Equality and Diversity

Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment

1. What is the Purpose of Impact Assessment?
The aim of Impact Assessment is simply to avoid policies, strategies or re-organisational proposals being introduced, with the best of intentions, which discriminate against one or more of the groups listed at 2 below. Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment is a specific legal duty for public bodies, as well as being common sense and good practice.

2. What Does Equality and Diversity comprise?
The Equality Act 2010 defined the nine “protected characteristics” as:

  • Race
  • Disability
  • Sexual orientation
  • Religion or belief
  • Age
  • Gender reassignment
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Sex (male or female)

A person has legal protection against discrimination arising from one or more of these protected characteristics.

3. The Fairer Scotland Duty
This came into force in Scotland from 1st April 2018 and places a legal duty on Health Boards to consider how they can reduce inequalities of health outcomes caused by socio-economic disadvantage, when making strategic decision. A Rapid Impact Assessment Checklist process as explained below, but more usually a Full EQIA is the best way to fulfil this duty. Impact Assessments which include consideration of the Fairer Scotland Duty are often called "Health Inequalities Impact Assessments" or HIIA.

4. Do we have to Impact Assessment all polices and strategies?
No. Health Boards and other public bodies can carry out an initial screening of policies or strategies to see if they require to be Equality and Diversity Impact Assessed. Policies or strategies which are for example, purely technical and which have no bearing on the performance of their equality duty, do not require to be Equality and Diversity Impact Assessed.

5. What is our process?
At the early draft stage in the production or updating of a policy, strategy or re-organisational proposal that applies NHS Shetland-wide, it must be Impact Assessed, using the prescribed methodology. The Impact Assessment is carried out by staff. The full Impact Assessment process is required when major policies, strategies or re-organisational proposals have multi-faceted options, which have multi-faceted solutions. This process requires the gathering of a great deal of supporting detailed information and in some instances, the commissioning of additional research. 

6. Other applications of the Impact Assessment methodology
The basic Impact Assessment methodology is flexible and with small adaptations, can be used for a variety of purposes, such as:

  1. Health Impact Assessment
    Using the same methodology, together with information on health needs assessment and projected benefits, the potential impact of different health strategies can be assessed. Fife and Lothian Health Boards developed this approach, it has been further developed by NHS Grampian and NHS Shetland.
  2. Budgetary Impact Assessment
    This approach enables the potential impact of different budgetary decisions to be assessed, so that any adverse effects can be minimised.

7. How is Impact Assessment compliance monitored?
Compliance is monitored by: the Equality and Human Rights Commission for Scotland, the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate, Healthcare Improvement Scotland; the Scottish Health Council and the Scottish Human Rights Commission. A number of Royal Colleges now require evidence of policies and strategies being Impact Assessed, when carrying out accreditation visits to a service.

By law, we must publish a list of our recent Impact Assessments on our website and make copies of any or all of the documentation available, upon request.