This document discusses promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in health and social care. It outlines key models and legislation that support these values, including the difference and diversity model, equal opportunities approach, dignity in care initiative, and Equality Act 2010. The document also analyzes potential barriers to equality and inclusion, such as attitudinal, physical, social, communication, and political barriers. Promoting inclusion requires identifying and addressing these barriers to ensure all individuals receive discrimination-free access to services.

1. Unit 503. Champion equality, diversity and inclusion (SCH53).
1.1. Understand diversity, equality and inclusion in own area of responsibility.
Understanding the values and principles of equality, diversity and inclusion is pivotal
while caring for vulnerable adults within a health and social care setting. These values
are also embraced by the modern theory of social care and core principles and
philosophies of person-centred planning, in which care is based. This enables high
quality services that cater for diverse people and promotes positive individual
outcomes such independence, citizenship, social inclusion, empowerment, respect for
diversity and protection from harm. Transferring the power to the vulnerable
individual allows them to have rightful discrimination-free access to their local
communities (Tilmouth and Quallington, 2012).
1. Equal opportunities approach.
The equal opportunities approach is most commonly used to promote the principle of
equality. Those working in the caring environment must ensure people are not
inadvertently or deliberately disadvantaged by workplace systems and protocols. Each
individual should have similar access to a starting point to ensure positive outcomes.
To enable this, barriers and routes to disadvantageous factors need to be reduced or
eradicated (Tilmouth and Quallington, 2012). People should not be disadvantaged due
to their characteristics such as age, disability, gender identity and gender
reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or
belief, sex or sexual orientation. These protected characteristics are under the
jurisdiction of the Equality Act 2010 that ensures fair and legal work practices.
Furthermore, Section 149 of the public sector Equality Duty Act provides the
underpinning legislation for various activities that are carried out within the public
sector. This ensures policies and services are effective and efficient in catering for
diverse people and meeting their needs. Specific duties are also supported by the
public sector Equality Duty as it enforces public bodies to publish information on how
they meet requirements of the Equality Duty and to set themselves equality objectives
that are measureable and specific (ACAS).
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2. 2. Difference and Diversity Model (Walker, 1994).
This psychological model of difference and diversity celebrates individual
differences, rather seeing characteristics as a threat. There are four principles –
• People function well when they are feeling valued.
• Considering individual and group differences makes people feel valued.
• Empowerment is gained by learning from those who are different.
• Feeling valued and being empowered allows people to become autonomous in
building their potential.
These principles fulfil various needs that are indentified by Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs such as self esteem needs (self-respect through respect from others); love and
belongingness (feeling loved by friends); security needs (sense of safety by not
perceiving differences as threats); and self-actualisation as a result of newly found
independence healthy sense of self) (Businessballs, 2014). These underpin the core
principles and philosophies of care described above.
1.2. Analyse the potential effects of barriers to equality and inclusion in own area of
responsibility.
It is critical to be aware of how barriers to equality and inclusion are formed and how these can negatively impact
individuals, which highlights the importance of having policies and procedures that promote equality, diversity and
inclusion. My role as a line manager is to identify potential barriers and help remove or eradicate them. These kinds of
behaviours also need to be ingrained in an organisational culture of tolerance to ensure all staff is aware of their roles and
responsibilities in promoting equality and diversity.
1. Attitudinal barriers – Values, beliefs and attitudes can be deeply ingrained by our culture, and these are
often prejudiced and incorrect. Exposure to new experiences and new information can challenge these, but
people can resist in changing their views, even if they found to be discriminatory and / or inflexible
generalisations. These prejudiced attitudes can then lead onto negative emotions and actions, which leads to
people having unfair advantages over others. Health and social care staff who do not respect individual rights
and have condescending attitudes towards they are caring for, implies that those individuals are perceived not
to be equal as others who are not receiving care. Poor attitudes often result in ridicule, bullying, harassment
and exclusion. Staff may also be recipients of discrimination, which can result in unethical practices such as
power abuse and these can lead to oppression of career development opportunities as a result of unfair
dismissal and denied training. Whoever the individual, marginalisation and unfair treatment inevitably result in
a loss of poor work performance, denied access to community services, confidence and self-esteem and mental
health disorders such as anxiety and depression (Tilmouth and Quallington, 2012; SCIE,
2013a).
