Respondents from public representative organisations were, with a few exceptions, less aware of the EHRC’s guidance on the PSED than their counterparts in public authorities. if I had somebody come to me with a specific question I ‘Possibly would’ve looked and I might have found it, but it wasn’t something that I was aware of.’ (England, public representative, union, non-specialist, Essential Guide for England and Fair Financial Decisions’) ‘Making haven’t had [the guidance document] there; we haven’t had for ‘We example an invitation to go to training or if you’re promoting we don’t – seem to get any of that information. We do get some information from Citizens Advice but not from [EHRC] directly.’ (England, public representative, advice, non-specialist, Essential Guide for England) This was the case even with some public representative respondents whose background meant they had some knowledge about the PSED itself. They had not sought out the guidance, partly because they already felt they knew the principles well enough, partly because the guidance and the PSED apply more directly to public authorities. of the requirements for local authorities to fulfill their public ‘I’m sector equality duty but I haven’t looked at these documents before personally… I’m not sure I learnt anything in particular [from the Essential Guide for England] that I didn’t assume was the case in terms of the protected groups.’ (England, public representative, advice, non-specialist, Essential Guide for England and Fair Financial Decisions’) ‘Making Familiarity with the test guidance Many participants in the research said they had not actually seen the test guidance before receiving it in advance of their interview. This was particularly true for those in public authorities who did not have a formal equalities role, and among public representative participants. Public authority respondents with an equalities role varied in how familiar they were on a day-to-day with the tested guidance. Some were very familiar, particularly
Respondents from public representative organisations were, with a few exceptions, less aware of the EHRC’s guidance on the PSED than their counterparts in public authorities. ‘Possibly if I had somebody come to me with a specific question I would’ve looked and I might have found it, but it wasn’t something that I was aware of.’ (England, public representative, union, non-specialist, Essential Guide for England and ‘Making Fair Financial Decisions’) ‘We haven’t had [the guidance document] there; we haven’t had for example an invitation to go to training or if you’re promoting – we don’t seem to get any of that information. We do get some information from Citizens Advice but not from [EHRC] directly.’ (England, public representative, advice, non-specialist, Essential Guide for England) This was the case even with some public representative respondents whose background meant they had some knowledge about the PSED itself. They had not sought out the guidance, partly because they already felt they knew the principles well enough, partly because the guidance and the PSED apply more directly to public authorities. ‘I’m of the requirements for local authorities to fulfill their public sector equality duty but I haven’t looked at these documents before personally… I’m not sure I learnt anything in particular [from the Essential Guide for England] that I didn’t assume was the case in terms of the protected groups.’ (England, public representative, advice, non-specialist, Essential Guide for England and ‘Making Fair Financial Decisions’) Familiarity with the test guidance Many participants in the research said they had not actually seen the test guidance before receiving it in advance of their interview. This was particularly true for those in public authorities who did not have a formal equalities role, and among public representative participants. Public authority respondents with an equalities role varied in how familiar they were on a day-to-day with the tested guidance. Some were very familiar, particularly