Why we do Equality Impact Assessments

An Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) is a process that helps us to evidence and understand the impacts that our decisions might have on different types of people, and improve them where we can. These decisions can relate to existing services, policies and functions, plans for future changes, and new projects.

We use Equality Impact Assessments to identify potential positive and negative impacts on protected groups and look at how we can improve the delivery of our services.

Equality Impact Assessments have been used in Stevenage for a number of years and are a really useful way of showing how we consider the needs of our diverse communities and staff.

The assessments help us to:

• Consider the differing needs of people in our community and workforce.
• Demonstrate to all of our stakeholders that we place great importance on meeting and understanding the needs of different residents and employees
• Ensure that decisions are made in a fair, transparent, and accountable way.
• Focus our activity on delivering positive outcomes for our communities instead of being process-driven.
• Meet our legislative requirements under the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty.

Every policy, strategy, project, and service requires an Equality Impact Assessment as it helps outline, address, and plan for decisions whilst considering the protected characteristics listed within the Equality Act 2010.

A few examples of our Equality Impact Assessments are as follows:

• The Overarching Budget EqIA for the ‘Final General Fund and Council Tax Setting 2022/23 and Capital Strategy 2021/22 – 2025/26’.
• The Allocations Policy EqIA.
• This year’s HRA Rent and Service Charges EqIA - HRA - Appendix D - Rent and Services Charges Setting EQIA 2024-25.