The Equality Act 2010 received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010. The Act, which brings together all existing discrimination legislation and extends protection from unfair treatment, explicitly excludes children and young people from legal protection from unfair discrimination on the grounds of age.

The Young Equals campaign group, co-ordinated by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, has been strongly lobbying for the inclusion of children and young people in the age discrimination measures in the Act. During the Parliamentary journey of the Act, many MPs and Peers spoke out in favour of the inclusion of children and young people in the age discrimination provisions.

Despite the continued exclusion of children and young people from the ban on unfair age discrimination in goods and services, and the exclusion of children’s homes and schools from the age element of the public sector equality duty, the Young Equals group, along with supportive MPs and Peers, has achieved the following through Parliamentary lobbying:

• Assurances from Government during a debate in the House of Lords that the guidance on the public sector equality duty will give practical assistance to public service providers on how they can implement the age provisions for children and young people.
• A public letter to Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) from Baroness Royall calling for the EHRC to consider the impact of equality legislation on children as it carries out its statutory monitoring, and urging the Commission to consider what information children should receive on the Equality Act.

Read a summary of Young Equals lobbying on the Equality Act and its wider work on harmful age discrimination against children and young people