Barnsley Primary Care Trust: Equality Impact Assessment Training

Equality Works were commissioned to provide equality impact assessment (EIA) training for managers from the provider and commissioning arms of the PCT. This included managers responsible for public health, corporate services and commissioning as well as service managers and practitioner leads.

The course was tailored to the primary care setting and local context using a training needs analysis process which included: information from desk research, interviews with managers and an EIA assessment tool to identify current organisational arrangements.

The aim of the training was to support directorates in recognising impact assessment, as required by law, as a useful tool for reviewing and improving the patient experience. It was important to the Trust that managers were ready to explain this to their teams after the training and to decide next steps. To support this, as well as the core programme, the course incorporated an introduction from a senior manager at the Trust and opportunities for delegates to understand and explain the rationale and benefits of EIA as a useful tool for reviewing and improving patient experience.