HSENI is committed to fulfilling its obligations on the promotion of equality of opportunity between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation, between men and women generally, between persons with a disability and persons without and between persons with dependants and persons without. HSENI is equally committed to the promotion of good relations between people of different religious, political and racial groups.
HSENI also has duties under Section 49A of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)1995 (as amended by the Disability Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 2006), which means that HSENI, in carrying out its functions must have due regard for the need to promote positive attitudes towards disabled people, and encourage participation by disabled people in public life, also known as the disability duties. The Chairman and Chief Executive of HSENI have stated their public commitment to compliance with the disability duties and effective implementation of a disability action plan (DAP), which outlines pro-active measures that HSENI intends to take. The DAP has previously been drawn up over a 12 month period, however HSENI has now taken the opportunity to incorporate HSENI’s DAP within the four year corporate planning cycle, helping to ensure that the achievement of the DAP is an important part of our strategic planning processes.
Approval of HSENI's revised equality scheme
Following the consultation exercise launched in December 2011, HSENI submitted its revised Equality Scheme to the Equality Commission for comment and approval. The Scheme has now been approved.
Equality action plan
This plan outlines the actions HSENI intends to take to help fulfil its Section 75 duties.
Disability action plan
This plan outlines the actions HSENI intends to take in pursuit of compliance with its DDA duties.
Both of these plans are "living" documents and will be reviewed on annual basis and updated as required.
Annual progress report to the Equality Commission
Each year HSENI completes an Annual Progress Report which is sent to the Equality Commission. This report records equality related work carried out by HSENI in fulfilling its Section 75 and DDA duties.