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3. 2. Physical barriers – Physical barriers can hinder Equality and inclusion and an example is having stairs
for accessing a building, which can leave a wheel-chair user unable to enter a building. Poor lighting can be
another factor for those who have sensory loss. This can lead to a variety of negative consequences such as
economic, employment and educational disadvantages, in addition to limited access to particular health and
social care services (SCIE, 2013a).
3. Social inclusion barriers – Social inclusion barriers exist when there are limited facilities that can
support people in challenging community barriers. One example is the geographical location of services and
having no access to transport to these services.
4. Communication barriers – Poor communication skills of staff can jeopardise understanding between
professional teams, which can adversely affect the quality of services and understanding of individual needs of
those accessing the services. This can also result in not having information available in accessible formats /
languages to enable people to make informed choices in how their care is provided. Poor self-awareness can
also result inadvertently revealing prejudices through body language and verbal communication. Not respecting
people’s values and treating people without dignity can cause people to become defensive and have poor
experiences of services, which can also hinder positive outcomes.
5. Poorly written polices and procedures – Poorly written polices can inadvertently take away individual rights
and be in breach of law that aims to eradicate discrimination such as the Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights
Act 1998. Examples are poor recruitment and appraisal processes that can disadvantage organisations, as they
will not benefit from differing employee attributes. Vulnerable adults who have small care packages may be
disadvantaged as it can be difficult for health and social care providers to include recipients of these in to the
wider community (Tilmouth and Quallington, 2012; SCIE, 2013a).
6. Political processes – Various groups of people can be disadvantaged due to poor political processes. For
example, there can be a lack of funding for community initiatives to strengthen and develop civil
society and democracy. Young people who are leaving school and college are
often disadvantaged due to the lack of training and employment initiatives to
enable them to learn new skills and become integrated into society and feel
accepted and connected. ‘Forgotten’ groups and communities often suffer
from high crime rates, further discrimination, social exclusion, health
disparities and limited affordable housing (Secker and Hill, 2001).
1.3. Analyse the impact of legislation and inclusion policy initiatives on the
promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion in own area of responsibility.
The council has a number of policies that are written in accordance to guidelines and
legislation that aims to foster good practices and minimise and eradicate
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4. discrimination towards employees and customers who are accessing health and social
care services. These are –
1. Dignity in care initiative – This initiative aims to achieve high standards of
dignity in care by treating people as individuals and help them have control
and remain independent within their communities. SCIE have outlined seven
core principles for dignity that are supportive of the modern social theory of
care, which are written in accordance to common law. Relevant legislation is
the Human Rights Act, Equality Act 2010, Mental Capacity Act 2005, Sexual
Offences Act 2003, Data Protection 1998 and Health and Safety at Work Act
1974. The seven principles are -
• Value the uniqueness of every individual
• Uphold the responsibility to shape care and support services and each
individual
• Value communicating with individuals in ways that are meaningful to
them
• Recognise and respect how individuals may be affected when
supported with their personal care
• Recognise that an individual’s surrounding and environment are
important to their sense of dignity.
• Value workplace cultures that actively promote the dignity of
everybody
• Recognise the need to challenge care that may reduce dignity of
individual
2. Equality Act 2010 – This piece of legislation provides the legal underpinning of personalised care and
fair employment opportunities. According to this act, it is prohibited to discriminate against people who have
certain characteristics to ensure they have fair and rightful access to respectful and effective services or
employment. Personalised care should take in to account various protected characteristics; age,
disability, gender identity and gender reassignment, marriage or civil
partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual
orientation.
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5. 3. Human Rights Framework – The Human Rights Act 1998 is also an important
piece of legislation that has a valuable impact on the promotion of equality,
diversity and inclusion. It is at the core of policies and standards within social
care and aims to eradicate discrimination and unfair exclusion from fair access
to health and social care services. There are 16 basic rights for people within
the UK, but if these are infringed, they can be challenge. However, within
social care, it is important that the Human Rights Framework is used to
provide high quality person-centred care to ensure positive outcomes. The
most relevant rights under the jurisdiction of social care are –
• Article 2: the right to life
• Article 3: the righted not to be subjected to degrading treatment
• Article 5: this prohibits the state’s power to detain people except in certain
defined circumstances
• Article 6: the right to fair hearing
• Article 8: respect for private and family life, home and correspondence
• Article 9: the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
• Article 12: the right to marry
• Article: freedom from discrimination
Protocol 1, Article 1: the enjoyment of one’s possessions such as money, and social
security benefits
Protocol 1, Article 2: the right to education
4. Whistle blowing initiative – The council upholds the Dignity in Care whistle
blowing codes of conduct outlined by SCIE (2013b). This emphasises the
importance of ensuring the duty of care to others by reporting discriminatory
and unethical behaviours to their employer, Care Quality Commission or
safeguarding team. Behaviours may include breach of health and safety,
criminal damage or offenses, harassment, financial exploitation, or policies
that discriminate against or oppress individuals or groups of people. This has a
strong link to safeguarding adults and young people initiatives within health
and social care services.
