disability equality scheme tcm68 24736

							Staffordshire University

Our Disability Equality Scheme 2009-2012.

Welcome to Staffordshire University’s Disability Equality Scheme.

Introduction:

Staffordshire University welcomes the opportunity to evaluate the progress we have
made since the publication of our first Disability Equality Scheme in 2006 and to publish
our new Scheme that sets out our priorities and commitments to disabled people for the
next three years.

We remain committed to the Social Model of Disability and recognise that the removal
of the physical, emotional, social and attitudinal barriers that disable our students, staff
and visitors are at the heart of our new scheme.

Over the next three years the University will be undergoing significant change. All that
we do is being refreshed from our physical estate through to our curriculum offer to
create learning and working environments that are inclusive and accessible to the whole
of our community. We are a University that actively widens participation and are
building an infrastructure to support that, positively encouraging the engagement of
disabled people in the process.

Quoting from our University Plan, our vision for the next three years is as follows:

“We are an organisation that specialises in learning and knowledge and it is in this area,
our core activity, that we intend to make the major impact. We will not only continue to
work for the highest quality standards but will be seeking to diversify our student base
and to deliver in ways that are flexible and even more ‘customer focussed’.
We are already famous for our commitment to all of our students and our other clients
and in this new era we commit to going the extra mile. We are proud to be the
‘People’s University’ – accessible and diverse in its make up. In the global society we
will aim to internationalise our outlook as well as our community whilst safeguarding
our ‘local’ values and character. Indeed, we take seriously all that it means to be a
                      st
university in the 21 century and we will aim to be known for exploring new ways of
fulfilling our many roles in society.
By 2012 all of our campuses will be refreshed or rebuilt. Our programmes will be
market facing and first choice for an ever growing percentage of our students. The
learning community will reflect an even wider range of ages and backgrounds and
students will be able to learn in a variety of modes and within a very flexible calendar
and timetable. We will be creating a new and accessible model of learning and research
that will differentiate us and identify us as leaders in our field.”
It is on this foundation that we have developed this new Disability Equality Scheme.

Involvement of disabled people:

Fundamental to our ability to meet our duties towards disabled people is their
engagement in the University’s business. Looking back over the past three years we
recognise both the achievements we have made with the direct engagement of disabled
people and the frustrations we experience when engagement is difficult.

To this end, we have actively sought to be involved in activities that support the
engagement of disabled people and have sought to maximise engagement wherever
possible. We have, for example, been a part of the “Furthering the Involvement of
Disabled Students in Higher Education” project, run by the Equality Challenge Unit and
the Higher Education Academy. We were selected as one of seven Universities chosen
for the project and have used the project to enable us to work with our students to
form our new Disabled Students’ Engagement Group. This group is representative of
students with a wide range of impairments drawn from across the University’s Schools
and Faculties, involves both young and mature students and offers the engagement of
distance learners.

This year we commissioned DisabledGo, a nationally recognised disabled persons’
organisation, to audit our campuses allowing disabled people to determine for
themselves whether our campuses are accessible and we now link our Job Vacancies to
their website, encouraging disabled people to apply for positions within the University.

Our disabled students have representation on a number of key University groups,
notably the Disability Forum, and are well represented on Faculty Staff/Student groups,
influencing the way that the Faculties and Schools respond to the needs of disabled
students in the delivery of our Curriculum.

We now have an active Disabled Staff Working Group that is charged specifically at
influencing change for disabled staff across the University. Disabled staff have an active
and engaged role to play in this group and the development of this group will be
essential in taking our new Action Plan forward.

We maintain active partnerships with both local and national groups that represent
disabled people. We also work closely with our Students’ Union to promote equality of
opportunity and outcome for disabled students. This has been particularly evident in
progressing the engagement of disabled students.
Impact assessments:

Since the publication of our first Disability Equality Scheme in 2006, we have followed
the same policy on Equality Impact Assessment to allow us to see how our policies
impact on the seven equality strands we identify within the University. Since 2006, all of
our policies, practices and provisions that have been through the review process have
been impact assessed to ensure they are fair to disabled people. The process, outlined
below, remains unchanged for our original Scheme.

Equality Impact Assessment

a) Purpose

The purpose of equality impact assessment is to ensure that all University policies,
practices, provisions and criteria are fair to all groups of people.

The University has a legal obligation to ensure that it does not discriminate against a
particular group or individual due to gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation or
religion. In addition the University wants to make sure that no other group or individual
is treated unfairly for any other reason such as social class, part-time status etc.
b) Process

Staffordshire University decided to take a 2 stage approach to Equality Impact
Assessment:
    Initial Screening
    Full Equality Impact Assessment

The reasoning behind this was that it enabled all University Policies and Procedures to
be looked at quickly, amendments to be made immediately and an early prioritisation to
be made about the timing of Full Equality Impact Assessment.

Initial Screening

The Purpose of Initial Screening is 2-fold:
    to identify any immediate changes that may be needed to University policies,
      practices, provisions or criteria in order to eliminate any adverse effects on
      particular groups.
    to prioritise these policies, practices, provisions or criteria so that a full impact
      assessment is carried out on every policy, practice, provision or criterion in order
      of importance.

