

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Disability Discrimination Act 1995

• DISABILITY
• A physical or mental impairment which has a
  substantial and long term effect on a persons
  ability to carry out normal day to day activities
• It is against the law to discriminate against a
  person, or treat less favourably than another
  person, for a reason that relates to disability.

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Disability Discrimination Act 1995

• This include people with
• Mobility, visual or hearing difficulties
• Heart disease
• Disfigurement
• Difficulty speaking
• Diabetes
• Epilepsy or mental illness
• Progressive conditions (e.g. cancer, HIV)

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Disability Discrimination Act 1995

• There can also be discrimination if an employer
  or service fails to make reasonable adjustments
  or changes in relation to a disabled person
• Disabled toilet facilities
• Disabled access ramps, elevators, etc.
• Space for wheelchair users
• Etc.

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Disability Discrimination Act 1995

• This applies to
• Recruitment and training.
• When a disabled person applies to a job,
  employers most consider the changes they could
  make to the workplace, the cost of such changes,
  and decide what is reasonable.
• e.g. moving an office or workstation to the
  ground floor.

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Disability Discrimination Act 1995

• This applies also to
• Providing the same standard of service to all.
• It is illegal
• To refuse to serve someone who is disabled
• To offer a disabled person a service or lower
  standard than the service offered to other people
• To run a service or provide goods or facilities
  which makes it impossible or unreasonably
  difficult for a disabled person to use it.

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Employment Equality (Age) regulations

• Came into force on 1st October 2006
• Sets a default retirement age of 65
• Employers have the right to request working
  beyond a compulsory retirement age, which
  employers have a duty to consider
• Monitoring of the retirement age provisions
  becomes compulsory so that evidence is available
  for formal reviews.
• Allow employers to justify earlier retirement
  ages if they prove it to be appropriate and
  necessary

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Employment Equality (Age) regulations

• Allows differences of treatment based on a
  persons age.
• Applies to employment and vocational training.
• Direct or indirect age discrimination is
  prohibited, and all harassment and victimisation
  on grounds of age
• Removes upper limit for unfair dismissal and
  redundancy rights.
• Remove the age limits for Statutory Sick Pay,
  Maternity Pay, Paternity Pay. It applies to all.

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Evaluating Inclusion Policies in Organisation X

• TIP 1 Policy Evaluation is a constitutive part
  of the policy-making process. Therefore, it is
  very likely that the organisation of your choice
  already have a framework for monitoring and
  evaluating its inclusion or equal opportunity
  policy. Make enquiries on how such policy is
  evaluated.
• If no evaluation framework is set-up, then
  criticisms can start right there.

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Evaluating Inclusion Policies in Organisation X

• TIP 2 Identify policy outputs but also consider
  policy outcomes.
• Distinguish between POLICY OUTPUTS and POLICY
  OUTCOMES.
• Policy Outputs The things actually done by
  agencies in pursuance of policy decisions and
  statements
• Number of employers that belong to a certain
  category (disabled, from a given race, ethnic
  minority, religion, sexual orientation..)
• Changes made to services / products or facilities
  to cater for disability needs.
• Policy outcomes consequences, for society,
  intended or unintended, that stem from policy
  action or inaction.
• Excessive number of complaints or allegations of
  discrimination
• Problems persist despite legal provisions (e.g.
  female employees becoming mothers do slip down
  the career ladder)

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Evaluating Inclusion Policies in Organisation X

• Policy outputs do they make real changes or are
  merely symbolic policy outputs?
• Inclusion policies are categorised among the most
  difficult public policies to evaluate. They are
  sometimes called toothless tigers because they
  appear to promise more symbolically than their
  implementation actually yields. Is this the case?

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Evaluating Inclusion Policies in Organisation X

• TIP 3 You are already familiar with social
  exclusion definition, levels, dimensions,
  indicators. A fair question to ask in evaluating
  inclusion policies is whether their scope and
  reach covers at least key aspects of social
  exclusion. What aspects of social exclusion are
  omitted in the inclusion policy under evaluation?

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Evaluating Inclusion Policies in Organisation X

• TIP 4 Assess the impact of inclusion policies in
  all its levels if possible
• Impact on the public problem at which they are
  directed and the people involved.
• Effects on situations or groups other than those
  at which they are directed
• Impacts on future as well as current conditions
• The cost of policies
• Indirect benefits for the community

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POLICY IMPACT DIMENSIONS

• Impact on the problem and the people involved.
• Policy outputs and outcomes in relation to its
  original goals
• (e.g. Describe the outputs and outcomes of an
  Equal Opportunity Recruitment Policy)
• I

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POLICY IMPACT DIMENSIONS

• Effect on situations or groups other than those
  at which they are directed
• E.g.
• Implications of a positive discrimination policy
  for applicants that does not meet that criteria.
• How the working environment have changed as a
  result of having people from different categories
  working together (positive, negative, both ?)

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POLICY IMPACT DIMENSIONS

• Impact on future conditions
• The inclusion policy and strategies, are they a
  short term solution to the problems it aims to
  solve or can be viewed as long-range strategies
  to eradicate the source of the problem?

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POLICY IMPACT DIMENSIONS

• Cost of policies
• E.g. Inclusion policies that tackle disability.
  How much do they cost? How much does it cost to
  change facilities, services and products to cater
  for disabled peoples needs?

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POLICY IMPACT DIMENSIONS

• Indirect benefits of the policy
• Social Benefit. Very difficult to measure. E.g.
  Disability Provision.
• It may be costly in financial terms. But the
  social benefit of enforcing these kind of
  provision exceeds all financial consideration.

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SEMINAR WEEK 6

• Identify the inclusion policy you wish to
  evaluate.
• Describe its aims and scope
• What exclusion problems does it identifies and
  attempts to tackle?
• What social groups are the target beneficiaries?
• What is its reach? ( National, Local,
  Organisational?)
• What legal frameworks inform the chosen policy?
• Etc.
• Produce a preliminary evaluation framework. How
  do you plan to evaluate it?

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Discussion Topic

• Inclusion Policies Life changers or Toothless
  Tigers?
• Discuss whether inclusion policies or strategies
  you are familiar with make a real difference or
  have symbolic outputs