Rosie Seymour

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• Rosie Seymour
• EQUALITIES REVIEW
• All Party Parliamentary Disability Group
• 12 March 2007

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Definition of equality

• An equal society protects and promotes equal,
  real freedom and substantive opportunity to live
  in the ways people value and would choose, so
  that everyone can flourish.
• An equal society recognises peoples different
  needs, situations and goals and removes the
  barriers that limit what people can do and can
  be.

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In practice

• Institutions and organisations positively
  removing barriers to opportunities
• Recognise some people need to be treated
  differently to be treated fairly
• Genuine choice for the individual is better for
  society
• Narrowing the gaps by lifting those at the bottom
  not pulling down those at the top.

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Equality Scorecard

• Ten dimensions
• Longevity
• Security and safety
• Health
• Education
• Standard of living
• Work
• Individual and family life
• Participation and power
• Identity and self-respect
• Legal protection.

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Positioning the argument

• Fairness and freedom are core, popular values for
  British people
• Freedom from poverty, discrimination and
  disadvantage, but also freedom to be able to
  achieve the things that, individually, matter
  most to us
• Move debate away from perception of bureaucracy
  and legal restriction
• Positive vision for all of society as well as
  disadvantaged groups
• The case for equality economic, social and
  moral.

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The case for urgency

• Growing inequality in some areas
• Progress too slow in other areas
• New trends for the future we have to adapt now
• Greater equality means greater prosperity
• Promising context CEHR, single Equality Act,
  Comprehensive Spending Review.

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• Momentum measures education

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• Momentum measures employment

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Overall, rising attainment, but significant
attainment gaps for some groups
of each group achieving 5 or more GCSE passes
at grade A-C in 2006
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Selected Findings Employment - Mothers
Female employment gaps (compared with all men) by
the presence of children in the household
(log-odd statistics)

• Women with younger children have always had
  lower employment rates than women with older
  children
• Despite a narrowing of the gap over time mothers
  still experience a significant employment
  penalty.

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Selected Findings Employment - Disability
Employment penalties in 1991 and 2001 by
disability status in the two Censuses, log-odds
statistics

• Employment disadvantage is bigger for those who
  were disabled in both 1991 and 2001 than for
  those who were disabled in only one of the two
  periods
• For those disabled only in one period,
  employment disadvantage is more pronounced when
  the disability is present than when it is not
• Those who were disabled only in 2001 but not in
  1991, were also disadvantaged in 1991. So, those
  who become disabled are already in a circle of
  disadvantage before the onset of disability.

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Barriers to progress

• Outdated attitudes and complacency
• Continuing prejudice often subtle in operation
• Lack of consensus
• We need agreement about the goal but equality
  still treated as peripheral and perceived as
  bureaucratic/political correctness
• Uncertainty about responsibility
• Lack of accountability by leadership lack of
  representation among leadership lack of
  mechanisms for communities to demand change
• Inadequate tools for the job
• Unhelpful focus on process rather than outcomes
  limitations on the chance to apply balancing
  measures blunt enforcement options

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Steps to equality

• 1 Defining equality
• 2 Building a consensus on equality
• - as an urgent national priority
• 3 Measuring progress towards equality
• - adopting the framework of measurement and
  scorecard
• 4 Transparency about progress
• 5 Targeted action on persistent inequalities
• adopting specific measures service by service
  reconsidering how services are designed,
  organised and accessed empowering disadvantaged
  groups to take action to improve services
• implementing balancing measures to accelerate
  progress
• achieving attitudinal change

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Steps to equality

• 6 A simpler legal framework
• 7 More accountability for delivering equality
• - an Equalities Select Committee PSAs
  and impact assessment of the CSR embedding
  equality in performance regimes
• 8 Using public procurement and commissioning
  positively
• 9 Enabling and supporting organisations in all
  sectors
• - CEHR to convene a working group of
  advice-giving organisations allow organisations
  to apply balancing measures
• 10 A more sophisticated enforcement regime
• a) Transparency
• b) Explanation
• c) Inspection    
• d) Listing

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Outcomes from the report what would count as
success?

• Shared understanding
• Common framework of measurement
• Leaders taking direct and personal
  responsibility
• Focus on outcomes, not processes
• Equality embedded in public institutions
• A dynamic, systematic, evidence-based approach
• Transparency and availability of workforce data
• Focus on society to act against discrimination,
  not the individual victim
• Measurable progress.