Withdrawal of the 'Coronavirus (COVID-19): use of face coverings in social care settings including adult care homes' guidance: Equality Impact Assessment

Purpose of this EQIA

This EQIA is to ensure that the equalities impacts that were informally considered as part of the development of this policy (the removal of the ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): use of face coverings in social care settings including adult care homes’ guidance) are adequately captured formally.

Specifically, the EQIA considers impacts on equalities groups based on the three tests:

• Does this policy change eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010.
• Does this policy change advance equality of opportunity between protected characteristic (PC) groups and persons who do not fall within PC groups?
• Does this policy change foster good community relations between people of PC groups and people who do not fall within PC groups?

The extended use of face mask/face guidance in health and social care settings has been one of the key interventions over the course of the last three years designed to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on our health, and on the wider social and economic harms caused by the pandemic.

The purpose of removing this temporary policy was to revert to the robust processes for implementing policies on the use of PPE in social care settings that were in place pre-pandemic. This was considered proportionate to the phase of the pandemic that we were in and in line with the contemporaneous evidence on management of COVID-19. It would move from the temporary policy and return to a person-centred, risk-based approach. It was also broadly in line with the approach taken in other UK nations.