The Equality Act 2010: Impact And Challenges Essay.

Media Impact on the Equality Act 2010

1. Using two different organisations, explain the ways that media influences the implementation of this Act(Use examples from the media linked with theory on attitudes to show how this might be successful) 

Media has a great influence on the Equality Act 2010 and there were massive responses to this Act. According to British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Equality Act 2010 is a landmark that would help to harmonize the discrimination and legislation to fight against discrimination at workplaces. BBC supported the Act and extended their support to strengthen this act and progress towards equality. They stated that this act would have a great impact on the small organizations as they have fewer adherences to anti-discrimination acts and harassment policies that already exist. This policy is beneficial and ensures that both the employees and employers would be able to work in a fair and transparent workplace (bbc.com 2010).

According to The Guardian, there were reported incidents where the bus driver had refused entry into a bus where there were no pushchairs that make space for the wheelchairs to go. They stated that the disabled people in United Kingdom had been trying ot fight for their civil rights, however, the Equality Act 2010 had changed the scenario. The government has taken the responsibility to empower equality at the workplaces. However, this responsibility is failing due to the mindset of the people (theguardian.com 2017).

This change can only occur if the mindset of the people towards disability will change and they will change their behavior towards the disabled people. However, the theory says that inequality towards the disabled people is not inevitable.

2. How might individual beliefs impact positively and negatively on service users when it comes to implementing this Act? 

There is a huge difference between the proposing and implementation of this act. The discrimination is the main barrier encompassing the people beliefs towards the disability, gender, age and race of the service users has a great impact on the implementation of this Act. The individual attitudes like discrimination against the race, gender or a person with disability is solely based on one’s beliefs that they are less capable and does not belong to their community and are treated as different people. It has a negative impact on the service users and in the Act implementation. They are greatly discriminated in education and employment. According to World Health Organization (WHO) thee are prevailing negative attitude towards the people who are discriminated against their age, gender or race. This greatly acts as a barrier in the implementation of this act and they believe that when the disabled people are granted these rights, it is an extra privilege to them and others are barred from it (World Health Organization 2017).

Individual Beliefs and their Impact on Service Users

3. How might individual behaviour impact positively and negatively on service users when it comes to implementing this Act?

Individual beliefs play an important role in the implementation of the Equality Act 2010. This act is intended to remove the barriers of the Equality and Human Rights that is the social change that is required to change the individual perspectives and attitudes towards discrimination. The negative attitude towards the people discriminated on the grounds of age, gender or race would negatively impact the implementation of this act. Individual attitudes towards the people belonging to different cultural backgrounds negatively influence the workplace or organizational culture and the effectiveness of the implementation of this act. These attitudes exist in the society and acts as a barrier in the Equality Act, 2010 (Griffiths and Vaughan 2016).

To achieve SP M3 your discussionwill need to follow a recognised structure that shows a logical and coherent development of the concepts in your analysis and evaluation.

To achieve CIM1 you must demonstrate that you have considered attitude formation and attitude change and how the presentation of information in the media influences this when making your evaluation

To achieve SPD2 you will be able toautonomy/independence is demonstrated – your work will show that you have not been heavily reliant on support and guidance from your tutor(s) or others in producing the assignment. This will particularly be reflected in your discussion in that your recommendations need to directly relate to potential policy problems for service users and provide solutions

This is an introduction to The Equality Act 2010-local and national perspective

From the local perspective, the Equality Act seems to be bizarre. This planning decision had a great impact on every individual; however, the local and national perspectives are different regarding the implementation of this act. From the local perspective, it is difficult to implement the Equality Act, 2010 as at the local level, discrimination prevails to a great extent as it encompasses the attitudes and beliefs of the people that greatly require social change. The individual and people beliefs against discrimination on the grounds of age, gender or race or people living with disability would influence the Equality Act, 2010. There is less transparency and accountability at the local level and racism greatly prevails among the local citizens. The local community and voluntary groups have to work in collaboration to understand and identify the needs of the local people that comprises of minority groups and act towards their concerns (Davies et al. 2016).

