This policy sets out the General Teaching Council for England’s approach to equal opportunities and its programme for action.

Policy statement

The GTC is committed to policies that will promote equal opportunity in all aspects of its employment and business, regardless of age, disability, ethnic origin, gender, marital status, religion, sexual orientation or any other grounds not bearing on a person’s ability or potential.

The aim is to ensure that no job applicant, employee or customer receives less favourable treatment or is disadvantaged by employment conditions or requirements, which cannot be shown to be justifiable. The application of the policy will be monitored but information gathered will only be used for this purpose.

The equal opportunities policy offers three main benefits to the GTC and its employees:

• It makes full use of the talents of all members of the workforce and will help ensure that the GTC’s employment is reflective of the communities local to its workplaces.
• It improves motivation and performance, thereby enhancing the quality of working life.
• It ensures that the GTC manages to promote equal opportunities according to best practice and therefore complies with our statutory requirements under the Sex Discrimination Act, Race Relations Act, Equal Pay Act, Disability Discrimination Act, Asylum and Immigration Act, Human Rights Act and the Employee Relations Act.

The promotion of equal opportunities will be actively pursued through the application of employment policies that value diversity and ensure that individuals receive treatment that is fair equitable and consistent with their skills and abilities. The GTC will encourage all employees to take advantage of suitable opportunities for training and development and make such opportunities available.

The GTC is fully committed to promoting equal opportunities in its employment policies and practices and to a process of ongoing review. All of the GTC’s employment policies and supporting statements give a clear focus on issues of equal opportunities and, together with this overall statement, represent the policy as it applies in practice to all issues of employment.

The GTC is also committed to ensuring that all of its work promotes equal opportunities within the teaching profession.

Definitions

Direct discrimination arises when one individual is treated less favourably than another because of their sex, colour, ethnic or national origin, age, sex, marital status, domestic responsibilities, disability, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs or any grounds not bearing on a person’s ability or potential.

Indirect discrimination arises when someone applies a condition equally to all people but that that condition has a discriminatory effect because the proportion of people who are able to comply with it, is smaller among people of a particular group for instance race or sex, than people in another group and which is not objectively justifiable in the given situation. Examples of indirect discrimination, for illustration could include:

• requiring candidates to a Police Force to be at least 5’8 tall
• only sending full time staff on training courses

Responsibilities under the policy

Council Members and the Chief Executive 

The Council Members and Chief Executive are responsible for ensuring that equal opportunity remains at the heart of the GTC’s work and its employment policies and practices. The Audit, Monitoring and Review Committee will include equal opportunities in its programme of performance monitoring.

Human Resources Team

The Human Resources Team are responsible for developing, promulgating and monitoring the policy and for ensuring that the GTC is aware of new initiatives and legislation in equal opportunities matters.

Head of Finance and Administration 

The Head of Finance and Administration is responsible for ensuring that regular reviews of the policy take place. Reporting to the Senior Management Team, the Resources and Planning Committee and full Council.

Equal Opportunities Group 

The GTC will maintain an Equal Opportunities Group at staff level which will be responsible for developing an annual programme of action, setting targets and reviewing progress.

Line managers 

Line managers are responsible for day-to-day administration of the policy and ensuring that all their staff are aware of the policy.

All employees

All employees are responsible for complying with the policy and relevant legislation.

Procedures

An annual programme of action on equal opportunities including objectives, will be drawn up by the Equal Opportunities Group to address the following areas and to advise on the GTC’s policy and practices and their need for subsequent development and further review:

• Recruitment and selection
• Promotion
• Performance Appraisal
• Pay and Conditions of Service
• Training
• Monitoring
• Flexible Working
• Harassment
• Grievance and disciplinary procedures.

Monitoring

Monitoring data relating to the sex, age, ethnic origin, etc, of all internal and external applicants will be collected and analysed.

Annual analysis of data will be used to validate compliance with the policy.

A six monthly report on progress against the programme of action will be provided to the Senior Management Team and an annual report to the Audit Monitoring and Review Committee.

The application of the policy will be monitored but information gathered for this purpose will only be used for this purpose.

Training

Equal opportunities will form an integral part of training relating to management and supervisory skills, in particular recruitment and selection, appraisals, disciplinary and grievance cases.

Enforcement

Minor breaches of the Equal Opportunities Policy will be dealt with by the provision of counselling. Where breaches are deliberate or persistent, they will be treated as misconduct and will be dealt with under the Disciplinary Procedure. In addition they may be liable to action in an Employment Tribunal under the Sex Discrimination, Race Relations or Disability Discrimination Act.