Health and Social Care: Equality Act 2010, Religious Beliefs Analysis

This report analyzes the Equality Act 2010, focusing on its formation, the process of how it became an Act of Parliament, and its relevance to health and social care. The report examines the protected characteristics outlined in the Act, with a specific focus on religious beliefs. It explores how the Act reaches the public domain, analyzing the different techniques used by the media for disseminating information and evaluating the public's reaction to the issue. Furthermore, the report evaluates how the public can assess the reliability and validity of media information about reactions to the Act, considering ownership of information and media outlets. The analysis covers how organizations implement the Equality Act, the role of the media in influencing public opinion, and the effectiveness of different information dissemination techniques. The report also provides a detailed analysis of the media's role in shaping public opinion, various techniques used for disseminating information relating to the chosen characteristic, and the public reaction to the issue. The assignment fulfills the criteria for BTEC Level 4 HNC Diploma in Health and Social Care and BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Health and Social Care, specifically Unit 7: Social Policy and Unit 19: Contemporary Issues in Health and Social Care.

BTEC Level 4 HNC Diploma in Health and Social Careand
BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Health and Social Care
Unit 7: Social Policy and
Unit 19: Contemporary Issues in Health and Social Care

Portfolio
Task One Portfolio section 1 and 2
Section 1
1A
An introduction to a historical or contemporary issue or policy relevant to health and
social care.
SP 1.1)
For the purposes of this assignment you need to investigate the Equality Act 2010
In this section you are asked to briefly describe the Act in order to put the rest of the portfolio
into context.
i. Explain briefly what the Act is and why is it relevant to health and social
care? (Ensure you list the nine protective characteristics)
Equality Act 2010 brought numerous changes to social and healthcare. The act came into
force on the 4th of October, 2010 so as to codify numerous elements of both primary and
secondary legislation relating to discrimination in the society and further introduced more
protection against discernment (Equality and Human Rights Commission n.d.). Equality
act 2010 provides allowance to access of social care or heath care services from including
your home, schools, mobile clinics among others without any discrimination. The equality
laws applies for any organization offering healthcare or social care to everyone or a section
of community, whether the services are free or paid for by someone else. The Equality Act
2010 provides protection against prejudice, in relation to the outlined characteristics which
different people possess. Some of the protected characteristics under the equality law
include the following: Age, Gender relocation, Marriage, Pregnancy, motherhood, Race,
Religion, Conviction, and Sexuality.

ii. Choose oneof the nine protected characteristics and find a current issue on
this characteristic based on either a health or social care perspective
Religion Or Belief
In the Equality Act 2010, religion refers to the any religion, any reference to any cult and
may also refer to lack of faith. On the other hand, faith means any religion or conviction, also
any allusion to belief and also refers to lack of conviction.
Religion and beliefs affect certain societal perspectives. For instance, while in medical field
abortion is viewed as the process of involuntary and spontaneous loss of pregnancy due to
physician reasons, in religion, it is totally unacceptable and is termed as the voluntary
termination of pregnancy. Religion and beliefs guide people on social morality and ethical
practices according to what they believe (Equality and Human Rights Commission 2016).
1B
Howwas the Equality Act 2010 formed and how does this Actwhen presented in the
media, give rise to issues of public concern?(SP 2.1, M1) (CI 1.1)
You have been given a contemporary policy that has featured in the media making it a
concern to the public. In this section you are asked to look at the various ways in which
policies such as this come to the attention of the public and how reliable the sources of the
information are.
Complete your answer to the questions in the boxes below ensuring that you reference any
sources you have used to support your discussion and complete a bibliography at the end of
the section.

i. Explain the process involved in the formulation of the Equality Act 2010 and the
influences of different ideologies before it became an Act of Parliament.
(You need to begin your explanation analysing the process of how a bill becomes an Act
of parliament)
Before the Act became a law, a bill had to be presented in the house of commons for first
reading, which took place on 24th of April 2009. Inside the house of commons, it went
through the first reading, the second reading, the committee stage, the report stage, and
finally the third reading before was passed over to the House of Lords, in which it
undergoes the same process before royal assent.
The equality bill went through the house of commons until the 2nd of December 2009.
Then on 3rd of December 2009, it was handed to the House of Lords for the first Reading,
went through all the reading stages, committee and report stages until 8th of April, 2010,
when the bill went through Royal Assent stage to officially become an Act of
Parliament(UK Parliament n.d.).
ii. Explain in more detailwhat this Act sets out to achieve and why it came about?
The equality act was introduced to strengthen protection against bias and bring together
many pieces of the primary and secondary legislations which relates to inequity. The Act
provides protection against discrimination in relation to certain characteristics that people
have. The Equality Act aims to achieve parity provisions of services (public and Private),
Public functions and associations and provides protection against unfairness on the
grounds of the outlined protected characteristics that people may own

