The framework of rights and responsibilities in UK law. The Human Rights Act 1998 — the rights it protects, where it does and doesn’t apply, its relationship with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Equality Act 2010 — protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation), direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation, the duty of reasonable adjustment.
Responsibilities — duties as a citizen (taxes, lawful conduct, jury service if called). Tensions — when rights conflict; when freedoms reach their limits; when responsibilities to community modify individual rights. The difference between legal rights and moral claims.
This is also where NEO meets its fundamental British values obligation under the Teaching and Learning Policy §2.2 — democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance. Taught through reasoning rather than recitation.
Tested by
Cross-curriculum
- RSHE — Relationships Education (Being Safe; consent; legal protections against abuse)
- RSHE — Health Education (mental capacity, consent to medical treatment)
- Employability — Rights, responsibilities, and pay (workplace rights under the Equality Act)
- KS4 English — Critical evaluation (reading claims about rights critically)
- Relating Intelligently — Module 5 (ethical framework for relating across boundaries)
Suggested evidence types
- Case-study analysis of a real or hypothetical Equality Act dispute
- Reflection on a moment when the learner has experienced a tension between rights (their own; another’s; a community’s)
- Researched response on the relationship between fundamental British values and a contested current-affairs issue
Care note for delivery
This strand handles content that may be politically charged or personally close for some learners (discrimination, identity-based persecution, asylum and migration). NEO’s pedagogy is to teach the legal framework clearly and to facilitate discussion that admits multiple positions, while not normalising views that breach the Equality Act itself. “You can hold different opinions about policy. You cannot legally treat protected characteristics as though they don’t deserve protection.”