New duties on racial equality warning for early

The 2000 Amendment followed the Macpherson report and inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Whereas the 1976 Race Relations Act made it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of race in the delivery of services, the amendment creates a positive duty on public bodies to work towards racial equality.

This also applies to the private sector when providing services paid for by the public purse. Definitions of who exactly this relates to will be hammered out following the publication of a Home Office consultation paper in about a month's time.

The 2000 Amendment also gives the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) additional powers to follow up complaints by issuing compliance notices and seeking enforcement through the courts if necessary. Speaking at the recent conference for Early Years Childcare and Development Partnerships, CRE chair Gurbux Singh said the amendment would have 'significant implications' for them and that the early years sector needed to make sure 'services were genuinely accessible to all' and that 'all communities know about the services you provide'.

He added that services should be appropriate and genuinely meet the needs of all groups, taking into account differences of culture, language and religion; members of ethnic communities should not be exposed to humiliation or racist abuse, and staff should challenge racism.

Providers affected by the Amendment will also have a duty to pursue racial equality in their employment practice, for example by ensuring that job vacancies are advertised appropriately.

A CRE spokesman said the Amendment would probably apply to any provider who received the nursery education grant. 'There is a grey area in some aspects of early years childcare. That is the kind of issue which will be outlined in the consultation document in January.'