Accountability for schools under the Equality Act

All schools under the Disability Equality Act 2005 and now subsumed into the Equality Act 2010 have to ensure that all public bodies, therefore, schools have to pay ‘due regard’ to the promotion of equality for young people with disabilities. The EA has two distinct elements that apply to all educational institutions within the UK, a general duty and a specific duty. The EHRC can take action against any schools that do not meet their duties. Hills (2012)

Schools must be aware of the requirement under the general duty to have due regard when carrying out their duties to;

• Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Advance equality of opportunity between people with disabilities and non-disabilities
• Foster good relations between disabled and non-disabled people.

All staff, students, parents and users of the educational institutions have to comply with this general duty with regard to disabilities.

The specific duty requires schools to show how they are meeting the general duty. The specific duty is about how a school sets out to meet its general duty and how this evidence will be recorded to show what the school has done.

The specific duty requires schools:

• To publish information to indicate how they are complying with the Public Sector Equality Duty.
• To prepare and publish one or more specific and measurable equality objectives. These objectiv