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How the Practical Guidance for Equality Impact Assessment was developed

Equality Impact Assessment: Practical Guidance for Scottish colleges and universities
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The project focused on considering Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) of Outcome Agreements (OAs), as a detailed and complex area of strategic work to equality impact assess.  A clear aim of the project was to provide a model for EIA of any area of strategy.        

The project involved the combined participation of eight institutions, with at least two members of staff from each institution, including staff with lead responsibility for OAs or strategic planning, and staff with an equality remit.  The Project Team also included representation from the College Development Network (CDN) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) as well as Advance HE staff.  A full list of project partners is available in the acknowledgements section.

The project team met regularly during 2018 and 2019 to consider key issues, challenges, different approaches to EIA and any emerging best practice. This included a research review on EIA, conducted by Advance HE. The review considered different approaches to strategic EIA and what could be learned from identified best practice. 

In developing the guidance, the project team were keen to ensure it should be as practical as possible, in order to best support institutions to consider and apply a strategic approach, within their own institutional, or regional college context. The guidance includes the rationale and an overview of the suggested process but there are also a number of practical tools such as a template, checklists, case studies and other resources.   

The guidance is intended to complement, rather than replicate the range of other more detailed guidance available on the legal principles, purpose and implementation of EIA but links to further resources and information are included in the practical tools and resources area.