iii. Using the particular characteristic you have chosen, evaluate how this is
affected by the Equality Act
Religion or belief is protected characteristic outlined in the Equality Act 2010. As
much as protection against discrimination on these grounds are still new and there is no
any defined guidance for the domestic courts, the Statutory note of the Act outlines that
the religion must have a clear and defined structure of beliefs. This includes highly
recognized religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam among
others. The Equality Act explanatory notes outline that any religion or cult involved in
illegal activities would not satisfy the protection criteria set in the equality act.
To achieve SP M1, Complex problems with more than one variable have been explored while evaluating recent developments in health and social care policy
Works Cited
Equality and Human Rights Commission 2016, 'Religion or belief: is the law working? ',
Report.
Equality and Human Rights Commission, 'Equality Act 2010 ', Handbook for Advisors.
UK Parliament, 'Passage of a Bill'. Available at
https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/

Section 2
2A

Using the characteristic chosen in section 1, explain how the Equality Act reaches
the public domain analysing the different techniques used.
(CI 1.2)
i.How did it get from the original source to be widely available to everyone?
Health care and social care are set within societies, and religion or beliefs affects the
provision of healthcare and social care. The availability about the presence of
information about the religion or beliefs relies heavily on the media. The mass media
plays a significant role in disseminating of information to public domain. The media
also influences the knowledge and understanding of the information depending on how
the information is portrayed to the public. For example, information relayed in the
daily newspapers, electronic media and even social media, facilitates widespread to the
public domain(Donohue, Tichenor & Olien 2012).
iiWhere did the information originate from –who was the original source?
The primary foundation of information for the 2010 equality act is government
publications since it was passed into official act on 4th, October 2010. After that, it was
in the best interest of the available media to avail the information in the public sector,
independently.
iii. How did it come to be presented in the media outlet that you found it?
The details were passed over to diverse media outlets after being available by the
government from the moment the bill was passed into an Act of Parliament, which
meant, the information had to reach the public for their best interest. Factual
presentation in the newspapers, electronic media and social media, and the influence of
the mass media is what led to the rapid dissemination of the news.

iv. What was the route from original source to the source you used?
After the bill passed in parliament, the media had had freedom to follow all the
proceeding of the house in the discussion stages, from House of Commons to the
House of Lords, therefore; the very day the bill passed through the Royal Assent, the
media had already the details from the house proceed to publish to the public domain.
2B
Analyse different techniques for disseminating information relating the
characteristic you have chosen under the Equality Act (CI M2)
i. In which different ways was the issue presented?
Other significant forms of which information was presented involved presentations in
the seminars, publication of information documents on the Equality act for the public
domain, reports and even newspaper articles, government publications and local area
publications that are much closer to the local public and above all, the civic education.

ii. How effective was each technique for ensuring that the information about the issue
reached the public?
Effectiveness of government publications is priceless, as it provides such documents to
the public without charges. Civic education reaches all the citizens of different social
classes and newspaper prints is a mass medium that is widely read across the country.
iii. What was the public reaction to this issue?
The reactions depended on the source of data each person had received the details from.
The mass media has power to change the influence of how people think and perceive
issues; the reaction therefore is different as a result as due to different sources of
information. The influence the media have varies from one individual to another hence
the reason for varying reactions.
iv. How did organisations implement the Equality Act with regards to this issue?
Set ups such as schools and other academic institutions have laid legal parameters in
accommodation of people of all religious backgrounds without discriminating. The
equality requires that every individual has a right to exercise their religious beliefs.
Organizations have set non-discriminatory approaches whereby, every employee is
granted their religious freedom and space at their working places.