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6. 5. Equal Pay Act 1970 – While recruiting employees, this legislation states that it is important for
organisations not to discriminate between men and women, especially when given similar terms and conditions
of employment (similar roles and of equal skill, effort or decision making). This includes – basic pay,
overtime rates, performance related benefits, hours of work, access to pension
schemes, non-monetary terms, basic pay, annual leave entitlements.
6. Children’s Act 1989 / 2004 – These Acts were formulated to ensure there were
adequate intervention strategies from health and social care agencies when
children were not being treated in a fair and ethical way at home, school,
workplace or other services. Maintenance of child welfare is central to these
Acts and suggests children have the right to be healthy, have access to safe
environments, enjoy life, have assistance to reach their potential, and have
economic stability.
3. Understand how to develop systems and processes that promote diversity, equality and inclusion.
3.1. Analyse how systems and processes can promote equality and inclusion or
reinforce discrimination and exclusion.
It is critical to implement policies and procedures that are written and conducted in
accordance to the appropriate legislation already described in this assignment, or
organisations may be carrying out illegal behaviours, which is counter productive in
promoting diversity, equality and inclusion. There are various systems and processes
that can be used to promote diversity, equality and inclusion –
1. Policies – Effective policies need to be written in a clear and concise manner and be kept up-to-date with
current legislation and initiatives. One striking example is the harassment and bullying policy, which should
define and provide of what constitutes bullying and harassment and that it is not acceptable behaviours within
the organisation as people are responsible for their own behaviours, the detrimental individual effects,
consequences of such behaviours such as disciplinary action, legal and personal implications, how to complain
and receive assistance to cope workplace stress, timelines of investigations and who will be investigating.
Before, implementation, they must be checked by human resources professionals or management to ensure
they are legal and are not written inappropriately. Without them being checked by someone qualified in
employment or social care law, they may inadvertently reinforce discrimination and exclusion. Furthermore, it
is crucial that they are regularly reviewed as they can become out-dated and insignificant, which is
counterproductive in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (Marchington and Wilkinson,
2011).
2. Communication – It is essential with any organisational or management
strategy, it is important to cascade information regarding these throughout the
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7. organisation to ensure everyone is aware of what is expected of them. Without
doing so, staff will remain ignorant of the organisation’s policies and
procedures and changes in relevant legislation, which will result in staff to
engage in out-dated modes of behaviour. Communication can occur in team
meetings, core briefs, staff supervisions and appraisals, via the intranet and
training.
3. Training – Polices and procedures can be promoted with on-the-job training,
which enables people to examine their own behaviours and compare to those
that are expected. Appropriate training can include recruitment and selection,
health and safety, dignity and equality and diversity, which ensure all
employees, can keep abreast with current legislation and what assistance is
provided within the organisation. Without the provision of training, staff may
engage in illegal and unethical behaviours that can put them and the
organisation at a risk of litigation.
4. Support mechanisms – Organisations can offer various support mechanisms such as counselling or access to
contact officers. The mechanisms allow staff to understand and deal with their issues before they become
formal grievances or complaints. Bullying and harassment contact officers can also offer
a confidential support mechanism for those who have experienced or
witnessed workplace bullying and harassment. This can often provide a safe
environment to instil a culture of respect, dignity and fairness. Without
support mechanism, this can lead to individuals feeling frustrated and stressed,
which can lead to litigation under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 as
people can be oppressed and excluded from health and social care services or
employment.
3.2. Evaluate the effectiveness of systems and processes in promoting equality,
diversity and inclusion in own area of responsibility.
