Commissioning Guide 4
How to commission an equality impact assessment
An equality impact assessment, often called an EIA, examines how a proposed policy, decision, service, programme or change may affect different groups.
1. What is this service?
For public authorities in Great Britain, the Public Sector Equality Duty requires decision-makers to have due regard to specified equality considerations. Government guidance emphasises understanding who may be affected, considering available evidence and taking account of unequal impacts.
An EIA should inform a decision, not simply document one that has already been made.
2. When might you commission it?
- a significant policy change
- service redesign
- budget reduction
- restructuring
- changes to eligibility
- new programmes
- changes to access
- major organisational decisions.
3. Before you commission
Ask:
- What decision is being considered?
- Who may be affected?
- What evidence do we have?
- What evidence is missing?
- When will the decision be made?
- What alternatives are being considered?
- Who needs to contribute?
- What legal or internal framework applies?
4. Define your brief
Specify:
- decision/policy
- objectives
- affected populations
- relevant evidence
- consultation requirements
- protected characteristics or other relevant groups
- alternatives
- mitigation
- decision timetable
- required output.
5. What to ask providers
- How would you identify potential impacts?
- What evidence would you need?
- How would you address gaps in evidence?
- How would you engage affected groups?
- How would you distinguish actual evidence from assumptions?
- How would you assess positive and negative impacts?
- How would you identify mitigation?
- How would you present uncertainty?
- How would the assessment feed into the decision?
6. How to compare proposals
Assess:
- understanding of the decision
- legal/contextual awareness
- evidence methodology
- stakeholder approach
- analytical quality
- practicality
- clarity of outputs.
7. What good looks like
- who may be affected
- how
- what evidence supports that conclusion
- where evidence is uncertain
- whether impacts are unequal
- what could mitigate adverse effects
- what decision or action follows.
8. Things to watch out for
- retrospective assessments
- tick-box templates
- unsupported assumptions
- treating consultation as a substitute for evidence
- no analysis of alternatives
- no mitigation
- no connection to the actual decision.
9. What should you receive?
- evidence review
- impact assessment
- stakeholder findings
- impact matrix
- mitigation recommendations
- decision-maker summary
- monitoring recommendations.
10. After commissioning
Agree:
- findings
- mitigation
- decisions
- reasons
- responsibilities
- monitoring.