The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 introduced the new Public Sector Equality Duty designed to ensure that all public authorities consider the work that they do and how it impacts on all groups they provide services to, the people they employ, the partners they have partnership working with and those who they contract and procure services from.The Public Sector Equality Duty applies to all people with a Protected Characteristic(s).

These are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender Reassignment
• Pregnancy/Maternity
• Race/Ethnicity
• Religion/Belief
• Sex
• Sexual Orientation

The General Duty requires all public authorities in the exercise of their function to have due regard in the need to:

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act
• Advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who don’t share it
• Foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it

To enable NHS Forth Valley to comply with and meet its legal requirements of the General Duty, the Scottish Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commission introduced Specific Duties (May 2012) for all public authorities.

Public authorities subject to the specific equality duties are required to:

• report progress on mainstreaming the equality duty
• publish equality outcomes and report progress
• assess and review policies and practices
• gather and use employment information
• publish gender pay gap information
• publish statements on equal pay, etc
• consider award criteria and conditions in public procurement
• publish required information in a manner that is accessible

NHS Forth Valley has a duty to publish Gender Pay Gap information and our Equal Pay Statement every 4 years

We also have a duty to review and revise Gender Pay Gap Information every 2 years and publish this information.

To enable NHS Forth Valley to do this we have a duty to gather and use employment information to better perform the employment equality duty.  We are required to publish employment information, which is proportionate, flexible, outcome focused and operating within the public authorities existing systems and frameworks.

All Health Boards across NHS Scotland are required to produce and publish a Mainstreaming Report and Equality Outcomes every four years.

Workforce Equality Reports