Having effective processes and systems within the council is crucial in ensuring the
promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion. Therefore, an analysis of the processes
and systems was conducted within the council / workplace and the following findings
were found -
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8. 1. Policies – Examination of the council’s policies suggests they very clear,
concise and descriptive and is according to legislation that outlines how they
should be formatted and implemented. There are three particular policies that
are appropriate for the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion and these
are whistle blowing, equality and diversity and dignity at work, which all
outline clear behaviours that are expected of all stakeholders (staff, contractors
and customers). Before they are cascaded throughout the organisation, each
head of directorate and appropriate human resource professionals ensure their
suitability to limit possibilities of the inadvertently discriminating against
individuals and groups. The effectiveness of these polices are also assessed by
regular staff questionnaires, complaints and compliments and customer
feedback, which helps identify where there may be gaps that need rectifying.
Furthermore, all three policies highlight the council’s achievements drivers
and vision, which promote equality, diversity and inclusion. One major
achievement and driver is to close the gap on inequality while employing staff
and providing the services to the customers. The council’s vision is “A
Solihull where all partners, including local people, work together to promote
well-being, independence, dignity and choice.” These are infiltrated
throughout the organisation and are part of the organisational culture. These
polices also identify that there is intolerance of discrimination towards those
of protected characteristics identified by the Equality Act 2010. However, they
have gone beyond this and have identified other routes of discrimination and
these will also not be tolerated. These are against political beliefs, trade union
status, criminal record, employment status, social class, home address, culture,
language, HIV status, or responsibility for dependents. These finding suggest
diversity is embraced, which promotes a culture of fairness, dignity and
inclusion, which implies the policies are effective and are fit for purpose.
2. Communication – Communication strategies within the council aim to achieve
the organisation’s objectives, engage with all stakeholders, and enable people
to understand the council’s role and to change people’s behaviour. This
process is effective as there is an intricate strategy in place to ensure
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9. information is passed on to the relevant people. For example, there are many
training courses such as safeguarding adults and dignity that are cascaded
throughout the organisation. This enables managers to share their knowledge
and faster a culture of learning, in addition to promoting equality, diversity
and inclusion. Furthermore, important information regarding council and
government initiatives and changes in legislation is also passed through
monthly local and core briefs, supervisions, appraisals and team meetings.
Incidentally, core briefs are effective as they are standardised to enable
information to be consistently passed onto all departments within the people
directorate and this fosters a culture of professionalism. The intranet is also a
valuable source of information, but not all staff has access to computers and
relies on managers to obtain information on their behalf. The council enables
people to make the communication strategies more effective by encouraging
feedback to alert management of failures and omissions, especially those
concerning email, web designs and other Informational Technology issues.
3. Training – The council’s training and development strategy is comprehensive
and is tailored to each directorate. Various policies such as health and safety,
assertiveness, communication, equality and diversity, dignity and whistle
blowing policies are communicated in training and all highlight behaviours
that are expected of staff. Relevant behaviours are outlined in the Performance
and Development Review Framework and aim to promote a respectful
organisational culture that promotes equality, diversity and inclusion; self-
awareness, service delivery, and communication. Management and human
resources regularly review the training to ensure it is kept up to date and
learning is aligned with the council’s strategic priorities. This suggests the
training enables a sustainable and effective organisation that is ideal for
achieving the aims and objectives.
4. Support mechanisms - Rather than having a bullying and harassment contact
officers, the council has an alternative, the Employee Assistance Programme
(EAP). This strategic process allows staff and their families to access to a
confidential, free and independent advice service. The EAP provides a service,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week and offers emotional support and guidance on
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10. not only bullying and harassment, but with debt and financial management,
family matters and other general health and safety issues. The professional
body also governs the service, British Association for Counsellors and
Psychotherapists and this suggests it is a highly regulated service. This in
addition to occupational health, which is available within all public sector
organisations, promotes equality, diversity and inclusion as they enable staff to
remain in work or support them while they are returning to work after illness.
This proves to be an effective service as there are other individual and
organisational benefits such as improved staff performance and health,
reduced staff turnover and absenteeism, which will have a positive impact on
customer services.
3.3. Propose improvements to address gaps or shortfalls in systems and processes.
Examination of the council’s systems and processes suggests they are very comprehensive and aim to promote
equality, diversity and inclusion. However, there is only one gap identified and that is having a buddy system, especially
for those who are being bullied and discriminated against. This can be an informal service that provides guidance on how
to complain and manage situations, which can be available for service users and individuals. For staff, bullying can make
people vulnerable to unfair treatment and a buddy system would allow a route for someone to develop trusting
relationships within the workplace. This would enable staff to have support and guidance on their work and examine
policies and change them if there inconsistencies and gaps, which would be detrimental to staff and service users.
Implementing this improvement would be difficult as this may be difficult in small teams where there may be biases.
