Public Sector Equality Duty
Public Sector Equality Duty
What is the PSED?
The Equality Act 2010 introduced a single, general duty for public bodies, including schools, and which extends to all ‘protected characteristics’ – race, disability, sex, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment.
There are three main elements within the act and in carrying out our functions, as a school, we must have regard for the need to:
Eliminate discrimination and other conduct prohibited by the act.
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
Foster good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
It should be noted that age is a relevant characteristic for schools when considering their duties as an employer but not in relation to pupils. The PSED replaces the previous three sets of separate duties to promote disability, race and gender equality. All schools must have ‘due regard’ to the three elements. Therefore whenever significant decisions are being made, or policies being developed or reviewed, the school will consider carefully the equalities implications.
How does Sacred heart Catholic Primary School comply with the PSED?
The school has a range of policies which make explicit the school’s long established commitment to actively promoting equality of opportunity for all. The main policies dealing with equality of opportunity are:
Equality policy
SEND Policy
Behaviour and Anti-Bullying Policy
Accessibility Plan
Our school is far from complacent and remains focused upon ensuring that its response to the PSED is significant and effective in each of the three main elements.
Eliminate discrimination
Our school is similar in size to an average sized primary school. It serves an area of high social deprivation and almost a quarter of pupils supported by pupil premium funding. Less than half of pupils are White British; the proportion of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds has risen over recent years and is now well above national average. The proportion of disabled pupils or pupils with special educational needs supported by the school is slightly below average. The proportion of pupils supported with an Education Health Care Plan is in line with national averages.
Close tracking of all pupil outcomes takes place in a structured, systematic way and the school intervenes where it reveals underachievement, low attainment or concerns about specific groups or individuals.
Monitoring and evaluation, and the analysis of data, takes place across the school and is used within the improvement cycle at each Key Stage. Assessment data leads to judgments for key areas of improvement and development.
Advance equality of opportunity
The school is committed to advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it, and has put a range of approaches in place to ensure that this happens.
The school monitors and evaluates, frequently and regularly, the attainment and progress of all pupils and looks at the performance of particular groups who share a protected characteristic to compare their performance with those who do not share it. Interventions are then planned and implemented in order to close any disparities in performance.
Examples of practice which advances equality of opportunity:
Where necessary, we use the services of outside agencies to support families and individual pupils. Pupils with SEND, including those with medical needs, are fully supported by our SENDCo, and external specialist professionals.
We have case study evidence to demonstrate our support for vulnerable pupils.
We have excellent links with the local high schools, which ensures that transition to Year 7 runs smoothly.
We use the services of the Manchester Safeguarding Team and Child Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for pupils who need this type of expert support.
Foster good relations across all characteristics
The school adopts a wide range of approaches to foster good relations across all characteristics. Some specific examples are as follows:
The school participates in fund raising for many charities supporting local, national and global issues, which are understood and supported by children.
The strong global dimension of our curriculum develops our pupils’ awareness of different countries and cultures.
Both at our last Ofsted inspection and in our Religious Education Inspection, it was recognised that at this school we understand differences and value diverse experiences. The impact of this is a school where every person feels valued, respected and safe.
All governors demonstrate a high level of engagement with the school in areas such as health and safety, Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural development, SEND and equality. They concern themselves with the inclusive nature of our school, the well-being of staff and pupils and with attendance and behaviour.
Our partnership with local schools is an integral part of our school provision. Through this partnership our children have access to a range of activities and competitions that span the curriculum. They are able to interact with pupils from other schools, visit other schools and bring the impact of this, back into their own classrooms.
We are very proud of our extended services offered in the form of a wide variety extra-curricular activities we offer outside of the school day. The impact of this is that children experience enrichments to the basic curriculum. These clubs are popular and very well attended.
Our Equality Objectives
Under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) the school is required to set Equality Objectives. Our published information must be updated annually and objectives published at least once every four years.
Equality Objectives 2024-2028
Objective 1: Close attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils (FSM) and their peers in reading and maths.
Objective 2: Improve attendance for pupils with SEND and FSM-eligible pupils
Objective 3: Ensure all staff receive training on inclusive practice, disability awareness and unconscious bias.
Objective 4: Review and refresh curriculum resources to ensure diverse, positive representation across all protected characteristics.
Objective 5: Strengthen the voice of under-represented groups in school decision -making through targeted pupil and parent engagement.