Independent Advocacy Social Care Pilot Fund: equality impact assessment

Recommendations and Conclusion

Based on the findings of this EQIA, care will be taken as to how the assessment and monitoring for any grant funding is undertaken. Specifically, the EQIA analysis has shown the importance of any potential services demonstrating how the following will be achieved:

• cultural norms will be understood;
• language barriers will be overcome;
• good communication will be enacted, including within any referral process;
• length of support time offered will be sufficient as far as possible (recognising the limited time length we have with the planned grant fund);
• understanding of people’s lived and living experience will be demonstrated;
• intersectionality between characteristics will be acknowledged;
• digital barriers will be avoided.

Further, as a result of undertaking this EQIA and our co-design work, we have decided to focus the fund on citizen, peer or collective advocacy offerings to support the fostering of good relations amongst and between those with the protected characteristic in question and those without. This will enable us to use the fund to support this aspect of the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Finally, consideration will be given as to how the quality of independent advocacy provided can be monitored throughout the fund. This is particularly necessary in light of some of the findings here as regards bias and lack of understanding of some protected characteristics within the independent advocacy sector itself. Monitoring and evaluation will be built into the grant process, and there will be requirements on any funded providers to comply with equality obligations as a condition of funding.