NICE process and methods
5 Equality
NICE is committed to meeting its duties under the Equality Act 2010 on eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation; advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations; and complying with the Human Rights Act 1998. NICE's equality scheme sets out how it is meeting its obligations on equality and discrimination and what it still needs to do.
Two aspects of NICE's process for the development of quality standards that are of particular relevance to equality issues are stakeholder involvement and equality analysis. These are summarised below.
5.1 Stakeholder involvement
NICE aims to involve as wide a range of stakeholders as possible in its activities and applies this principle to the development of quality standards. We encourage professional, patient, service user, carer, community and voluntary organisations, as well as organisations of groups protected by the equality legislation, to register as stakeholders and get involved in consultations. See section 4 for more information about stakeholder involvement.
5.2 Equality analysis
NICE has adopted a systematic approach to equality analysis. During the development of each quality standard, consideration is given to whether and to what extent the standard is likely to be relevant to eliminating unlawful discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations for people with the protected characteristics detailed in the Equality Act 2010. Conclusions from this analysis are formally recorded at key stages of the quality standards development process, including development of the draft and final quality standards. This record is used to provide assurance to the NICE Guidance Executive and stakeholders that equality impact has been assessed.
Equality analyses are published when the draft standard is published for consultation and again when the final standard is published.