Equality Impact Assessments help us design and deliver fairer and more inclusive work.
An Equality Impact Assessment provides a structured way to consider how different groups of people may be affected by our work 鈥� be it a policy, process, service, project, etc. Thereby enabling us to identify any potential barriers or disadvantages and make changes or take mitigating action to remove them.
By checking the impacts of our work, we鈥檙e driving structural change to create a culture that truly thrives on difference.
Download the form you need and find more information to support completing an Equality Impact Assessment...
Equality Impact Assessments are a proactive way to ensure our work is fair and inclusive. They also show how we are meeting our Public Sector Equality Duty to consciously consider eliminating discrimination, creating equality of opportunity, and fostering good relations.
The key thing is that an Equality Impact Assessment is a tool for thinking about equality, not just a form; it's a process of trying to uncover any impacts, not a tick-box. The EIA should explain how the equality impact has been assessed and how any conclusions have been reached - transparency of reasoning is key to a robust assessment.
Whoever owns the work is responsible for the Equality Impact Assessment and it should come at the formative stage of work, so that the assessment can influence how the work is designed and delivered.
Additional resources
Alongside the main Equality Impact Assessment guidance linked above, find additional resources to help you use Equality Impact Assessments in your work:
Our Values-Based Equality Impact Assessments guidance outlines how to apply our values and behaviours to Equality Impact Assessments. By embedding these values into this process, we ensure that our policies, decisions, and actions not only meet legal requirements but also align with our vision for a better world.
Our Equality Impact Assessments and Freedom of Speech guidance outlines how to use an Equality Impact Assessment as an opportunity to think about how work impacts both inclusion and freedom of speech. By identifying risks in both areas and, if appropriate, weighing them carefully, an Equality Impact Assessment supports balanced, fair, and legally compliant decision-making.
This LGBTQ+ Considerations for Equality Impact Assessments resource from the WIHEA Queering University project offers a set of reflective and practical question prompts to aid you in identifying risks and mitigating any negative impacts of your work on LGBTQ+ people.
Let us know any other resources you'd like included in this list - email us at .
Equality Impact Assessments make our work fairer and protect us from legal challenge.
They are a proactive way to ensure our work is fair and inclusive, helping create a culture that truly thrives on difference.
They show how we鈥檙e meeting our Public Sector Equality Duty to consciously consider eliminating discrimination, creating equality of opportunity, and fostering good relations.
Equality Impact Assessments should be used for new work, or existing work that is being significantly changed
Start an Equality Impact Assessment early in the creation of the work it鈥檚 for, update it as the work is developed, and review after the work is launched/implemented to check for any unforeseen impacts and take action to address or mitigate them.
Use Equality Impact Assessments for work that impacts people and which is new or significantly changing. A few factors to consider:
Novelty - You don鈥檛 need an Equality Impact Assessment for everyday activities, it鈥檚 for significant things which are new, changing, or ending.
Scale - You鈥檙e more or less likely to need one depending on how many people are impacted and how much they are impacted.
Relevance - You鈥檒l need one if people may be impacted differently or have varied needs and/or there are known inequalities.
A good Equality Impact Assessment is
Started early and updated throughout, not used to justify a decision after it鈥檚 made.鈥�
Rigorous and open-minded (e.g., using multiple methods vs checking off a list, addressing causes vs responding to symptoms).鈥�
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And its good practice to keep a record (which is why we have a form you can use, see above).
There is more on how to complete an Equality Impact Assessment in the guidance linked above.
The owner of an Equality Impact Assessment (usually the person leading the work being assessed) is asked to keep a copy of the completed form to produce on request. As such, if you would like to see an Equality Impact Assessment for a piece of work, feel free to contact people directly to request it. If the work is presented at a committee meeting, findings from the Equality Impact Assessment should be referred to in the paper.
- but please note this has not been in use since February 2023 so is not an up to date record.
See examples of fictional completed Equality Impact Assessmentss below.
If you have any other questions about Equality Impact Assessments email us at .
The Social Inclusion Annual Report highlights the work that has been taking place across the University over the last year, and how it is helping us to meet our Social Inclusion Strategy objectives to increase the diversity of our staff and student communities, develop an inclusive culture, and become an internationally recognised leader in inclusion.
