In the heady days following Tomorrow’s Schools, every board
and principal in the country was tasked with developing its school’s own set of
policies, which meant coming to grips with the requirements of the Ministry and
the new legislation – namely the 1989 Education Act.
After an initial burst of enthusiasm which saw some churning
out literally hundreds of policies, things calmed somewhat during the early 2000s.
However, it was clear to schools that many of these
statements would be required, and one of the most vexing was the school’s EEO
policy. Schools were required to appoint an EEO officer, and to record
compliance with all things EEO in the school’s annual report. This included
surveying staff annually, and then maintaining a database of staff needs and
issues.
More recently the Ministry of Education has removed any
reference to reporting EEO compliance in the Annual Report. This is slightly
problematic as the requirement still sits squarely within the State Sector Act
1988, and is quite specific.
Here’s section 77A (1):
General principles
(1) Every employer in the education
service must—
a)
operate a personnel policy that complies with the
principle of being a good employer; and
b) make that policy
(including the equal employment opportunities programme)
available to its employees; and
c)
ensure its compliance with that policy (including
its equal employment opportunities programme) and report in
its annual report (if any) on the extent of its compliance.
To add to this expectation, the Education Review Office
includes it in their June 2017 Assurance Checklist for schools preparing for a
visit.
So, what to do? An EEO policy is still a requirement to be a
‘good employer’. We can’t remove a legal requirement from the content without
placing schools at risk.
We have removed the specific action of maintaining a
database so given schools room for their own implementation and left the broad
principles of an EEO policy. However, we have left the bullet regarding
including a summary of the year’s compliance in the annual report. By adding a simple
sentence or statement to the annual report, a school can report on its compliance
with its EEO policy.
