Introduction

The Commission’s Gender Equality Scheme was published in 2007. In 2010 it will be replaced by a Single Equality Scheme.

In developing the Gender Equality Scheme, the Commission sought views both internally from our staff and externally from our customer network and charities that focus on supporting a particular gender.

Since the scheme was drafted the Commission has continued to restructure and some of the divisions referred to in the scheme no longer exist. Similarly some of our activities have changed. This report sets out our key activities around gender equality.

Activities

• Since this scheme was drafted the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has been established and it is this body that is tasked with providing expert guidance to the whole of society, which includes charities, on equality provision. The Charity Commission has requested that the EHRC provides advice and guidance that is charity specific and which includes gender issues.

• During 2008 -09 the Charity Engagement programme ensured that we were engaging with a diverse mix of charities, including gender specific charities. In addition to ensuring that all programmes of work engage with a diverse mix of charities, the team carried out a programme of visits specifically themed around the issue of diversity. In this phase, we met with 16 charities representing different areas of diversity, 4 of which were specifically concerned with women’s rights.

• Customer Service maintains the Commission’s Customer Network which is a list of charities that are available for formal and informal consultation. The list contains charities across the diversity spectrum, including those concerned with gender.

• The Commission monitors diversity data, including gender through its HR function and reports on employment data annually. Those reports can be found separately on our website.

• The Commission introduced a Parents and Carers Staff Forum so that staff with caring responsibilities are supported and can share information.

• The most significant activity in gender equality in the Commission was an equal pay audit conducted in 2008 to establish whether or not there is evidence of gender pay differences amongst the Commission’s employees, or of other pay inequities. The audit identified that there were no major areas of concern and in some areas pay gaps previously identified, had narrowed. In respect of gender there is no difference in pay between men and women compared with a pay gap of 17.1% in the Civil Service as a whole.

The Equal Pay Act gives women and men a right to equal pay for equal work. All employers have a duty to provide equal pay, that is, a pay system that does not give rise to sex discrimination. Other legislation requires employers to actively ensure that there is no possibility of discrimination in the workplace – including pay systems - in relation to ethnicity, disability, age and part-time working.

The Commission has always worked to ensure its pay system is ‘equality proofed’. No responsible employer would introduce systems that bring about discrimination but, as we all know, pay systems are often complicated and it may not always be apparent that there is a possibility of inequality.

Our pay system is complicated, an inevitable consequence of the need to provide progression and recognise performance so we are pleased that there are no major areas of concern when it comes to equal pay. There is almost no difference between men and women. We have no difference in average total pay, and a small 1% difference in average basic pay between full time men and women staff. When you compare this with a pay gap of 17.1% in the mean hourly earnings of full time men and women nationally, it is a very good achievement.

The auditor recommended that we need to have robust and reliable diversity data about all of us who work here so that we are able to analyse and report on different diversity groups within the Commission. The Commission has, over the last two years worked with our Departmental Trades Union to encourage all staff to update their diversity monitoring data. This information is vital as it enables us to monitor accurately how we are doing and identify where we can do better. The Commission has introduced an electronic self service function for this purpose so that information is held confidentially.