Our Standards are clear that discrimination is unacceptable, and you must not discriminate against others.
The Equality Act 2010 defines discrimination as treating someone ‘less favourably’ than another person and specifies the nine protected characteristics which are covered by this legislation: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex, and sexual orientation. It is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of any one or more of these characteristics.
For example, registrants must not unfairly:
- treat a person differently and worse than others because of who they are, or because of someone they are connected to;
- refuse to provide a person with a service or take them on as a client because of who they are, or because of someone they are connected to;
- behave in a way that violates a person’s dignity or intimidates them; or,
- punish a person for complaining about discrimination or helping someone else to complain.
You must treat people fairly and be aware of the potential impact that your personal values, biases and beliefs may have on the care, treatment or other services that you provide to service users and carers, and in your interactions with colleagues.
You must take action to ensure that your personal values, biases and beliefs do not lead you to discriminate against service users, carers or colleagues. Your personal values, biases and beliefs must not detrimentally impact the care, treatment or other services that you provide.
You must respond appropriately to the needs of all groups and individuals in practice, recognising that this can be affected by difference of any kind including, but not limited to, protected characteristics, intersectional experiences and cultural differences.
You must recognise the potential impact of your own values, beliefs and personal biases (which may be unconscious) on practice and take personal action to ensure all service users and carers are treated appropriately with respect and dignity.
You must actively challenge these barriers [to inclusion], supporting the implementation of change wherever possible.
