Sample Solution

The Equality Act 2010 (herein after will be referred as EA) came into force with effect from 1st October 2010 in U.K, thereby grouping, harmonising and reshuffling 9 earlier Acts (The Race Relations Act (1976), The Race Relations Act (1076), Equal Pay Act 1970, The Race Relations Amendment Act (2000), Gender Discrimination Act , Equal Pay Act (1976) , The Human Rights Act (2000) , the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 , the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief ) Regulations 2003 and the Children’s Act (2004) and more than one hundred sets of regulations legislated over forty years. Some of the unique features of EA 2010 are as follows;

• The EA has developed a different definition of disability. The definition almost analogues to that of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 with following two chief exceptions;
• Now, the precondition that a mental impairment should be clinically well-acknowledged illness has been removed.
• The exhaustive list of what tantamount to day-to-day activities has been removed.

The outcome of the relaxation of the meaning of disability is that more children with SEN are now legally being treated as disabled. Under EA 2010, every public authority, including educational institutions are required to publish necessary Equalities Policy information and the school should take into account the following protected characteristics;

• Sex (gender)
• Disability
• Maternity and pregnancy
• Race (ethnicity)
• Sexual Orientation
• Religion and belief
• Gender Reassignment

The EA 2010 expands the meaning of discrimination. In the earlier Acts, there existed two varieties of disability discrimination. These were;

• For a reason connected to their disability without justification, treating a disabled pupil or prospective pupil less favourably than another disabled person.
• Not taking any adequate steps to avoid placing disabled pupils at a c