Ideas Meeting to End Harassment

posted: 13/12/2010

What should the council, NHS and other public bodies be doing to stop HIV abuse and harassment? People with HIV, their partners and friends can put forward ideas and have a say at a meeting in Manchester in late January. 

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission are holding a meeting for the families, friends and survivors of disability-related harassment (including HIV abuse).

Legal duty to end harassment

Public bodies all have a legal duty to ‘eliminate’ disability-related harassment and its causes. HIV abuse, threats and violence are all examples of disability-related harassment.

Most public bodies are doing nothing effective to ‘eliminate’ HIV and other forms of disability harassment. Because of the stigma associated with HIV public bodies should be prioritising the ending of HIV stigma and its causes.

What should public bodies be doing?
There is almost no limit to the creative (and cheap) ways public bodies could promote better public attitudes to people with HIV.

• The Local Government Improvement and Development website has top tips and case studies on improving ‘ community cohesion’
• The Institute for Community Cohesion also has resources, toolkits and case studies  

Ask to take part 

If you have been directly affected by disability-related harassment for example because of HIV, or someone you know has, and you would like to attend the meeting, please tell them as soon as possible. They will then invite you and send you the details of the meeting. There are only a limited number of seats so please book early. Email or telephone the Equality and Human Rights Commission: 0161 829 8174

This Manchester meeting will begin on Monday 24 January at 1pm and end by 5pm.
 

Please note this meeting is only for people who have experience of disability-related harassment.

Campaigning actions

During 2010 George House Trust has been encouraging people with HIV and HIV organisations to take part in this Disability Harassment Inquiry.

The commission has powers to order public bodies to take action and expects to publish its report and recommendations in the first part of 2011.

Find out more about the commission’s Inquiry into disability related harassment

Guidance on Cuts, Equality and Fairness

posted: 28/10/2010

In making cuts and changes to services, public bodies have to obey equality law. Equality law does not prevent public bodies from making difficult decisions about reorganisation, relocation, redundancies, and service cuts, nor does the law stop public authorities from making decisions that may affect one group more than another.

A Must: Equality Impact Assessments
But the public equality duties do enable public authorities to show they are making decisions in a fair, transparent and accountable way, considering the needs and the rights of different members of their community.

The law says public bodies have to carry out an assessment of the impact that changes to policies, procedures and practices could have on different equality groups. These assessments help public bodies make better decisions, based on robust evidence. Public bodies must then 'have regard to' the impact any changes and cuts would have on sections of the community protected by equality law.

The assessment does not have to be a document called an Equality Impact Assessment, although this is what the Equality and Human Rights Commission recommends, as it helps public authorities:

• ensure they have a written record of the equality considerations they have taken into account
• ensure that their decision includes a consideration of the actions that would help to avoid or mitigate any unfair impact on particular equality groups
• make their decisions based on robust evidence
• make the decision-making process more transparent
• comply with the law.

If an Equality Impact Assessment is not done, then the public body must use an another method to systematically assess any adverse impact of a change in policy, procedure or practice.

It is a legal obligation which should remain a top priority, even in times of economic difficulty. Failure may result in authorities facing costly, time-consuming and reputation-damaging legal challenges.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a short guide to help put fairness and transparency at the heart of the difficult financial decisions through meeting the legal obligation to assess equality impact. The guide covers:

• What the law requires now
• What the law requires from April 2011
• Guidance (for practitioners and decision-makers)
• Relevant case law
• Best practice examples
• FAQs Public authorities and service providers
• FAQs Service users and organisations

Short Guide

Full details

Quangos and HIV

posted: 15/10/2010

The government promised a bonfire of the quangos, but it seems that beneath the surface not a lot will change for HIV. Two HIV advisory groups are scrapped, the Health Protection Agency will go, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will be reformed, the Cabinet Office said.
 

Not a lot will change with the scrapping of the two HIV advisory groups. They don’t really disappear at all. One will be reincarnated as a Department of Health / Public Health Service committee of experts, and the other will be reborn as a stakeholder advisory group. Will anyone be able to tell the difference – we don’t think so.

The Health Protection Agency will be abolished and its work transferred to the proposed Public Health Service. Details have not been published.

The EHRC will be reformed but there are no details yet. An EHRC spokeswoman said that the situation was currently "largely speculative" and any proposed changes would be subject to wider consultation. The government is understood to be keen to "streamline" the commission and part of its work may be incorporated into the Government Equalities Office. A Government Equalities Office spokesman said the commission's work was currently being assessed with decisions to be made later in the year.
 

List of Quango changes

Axe for HIV quangos?

posted: 04/10/2010

Two expert HIV advisory bodies - quangos - could be abolished under government plans to save money. Both the 'Expert Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS' and the 'Independent Advisory Group of Sexual Health and HIV' are on a leaked list of quangos that are to be scrapped, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. Two other quangos performing useful work for people with HIV could also be abolished - the Health Protection Agency (HPA), and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
 

Both of the HIV advisory bodies offer expert advice to the government from national experts; and the Health Protection Agency produces all the national HIV statistics and public health guidance, and the EHRC acts as a human rights watchdog, looking after the interests of people with HIV, among other groups.
 

After the election, prime minister David Cameron promised a "bonfire of the quangos" to save public money. Thousands of jobs are expected to be lost. The fate of these quangos should become clear after the autumn spending review is published in late October. Both the Expert Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS  and the Independent Advisory Group of Sexual Health and HIV are unpaid advisory bodies.

Scrapping these two advisory bodies will save almost no money, but the price we would all pay would be the loss of valuable HIV expertise the Department of Health does not have among its own staff and ministers. 
 

Source

Budget Cuts Threat

posted: 26/08/2010

Amid the renewed criticism that the June budget affects the poor and people with disabilities such as HIV worst of all, despite government claims that it is ‘fair,’ and 'progressive,' Britain's equalities watchdog has now warned it could take action. If ministers have failed to carry out the legally required assessment of the impact on vulnerable people, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has now threatened action.
 

The Institute for Fiscal Studies described the budget yesterday as "clearly regressive". The respected and impartial think tank did a far more detailed study than it could just after the budget, and has now taken into account things like changes to Disability Living Allowance, Housing Benefit and Tax Credit, and has found that these and all the other changes mean people with incomes in the poorest tenth of the population are the biggest losers in the budget.
 

Equalities warning

Neil Kinghan, the EHRC's director general, issued his warning after Mark Hoban, the Treasury minister, stonewalled questions on the BBC Radio4 Today programme about whether the government had carried out a statutory assessment of the impact of the budget on women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and the elderly.
 

Kinghan said: "It is for the Treasury to demonstrate it has complied with legislation and assessed the impact of its decisions on vulnerable groups. If it cannot do so, then the commission will have to consider appropriate enforcement action."
 

Source

Report on Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis of the affect of the budget on different parts of the population
Institute for Fiscal Studies' own analysis of the budget