To abide by the Government's Equality Act 2010, employers should ensure that there are no hidden age barriers in your selection and promotion processes – e.g. aim to place advertisements in publications read by a range of age groups. You should also make sure that your redundancy procedures are based on business needs rather than age. Unless 'experience' is a mandatory Ofsted requirement, do not mention it on your job adverts e.g. for a supervisory position it maybe an Ofsted stipulation to have 2 years previous experience.
Age discrimination can be direct discrimination which is less favourable treatment because of someone’s age. For example, it is unlawful on the grounds of age to:
- Decide not to employ some one
- Dismiss them
- Refuse to provide them with training
- Deny them promotion
- Give them adverse terms and conditions
- Retire an employee before the employer's usual retirement age (if there is one) or retire an employee before the Government's retirement age. There are exceptions to this rule in certain circumstances, please contact your development worker for further information.
Discrimination can also be indirect, this would be by disadvantaging people because of their age regarding selection criteria, policies, benefits, employment rules or any other practices which are applied to all employees but some because of their age.