Equality impact assessment (EIA) form: evidencing paying due regard to protected characteristics

(form updated June 2023)

North Yorkshire Adult Learning and Skills Service FE accountability Statement

If you would like this information in another language or format such as Braille, large print or audio, please contact the Communications Unit on 01609 53 2013 or email communications@northyorks.gov.uk.

Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents.  EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting.  To help people find completed EIAs, we also publish them in our website's Equality and Diversity section.  This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements. 

Name of Directorate and Service Area	Children and Young Peoples Service
Lead Officer and contact details	Paul Cliff paul.cliff@northyorks.gov.uk
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA	None
How will you pay due regard? for example, working group, individual officer	Individual Officer
When did the due regard process start?	12^th February 2024

Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about. (for example, are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)

To present the final version of the accountability statement as part of our statutory obligations to the Education Skills Funding Agency. This requires us to detail how we will spend our funding in line with national and local skills priorities

Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (for example, to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way.)

This is a statutory action and condition of funding.

The aim of the proposal is to gain approval for submission of the final version of the statement, failure to do so may result in funding delays that will impact our ability to deliver adult learning programmes. This will prevent us from delivering our core preventative work impacting council operations and preventing activity in line with ‘Adult learning and Skills engagement strategy’ consulted on in July 2022

Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?

There should be no impact on customers or staff this is an external requirement to present our strategy in a specific way.

Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)

This document is reflective of the approaches taken within the ‘Adult Learning and Skills Engagement Strategy’ and was widely publicly consulted on with a range of stakeholders with no impact on equality or huma rights identified. Its main impact being to increase access to learning.

Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?

There will be no impact on council funds as the service is fully grant funded, but failure to publish the agreement could result in suspension of this grant,

Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
Age		ü		Improved access to all age careers advice and guidance and an ability to reach out to a wider age demographic
Disability		ü		Improved engagement with community groups to identify programmes that will provide further employment and skills benefits
Sex		ü		Targeted work will be undertaken to widen demographic engagement, this will increase the potential rate of access from a broader gender demographic with females being currently much more likely to engage
Race		ü		Targeted work will be undertaken to widen demographic engagement, this will increase the potential rate of access from a broader race demographic with white females being currently much more likely to engage
Gender reassignment		ü		No specific actions around gender re-assignment but potential for work to be extended with this community, but approach does not have a negative impact in this area
Sexual orientation		ü		No specific actions around sexual orientation but potential for work to be extended with this community, but approach does not have a negative impact in this area
Religion or belief		ü		No specific impacts although changes to delivery modes may support greater access to those whose religious practices prevent current access
Pregnancy or maternity		ü		Improved arrangements for provision that may be more suitable for individuals with caring responsibilities, opening opportunities for on-demand learning
Marriage or civil partnership	ü			No specific Impacts

Section 7. How will this proposal affect people who…	No impact	Make things better	Make things worse	Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.
..live in a rural area?		ü		The plan details changes to the offer to enable access from rural settings much easier
…have a low income?		ü		The plan proposes further support for hardest to reach learners, particularly targeting those in low incomes for free courses
…are carers (unpaid family or friend)?		ü		Changes to provision to be support access to learning by development of on-demand, evening and blended provision
….. are from the Armed Forces Community		ü		The service has made a commitment to provide specific support for this group as part of the armed forces covenant

Section 8. Geographic impact – Please detail where the impact will be (please tick all that apply)
North Yorkshire wide	ü
Craven district	ü
Hambleton district	ü
Harrogate district	ü
Richmondshire district	ü
Ryedale district	ü
Scarborough district	ü
Selby district	ü
If you have ticked one or more districts, will specific town(s)/village(s) be particularly impacted? If so, please specify below.
Positive impact of increased learning opportunities in all areas.

Section 9. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (for example, older women or young gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information etc.

No combined impacts

Section 10. Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)	Tick option chosen
1. No adverse impact - no major change is needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified.	ü
2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people.
3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal - The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services)
4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal – The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped.
Explanation of why the option has been chosen (include any advice given by Legal Services.) Impacts will be positive for all groups,

Section 11. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)

The service conduct regular sessions with learners and communities, we are developing a strategy to work closely with Localities and economic development teams to engage wider and be able to set wider metrics n impact.

Section 12. Action plan. List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
Action	Lead	By when	Progress	Monitoring arrangements

Section 13. Summary Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.

The accountability statement is a statutory document but has been worded to offer clear parallels with the positive benefits of the adult learning and skills engagement strategy.

Section 14. Sign off section

This full EIA was completed by:

Name: Paul Cliff

Job title: Shared Head of Adult learning and Skills

Directorate: CYPS

Signature:

Completion date: 30^th May 2024

Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature):

Date: 6^th June 2024