Equality, Diversity and Rights

In this assignment I am going to design a booklet explaining of how national initiatives promote anti-discriminatory practice.

I am going to explain an assessment of the influences of a recent national policy initiative promoting anti-discriminatory practice in health and social care settings. Then I am going to evaluate the success of a recent initiative in promoting anti-discriminatory practice. P4 I am going to write about 4 legislations, these are the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Age Discrimination Act 2006.Sex Discrimination Act 1975 is to protect men and women against discrimination or harassment on the grounds of their gender. This can include education, employment, facilities or goods. Discrimination against someone due to their sexual orientation is against the law.

If anyone feels that they are being discriminated against, they should then seek legal help. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which protects men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marriage.The Act concerned employment, training, education, harassment, the provision of goods and services, and the disposal of premises. Sex discrimination can arise in relation to: the arrangements made for deciding who should be offered employment such as short listing and interviews, the terms upon which employment is offered. Refusing or deliberately omitting to offer employment, the ways in which access to opportunities for promotion, transfer, and training or other benefits, facilities or services are offered, dismissal or any other detriment.Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 ensures that there are civil rights for people with disabilities and this act protects them from any harassment or any form of discrimination.

It encourages health organisations and authorities to overcome the barriers and make reasonable adjustments to ensure full accessibility. The DDA covers mental illness as well as physical conditions. It requires reasonable adjustments to be made in various areas, so that disabled people are not being discriminated against.The human Rights and Equality commissions assist that individual to up hold their rights as set out in the DDA. The Act covers all four main areas such as; transport, housing, education and employment.

Also it is unlawful under the DDA for an employer to treat a person with disabilities less favourably that someone else just because of their disability. The DDA provides a legal protection from any discrimination in employment, access to buildings or transport.Human Rights Act 1998 covers all of the Human Rights and ensures that all individuals have rights on their side and that they can take legal actions against any other individual or any organisation that disrespects their Human Rights; this includes the health and social care settings. This act came into force in England and Wales.

This enables children, young people and adults to seek protection of their rights both nationally and internationally through the European court of human rights.It gives people the power to challenge perceived discrimination by public bodies. As an employee within the health and social care sector you would have to be aware of the human rights issues. You would need to know how to report any incidents. This act looks at individual’s rights. It also ensures vulnerable people are being cared for, and have rights to protection and privacy.

Age Discrimination Act 2006, this act is an unlawful for employers and other individuals to discriminate a person because of his/her age.Age discrimination is when someone is being treated unfavourably because of their age. For example, people have argued that money would be better spent on drugs for younger people. Age discrimination is discriminating against individuals or groups because of their age. It is a set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values used to justify age based prejudice and discrimination.

An example of this Act would be an older person may be told that he/she is too old to engage in certain physical activities, like an informal game of basketball between friends and family.A younger person may be told they are too young to get a job. M2- Equality Act 2010 This Act is to consolidate the complicated and numerous of Acts and Regulations, which had formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in Britain. These include the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. It states that there is to be equal treatment in access to employment as well as private and public services, regardless of the protectedcharacteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

The Equality act aims to protect disabled people and prevent disability discrimination. This act provides legal rights for disabled people in these areas; education, employment, access to goods, transport and buying or renting land or property. The Equality Act also provides rights for people not to be directly discriminated against or harassed because they have an association with a disabled person.This can apply to a carer or parent of a disabled person.

In addition, people must not be directly discriminated against or harassed because they are wrongly perceived to be disabled. An example of this would be the sexual orientation, you should not give any less care to someone who of a different orientation to your preference just because of the way that they are. The equality act tells you that you should treat everybody equally because we should all be treated the same and we deserve to be treated like that. Another example of this would be race.The equality act says that you should not judge anyone by their race, because that is the way they are.

You should not discriminate them because of the way that they are. This act tells everyone that we all should be treated the same as everyone else regardless of what we are. The Strengths of the Equality Act 2010 are that it is aimed at vulnerable people to not be directly harassed or discriminated. The Equality Act provides to protect people who need protecting and provides legal rights. It protects all kinds of people regardless of their sex, race, disability, religion or their beliefs etc.

Since this Act came out it is now unlawful to discriminate any individual, if so then there would be consequences. The equality Act says that, Equality means having the same value and treating everybody else equally. The act says it is important to have training and development on equality and rights for service providers because they would know what it is and they would know how to teach it and it should be updated and be remained fresh in people’s minds, this is good and therefore a strength because people would not get discriminated.As I have said in M2 it is good that everyone one has an equal treatment regardless of there sexual orientation or their disability for example.

The act aims to protect vulnerable people for example people who have a disability and helps them by making adjustments. It is right that everyone should get the same amount of treatment because if you do not give some the right treatment just because of their genders this may make them have low self esteem and feel low about themselves because they are not being cared for in the right way.Also all the other acts have come together as one and they all work together to stop discrimination. If there was no such thing as the equality act or the equality law, then there would be no such thing as treating everybody equally no matter what there religion, race and sexual orientation etc.

For gender equality it is right that both male and female get paid the right amount of money for their work. The disadvantages of this act are that not everyone working place for example care homes follow these acts. The act has not been updated yet.Also if a member of staff was not treating anyone equally or fairly then they could lose their job. If no staffs were trained for this act then they would not know how to treat people fairly.

If you are not treating the service user with treatment or care then you are not meeting their needs. Another weakness for this is that if a person had a disability and wanted a job but you did not know about it because you cannot see it, you may give them the job but soon later they will tell you they have a disability for example a bad back.This would affect you because the manager may sack you for having a bad back if you are working in a care home because you may not be able to lift the residents. It would also affect you because you may hurt yourself as well as the resident.

It would not be fair if the males get more money than females for working the same hours and this does go against the equality act. It still does happen today men getting paid more money than women. They may have the same knowledge as one another but men negotiate more than women. Statistics say that men make 23% more money than women.