Equality impact assessment - Wiltshire and Swindon learning resources (WSLR)

Please tell us what you think about our website, we welcome your feedback.

Customer notice

Due to essential maintenance some of our web services will be unavailable between these times 7pm Friday 25 May and 5pm Sunday 27 May 2012.

1. What is the name of the function, policy or service that is being assessed?

Wiltshire & Swindon Learning Resources (WSLR)

2. What are the aims of the function, policy or service? Whose needs it is designed to meet? What are the current priorities?

WSLR is a subscription-based ‘Traded Service’. The service lends books, visual resources and audio-visual media for use in schools in both the maintained and independent sectors and in other recognised learning environments, such as early years settings, throughout Wiltshire and Swindon and in some adjacent areas, and provides advice on the selection, organisation and use of their own resources.

Schools and others may subscribe for the whole or any part of the service, or may purchase the service solely for an individual teacher, or may choose not to subscribe.

Subscription levels are set in consultation with the Wiltshire School Services Board and Schools Forum and are designed to be easily affordable within the resources of any properly managed maintained school.

Teachers and pupils have differing teaching and learning styles and needs. By offering a variety of collections and of resource formats WSLR aims to help them all benefit as fully as possible.

Resources stocked are suitable for use from pre-school through foundation and key stages 1 and 2 and, to a much more limited degree, at key stages 3 and 4. Resources are selected for stock principally by reference to teachers’ needs in delivering the national curriculum.

The key current objective is to convert non-subscribing schools to subscribers, by promoting the service more effectively, in order to provide the means for investment in renewal of resources and to assure the continuity of the service for all.

3. In what ways might this function, policy or service affect some groups of people differently? Might some groups find it harder to access the service? Do some groups have particular needs that are not well met by the current policy or service? Please ensure that you comment against each of the dimensions listed below and where no issues are identified that you state this clearly against the relevant dimension.

The service is well advertised and is available equally to all schools and other learning environments. They judge for themselves whether the resources offered meet their teaching and learning needs and whether or not the service justifies the subscription cost., and they advise us/we seek their advice on possible gaps or deficiencies in provision. Resources are selected, as far as possible from the materials available, to reflect appropriately and to cater without discrimination for all the varied needs of teachers and learners.

Age - No issues

Disability - Not all resources are equally usable by partially-sighted, blind, hearing-impaired or deaf persons or by those with learning difficulties.

Gender - No issues

Religion/belief - No issues

Sexual orientation - No issues

Ethnicity - Not all resources are equally usable by persons with little or no knowledge of English.

4. What evidence do you have for your judgement? Is there evidence of public concern (e.g. complaints)? Have staff raised concerns? Is there local or national research to suggest that there could be a problem?

WSLR has regular contact with the users of its resources. No significant concerns on equality issues have arisen. (The sole complaint received in the past two years related to language used in a favourably-reviewed work by a respected children’s author.) WSLR has invested specifically, as far as its budget and the availability of material permits, to alleviate the impact of the above-mentioned disability and ethnicity issues.

5. Whom have you consulted with as part of your assessment? What were the results? Have you published the results of that consultation? If so, where?

The assessment has been formed on the basis of knowledge acquired through regular contact with service users and through user surveys. The service depends for the continuing patronage of subscribing schools upon its ability to satisfy their requirements for appropriate and relevant resources capable of supporting, as far as is reasonably practicable, the teaching and learning needs of all.

6. If you have found that the function, policy or service might have an adverse impact on a particular group of people, can you justify this?

We have not found this.

7. (a) If the impact cannot be justified, what do you intend to do about this? Are there changes that you could introduce which would make the function, policy or service work better for this group of people? (b) Is further research or consultation required?

a) Not applicable. However -

b) Ongoing consultation with school heads, teachers and educational advisers is an essential part of our service process. To assist us in continuously updating and improving the service, we seek invitation to all relevant forums, conferences etc, and are currently arranging team meetings with heads and teachers in a number of Wiltshire schools’ clusters.

8. How will you monitor the take-up or impact of the function, policy or service in future?

As previously – via actual user/potential user decisions on subscription to the service, through regular user contact, surveys, and service self-evaluation. The service is also accountable directly, at intervals, to the Wiltshire Schools Branch Management Team and School Services Board.

Consideration is being given to the formation of an advisory ‘board’ of head teachers and others and to future publication of an annual report.

9. What actions do you plan to take as a result of this equality impact assessment? Please state any resource implications

No new actions are proposed.

10. There is a legal requirement to publish the outcomes of Equality Impact Assessments. Please outline how / where this will happen

Via Wiltshire Council Department for Children and Education, Schools Branch.

11. Name of person completing form

Head of Wiltshire & Swindon Learning Resources

Date assessment completed

15.10.2007

12. Senior manager approval

Assistant Director Schools

Date

30 October 2007

Last updated: 14 May 2009