The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), part of the Equality Act, came into force in April 2011. It requires organisations to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations.  The duty has a key role to play in making sure that fairness is at the heart of public bodies’ work and that public services meet the needs of different groups. It covers a range of public bodies, including academies, schools, NHS organisations, government departments, local authorities, and police authorities.

As a Trust (and the employer) we are committed to adopting the aims of the PSED across our academies by demonstrating consideration of equality issues and evidencing how we:

• act as an employer
• develop, evaluate and review policy
• design, deliver and evaluate services
• commission and procure from others.

We strive to fulfil our duties under the Equality Act 2010 to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations in relation to age (as appropriate), disability, ethnicity, gender (including gender reassignment), pregnancy and maternity, religion and belief, marriage and civil partnership and sexual orientation.

The foundations of the Duty The Public Sector Equality Duty came into force in April 2011 (s.149 of the Equality Act 2010) and public authorities are required, in carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to achieve the objectives set out under s149 of the Equality Act 2010 to:

• eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010;
• advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
• foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

To ensure transparency, and to assist in the performance of this duty, the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 requires public authorities to publish:

1. Equality objectives, at least every four years (from 6th April 2012)

2. Information to demonstrate their compliance with the public sector equality duty (from 31st January 2012)

Information on how our academies are meeting the PSED objectives can be found here: