Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights - anti-racist policy making: review

Appendix 2: Methods

This appendix sets out the evidence gathering, analysis and narrative drafting methods used in undertaking the review.

Evidence gathering

To inform the review, CRER gathered all accessible documents on race equality policy published by Scottish Government since the inception of the Scottish Parliament. Additional documents of potential relevance, such as articles and research papers, were recorded where these were identified in the course of gathering relevant documents. These provided additional contextual background.

Document gathering methods comprised of a web search using specific key words, a similar web archive search, compiling hard copies of older documents not available in electronic format already held by CRER, a Freedom of Information Request to all national agencies of the Scottish Government and liaison with National Libraries of Scotland to fill gaps in availability of documents.

Key Scottish Government/Executive race equality strategies and progress reports on race equality were the central focus of evidence gathering. In total, 39 of these were collated, with a further one identified but unavailable (a hard copy was held by National Records of Scotland, but access was not possible due to Coronavirus lockdown restrictions).

The remainder of the evidence gathered included:

• Strategies, schemes and action plans related to race equality produced by national agencies of the Scottish Government
• Documents detailing consultation with minority ethnic communities regarding race equality policy
• Research documents regarding public policy and race equality in Scotland
• Articles and news releases regarding policy on race equality in Scotland's public sector

The resulting evidence gathering database contained 996 entries. Of these, 183 were discounted because despite the mention of key words, the content was not substantive enough to inform the review.

Documents produced by national agencies were filtered to identify those of most relevance to the aims of the review.

The remaining documents were filtered in a similar way, providing contextual information which assisted in analysis of the key national strategies and progress reports.

A separate evidence gathering exercise was undertaken to collate and analyse statistical evidence on racial inequalities.

Analysis and drafting

The key national strategies were analysed using a spreadsheet with tailored fields. These are referenced within the report introduction. 817 commitments and actions were listed in categories corresponding to the priority areas set out in the Race Equality Framework for Scotland 2016-2030. Coding was used to identify recurring themes within each category. For each commitment and action, spreadsheet fields were used to record examples relating to practice, performance measurement and progress. This was analysed and used to develop narrative for each section of the review report.

Documents from national agencies were analysed following filtering and used to develop narrative for Section 1. These are not referenced, in order to anonymise the findings.

Two consultation documents were identified as comparable and were analysed to create the thematic comparison table within Section 1.

Analysis of the contextual documents gathered informed the development of narrative throughout the report. Emphasis was placed on documents which demonstrate evidence on the effectiveness of race equality work, particularly from an anti-racist perspective. A specific subset of these documents relating to developing equality policy was used to develop narrative for Section 2. Contextual documents are referenced throughout the document accordingly.

Statistical evidence on racial inequalities was analysed and used to develop narrative for section 1 of the review report. Statistical reference tables relating to this analysis are provided at Appendix 3.

Four CRER staff were involved in evidence gathering, analysis and drafting over the period January to March 2021. Three of the four staff worked together on editing and final content.