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This final section is looking at legislation around equality and diversity. I always think it is really good to get a bigger picture idea of what is going on here, so I always start with looking at the UN. In 1948 the UN ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This was a really significant piece of legislation, as it was held up as an example to the whole world as to how we should be treating each other as individuals. It spoke of human rights, it spoke of equality, it spoke of freedom.

In 1953 Europe brought in the European Convention on Human Rights. This laid out on a European level the significance of equality and human rights, and it has been a piece of legislation that has stayed with us right up to this day.

Following on from that, Britain has had several laws around equality, but the most recent one is the 2010 Equalities Act. This piece of legislation brings together all of the previously existing legislation, such as the Race Relations Act or the Sex Discrimination Act, and put it all into one policy and procedure. It has made things very clear, and it has also identified very clearly protected characteristics. Now, these can be slightly different depending on whether you are an employer or whether you are a service user. Either way, what the legislation has done is ensured that everybody's protected characteristics are looked after by the law.

Following on from that, each organisation should have their own set of organisational equality and diversity policies and procedures. And it is really important that these reflect our national legislation as well, that they make sense, that they fit together; that every staff, every volunteer, every employee is aware of their equality and diversity policies and make sure that their practice is following them.

That was a very, very brief look at legislation. However, if you want more information, please do go to the following websites. Thank you very much for listening to this module around equality and diversity, and I hope that I have managed to share with you just how important equality and diversity can be too good quality service delivery and the difference that it can make and the positive impact it can have on your service users, on your staff and how the service is delivered. Thank you very much.