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Equal opportunities surveys


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Was reading on another thread about these equal opportunities surveys that ask things like your sex, your age grouping, your ethnic group etc.

 

Does you ever bother to complete these?

Personally I always tick the "Declined to answer" box if there is one because I believe that if equal opportunities for all really exist, then none of that information should matter, even if it is anonymous and they just use the data.

 

Also, if you have to write in your nationality/place of birth, do you put British/Great Britain or English/England?

I always put English/England, even though I know its probably the norm to put British.

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There is at least one Council in England which will bin your application if you don't complete their equal opportunity questionaire.

 

Thats a bit ironic, if you don't complete their survey in the name of equal opportunities, they will not give you an equal opportunity.:|

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There is at least one Council in England which will bin your application if you don't complete their equal opportunity questionaire.

 

I've mentioned it a few times before - It's Sandwell Council - I'm actually surprised it's legal though, I thought they had to offer the option to decline to fill out the survey...

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Equal opportunities doesn't exactly mean treating everyone equally. Its more about giving people equal standards of service to achieve equal outcomes, by also paying attention to their individual needs. For instance, there's no point in giving someone a beautifully written document if they are blind. It would have to be produced in Braille or put on tape. If an organisation knows a customer is profoundly deaf they will know not to phone them up without using typetalk or text.

 

It means not discriminating against A because they may have different needs to B. For example, what would be the point of offering a nicely appointed 3rd floor flat without lift access to someone in a wheelchair. They may be the next in line for a flat, but have specific needs.

 

Lots of organisations need to know gender and age demographics, so they can offer products and services to suit their customers. It helps also to know someone's religion. Most Christians (in fact most of us who celebrate Christmas) wouldn't thank the council for sending a workman to fix the boiler on Dec 25th. Same applies to people who celebrate other festivals, the dates can be avoided if the information is known up front.

 

There are lots of reasons why we are asked for personal data, but apart from our legal obligation to complete the census every 10 years, I think we can tick the box 'prefer not to answer' on all the other stuff.

 

And as a Scot, I haven't an issue if the box I tick says British. It says the same on my passport.

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There is at least one Council in England which will bin your application if you don't complete their equal opportunity questionaire.

 

Not sure that's what the OP's on about.

 

The surveys for members of the public can help to ensure that the councill for example is reaching the whole community with its information and services.

 

I don't have a problem with this.

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