Individual Behaviour and its Impact on Service Users

From the national perspective, this act is defined as a law that has a focus on disability and mitigates racism from the workplaces. The disabled people would not be treated as second class citizens and focus to meet their special needs. This act would support the national organizations in the successful implementation of this act to improve the lives of the discriminated people in all spheres and improve their lives (Shah 2016).

Sources of information

Discuss the range of sources that you used to research the issue in this section.These need to be reliable sources of informationand you are asked to explain why you consider them reliable.

The range of sources that have been used for the research comprises of the news websites (media) and government websites of United Kingdom. It provided the information about the Equality Act, its implementation and the effectiveness of this act at the local and national levels. The media websites are British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and The Guardian which are the reliable sources in providing the appropriate information about the issue related to the Equality act, 2010. BBC gives the most accurate and reliable news as it is an unbiased and impartial news source. It is away from the cultural and political bias and provides reliable and accurate information. The Guardian is a news source in United Kingdom that is reliable and provides factual information that is trustworthy and good quality for investigation journalism.

The government sites of United Kingdom is also useful as it provides the reliable information about the Equality act, the related updates and the progress made after the implementation of this act. The government organization websites of United Kingdom that deliver the accurate and reliable information about the equality act issues from the time of its introduction.

In this section you are to present your findings and analyse as required to meet the assessment criteria. You need to: 

• consider a range of perspectives about the Act and consider these over a period of time
• analyse the factors that have influenced the development of different perspectives and how these have changed over a period of time
• assess the relevance of your findings to health and social care practice locally
• analyse the extent to which local attitudes reflect those found at a national level.

Since the time of the implementation of this act, there are different perspectives about this act at the local and national level. The main reason behind the implementation of this act is the discrimination that forms the basis for inequality. Discrimination arises due to different perspectives of people towards other people based on their culture, gender, race or disability. This individual and people beliefs and attitudes affect the implementation of this act as the social change is the way to implement this act and as a result, a range of perspectives have raised over the period of time (Kemp 2014).  

Local and National Perspectives on the Equality Act 2010

With time, the equality act has encompassed the four grounds of discrimination like trade union, social or status origin, criminal conviction and political opinion at every kind of workplaces. This has led to the development of different perspectives and unequal treatment at the workplaces based on age, gender or race or disability. Different people have different perspectives against discrimination and behave with different people. This led to emergence of discrimination as the minority people are considered to be different and second class citizens.

In the health and social care, equality act is implemented that defines the equal accessibility of healthcare services by the service users and healthcare workplace health that determines the quality of care. The care received by the service users and the health of the employees in health and social care should be based on fair treatment and unbiased attitude under the legislation (Westwood et al. 2015).  

Local attitudes have not changed much in the last few years even after the implementation of the act. There is lack of understanding among the people regarding disability or cultural background of the minority people in United Kingdom. According to the committee report from the House of Lords on Equality act, 2010 showed that the disabled people are still facing challenges in their spheres of life and at workplaces. These local attitudes greatly affect the national level as their progress would reflect the progress of the country at the national level (Hepple 2014). 

Conclusion

In this section you need to use the findings from your research and draw it together into some conclusions.

The main reason behind the implementation of this act is the discrimination that forms the basis for inequality. This has led to the development of different perspectives and unequal treatment at the workplaces based on age, gender or race or disability. There is lack of understanding among the people regarding disability and as a result, they suffer many challenges in their daily life.

Include a list of all sources used in this section using the Harvard Referencing System.

bbc.com 2010. The new Equality Act and you - BBC News. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-11453052 [Accessed 29 May 2017].

Clouder, L., Adefila, A., Jackson, C., Opie, J. and Odedra, S., 2016. The discourse of disability in higher education: insights from a health and social care perspective. International Journal of Educational Research, 79, pp.10-20.

