Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

What is the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)?

The PSED was introduced by the Equality Act 2010 and applies to all schools, including maintained and independent schools, academies, maintained nursery schools, and maintained and non-maintained special schools.

The PSED has three main elements

These are:

Eliminating discrimination and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
Fostering good relations across all characteristics – between people who do share a protected characteristic and people who do not

What are protected characteristics?

There are 9 protected characteristics:

Age
Sex
Race
Disability
Religion or belief
Sexual orientation
Gender reassignment
Pregnancy or maternity
Marriage and civil partnership

Age as a protected characteristic does not apply to pupils in schools, so pupils will be treated in ways appropriate to their age and stage of development.

How Cherry Grove eliminates discrimination:

Policies are in place to cover anti-bullying, behaviour, staff pay and appraisal.
Governor meeting minutes show equality is discussed and relevant actions taken.
Equality issues are recorded and presented to governors, with relevant action taken.
Single equality objectives are identified and published. Actions are embedded into school development plans as appropriate.

How Cherry Grove advances equality of opportunity:

Safer recruitment processes are in place, including panel selection and decision making that is removed from the 9 protected characteristics.
Attainment data reviews different pupil groups e.g. gender, EAL and disadvantage. Relevant actions for specific pupil groups are built into action plans and school development.
Bullying incidents are recorded and presented to governors, which shows very low incidence of bullying overall, but also specifically related to a protected characteristic.
Accessibility plan in place, with adaptation for those with disability e.g. disabled toilet access for pupils and adults.

How Cherry Grove fosters good relations:

Relationships with parents fostered through clear, regular communications by letter and parents' evenings. This includes ad-hoc welcome meetings and individual meetings and/or discussions with parents where there is an additional need.
By adopting a Rights-Respecting ethos that is rooted in the rights of the child. This impacts the language and approaches used to build rapport with children and our community.
Assemblies are used to promote diversity, friendship, and understanding of a range of religions and cultures.
By making collaboration and community a priority for school development.

Please see our policies page to view our single equality objectives document.

This page and content reviewed Autumn 2023 (to be reviewed annually).