Equality Statement

The Equality Act 2010 requires the publication of information that demonstrates that organisations have due regard for the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other unlawful conduct prohibited by the act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share and people who do not share a relevant protected characteristic.
• Foster good relations between people who share and people who do not share a relevant protected characteristic.

Civil Ceremonies Ltd is an inclusive organisation where we focus on the well-being and progress of every learner and where all members of our ‘community’ are of equal worth.

We believe that the Equality Act provides a framework to support our commitment to valuing diversity, tackling discrimination, promoting equality and fostering good relationships between people. We recognise that ‘equity’ acknowledges that every individual is unique, and CCL allocates exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.

• All our learners are of equal value.
• We recognise and respect difference.
• We foster positive attitudes and relationships and a shared sense of cohesion and belonging.
• We observe good equalities practice in staff recruitment, retention and development.
• We aim to reduce and remove inequalities and barriers that already exist.
• We have the highest expectations of all of our learners.

Equality Information

We collect information on equality and can provide the following data:

Information on learners by protected characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics. Every person has several of the protected characteristics, so the Act protects everyone against unfair treatment. In order to ensure that all learners are protected from discrimination, CCL collects information on protected characteristics.

Gender:  In 2022-23, 13% of learners taking the Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebranvcy identified themselves as male and 87% as female. Naming and Couples – 16% male, 84% female

Age: 70% of learners are ages between 45 and 65 and we know that celebrancy is a profession that is attractive to mature learners.

Disability: In 2022-23, 15% of learners stated that they had a disability. We were able to accommodate all disabilities and additional needs during training.

Access to funding

In addition to learners with protected characteristics, we gather information on how many learners take out the Advanced Learner Loan to enable their studies. In 2022 – 23, 65% of learners took out these loans to access their training.

Through rigorous tracking and monitoring of all learners, including progress and attainment, and by providing equal opportunities to access the curriculum and activities, we aim to ensure that any gap in attainment for learners within the above groups is removed.

Eliminating discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act

The information provided here aims to demonstrate that CCL gives careful consideration to equality issues in everything that we do. ‘Due regard’ ensures that we work towards eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act.

We are committed to working for equality for all our learners, tutors, staff, governors, visitors, suppliers, job applicants to meet our duties under the Equality Act 2010.

We eliminate discrimination by:

• Regularly monitoring the curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of our learners and that it promotes respect for diversity and challenges negative stereotyping.
• Teaching is of the highest quality to ensure learners reach their potential and all learners are given equal entitlement to success.
• Tracking learner progress to ensure all learners make rapid progress and interventions are made when necessary.
• Ensuring that all learners have access to additional support.
• Listening to and monitoring views and experiences of learners to evaluate the effectiveness of our policies and procedures.

Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share a protected characteristic

We advance equality of opportunity by:

• Listening to our learners
• Listening to our tutors and assessors
• Using the information, we gather to identify individuals who require targeted intervention.

Fostering good relations across all characteristics between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share a characteristic.

We foster good relations by:

• Maintaining strong industry links
• Maintaining strong links with relevant advisory bodies
• Ensuring that equality and diversity are embedded in the curriculum.

Equality objectives

 At CCL we are committed to ensuring equality of education and opportunity for all our learners, staff and tutors, irrespective of race, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, gender, disability, belief, religion, sexual orientation, age or socio-economic background.

1. To monitor and analyse learner achievement by declared disability and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for learners.
2. To monitor and analyse learner achievement by funding type and act on any trends or patterns in the data that require additional support for learners.