Public authorities have a general statutory duty to eliminate unlawful discrimination and promote equality of opportunity and good relations between people from different racial groups.  This legal requirement extends to the work public authorities carry out in partnership with other organisations. 

The following gives an overview of what the duty expects of public authorities within a partnership. Detailed guidance can be found in our publication 'Public authorities and partnerships', which can be downloaded from this page.

What do we mean by partnerships?

Partnerships vary enormously in size and remit.  Partnership working can be both formal and informal.  Some partnerships are set up on a  statutory basis, whilst others are set up to deal with specific issues or meet local needs. 

Where a partnership involves a listed public authority, and race equality has relevance for its work (this will be the case for most partnerships), then the general statutory duty to promote race equality will apply. 

Some of the main types of partnership where the race equality duty will apply to their work include:

• Community planning partnerships
• Community safety partnerships
• Crime and disorder partnerships
• Early years development and childcare partnerships
• Information and advice partnerships
• Local criminal justice boards
• Local strategic partnerships
• New Deal for Communities
• Social inclusion partnerships
• Sure Start partnerships

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Does the race equality duty apply to a partnership?

It is important to remember that, ultimately the duties rest at all times with the listed public authority within a partnership.  Public authorities are responsible for making sure that any of their functions and policies that are relevant to the duty, and are being carried out through the partnership, meet the duty. 

The Race Relations Act also prohibits discrimination on the grounds of colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, members of a partnership or any organisations that discriminates on these grounds could face legal action.

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How can a partnership meet the race equality duty?

If a listed public authority is working within a mixed partnership - for example involving public, private and voluntary sector partners - the public authority will need to ensure that the partnership's planning and management arrangements meet its statutory racial equality duties. The obligation falls on the listed public authority. All members of the partnership will need to be made aware of these legal requirements. 

The listed public authority will need to ensure that the partnership introduces safeguards such as monitoring and reporting systems to help them meet the duty.

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What steps should a partnership take to meet the duty?

In our guidance we recommend that partnerships draw up a  race equality strategy, to outline how they will promote race equality in their work.  A ‘race equality strategy’ can be built into existing business plans or strategies. 

There are six main steps that we recommend a partnership takes to make race equality a central part of its work:

1. Develop and agree aims and principles
2. Carry out a race equality audit to identify the main issues
3. Consult and involve communities
4. Develop a race equality strategy (or adapt your existing strategy to reflect race equality)
5. Put the strategy into action
6. Monitor and evaluate

Further information about what these steps involve can be found in our guide to partnership working, which is available to download from this page.

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