Colleagues

For any HEI considering publishing a 'race equality scheme' as opposed
to a 'race equality policy', the advice from the Commission for Racial
Equality below will be of interest.  The original question to the CRE is
also included below.

Regards

Tony O'Shea
Policy Officer for Equality and Diversity
The Open University
Tel. 01908 858073
Email. [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: info info [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 12 October 2006 10:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: re: Race Equality Policy

Dear Tony

Thank you for your e-mail to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). I
would like to apologise for the delay in responding to you.

The CRE would recommend that your race equality policy be called a race
equality policy and not a race equality scheme or be known as a race
equality policy within a race equality scheme. This is because a race
equality policy and a race equality scheme are two different things and
for an educational institution to call their race equality policy a
scheme would be confusing.

As well as the general statutory duty to promote race equality, certain
public authorities in England, Wales and Scotland are also bound by
specific duties.

One of these specific duties requires these bodies to prepare and
publish a race equality scheme (public authorities), or a race equality
policy (schools and institutions of further and higher education). The
purpose of this is to explain how they will meet both their general and
specific duties under section 71(1) of the Race Relations Act.

A race equality scheme  essentially packages the specific duties into a
coherent strategy and action plan. It should cover all relevant
functions and policies, bringing them within a single framework. 

A scheme must make clear how a public authority plans to meet both its
general and specific duties. It is a public document and public
authorities will be answerable to the public for delivering the
programme set out in the scheme. Ideally a scheme should summarise the
public authority's overall approach to racial equality and how this
links to its corporate aims and objectives.

A race equality policy  should set out how you intend to prevent racial
discrimination, promote equality of opportunity, and promote good race
relations across all areas of your activity. The policy should be part
of the planning arrangements you already make. It is a public document
and further and higher education institutions will be answerable to the
public for delivering the programme set out in the policy. 

The race equality policy essentially packages the specific duties into a
coherent strategy and action plan. It should cover all relevant
functions and policies, bringing them within a single framework. The
policy must make clear how a further and higher education institutions
intend to meet both its general and specific duties. Ideally a policy
should summarise the institution's approach to racial equality and how
this links to its corporate aims and objectives.

The policy should be a written statement of responsibilities and
commitments on how you intend to prevent racial discrimination, promote
equality of opportunity, and promote good race relations across all
areas of activity. The policy should be part of the planning
arrangements you already make.

I trust that the above information is of some assistance to you.

kind regards

Naila Noori
Information and Assistance Officer





>>> "A.F.OShea" <[log in to unmask]> 04/10/2006 10:56 >>>
Dear madam/sir

I would be grateful for some guidance on the following point.

As you are no doubt aware, public authorities are currently creating
disability equality schemes and gender equality schemes.

We are also at this time reviewing and rewriting our current race
equality policy.

As a higher education institution, the statutory code says that we
should create a 'race equality policy', however for consistency and to
improve communication, we are considering calling our next version of
the race equality policy, a 'race equality scheme'.

Do you foresee any difficulty in us referring to the policy as a scheme?

An alternative option is that we create a scheme with a policy contained
within it.

I would appreciate your view on this matter.

Thank you

Tony O'Shea 
Policy Officer for Equality and Diversity 
The Open University 
Tel. 01908 858073 
Email. [log in to unmask]