Hello, my name is Mrs. Harris, and I'm the person who's going to be guiding you through today's lesson.

The title of today's lesson is: Why Do We Need Laws on Equality in the UK? And it's part of a larger series of lessons called: Are People Treated Equally in UK Society? By the end of today's lesson, you are going to be able to say, "I can explain what laws are, how they help promote equality, and how equality laws were created over time." Some of this content might be new to you and some of it might be challenging.

I'm gonna guide us both all the way through it and we'll tackle it together.

First of all, it's really important to set some ground rules, so let's let some of the Oak Academy pupils take us through that.

So Laura here says, "Listen to others.

It's okay to disagree with each other, but we should listen properly before making assumptions or deciding how to respond.

When disagreeing, we need to challenge the statement, not the person." Andeep says "Respect privacy.

We can discuss examples, but do not use names or descriptions that identify anyone, including ourselves." Jacob says, "No judgement.

We can explore beliefs and misunderstandings about a topic without fear of being judged." And finally, Izzy says, "Choose your level of participation.

Everyone has the right to choose to not answer a question or to join discussion, and we're not gonna be putting anybody on the spot." Let's start with the keywords then.

I'm going to say the keyword and you can repeat it back, and then I'll tell you the definition.

Law: that's rules usually made by Parliament that are used to order the way in which a society behaves.

Equality: that's the right of everyone to receive the same treatment.

Discrimination: that's treating people unfairly or differently because of things like their race, gender, or where they come from, instead of treating everybody equally.

It's time for our first learning cycle called, How does the law promote equality? When a person is a citizen of a country, they have certain rights and responsibilities.

Rules and laws play a huge part in ensuring that citizens understand their responsibilities, that they know what is acceptable in society, they are protected, and that they're held to the same standards as everybody else.

Laws are official rules that are used to order the way in which a society behaves.

So for example, they set out what is right and what is fair, and this is all to protect people.

And every citizen in a country must follow the law.

Sam says, "Laws protect us, keep the peace.

." and Jacob finishes, "they make sure that everyone is treated fairly." When laws are not followed, this can lead to unfair treatments, unrest, and also people's safety being put at risk.

Without laws, people could be treated badly and actually have no way of challenging it.

Andeep is reminding us here that, "In the UK, laws are made by Parliament, enforced by the police, and upheld by the courts." It is a criminal offence to break certain laws, and if we didn't have rules and laws, then people could do what they want without any legal consequences.

There would be no justice for those harmed by others.

People could feel unsafe because the police couldn't actually stop crime from being committed.

And we would live in an unstable society.

When laws are broken, it does result in inequality and unfair treatment, and it has a really big impact on citizens, communities, and society as a whole.

Our first check for understanding then.

Which of these statements is incorrect? So we have A: laws keep the peace and keep us safe.

B: every citizen must follow the law.

C: laws are there to make people feel important.

Or D: laws are made to ensure everyone is treated fairly.

Which of these is incorrect? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, so it's C that is correct.

That laws are there to make people feel important.

No, they're not.

That's the one that's incorrect.

Well done if you've got that one.

Now, equal opportunities are when everybody is treated fairly and given the same chances in life, no matter what their background is, what their identity is or their abilities.

Here we've got a picture which represents equality and equity.

And sometimes being fair means giving people the same rights, opportunities and resources.

And that's called equality, and that's represented in the first part of the picture.

And then on the right hand side, we've got equity, and that means adapting things in order to make sure it's fair for everybody, and you can see it on the right hand side, we've got everybody given different levels of support to actually make the outcomes fair.

Equity focuses on removing the barriers to make things fair for people, while equality focuses on offering the same opportunities.

For example, it's really important that people on a sports field all play to the same rules to ensure that it's fair for all, and that is equality.

If a warmup drill as part of this sport is adapted to ensure that a player with a disability is fully able to participate, then that's not equality, it is equity, but it still means that the outcomes for everybody are fair.

So that's where equity comes in.

To create a truly fair and inclusive environment for everybody where everybody feels valued and respected.

It's really important to accept that people are unique and they are diverse.

And when people recognise and value these differences, people can bring through their diversity and their unique style.

Then that helps build a fairer society where support can be adapted to give everyone the chance to succeed.

And then this has such a positive impact on communities and on schools and workplaces and society as a whole.

It's time for the next check for understanding then.

So this time, you're going to place these words into the correct spaces to complete the sentence.

So the words are: same opportunities or removing barriers.

Equity often focuses on, mm, while equality focuses on offering the, mm.

