Socio-Economic Duty
At Resolve Poverty we know that the socio-economic duty can act as a powerful tool for addressing poverty and creating a fairer society. We can work with you to help you adopt it and evaluate its impact. Our report published in partnership with Just Fair illustrates the impact effective implementation of the duty can have.
From enabling Merseyside Fire and Rescue to recruit more people from low income backgrounds into the fire service, through to Hartlepool Council using it to shape budgetary decisions, the duty is your ally if you want to secure internal buy-in for anti poverty work and improve outcomes for low-income residents and service users.
We are campaigning for enaction of the socio-economic duty, which is contained in Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010, by the UK Government. If enacted, the duty would legally require public authorities to consider the way their decisions increase or decrease inequalities that result from socio-economic disadvantage. Through our work we are supporting local public bodies to voluntarily adopt the duty and maximise the impact it can have through effective implementation. Many local authorities have taken this step.
Building on our guide to implementation, we provide implementation support by:
- Training your organisation to understand the duty, and how you can use the adoption of the duty to address socio-economic disadvantage
- Review your organisation’s policies and procedures and produce guidance on where the duty can be integrated into these
- Support the organisation to gather and understand data and case studies which can be used effectively as a tool for decision-making and accountability around adopting the duty
- Providing resources which can be used in your future work to ensure the adoption of the duty has the best possible impact
- Supporting your organisation to measure the impact of adopting the duty on tackling socio-economic disadvantage.
To find out more about working with us, please contact Thomas Waring at thomas@resolvepoverty.org.