Davies, C., Ferreira, N., Morris, A. and Morris, D., 2016. The Equality Act 2010: Five years on.

Findings and Analysis

Glasby, J., 2017. Understanding health and social care. Policy Press.

Griffiths, E. and Vaughan, S., 2016. Only Relatively Equal? Differences and hierarchies in the Equality Act 2010–diversity in the legal profession.

Hepple, B., 2014. Equality: The Legal Framework. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Kemp, D.J., 2014. A forgotten equality: a personal reflection on trans awareness training. Mental Health Nursing, 34(1), pp.19-19.

Sanderson, M., Allen, P. and Osipovic, D., 2017. The regulation of competition in the National Health Service (NHS): what difference has the Health and Social Care Act 2012 made?. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 12(1), pp.1-19.

Shah, P., 2016. What lies behind the inclusion of caste in the UK Equality Act?. Religion and the public Sphere.

theguardian.com 2017. Equality Act 2010 | Law | The Guardian. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/law/equality-act-2010 [Accessed 29 May 2017].

Westwood, S., King, A., Almack, K., Suen, Y.T. and Bailey, L., 2015. Good practice in health and social care provision for LGBT older people in the UK. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans health inequalities: International perspectives in social work, p.145.

World Health Organization (WHO, 2017. Health 2020. A European policy framework and strategy for the 21st century. Cancer. 

To achieve CIM3the research writing should be presented in an appropriate structured format. 

To achieve CID2you should take an effective approach to independent research and study and will have met the deadline to submit the tasks and achieve the unit assessment criteria.

1. Based on local and national perspectives,evaluate public attitudes and behaviours related to the Act and consider how valid these are  

  The public behaviour and attitudes related to this act is in a mixed form. The report on public performance survey showed that there is a high level of satisfaction after the implementation of this act in Highland where the councils are working positively to provide services and employment for the discriminated people. Public attitudes have changed and the government is successful in mitigating the inequality prevailing in the society. These are valid changes and pose a way to equal treatment in the society (Glasby 2017).

2. Again from both the local and national perspectives, consider how the new (contemporary) thinking about the policy has affected the provision of health and social care services since 1945. In other words what are the possible or actual outcomes/consequencesof the contemporary thinking on how health and social care services are provided?

The actual outcomes of contemporary thinking in the health and social care services have changed since the act came into action. The negative attitudes towards the disabled and minority people have changed over the years and there is a decline from 21% to 15% from 2008 to 2011 and there are positive attitudes (Clouder et al. 2016).

According to the report by National Health Service (NHS) England, it is stated that the care services provided to the clients are age and need based that target in enabling their social inclusion, employment and educational opportunities. It is non age-discriminatory and directed towards personalization of care. On the other hand, the report presented by Devon County Council, England states that there is poor access to healthcare services along with discrimination, exclusion, community harassment that have a negative impact on the health and well-being of the service users(Sanderson, Allen and Osipovic 2017).

3. Justify your answer by referring to the research that you have interrogated.

The research can be concluded in a way that there are different attitudes and beliefs regarding the equality act in the different parts of United Kingdom. Different people have different attitudes that have an impact on the service users in health and social care. The negative attitudes towards the disabled and minority people have changed over the years and there is a decline from 21% to 15% from 2008 to 2011 and there are positive attitudes. However, there is still poor access to healthcare services among the service users in health and social care.

To Achieve SP D1 Reflective model will have been used to work alongside the debate to synthesise, to generate and justify valid conclusions

To achieve CID3 you should generate a diverse range of ideas about the consequences of contemporary thinking and the effect on services and justify these.

To achieve SPD3you must be able to demonstrate that you have applied innovative and creative thought to your work this will have been done through will show that ideas have been created and choices made concerning the understanding of the significant historical and contemporary landmarks in social welfare provision and understand the origins of social policies