Take a few seconds to think.

Okay then, so equity often focuses on removing barriers while equality focuses on offering the same opportunities.

Well done if you got that one.

Unfortunately though, in everyday life there are so many different situations which result in people being treated unfairly or where there are barriers for particular groups or individuals.

And this results in something called inequality, the opposite of equality.

Over the years in the UK there's been lots of different laws put in place to try and protect people against inequality and discrimination.

Now, Sam's reminding us that "discrimination is when people are treated unfairly or differently because of things like their race, their gender, or where they come from." Laws about equality generally cover the whole of society, and that includes things like workplaces, education, public services, clubs, and businesses as well.

However, even when society puts fairness as a really important quality to have, discrimination can still happen.

And often this treatment has been down to particular characteristics and identities of people.

So for example, it could be down to their age, it could be down to pregnancy, disability, race, gender, sex, and that's just some of them.

Laws are really important to help prevent this discrimination in carrying out, and it also helps protect people from this unfair treatment.

And the main aims of equality laws are, obviously to promote equality and to create a more inclusive and fair society for everybody.

So how does the law promote equality? Well, one of the things it does is protects people from discrimination and it stops people being treated unfairly because of things like age, disability, gender, race, religion, or who they love, for example.

It also promotes equality by promoting fairness in education and employment.

So it makes workplaces and schools fairer so that people end up getting chosen for jobs or treated in lessons based on their ability and who they are as a person and not their background.

The law also promotes equality by ensuring equal access, so it makes sure that everybody gets a fair chance.

So doing things like making adjustments for people means that people can access opportunities fairly.

It also promotes equality by encouraging public bodies to take action.

So it asks public organisations, for example, like schools or councils to really think about how their policies and their decision making affects different people and to please consider making that fair for everybody.

Another check for understanding then.

Complete the sentence by choosing the correct word.

The law promotes equality by: and then we've got number one: preventing, two: encouraging public bodies to take, three: ensuring equal.

And then to finish these sentences, we've got A, B, and C: action, access, discrimination.

So complete the sentence by choosing the correct word.

Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, so the law promotes equality by: number one: preventing discrimination, number two: encouraging public bodies to take action, and three: ensuring equal access.

Well done if you've got those three correct.

So up to Task A then.

So in what ways does the law help promote equality in everyday life, like in schools, workplaces, or public services? And I would like you to write one paragraph to respond to this.

So thinking back over what we've just discussed, think about the ways that the law helps promote equality in everyday life.

It's a good idea now to pause the video to give yourself the time to do this and then we'll come back and look at a possible answer together.

Okay, so in what ways does the law help promote equality in everyday life, like in schools, workplaces, or public services? Well, your response might look like this: The law helps protect people from being unfairly treated because of things like their race, gender, or disability.

It makes sure schools and workplaces are fair, so people are chosen for what they can do, not who they are.

It also makes sure everyone gets a fair chance by making adjustments if needed.

Public services have to think about fairness when they make decisions, too.

Well done if you managed to get some of those really key points in there for your answer.

It's time for our second learning cycle: Have laws made the UK more equal? Equality laws in the UK exist today because in the past, many people were treated unfairly due to things like their race, gender, or background.

And when people then began to speak about these unfair experiences, it really did highlight these big gaps in the law and the inequality faced by so many people, and this helps then, lead to stronger protections for everybody.

Let's have a look at a case study then.

So this was discrimination due to race and ethnicity.

In the 1960s, many children who moved to the UK from the Caribbean were unfairly treated in schools.

Some teachers misunderstood their speech and culture and wrongly judged them as less able.

This led to many children being placed in schools for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, which held them back from reaching their full potential.

This meant that they had limited employment opportunities and affected their potential throughout their lives.

This showed that the system was not treating all children equally and helped highlight the need for changes in education and equality laws so that all children, no matter what their background, would be given a fair chance to succeed.

Case study two: This is discrimination due to disability.

After World War I, thousands of soldiers returned to the UK with disabilities caused by injuries, and many of them actually lost limbs or suffered from psychological trauma.

But despite their service to the country, the veterans faced significant discrimination.

They had limited access to jobs and many employers didn't want to hire disabled veterans, believing that they wouldn't be able to perform the tasks as efficiently as workers who were not disabled.

And there was quite poor treatment in society as well where disabled veterans were not given the same opportunities as others.

And there was very little understanding and support in those days for the challenges that these people faced.

Many veterans were therefore pushed to rely on charity support or many, many, many of them lived in poverty.

