The Equality Act 2010: duties for further education colleges and providers

The Equality Act 2010 is the main source of equality law for FE colleges, sixth form colleges and training providers in England. It brought earlier laws together, and it applies to every stage of a learner’s journey: marketing, applications, interviews, enrolment, teaching, assessment, trips, discipline, complaints and progression. This guide explains the parts FE providers use most, with the sections you can check on legislation.gov.uk.

It is a summary of duties and good practice, not legal advice. Take advice from your legal team or a specialist adviser on any specific case.

Which Equality Act duties apply to colleges and other FE providers?

Part 6 (education) is the core for colleges, supported by Part 2 (definitions), Part 11 (the public sector equality duty and positive action) and Schedule 13 (reasonable adjustments in education).

Section 91 covers further education institutions, 16 to 19 Academies and higher education institutions. It says the responsible body must not discriminate against, harass or victimise:

• applicants, in the arrangements for deciding who is offered admission, the terms of an offer, or by not admitting them
• students, in the way it provides education, gives access to benefits, facilities or services, or by excluding them or subjecting them to any other detriment
• disabled people, in conferring qualifications

Section 91(9) applies the duty to make reasonable adjustments.

Who is protected?

The Act protects people because of nine protected characteristics listed in section 4: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Not every characteristic is protected in every context. For further and higher education, section 90 excludes only marriage and civil partnership, so age is covered for college learners in a way it is not for school pupils. See protected characteristics.

For inclusion teams, disability is the characteristic that comes up most. Under section 6 a person is disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. “Long-term” generally means it has lasted, or is likely to last, at least 12 months. Some conditions, including cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis, count from diagnosis.

Three points matter in practice:

1. No diagnosis is required. The test is about effect, not a label. Many autistic learners, learners with ADHD or dyslexia, and learners with mental health conditions meet it.
2. Learners may not call themselves disabled. Ask what gets in the way and what helps, rather than asking learners to accept a label.
3. The definition is legal, not clinical. It sits comfortably alongside the social model of disability, which locates barriers in the environment rather than in the person.

What kinds of discrimination does the Act prohibit?

There are six forms of prohibited conduct that FE providers meet regularly.

Section 15 has a knowledge element: the provider has a defence if it did not know, and could not reasonably have been expected to know, that the person was disabled. That is a reason to ask well and to record what you are told, not a reason to avoid asking.

Disabled people can lawfully be treated more favourably than non-disabled people. Many adjustments rely on exactly that.

What does the reasonable adjustments duty require?

The provider must take reasonable steps to avoid a substantial disadvantage caused by a provision, criterion or practice, by a physical feature, or by the lack of an auxiliary aid. Information must be provided in an accessible format where that is a reasonable step, and the learner cannot be charged (section 20).

Schedule 13 adds three FE-specific points:

• The duty to applicants is owed to disabled persons generally, and the duty in education and services is owed to disabled students generally. In other words it is anticipatory.
• The duty does not apply to the application of a competence standard.
• Where a learner has made a confidentiality request, you must have regard to it when deciding what is reasonable.

The full practical guide is reasonable adjustments in further education.

What is the public sector equality duty and does it apply to colleges?

The public sector equality duty (PSED) in section 149 requires a public authority, in exercising its functions, to have due regard to the need to:

1. eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and other prohibited conduct
2. advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
3. foster good relations between those groups

Section 149(3) explains that advancing equality of opportunity includes removing or minimising disadvantages, taking steps to meet different needs, and encouraging participation where it is disproportionately low. Section 149(4) says meeting disabled people’s different needs includes steps to take account of their disabilities.

Colleges in the further education sector are listed public authorities, so the general duty applies to them. Independent training providers are not usually listed, but the duty can apply to anyone exercising public functions, and funding agreements may set expectations, so check your position.

“Due regard” is about the quality of thinking before a decision, not about the outcome. Examples where it matters in FE:

• changing the timetable model, such as moving to compressed days
• restructuring or reducing learning support staffing
• introducing new attendance or behaviour policies
• buying a new learner-facing system
• closing a campus or course

What are the specific duties?

The Specific Duties and Public Authorities Regulations 2017 require listed authorities to publish information showing compliance with the general duty at intervals of no more than one year, and to publish one or more equality objectives at intervals of no more than four years. Check whether your organisation is listed in the regulations and when you last published.

How does the Equality Act interact with SEND law?

The two frameworks run side by side. The Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice cover special educational needs, best endeavours and EHC plans. The Equality Act covers disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments. A learner with an EHC plan is entitled to the provision in it and also to reasonable adjustments. A disabled learner without SEN, for example a learner with a long-term health condition who needs no special educational provision, is still owed reasonable adjustments.

What should an FE provider have in place?

Use this as a self-check. It is not exhaustive.

1. Policy. An equality policy and a learner support policy that explain how learners can ask for support, how decisions are made and how to complain.
2. Accessible entry points. Application, interview and enrolment processes that invite learners to share what helps, in more than one format, and that act on what they share.
3. Anticipatory design. Accessible teaching materials and systems by default. See accessible teaching materials and WCAG 2.2 for education software.
4. A clear adjustment process. Agreed, recorded, communicated, delivered and reviewed. See how to write a learner support plan.
5. Delivery evidence. A way to see whether agreed support actually happened. See recording support delivery evidence.
6. Decision-making with due regard. Equality analysis on significant decisions, proportionate to their impact.
7. Disciplinary and attendance procedures that check whether conduct or absence is connected to disability before sanctions.
8. Staff training on the forms of discrimination, adjustments and confidentiality.
9. Data protection. Disability and health data handled as special category data.
10. Published PSED information and objectives, where the specific duties apply.

What happens if a provider gets it wrong?

A learner, or an applicant, can bring a claim in the county court. Section 118 sets a normal time limit of six months starting with the date of the act complained of, which the court can extend where it is just and equitable. Remedies can include compensation, including for injury to feelings, and declarations.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission enforces the Act, including the PSED, and publishes the technical guidance on further and higher education, which courts may take into account.

Most problems never reach court. They surface as complaints, withdrawals and poor outcomes for disabled learners. Regular review of who asks for support, who gets it, and whether it worked gives you an early warning.

Fictional example: a quality review at a fictional college finds that learners who disclosed a disability at enrolment withdraw at twice the rate of their peers in the first term. Looking at case notes, the team sees that most had support agreed but the first review happened only in week ten. The college moves the first review to week four and starts a weekly delivery check. This is the kind of analysis “due regard” is meant to prompt.

How does Inclusion Studio support Equality Act processes?

Inclusion Studio is learner support software in development for England FE colleges and apprenticeship providers. It is at pre-pilot stage with a clickable prototype using fictional learners. It is designed to help you run the agree, deliver and review process for adjustments with the learner involved, to keep delivery evidence, and to produce a controlled evidence export. Permissions are enforced on the server by organisation, relationship and field. Software supports the process; the provider remains responsible for its legal duties. Quality and compliance teams can read more on the quality and compliance page.