With Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) being both a legal and OfSTED requirement, schools and FE providers need to be clear about how to avoid the many pitfalls in planning, implementing and followingup EIAs, in order to reduce the likelihood of receiving an 'inadequate' grade for 'Equality and Diversity' and hence 'inadequate' for 'Overall Effectiveness' (since Equality and Diversity is now a limiting contributory grade).

Moreover, failure to undertake robust EIAs could increase the risk of legal liability as part of a legal challenge based on one or more of the equality strands. This course will provide an outline of a robust approach to EIAs, methods to reduce bureaucracy in the process, ensure a sufficient audit trail as well as advise on how to minimise the time and resources expended in completing the EIA process.