Case study three: discrimination due to pregnancy and maternity.

In the 1970s and 1980s, pregnancy discrimination was really widespread in many workplaces and pregnant women were often assumed to be unable to work effectively and couldn't do their jobs and they were often pushed out and forced to leave their jobs or not hired at all during their pregnancy.

The Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 made discrimination based on sex or marital status illegal.

But the law didn't specify pregnancy within that, so that led to pregnant women being quite vulnerable to unfair treatment.

The unfair treatment led to lots of financial insecurity for lots of women.

It limited career opportunities for them, and also reinforced these gender-based inequalities in the workplace where men had more of an advantage than women purely because of the sex that they were born at.

Another check for understanding then.

Complete the sentence by choosing a word.

When these unfair experiences began to be more widely spoken about, it highlighted gaps in the mm and the inequality faced by many people.

Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, so when the unfair experiences began to be more widely spoken about, it highlighted gaps in the law and the inequality faced by many people.

Well done if you got that one.

So let's look at the process of what led laws being put into place then.

So one of the things was public pressure and protests and that campaigns, protests and different social movements, especially during the 1960s and '70s, brought lots of attention to injustice in the UK at the time.

There was also about high profile cases, so that's real life stories of unfair treatment.

For example, people losing jobs or being denied services and that made the public and the politicians realise that something needed to change.

There was also the international influence as well.

So because the UK was influenced by different countries and being part of different communities, so for example, the European Community, that required certain equality standards.

And so that then influenced the lawmaking that was happening in the UK at the time.

And there was also changing attitudes.

Nothing ever stands still in terms of how society is.

And so as society changed, more people were believing in fairness and being equal and giving equal opportunity to everybody.

And so people in the society wanted their laws to reflect those values.

People seeing that the law wasn't equally protecting everybody was one of the main reasons why the beginning of the acts of law were cut into place to try and change this permanently.

Some of the key moments in the makings of equality law were: in 1968, there was the Race Relations Act.

Now this was the second act which extended the first act in 1965, which then made it illegal to discriminate in housing and employment and in different services because of a person's race or ethnicity.

In 1970, came in the Equal Pay Act, and that made it so that women had to be paid the same as a man for doing the same job.

And before that, often women were just paid less, even if they did exactly the same work.

So this was a real step forward for women.

In 1995 came in the Disability Discrimination Act and this then gave legal protection to those with disabilities against the discrimination against them, especially in places like work, education and public places.

Between 2003 to 2006 came in the Employment Equality Regulations over three different stages, and they protected people from unfair treatment because of their age, their religion or their sexuality, so about who they love.

And this helped make workplaces fairer for everybody.

In 2006, there was the Equality and Human Rights Commission that was created, and this is an independent organisation which was set up to protect rights and make sure that equality laws were being followed.

And in 2010 came the Equality Act and that brought together all the previous equality legislation into one single law, which made everybody protected from discrimination under one single law based on the nine protected characteristics.

Another check for understanding.

So Alex is talking about the things which led to equality laws being made and changed in the UK, but he's forgotten one major influence.

Can you think which one it is? So here's what he's saying.

"Protests and public pressure showed people wanted change.

High profile cases and changing attitudes helped lead to new laws that protect people and make things fairer." One major influence is missing from there.

Can you identify it? Take a few seconds to think.

Okay, the one that Alex forgot was international influence.

So the UK was very much influenced by other countries making their equality laws, and also the UK was in the European Community.

And so as part of that, they had to meet certain equality standards.

So all of that influenced UK law making.

Well done if you got that one.

The Equality Act 2010 is a law that protects people in England, Scotland, and Wales from discrimination in its various forms and it focuses on nine protected characteristics, and you can see them there.

You can pause the video if you would like to take more time to look, and I'll read them now for you.

We've got race and ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, age, sexual orientation, sex, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, or marriage and civil partnerships.

And Andeep there is telling us that "Anti-discrimination laws in Northern Ireland are written not just in one act but across multiple pieces of legislation." The Equality Act 2010 makes it illegal to directly discriminate, so for example, refusing to hire somebody because of their race, it makes it illegal to indirectly discriminate.

So having a rule that disadvantages a certain group.

It makes it illegal to harass somebody, so making offensive jokes or behaviour related to somebody's protected characteristic.

And also against victimisation, so treating them badly for complaining about discrimination or perhaps supporting somebody else who has complained about discrimination.

And it also makes it illegal to fail to make reasonable adjustments for people.

So for example, a person with a disability at work, if a place doesn't make reasonable adjustments, then that is illegal.

