Equal Opportunities

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Equal Opportunities Policy

ESHA is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to a pro-active and inclusive approach to equality, which supports and encourages all under-represented groups, promotes an inclusive culture, and values diversity.

ESHA is therefore committed to a policy and practice, which require that, for students, admission to ESHA and progression within the course will be determined only by personal ability and by performance.

Subject to statutory provisions no application for admission as a student will be treated any less favourably than another on the grounds of sex (including gender reassignment), marital or parental status, race, ethnic or national origin, colour, disability, sexual orientation, religion or age.

If any person admitted as a student considers that he or she is suffering from unequal treatment on any of the above grounds in his or her admission, he or she may make a complaint to the principal, which will be dealt with through the agreed procedures for complaints or grievances, or the procedures for dealing with bullying or harassment, as appropriate.

ESHA will take active steps to promote good practice. In particular it will:

	Promote equality of opportunity
	Promote good relations between people of different racial groups, between women and men and between disabled and non-disabled people
	Have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination on grounds of race, sex, disability, and all other grounds set out in the statement of equal opportunities
	Subject its policies to continuous assessment in order to examine how they affect all under-represented groups, especially ethnic minority students, women and disabled students, and to identify whether its policies help to achieve equality of opportunity for all these groups, or whether they have an adverse impact.
	Monitor the recruitment and progress of all students, paying particular attention to the recruitment and progress of ethnic minority students, women and disabled students.
	Promote an inclusive culture, good practice in teaching, learning and assessment, and good management practice, through the development of codes of best practice, policies and training.
	Take positive action wherever possible to support the policy and its aims.
	Publish this policy widely amongst students together with policy assessments and results of monitoring.

ESHA will meet all statutory obligations under relevant legislation and, where appropriate, anticipate future legal requirements signalled under EU directives. ESHA’s policy is guided by:

	Sex Discrimination Act (1970)
	Race Relations Act (1976)
	Disability Discrimination Act (1995)
	Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001)
	Human Rights Act (1998)
	Race Relations (Amendment) Act (2000)
	EU Equal Treatment Framework Directive (2000/78)

And, in addition, the Codes of Practice, issued by the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality, together with Codes of Practice on Disability and Age Diversity. These codes are not legally binding (though they are admissible as evidence in Employment Tribunals) and ESHA supports them fully.