v. What role do you think the media played in influencing public opinion?
The media is a commanding instrument that influence opinion and manipulate the
realities. The influence brought about by the media to the public domain depended on
which media channel the members of public received the information from. Some media
outlets are manipulative and they may present information in a biased way that leads to a
wrong perception of the information displayed (Fog 2004).
vi. Do you agree or disagree with the techniques used and why?
I agree. As much as information reaches the public domain, it is in the best interest of
the recipients to judge and establish the credibility of the information at their disposal
and decide on what do with them. Misinformation caused probably by the techniques of
disseminating information may arise as a result of misjudgements form the part of the
public(Scanlon n.d.).
To achieveCI M2 you must demonstrate that you have identified the source of the
information concerning the contemporary issue and in addition have selected appropriate
sources for the assignment using the internet, journals, publications and text. The
bibliography must be presented in an appropriate format. (Section 2)

2C
Evaluate how the public can assess the reliability and validity of media information about
reactions to this issue(CI 2.2, D1) (SP M2)
i. Who owns the information?
All news originating from a certain media outlet is an outright property of that media
outlet and protected by the copyright law. The ownership of the information belong the
source in which it originated from primarily(Al-Khouri 2012). Therefore all the
information regarding the Equality Act belong the media outlets that are responsible for
creating them for the public.
ii.Who owns the media outlet?
Media entities are owned by independent corporations who establish them with an aim
of making profit. They are business entities, running for commercial purposes and earn
profits from advertising revenue to subscription fees they charge the consumers of the
information they produce.The media outlets however operate under stipulated law and
regulations, but they exercise the independence of what they choose to
spread(Australian Government, Department of Communications 2014).
iii.How accurate do you think the source was?
The original source of data about the Equality Act 2010, which was the law bill passed
as an Act of Parliament presented the information in the most valid and original form.
However the information was subject to manipulation as it goes through various media
channels

iv.Do you think there is a political agenda attached to the information?
Yes. Because the information involved was a product of political interests as much as
its benefits are directed to the citizens. In the discussion stages of the bill in parliament,
all the opposed parties always takes their wars beyond the restraints of law. And that is
where the media comes in, with their political interest in the matter, they have the power
to manipulate in favour of what they want to achieve.
v.How do you know?
The political powers at play can easily be exposed by the conflicting reports about
the information by the media and even political leaders. The expression of different
interests from different media houses can easily betray the political agenda exhibited
in the process of disseminating the information to the general public.
vi.Is there a religious agenda?
Yes. Religious issues affect almost all the people and there have been conflicting
oppositions when it comes to advancement of one’s religion. It is true that some media
outlets have worked so hard to suppress the interests of certain religious beliefs, making
them very less neutral in religious matters in many ways and in many perspectives.
vii.How do you know?
This can easily be noted by following closely the consistent reporting patterns by the
media houses involved about certain religious beliefs; their expression of opinion in
relation to certain religions in their editorials also betrays their positions on certain
religions.

To achieve CIM1 you must demonstrate that you have considered attitude formation and
attitude change and how the presentation of information in the media influences this when
making your evaluation (Section 3)
To achieve SP M2materials need to be appropriate to the understanding of social Policy for
service users and providers and a use of a range of sources for information, correctly
referenced using the Harvard Referencing System
To achieve CID1 you must be critical in your evaluation and offer justification on how you
have assessed the validity and reliability of the information.
References
Al-Khouri, AM 2012, 'Data Ownership: Who Owns 'My Data'?', International Journal of
Management & Information Technology , vol II, no. 1, pp. 1-8.
Australian Government, Department of Communications 2014, 'Media control and
ownership', POLICY BACKGROUND PAPER, no. 3, pp. 4-78.
Donohue, GA, Tichenor, PJ & Olien, CN 2012, 'Mass Media Functions, Knowledge and
Social Control', Journalism Quarterly, pp. 652-659.
Equality and Human Rights Commission 2016, 'Religion or belief: is the law working? ',
Report.
Equality and Human Rights Commission, 'Equality Act 2010 ', Handbook for Advisors.
Fog, A 2004, 'The supposed and the real role of mass media in modern Democracy', Working
paper.
Scanlon, J, 'Research about the Mass Media and Disaster:Never (Well Hardly Ever) The
Twain Shall Meet ', Emergency Communications Research Unit, Carleton University,
Ottawa, Canada.
UK Parliament, 'Passage of a Bill'.https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/