New look equality and diversity bitesize guides

These updated resources will enable you to learn more about each area of equality legislation across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The reason for the move to bitesize guides 

In 2010, the CSP produced its first ever equality and diversity toolkit in response to the implementation of the ground-breaking Equality Act 2010. The toolkit was designed as one of our methods of support to members dealing with equality and diversity issues in the workplace. 

These issues, which many still face today, affect members and individuals, stewards, safety reps, equality reps, managers, clinicians, educators, physio support workers, and students. The toolkit has been an invaluable resource for so many members and CSP staff over the years. 

We know that our members have made good use of the toolkit when representing colleagues facing discrimination at work, when needing to understand equality law across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland or simply to refresh their knowledge. 

We know how confusing equality legislation, language and best practice can be and how frequently it can change, which is why it’s a priority for the CSP to ensure you have the most up to date information available to you in an easy to navigate and practicable format. 

As equality law changes so regularly and the toolkit, while hugely impressive, is a significant piece of work so we have taken the decision to re-launch the toolkit into equality and diversity bitesize guides. 

These bitesize guides are more accessible and user-friendly. Having the guides in place means that rather than scrolling through a long document, you can easily navigate to a single web page for each piece of equality law.  

The bitesize guide’s cover:  

• equality law and best practice.
• race discrimination and equality.
• disability discrimination and equality.
• sex discrimination and equality.
• marriage and civil partnership discrimination and equality.
• religion and belief discrimination and equality.
• age discrimination and equality.
• sexual orientation discrimination and equality.
• transgender discrimination and equality. 

We have made the guides as comprehensive as possible but acknowledge that some areas are not covered, such as social class.

Some subjects, such as pregnancy and maternity discrimination and family friendly policies, are touched upon but covered more fully in other CSP publications such as our recent publications ‘protecting the health and safety of pregnant workers’ and our ‘parents, parents to be and carers guide’. 

Commenting on the new bitesize guides, CSP chair of council Ishmael Beckford said: ‘The CSP is committed to continuing to work on championing issues around equality, diversity and belonging (EDB) and delivering impactful change for members. 

This includes supporting members to improve their awareness, understanding and engagement with these issues.  

‘I hope this toolkit will help members, CSP reps and managers enhance their understanding of the legal framework and key considerations around EDB in the workplace. This is done through providing insights into the case for equality, local workplace policy, an overview of protected characteristics, and further resources.’