What is the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)?

The PSED was introduced by the Equality Act 2010 and applies to all schools, including maintained and independent schools, academies, maintained nursery schools, and maintained and non-maintained special schools.

At St Laurence Church Junior School, we welcome our duties under the Equality Act 2010.  The school’s general duties, with regards to the three main elements of the PSED are:

• Eliminating discrimination and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
• Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
• Fostering good relations across all characteristics – between people who do share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it

What are protected characteristics?

The PSED identifies the following protected characteristics:

• Sex
• Race
• Age
• Disability
• Religion or belief
• Sexual orientation
• Gender reassignment
• Pregnancy or maternity

St Laurence Church Junior School aims to promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social, emotional and cultural development, with emphasis on promoting equality, diversity and eradicating prejudicial incidents for pupils and staff.  Our school is committed to not only, eliminating discrimination, but also increasing understanding and appreciation for diversity.

Due Regard

Paragraph 5.4 of the DfE’s advice says that ‘due regard’ has been defined in case law and means giving “relevant and proportionate consideration to the duty”.

For schools, this means:

• Decision makers must be aware of the duty to have due regard when making a decision or taking an action, and must assess whether it may have implications for people with particular protected characteristics
• Schools should consider equality implications before and at the time that they develop policy and take decisions, not as an afterthought, and they need to keep them under review on a continuing basis
• The PSED has to be integrated into the carrying out of the school’s functions, and the analysis necessary to comply with the duty has to be carried out seriously, rigorously and with an open mind.

Specific Duties

The PSED introduces secondary legislation in the form of specific duties. The duties require schools to:

• Publish information to demonstrate how they are complying with the PSED. This information must include, in particular, information relating to people who share a protected characteristic
• Prepare and publish equality objectives

Schools are required to update this published information at least annually and to publish objectives at least once every four years.

Aims to eliminate discrimination

• At St Laurence Church Junior School our school vision and values include the importance of community. We expect all our staff to treat all members of the community, both inside and outside school, with respect and without discrimination.

• We are committed to having a broad and balanced curriculum which gives children the opportunities to be exposed to ideas and concepts that may challenge their understanding to help ensure pupils learn to become more accepting and inclusive of others.  Our PSHE and RE curriculums, collective worship and special assemblies which celebrate events in the national calendar allow children to discuss equalities and British Values, while encouraging compassion and open-mindedness.

• Through our school Pupil Progress Meetings, identify the progress and attainment of groups of learners ensuring that barriers to learning are identified and making adjustments in teaching to address these.  This data is shared with governors.

• The governing board and those involved in recruitment will ensure monitoring of diversity and equality during appointments and the appointments processing.  They will be mindful and avoid all aspects of unlawful discrimination in all aspects of appointments including promotion, pay and benefits, opportunities for training and selection for redundancy.

• School policies reflect the expectation that discrimination is not tolerated and disciplinary procedures are non-prejudicial.

To find out more, please see our Equality Information and Objectives on our Policies Page.  Supporting information can be found in our Relationships and Behaviour Policy, Antibullying Policy, Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, SEND Policy and Accessibility Plan on our website.