An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is a tool that helps us embed equity and inclusion consideration across the University.

Carrying out an EIA helps us design policies and practices for the University that are fair. They ensure best practice through evidence-based decision making, using data to identify what effect our activities might have on people in our community.

Carrying out these assessments is also part of our Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), which is required by law. The PSED requires us to ensure both our current and proposed activities consider the needs of diverse groups. It aims to eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity and access, and help foster good relations between the different groups within our community.

Is an EIA needed?

Most new initiatives or proposed changes to the way we do things at the University will require an EIA. However, in a small number of cases this may not be necessary.

An EIA should be proportional to the scale of what it is assessing. When starting a new project, writing a policy, or making a change to an existing process, consider:

Who could this affect, and could it affect some groups differently from others?
Could it create or widen disadvantage for people who share a protected characteristic?
Is there evidence of higher or lower participation or uptake by different groups? Consider unintended consequences or barriers that might prevent participation for some groups.
Are there any opportunities to actively improve equality, diversity and inclusion for these groups?

Why complete an EIA

You don't have to be an equality professional to complete an EIA. As a subject matter expert, you are best placed to understand how changes to your services or a new policy might affect our community.

Inequalities are not always obvious. You may not be aware that it is happening, which is why looking at data and listening to people with lived experience is important. Inequalities may not be intentional, but they can still have a significant impact and need to be addressed.

We want to make sure there is equity of experience for everyone here at the University, and everyone feels like they belong. Being thoughtful about how we work, teach and research can make a big change overall.

When to complete an EIA

An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) should be carried out when creating new or changing existing policies, procedures, practices, and organisational change.

You should complete an EIA at the start of your planning process. Completing one early will help you design your intervention inclusively, backed by evidence. Completing an EIA at the end of the process may highlight negative impacts to equity at a late stage which can cause delays and other issues.

Protected groups

When completing your EIA, you will need to assess if any of the protected groups below will be disadvantaged by the policy:

Age
Disability
Sex
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnant people and those on maternity leave
Race and ethnicity
Religion and belief
Sexual orientation

You can find more detail on the protected characteristics here.

Writing an EIA

The primary author of an Equality Impact Assessment should be someone who works closely with the topic and has a detailed understanding of that area. They should be someone who can coordinate implementation of mitigating actions if they are identified.

An EIA should be proportional to the scale of what it is assessing. If you are making a slight change that will affect a small cohort the amount of work involved in writing your EIA will be less than if you are assessing a new policy relevant to all staff, for example.

The form should be reviewed by several people on the project team to benefit from different points of view.

You will need to monitor and evaluate the impact of your project/change once it is live, so make sure you have identified who will be responsible for this and the timescales for reviewing.

Additional advice can be sought from the Culture and Inclusion team via diversity@bath.ac.uk.

Evidencing through data

It is not always possible to get the internal data needed to make assessments. We support the use of external data to help evidence your impact assessment.

Examples of external sources:

Examples of internal datasets:

Employee survey (heads of departments have dashboard access)
Student surveys
Student Lifecycle dashboards
Focus group results
Interviews and anecdotal evidence

Stakeholder engagement

Consultation should take place with affected stakeholders as part of this process. The scale of the consultation will vary - the greater the scope of a potential negative impact, the more comprehensive the consultation should be.

There are groups across the University who you can engage with when developing your Equality Impact Assessment, such as our University Self Assessment Teams (for Gender, Race equality, and LGBTQ+ inclusion), our staff networks, or your departmental EDI Committee.

Additional advice can be sought from the Culture and Inclusion team via diversity@bath.ac.uk.

Types of impact

Once you’ve gathered data and evidence you can use this information to assess whether the change or creation will, or is likely to, have an impact on a protected group.

Positive impact

This is when the evidence demonstrates that your intervention will increase equity or inclusion for a protected group. This is just as important to record as negative impacts.

Example: When renovating a reception area, an accessible counter is installed to better serve visitors who use a wheelchair.

Neutral impact

The evidence identifies that the policy or change will have no negative or positive results for people with protected characteristics.

Example: Updating the Family Leave policy for staff. The EIA does not identify any impacts, as the new policy does not introduce barriers nor does it improve equality compared to the previous one.

Negative impact

This is when the evidence collected identifies that your change or new intervention will exclude or disadvantage a protected group. This could mean it may be discriminatory, and mitigations need to be identified.

Example: Stopping in-person gym membership applications and moving to online-only. This change could negatively impact older people who may have lower levels of digital literacy or limited access to technology.

For a minor negative impact, mitigation may only require a single line of clarification on a webpage or in a process document. Identifying a significant negative impact may highlight the need for a policy redesign or deeper consultation.

Examples of potential mitigations:

Flexibility in, or exceptions to, a policy.
Phased implementation and transition support for a process change.
Adjustments to communications.
Creating an alternative route for people to use (e.g. for submitting an application).

How to complete an Equality Impact Assessment

Find out if you need to do an Equality Impact Assessment and if so, how to complete one meaningfully.