- Developing Social Housing Policy in NI
- Consultation Responses from NIFHA
- Policy & Practice
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- Supporting People
- Equality And Diversity
Housing Associations' Equality Schemes
Housing Associations were not designated as statutory bodies for the purposes of Section 75 until April 2004. Preparation for this new obligation to implement Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 had already been in progress for a considerable time and the registered associations had taken the decision that the best approach would be to work collectively on this major undertaking. Although NIFHA itself was not designated, in its role as the umbrella body for Housing Associations in Northern Ireland the Federation agreed to co-ordinate this joint project.
NIFHA facilitation covered the following areas
- Working with an Equality Steering Group to plan and oversee the project
- Production of a compact disk containing all draft Equality Schemes
- Development and maintenance main consultee list
- Circulation of disk to all main consultee organisations
- Co-ordination of the public consultation exercise
- Fostering links with ‘equalities’ groups
- Organising a general training programme
- Regular liaison with Equality Commission
- Publicising approval of HA Equality Schemes
This collaborative approach proved successful as all the associations achieved the six-month deadline for submission. The Equality Schemes of the 37 designated associations were approved by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland between September and December 2005. Since these approvals were issued there have been a number of mergers by housing associations which has reduced the overall number of designated associations. Two very small associations were granted exemption by the Equality Commission these are Coral Crescent Housing Association and Craigowen Housing Association. The ten properties belonging to Coral Crescent become part of Oaklee in 2006.
To minimise the impact on consultee and/or stakeholder organisations the Federation has produced a composite disk containing a copy of the Equality Scheme of each of the designated housing associations. Please contact our office if you would like a copy of this disk.
However, if you wish to obtain a hard copy of a particular scheme you should contact the Association directly. These schemes can also be made available in a range of alternative formats on request from each individual association. Formats include hard copy, large print, minority languages (for those not fluent in English), Braille or on an audio cassette.
Contact details for all the Housing Associations can be found in the members’ page of this website.
Finally, the Federations’ members would also like to place on record our thanks to everyone who contributed to the consultation process.
