Equality Act 2010

On 8 April 2010 the Equality Bill received Royal Assent and became the Equality Act and the new Public Sector Equality Duties with the combined discrimination provision came into force in April 2011. The purpose of the Equality Act is to consolidate existing discrimination legislation and contains new measures, which are intended to strengthen protection against discrimination.

The protected characteristics in the Public Sector Equality Duty as listed in the Equality Act are:

1. Age
2. Disability
3. Gender reassignment
4. Pregnancy and maternity
5. Race
6. Religion and belief
7. Sex (Gender)
8. Sexual orientation
9. Marriage and Civil Partnership

Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust is committed to ensuring that all members of our staff and patients from diverse communities are treated with dignity and respect and have access to employment and high quality patient care.

We believe that the new Equality Act will enable us to further realise that ambition and develop practices and services which will deliver positive outcomes relevant to individual and community needs.

To this end over the next 12 to 18 months we will be embarking on a programme of activities to engage with all sections of the community to find out how you think we can progress Equality and Diversity within the Trust and the wider community.

We will be holding a series of engagement events where you will be able to come along and discuss what you believe are issues that we might want to focus on, thus helping us set our Equality Objectives for the 3 to 4 years.

If you wish to participate in any of these activities details will be made available on this web page, as well as through other communication channels in the Trust.

We do hope that you will take the opportunity to engage with us and shape a positive future for patients, staff and other stakeholders.

Our progress so far is detailed in our “Single Equality Scheme Action Plan Up-date – January – December 2010”.

We actively seek feedback on our Single Equality Scheme 2007-10. Please click on the links below for a copy of the Scheme and for the Feedback Form which indicates where to send your comments.