4.1. Describe ethical dilemmas that may arise in own area of responsibility when
balancing individual rights and duty of care.
Ethical dilemmas and conflicts are a common occurrence within the remit of health
and social care, especially with service users, policies and organisational processes.
Therefore, it is important to be aware of legislation that has a dramatic impact of
maintaining a suitable balance between allowing an individual to make their own
decisions, while simultaneously maintaining their safety (Tilmouth and Quallington,
2012); both solutions are of equal ethical or moral value, which makes this a difficult
task. As already stipulated, legislation can include the Human Rights Framework
1998, Data Protection Act 1998, Mental Capacity Act 2005 and safeguarding / dignity
initiatives. One striking example is S.J who attends the day centre and is nearing the
end of his life with lung cancer as a result of smoking all his life. While at the day
centre, he likes to have a cigarette (choice) even though it is bad for him (duty of
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11. care). S.J is aware of the detrimental effects of smoking in his health, he wants to
enjoy the time he has left, whereas on the other hand, the day centre staff may want to
preserve his life by not allowing him to smoke, so that his lung cancer will not
worsen. Indeed, he will smoke when away from the day centre anyhow, so stopping
his choice may make him resentful and not want to come and he will miss out on the
social interaction. Therefore, while at the day centre, it is more respectful and person-
centred to advise S.J of the dangers of smoking, and offer him a place to sit away
from others while he has a cigarette; there is a sheltered area in the day centre garden
for him to sit on his own. This has been offered, despite conflicting day centre staff
beliefs and opinions. By supporting his decision, his rights have not been infringed
and he has maintained in autonomy.
4.2. Explain the principle of informed choice.
Informed choice revolves around the ability to make own decisions after having
access to suitable information regarding the options available. Without access to
information prior to making a decision, people cannot weight the pros and cons
regarding particular treatment or service and therefore, cannot make the rightful
decision in how their care is received or what housing or education services they can
apply for (Ovretveit, 1996). There are also other factors that can influence
autonomous decision-making (Tilmouth and Qualiington, 2012) –
1. Information provided takes in to account individual differences. For example,
guidance is provided in the correct language or format that is ideal for the
particular individual. Outcomes are also suitable for the individual.
2. Individuals are able to make own decisions regarding preferences and goals.
3. There is mental capacity to retain and process information. Therefore, it is
important to check understanding.
4. Freedom is given to enable autonomous decisions and being able act on these.
5. Time is given for reflection and deliberation.
6. Information concerning the options available needs to be realistic and
implementable.
4.3. Explain how issues of individual capacity may affect informed choice.
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12. There are many internal and external factors that may adversely influence an
individual’s ability to make an informed decision. External factors may be as a result
of a lack of adequate information, protective behaviour over others and not being
provided with realistic choices. Internal factors may be as a result from mental illness,
brain damage, learning disabilities, dementia and stroke, which may result in
temporary or long-term incapacity to make autonomous decisions. However, unless
someone has deemed to lack mental capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005,
individuals are assumed to have capacity and this may mean allowing them to make
unwise decisions. Those who do not have mental capacity will not be able to retain
and assimilate information to provide a rationale for their decisions, or communicate
these coherently. If an individual lacks mental capacity, someone else can make
decisions on their behalf, but these must be in the person’s best interests.
4.4. Propose a strategy to manage risks when balancing individual rights and duty of
care in own area of responsibility.
While preserving individual rights and safety, it is important to use a strategy to
manage risks and potential hazards that can result in detrimental consequences. Risk
assessments are an excellent strategy as they can be conducted with the particular
individual and these can take into account their perceptions and judgements, which
also maintains dignity and respect, as they are able to make autonomous decisions.
Using this methodology also allows the individual to consider possibilities and have
underpinning information to support independent thinking. Therefore, this emphasises
the important of staff not to taking on board unnecessary risks while supporting
individuals in the day centre. Instead, they should pass it back to the particular person
by giving them all the accessible information such as telling them about the risks of
having a fall if they walk without a Zimmer frame, especially those who have poor
mobility and have a history of falling. It would be unsafe and unethical to
unnecessarily restrict the person as this would override their decision and by doing so,
the carer has gained ownership of the risk. This strategy is well used within the day
centre and there are individual transport risk assessments on Harriet.
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http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3017
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14. Government Legislation. (1970). Equal Pay Act 1970. Retrieved May 22, 2014 from
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15. 15