Equality, diversity and inclusion

It provides our view on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in education, including our regulatory requirements, and what we commonly see in programme delivery.

This information should be considered by education providers when developing new and existing programmes linked to this area.

Our threshold requirements

Our standards of education and training require that there are equality and diversity policies in relation to applicants (SET 2.7), and learners (SET 3.14) and that those policies must be monitored. Education providers must also comply with legal responsibilities in this area (SET 3.14).

We expect to see:

• the admissions process is open and impartial and does not discriminate unfairly against certain applicants; and
• programmes provide an impartial, fair and supportive environment to allow people to learn.

In addition to named standards, EDI runs as a thread through many other standards, where education providers must ensure learners are supported, and facilities and resources are accessible, in line with learner needs. There is also a focus on EDI in our standards of proficiency, and standards of conduct, performance and ethics, to make sure that practice is inclusive for all service users.

This area is particularly important currently, with the introduction of our revised standards of proficiency (SOPs) from September 2023, and revised standards of conduct, performance and ethics from September 2024. We significantly expanded the role of EDI in these sets of standards, placing specific importance on making sure that practice is inclusive for all service users. We consider strong EDI policies at education providers important to support learners, and to underpin delivery of these standards.

Summary reflections 

EDI is a key area of focus for education providers, which is not surprising considering current societal focus, and that education providers, particularly in higher education, have been leaders in this area for some time. For example, the widening participation agenda has been in place for more than 20 years, and data and information shows the positive impact of this initiative, although there is further work to do, and other corrective actions, such as responding to attainment gaps. Education providers are most successful in this area when they are proactive in their approach, clearly define their intentions, plan how to deliver these, and measure success.

Education provider approaches 

From our assessments, education providers meet and deliver these standards. They are aware of their legal responsibilities in this area and have institution-level strategies or high level commitments in place related to EDI. Strategies are aimed to ensure education providers are inclusive and fair in their activities, focused on areas such as learner recruitment and admissions, experience, progression, attainment, and employability.

Education providers generally recognise that data is important to understanding this area, especially linked to areas like disparity in admissions or attainment. Data is most useful when it is then used by education providers to inform actions and developments, and some education providers recognise the value of sharing data with others within the sector to inform a broader conversation.

Most strategies have been in place for the last 2 to 5 years, and often delivery plans are part way through completion. We recognise this is not an area education providers are aiming to ‘complete’, as developments in the EDI space will continue to be needed beyond existing strategy and action plan terms.

At education providers, there is a focus on all staff enabling good practice in this area, with support provided to staff such as mandatory EDI training, objective setting and support. Often, there are specific job roles at education providers which are entirely focused on EDI, with this sometimes being at Dean and Associate Dean level. There are also committees, boards, and groups that support delivery of EDI initiatives and provide feedback and consultation mechanisms for education providers. These groups normally include senior people, and representation from learners, staff, and service users and carers.

For programme admissions:

• Education providers often have active aims to recruit learners from a diverse range of backgrounds.
• They consider alternative arrangements for admissions, to widen access to a diverse range of potential learners. For example, education providers have policies in place to recognise prior learning and experience in the place of academic qualifications through recognition or accreditation of prior learning processes.
• Education providers also normally capture diversity data in admissions, to consider where groups are under-represented in applications, and to consider differential outcomes. This data is then used to consider which groups should be focused on in future recruitment activities.

Through programmes, EDI policies related to learners are in place, including within practice-based learning.

Several education providers seek external recognition of their EDI policies and processes. We consider it helpful when education providers use external frameworks and work with other industry bodies, as this shows they are considering good practice in developing their own approaches. This enables new thinking and ideas to inform education provider intentions.

When proposing new programmes, education providers normally aligned proposed programmes with existing EDI policies. For programmes run by an education provider who is also the employer, the policies and processes relating to EDI differed and include those appropriate to employment contracts.

Current sector focus and challenges

Identifying issues is not an issue in itself. Good performance looks like education providers honestly reflecting on situations, and attempting to address problems through their work. Education providers usually freely discuss problems in this area, and have clear interventions and plans in place to address them, such as:

• Attainment gaps for particular groups of learners, with a range of interventions depending on the group, education provider, and specific situation, including data-informed responses and initiatives.
• Recognition that some professions have traditional profiles, as shown in our data. Education providers often work upstream, and with specific groups in mind, when advertising programmes, to enable applications from a broader range of people than from the current registrant profile. This shows that education providers can ‘own’ and act to widen the professional profile, even though they may be several steps from the source of a more limited profile.
• Working to address systemic racism in response to the Black Lives Matter and anti-racism movements, which includes decolonising curricula.

There are sometimes drives to develop the education provider’s local population into professional roles, which in turn could impact on the diversity of learner populations, where the local population was not diverse. Education providers recognised this point, and how it would impact their headline diversity data. We consider that it is important for education providers to reflect on data, and provide commentary to explain any data that might look, but may not actually be, concerning.

We aim to enable adoption of good practice frameworks through our work. In performance review assessment from 2023-24, we asked education providers to consider reflecting on the OfS Equality of Opportunity Risk Register4 and the Council of Deans of Health (CoDoH) report on Anti-racism in Allied Health Professional (AHP) Education5. We should be able to report specifically on adoption of these frameworks through future reports.

We have also developed ‘quality indicators’ for EDI in education, which should help education providers to understand what good performance looks like in this area.

Areas commonly explored further through our assessments