Any advice on how to answer this?

[NoisyBrain]

Part of the application process for a job I'm going for involves writing a supporting statement, detailing how I meet the criteria set out on the Person Specification, in which there are two columns of attributes; Essential and Desirable.

The thing is, for one of the Essential attributes, I'm not sure how to answer, this being:

Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of equality issues, and the ability to integrate equality policies into strategies and service delivery.

Is this just a fancy way of saying I need to show that I understand that any promotional communications and wider strategies (it's a marketing role) mustn't be sexist/racist/ageist exclusionary in any way? This is the first public sector role I've ever applied for, and the first time I've come across this as part of a person specification, so I'm not sure whether they'll want something a little more concrete, such as an understanding of an actual Equality Act passed by government.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom? I'm intending to complete the application tomorrow.

Could you include a very brief example of how you ensure comms / materials do not discriminate against any of the protected characteristics under the Equalities Act? The only other thing I can think of is the public sector does like an "impact assessment" especially for new strategies - so you could just state you would assess any potential impact / imbalance of new campaigns etc? There might be particular methods of marketing/publicity you would use to engage groups with different needs? Hope it all goes well for you!

Can you give examples of things you have done in previous jobs which incorporate the equality act?

For example campaigning or fundraising to get Ramos put into a workplace to make it accessible to all? Working with HR to design an application form for recruitment which complies with the equality act, as well as safer recruitment?

Ramps not ramos

Thanks for the quick replies!

Fettuccine I was worried for a minute that 'Ramos' was some Equalities Act thing I'd never heard of! Sadly I have no experience like the examples you give.

B1rd I've certainly had to be mindful of sexual equality in various campaigns I've managed so I'll apply that thinking to the wider picture of all protected characteristics. Thanks

I think it's more about reading company policies and showing how you would check your material adheres to it.

I used to work at a university, and scoring job applicants against criteria was part of my job. We had this criteria as a standard part of every job description.

For maximum score, I’d expect to see understanding of equality through application. So, talking about Braille comms for blind service users is the example that I would always roll out.

So examples of how you would ensure marketing stuff adhered to equality act & company policy.

So if you had training/trained yourself, how you checked what material you wanted to use. Sorry not explaining myself well. You need actual examples of how you implemented it.

Enduring Text phone number as a contact type is another one.

Ah OK, thank you. I clearly need to educate myself a little more on this!

I've been filling in this style application form for years, still find them difficult!!! Any examples you use on the application form you can use again in interview.