Equalities watchdog sets up £500k fund for discrimination in education cases

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a £500,000 scheme aimed at fighting discrimination in education.

The watchdog said its new Legal Support Project “aims to increase access to justice for victims of discrimination in schools, further or higher education institutions or general qualification bodies”. The funding can be used for front line advice, preparatory work or representation.

The Commission added that it was particularly interested in complaints where legal proceedings were already underway or were being considered.

The claims must relate to Part 6 of the Equality Act 2010 which sets out duties that apply to schools, further and higher education providers, and general qualifications bodies. Claims may involve discrimination on the grounds of any of the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010.  

Chair of the Commission, David Isaac, said: “This scheme will offer grass roots support to those who would otherwise have been unable to take legal action and we look forward to hearing from lawyers and advisers on how we might work together.

“Access to justice is a key issue for us. Strong equality and human rights laws means nothing if people are priced out of justice.

“We know from our previous scheme that we will receive valuable intelligence about discrimination in our schools, colleges and universities and we will use this to inform our wider work in this sector.”

The Commission said discrimination might involve disabled students not being offered part-time courses as a reasonable adjustment or a disproportionate number of exclusions of pupils of a particular race.

The new scheme follows a successful pilot earlier this year which focused on disability discrimination in employment, education, housing and provision of services, and saw £190,000 worth of legal assistance made available across 94 cases.

The watchdog said it would also continue with its strategic cases that test the law, have implications for a large number of people, or complement existing areas of work.