From 1 December 2006 all University Policies and Procedures state the following:
    The name of policy as it appears on the approved policy document
    The purpose of the policy as defined in the approved policy document
      The body responsible for approving the policy - usually a committee
      The person responsible for updating the policy
      Consultation with trades unions, relevant organisations and individuals. Every
       policy should involve consultation with relevant stakeholders to ensure that no
       unjustified negative impact on any particular group or groups occurs
      The scope of the policy i.e. it should define the individuals or groups to whom
       the policy applies
      Date of approval - the date of approval on the approved policy document
      Proposed date of review - every policy should state a proposed review date so
       that all policies are reviewed regularly in this way.

In addition the statement below is be included to illustrate the University's commitment
to equality and diversity and to indicate that it has undergone an initial equality impact
assessment screening.

'Staffordshire University’s commitment to equality and diversity means that this policy
has been screened in relation to the use of gender-neutral language, jargon-free plain
English, recognition of the needs of disabled people, promotion of the positive duty in
relation to race and disability and avoidance of stereotypes. This document is available
in alternative formats on request.'

'If you think we can improve the fairness of this policy please contact the individual who
has responsibility for its update.'

Where appropriate, the following additional sentence should also be added:

'Every effort has been made to use images and examples from a diverse range of
sources, representative of people from different social, cultural and religious
backgrounds, from both genders, disabled and able-bodied and different age groups.'

Full Equality Impact Assessment

The purpose of Full Equality Impact Assessment is to ensure that a thorough and
systematic analysis of a policy, procedure or regulation is carried out to determine
whether it has a differential impact on identifiable groups of people. A policy can
adversely affect different groups of people in different ways, and the aim is to eliminate
discrimination and promote equality of opportunity.

It can be seen as a quality control mechanism, with an initial screening for equality
relevance. A Full Equality Impact Assessment involves assessing whether the policy or
procedure could have a negative impact on any particular group of people.

All University level policies and procedures have been subject to an Initial Screening.
From this exercise, the list of policies and procedures has been prioritised for Full
Equality Impact Assessment so that each one will undergo Full Equality Impact
Assessment within three years. This list goes to the Diversity Committee for
consideration and decision. The Diversity Committee produces an annual report to
Academic Board and, through Academic Board, to the Board of Governors on how
effective the process has been and recommendations for future action.

As part of the process it will be necessary to identify what data is required in order to
assess if there is negative impact occurring. Disabled staff and students will be actively
encouraged to contribute to the prioritisation of the policies and procedures for Full
Equality Impact Assessment.


Information Gathering:

The University now routinely gathers a range of data on our disabled staff and students
and uses this to determine how to respond to any changes and developments noted in
the data. We know that, for example, the number of students disclosing mental health
issues has risen and we have employed two Specialist Student Advisors to support this
group of students. The number of students and staff disclosing their impairments has
also risen significantly since we first published our Disability Equality Scheme and the
diversity of impairments has showed a corresponding increase. We now use this
information to drive our planning in those areas directly responsible for the delivery of
support, notably the Student Office, Disabled Student Centres and the Equality and
Diversity Team.

Information also allows us to monitor the effectiveness of our disclosure strategies. We
now have a disabled staff disclosure of over 5% and disabled student disclosure at over
8%, both significantly increased since the start of our first Disability Equality Scheme.

Within the Faculties and Schools data is now being used to influence budget planning,
with some of the Faculties and Schools allocating a proportion of budget to meet the
cost of making reasonable adjustments for disabled students and staff.

The Student Office routinely gathers data on Student Satisfaction, including satisfaction
with the services provided for disabled students. This is used to influence and improve
the provision we offer to disabled students and show the steps we have taken to do
this.
Annual Reporting:

We have been required to produce Annual Reports since the publication of our first
Disability Equality Scheme in 2006 and will continue to report progress on Annual basis
as part of our new Scheme. We will leave the updates from our original Scheme
available in order that interested parties can monitor our progress.

Action Plan:

This year we have developed a University Single Equality Scheme and an associated
Action Plan that will be used as our Disability Equality Scheme Action plan. This Scheme
indicates the actions we will be taking over the next three years, how we measure the
success of our actions, the timescale in which we will achieve the actions, the Executive
responsibility and the key milestones. Some of the actions are specific to disabled
people, others to all of the seven equality strands. We have been careful to ensure that
the actions identified do not in any way diminish our efforts to promote equality for
disabled people and have taken steps to ensure that all of the Universities Faculties,
Schools and Services produce their own action plans to show how they will take their
own priorities for disabled people forward. This will ensure that all areas of the
University take responsibility directly for the actions they are taking to promote equality
of opportunity for disabled people.



The framework for our Single Equality Scheme is mapped against the University Plan
and is broadly divided into the following areas:

      Students

      Staff

      Governors

      External Organisations and Visitors

We believe this will make our actions transparent and easy to follow as the plan
progresses. In line with our duties, we will continue to produce an Annual Report
outlining progress against our Disability Equality Scheme.

The main Disability Equality Scheme Action Plan is published alongside this scheme.
Faculty and Service Action Plans can be made available upon request.
All of our Action Plans are active documents, regularly monitored and updated and
ensuring as far as possible that disabled people are involved in their production. The
University’s Disability Forum has representation from across the University and acts as
the main forum for the discussion of progress with the Disability Equality Scheme Action
Plans.