Page 61 - Part B

Information, Advice or Guidance

Monitoring essentially requires a two-stage process: data collection and analysis.
The first step is to gather information on the diversity of an organisation’s client base.
Diversity information is based on current UK equality legislation, which aims to prevent
discrimination on grounds of age, disability, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion
and other protected characteristics.

No-one is obliged to answer monitoring questions, particularly as they can be
perceived to be very personal, but the quality of the monitoring is only as good as
the quality of the data. That is why it is important to explain to clients the process is
worthwhile and necessary to make equality policy a reality.

Monitoring can also ensure that every client has the same access to information,
advice and guidance. Clients should be reassured that the information gathered will
be strictly confidential.

There are many reasons why monitoring equality and diversity are important:

• Equality monitoring can help organisations understand who their main
clients are; this can be used to ensure enough resources are in place to
meet client needs

• Up-to-date and comprehensive equality information will help highlight any
groups or individuals that may use the service less than other groups

• Equality monitoring can help organisations quickly identify areas where
extra resources might be needed.

It is important that all quality and monitoring data is kept securely. Data of this nature
should always be stored anonymously and kept within the guidelines set down by the
Data Protection Act.

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