Publications

The Association of Colleges
 

The association of colleges produces a series of ‘Quality Information Packs’ that are relevant to ‘Dialogue, policies and procedures’, with particular relevance to equality and diversity.
The summaries are taken from the AoC website.

Ensuring Equality of Opportunity (February 2002)
Colleges have traditionally had many strengths in the promotion of equality of opportunity and have seen the issues of inclusion and widening participation as central to their mission. This pack updates colleagues on recent developments in the field of equality of opportunity and is intended to be a brief and timely aid to colleges, giving an indication of where they might best be concentrating their efforts. It includes some policies and examples of good practice in use by colleges.

Seeking information on student needs – checklist on approaching prospective students about their disabilities and learning needs (2003)
Under the Disability Discrimination Act colleges have a specific obligation to actively seek information about the disabilities and learning needs of students and prospective students. Colleges are also required to ensure that students are clear about what they can expect from the college and about the information they need to provide for the college.

The pack aims to:

  • raise awareness of the issue
  • reinforce good practice
  • reinforce the advice in the AoC publication ‘Rights to Access Toolkit’.


Bullying and Harassment: Developing a Policy (May 2004)
This pack helps colleges develop their own policies to combat the bullying and harassment of students.  This pack has been produced in response to the numerous requests that we have received for advice on the topic of developing a policy against bullying or harassment.  It consists of examples of existing college policies from four colleges that have kindly agreed to have theirs published in this way.  The pack also includes some links to web-based resources on the topic for general background to inform your policy.

Improving access to learning for students with disabilities – Guidance for practitioners (April 2005)
This document is designed to provide FE College staff with the practical information they need to meet a College’s commitment to accessibility and the current legislation regarding the inclusion of disabled students in every aspect of the curriculum.  The information is based upon current legislation and builds upon existing good practice within the sector. The document includes samples of forms in use at Abingdon and Witney College which may be reformatted for wider publication.

Managing Conflicting Rights and Issues of Discrimination: promoting good relationships within the college community (January 2007)
This pack focuses on promoting good relationships within the college community and outlines some potential situations where individuals’ rights appear to conflict.  The guidance is intended to illustrate and explain the law; it is not itself “legal advice” but it covers a number of areas which have been identified as areas of conflict by colleges and proposes some ways in which the law can provide solutions.

Age Discrimination Legislation and Further Education Colleges (April 2007)
This Support for Success Quality Information Pack, developed in the Learning and Quality team at AoC, focuses on the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 which came into force on 1st October 2006.

There are a number of sources of information available which provide details of the legislation and/or case law but more material is available in terms of employment law aspects such as redundancy, retirement and pensions rather than on the operational implications of the sections that affect Further Education Colleges in areas other than employment.

This pack focuses on a number of questions that have been raised by colleges as concerns in the broad delivery of education, training and other services to students. This briefing is not legal advice and colleges and providers should consider seeking legal advice when applying the Age Regulations to any particular situation.

Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS)

LSIS (and its predecessor organisations, the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) and the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA)), have produced a number of publications that are relevant to ‘Promoting dialogue’, with particular reference to equality and diversity.
These include:

Leading the learner voice: Dissemination of effective practice (LSIS 2009)
This publication profiles the winners and nominees of the 2008 Leading the Learner Voice awards. It describes their leadership journeys and how they were able to put their ideas into practice for the benefit of students and local communities.

Leading Change in Diversity and Equality (CEL 2005)
This diversity and equality strategy sets out how CEL will support the significant challenge of changing the unrepresentative profile of those in leadership and senior management positions in the learning and skills sector. It also clarifies the rationale for creating a culture of inclusion and equality of opportunities in recruitment, retention, organisational development and career progression for all. We also recognise the need for, and support the development of, a sector-wide and sector-specific strategy led by the DfES and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

Faith communities toolkit: for leaders and managers in the learning and skills sector (CEL 2005)
This toolkit is a practical guide to engaging more effectively with faith communities and understanding and valuing difference. It sets out why the sector will benefit from engaging with faith communities and provides the information and practical guidance needed to encourage the inclusion and understanding of faith communities and to draw on the valuable contribution people’s beliefs can bring to their work, workplace or learning.

Equality and sexual orientation: the leadership challenge for further education (CEL 2006)
Sexual orientation equality stands out…as an underdeveloped policy area. CEL’s main purpose in commissioning this research was, therefore, to provide a policy focus on this strand of equality and diversity to enable the sector to take steps to place it on an equal footing to other, more established equality strands. There are legal, quality improvement, educational and ethical imperatives for this. The findings of the research show that sexual orientation equality can be achieved with imaginative and consistent leadership.

This research project had four priorities:

  • to help prepare the further education sector for compliance with all relevant law
  • to help ensure that sexual orientation equality is given full attention within the wider equality and diversity agenda
  • to help make the voices and experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) college leaders, staff and learners available to the sector
  • to help support the role of sector leaders in driving this agenda forward.


Equality and diversity competencies (CEL/QIA 2008)
This publication is based on CEL’s Leadership Quality Framework which was developed as a tool to support the learning and skills sector in effectively developing people for current and future senior leadership roles. The equality and diversity competencies address both the understanding and real deliverables that impact and shape the experience of all sector employees and learners around the issues of equality and diversity.

Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK)


Further Education Workforce Data for England: an analysis of the Staff Individualised Record Data 2007–2008
This annual report includes data about equality and diversity. The report is accompanied by an OLAP tool that enables a college to manipulate and analyse its own data and benchmark this against regional and national data.

Annual Workforce Diversity Profile 2006/2007
This publication provides detailed data about the diversity of staff in colleges in England.