So why do we need equality laws? Well, Jacob here is saying that "Believing in fairness isn't enough on its own and that having laws help us make sure that fairness is real and not just an idea." Sam says that "Laws protect people and make sure that discrimination is challenged." So people can't just get away with doing what they like with no consequences about it when it disadvantages other people.

And Sam continues, "They give everybody the same rights and laws help to build a more equal and respectful society." By learning from the unfair treatment that people have faced in the past, our equality laws now aim to try to stop those mistakes happening again and again and again.

Another check for understanding then.

So in which year did the Equality Act come into force, which combined many pieces of equality legislation? Was it A: 2003, B: 2006 or C: 2010? Take a few seconds to think.

All right, so the answer is C, in 2010, and Jacob here is telling us that, remember, "2003 to 2006 saw many pieces of employment regulation put into place to protect people at their workplaces.

2010 saw all the previous pieces of anti-discrimination legislation put together into one act." Well done if you got that one.

And so now we're onto Task B, our final task.

In this one, for the first part, you are going to read the scenarios and you're going to identify which piece of pre 2010 legislation could have been used to fight that type of discrimination.

So we're not talking about the Equality Act now, we're talking about the pieces of legislation before that act came in.

So the first one here then is that men are paid more money for doing the same job as women.

A landlord puts up signs outside his house saying, "For rent: no Blacks, no Irish." A gay woman is refused a promotion because some colleagues refuse to work for her because she's gay.

A company only employs people who say they are Christian.

A company forces all employees over 60 to retire.

And the different legislation I want you to consider are: the Employment Equality Sexual Orientation Regulations of 2003, the Employment Equality Age Regulations for 2006, the Equal Pay Act of 1970, the Race Relations Act of 1976 or the Employment Equality Religion or Belief Regulations of 2003.

So which scenario would've needed which piece of legislation to fight it and to challenge it? It's a good idea to pause the video to give yourself the time to do this and then we'll come back and look at the correct answers together.

Okay, let's go through these answers then.

So men are paid more money than women for doing the same job would've been challenged by the Equal Pay Act of 1970.

A landlord puts up signs outside his house saying, "For rent: no Blacks, no Irish." That would've been challenged by the Race Relations Act of 1976.

A gay woman is refused a promotion because some colleagues refuse to work for her because she's gay, would be covered by the Employment Equality Sexual Orientation Regulations of 2003.

A company only employs people who say they're Christian, that would come under the Employment Equality Religion or Belief Regulations 2003.

And so finally, a company forcing all employees over 60 to retire would be covered by the Employment Equality Age Regulations 2006.

Well done if you got those five correct.

So part two of that is to now think about the laws that we've covered in today's lesson.

So part A of this, why has the law on equality changed over time? I'd like to write a paragraph about that.

And B, what is the benefit of having a single piece of legislation on equality? So there's two parts to it there, part A and part B.

Again, pause the video to give yourself the time to do this and then we'll come back and look at some possible answers.

Alright then.

So part A: why has the law and equality changed over time? And your answer might look something like this.

The law has changed over time because, in the past, lots of people were treated unfairly because of things like their race, gender, disability, or religion.

As values and attitudes in society changed and people became more aware of discrimination in real life cases, public pressure showed that old laws were not strong enough or did not protect everyone, so new laws were brought in to make things fairer.

Part B of this: what is a benefit of having a single piece of legislation on equality? And your answer might look something like this.

A number of individual pieces of equality's legislation were replaced with the 2010 Equality Act.

Having one main law, like the Equality Act 2010, makes it easier to understand and follow.

It brings all the different equality rules together in one place so people know their rights and how to challenge unfair treatment.

Really good job if you've picked out those major pieces there for those last two questions.

Well done.

It's time now to sum up our learning today on the lesson, which was called: Why Do We Need Laws on Equality in the UK? Laws are rules that guide how society works, setting out what's fair and protecting people.

Equal opportunities are when everybody is fairly treated and given the same chances in life.

And this happens through equality and equity.

Equality laws in the UK exist today because, in the past, many people were treated unfairly due to things like their race, gender or background.

Real life stories of unfair treatment highlighted how the laws needed to change to ensure that everyone is treated equally.

The Equality Act 2010 aims to prevent all forms of discrimination in England, Scotland, and Wales.

It brought together all equality laws together into one single law, protecting people from discrimination based on the nine protected characteristics.

Well done for sticking with me today through all of that complex content.

You've done a fantastic job.

I'll see you again soon.