Three years ago we set ourselves a mission to realise positive change for those experiencing inequality by promoting and defending the rights established in equality legislation and providing leadership in building a commitment to addressing equality issues in practice, to create a wider awareness of equality issues, to celebrate the diversity in Irish society and to mainstream equality considerations across all sectors. I highlight that because in the preparation of this strategic plan, we decided to maintain that mission statement as being the guiding statement of the work of the Equality Authority.
We were conscious in publishing this strategic plan that continuity would be important in terms of people's confidence in us. The legislation was new and we were still opening up avenues in relation to it. That continuity is reflected in the strategic plan, with its emphasis on the provision of information on the equality legislation and on case work. There is also continuity in terms of developing practical supports for employers and service providers to comply with the legislation and pro-actively pursue equality and build a knowledge base for a new equality agenda that encompasses the nine different grounds. The importance of building our own research capacity has been emphasised as well.
We have combined that continuity with a new set of ambitions that we have tried to develop through the six themes that will shape our work over the next three years. Those six themes arose from widespread local and national consultation with the business, trade union, community and public sectors. We are struck by the significant consensus that exists behind the equality legislation. Sometimes the controversy dominates the headlines and we do not hear about the hidden, practical commitment to equality throughout the country.
The themes allow us to organise our resources, in the context of very high demand and expectations, and prioritise in key areas and activities. The first team focuses on service provision and there is a need to emphasise that area. There is a growing level of work on equality in the workplace. The Equal Status Act, with its focus on service provision, is new and there is a significant need for service providers to learn more about it. We particularly emphasise public sector service provision because it can have an impact on the quality of life of people across all nine grounds.
Within that provision we highlight the areas of health and education, which are beginning to emerge in some of the case work. In those areas there is a significant challenge. In education we are focusing on practice at school level and helping schools to develop school plans with equality objectives, codes of behaviour that address issues of harassment under the legislation and admissions policies that reflect their obligations under the Equal Status Act. The health area is more complex. The starting point is in building a relationship with the Department of Health and Children and looking at an equality strategy that might link to planning within the health area and with health organisations in particular, as well as helping the Department, health boards and health institutions to assess the impact of their policies across the nine grounds of the equality agenda. In that way, those policies can be fine tuned to maximise their impact on the nine grounds within current resources. That action must be backed up through equality training and policies, and a capacity to review and develop equality action plans.
The workplace is the second major area of concern. It is an area of continuity and my colleague, Ms Hayes, has described the important relationship we have developed with the ICTU, IBEC and the small firms' organisations. We seek to continue the joint ventures with them through the development of practical support for enterprises to build what we call an equality infrastructure within the work place; that is, an infrastructure of equality policies, procedures and training, as well as the capacity to review what they do from an equality perspective and change what they do on the basis of that review.
We are also continuing to provide guidance to employers and trades unions. We are opening up a programme of employment equality reviews, which is funded under the national development plan. That will focus on a small number of large organisations and companies, looking at policies, procedures, practices and perceptions within the workplace. From that examination we will see how they could be further developed and changed to enhance equality outcomes. A small number of large-scale reviews will assist significantly in examining what makes for effective equality strategies in the workplace.
We will also continue our focus on the family-friendly workplace and encourage the introduction of flexible working arrangements to support those with caring responsibilities. That work and the provision of goods and services is what we call an integrated approach to equality which involves developing initiatives that bring forward all nine grounds of the legislation simultaneously. The benefit of a single body dealing with the nine different grounds is that the strategy becomes open to enterprises and other organisations.
At the same time there is a need to break down and focus upon specific grounds at particular times. Over the coming period, we have identified three such grounds to examine: disability, race and carers. We are anxious to focus on the disability ground because 2003 is the European Year of People with Disabilities. The legislation contains only one positive duty which is to reasonably accommodate people with disabilities to ensure their capacity to participate in the workplace and to address any undue difficulties they might have in accessing services. We want to develop a range of supports and initiatives around that positive duty so that there is a greater understanding of what it involves and a greater commitment to respecting it. We feel that is a key to unlocking some of the barriers faced by people with disabilities in the workplace and in the provision of goods and services.
On the race ground, we want to continue our work with Congress and IBEC concerning the anti-racist workplace week, and will continue to focus in particular on the difficult situation that many migrant workers face. My colleague, Ms Hayes, has already referred to the high level of case work in that area.
The final ground concerns carers, which comes under the family status ground. There is a certain invisibility surrounding the equality agenda for carers. We want to do some work to begin to define what the key parameters of that agenda are and what the policy responses need to be. Therefore, we will convene an advisory committee to prepare a report on implementing equality for carers.
The fourth key theme concerns supporting effective equality strategies. It examines our contribution to equality legislation in terms of the work of transposing the EU directives into domestic law. It also supports coherence between other legislation and our equality legislation, in particular the forthcoming Disability Bill. We see that as a key equality strategy.
Another such strategy concerns equality proofing about which there is not as much knowledge, although it presents a growing focus within policy making. In that way, policy makers will have the capacity to test out the impact of their policy decisions on people across the nine grounds. As necessary, they will be able to change and adjust those decisions to ensure that maximum benefit can be achieved from the policy and its provision.
We are also supporting equality data strategies. Good data are not available across most of the nine grounds, which presents difficulties both in making and assessing policy. We hope to see that matter rectified over the coming three-year period.
We will also examine strategies of community advocacy to provide and support the emergence of alternative supports for people who have claims, in particular under the Equal Status Act. As my colleague, Ms Hayes, said, we only take cases with a strategic or ripple effect, so people need access to other sources of support outside the workplace, similar to the support provided by trades unions within the workplace.
The fifth theme focuses on people experiencing a combination of poverty and inequality - a theme that emerged strongly during the consultation process. When we looked at the nine grounds there was significant experience of poverty which, when combined with discrimination issues, becomes a different phenomenon that requires particular strategies to address it effectively. We will work with the Department of Social and Family Affairs on the national anti-poverty strategy and the development of equality targets within that strategy, also.
The final theme I highlight is the issue of developing our own organisation which is still very new. The full staff allocation is only now being reached and there is much organisation building to be done. In addition, there is a need to continue and develop the regional outreach work to which my colleague, Ms Hayes, referred earlier, in addition to having a presence around the country, even if it is not a physical presence such as a building.
With this plan we believe we are geared up to meet our mandate to promote equality and combat discrimination. The plan will allow us to make a contribution to wider societal goals of equality that have usefully been defined in terms of access to resources, employment, decision making, recognition of one's identity, experience and situation, and access to relationships of respect and solidarity. That is the context within which we hope to place our work over the coming three years.
