Diversity and inclusion employer strategy for Scottish Government

Strategy focus and future delivery

Building a more inclusive workplace is not down to one individual, team or directorate. It takes everyone, working together, to realise our vision and be an organisation led and driven by our values.

The strategic journey towards achieving our legal commitments and our organisational values and ambitions will be underpinned by a corresponding equality action plan.

The plan is:

• iterative – reviewed and renewed regularly as we make progress
• concentrated – on up to four gamechanger themes at any one time
• crosscutting – grouping hot topic areas of employee experience into a gamechanger theme, to create synergy and maximise effect for change
• multi-strand – lead measures and actions targeted at all equality groups combined with some that focus on one, two or three specific equality groups
• intersectional – recognising poorer employee experience can be compounded by intersectionality and creating solutions to address this
• inclusive – covering all protected characteristics within the Equality Act 2010. And extending our scope to Socio Economic Background as far as possible to recognise the Fairer Scotland duty

The plan will be delivered, updated and reproduced on a three year to four year cycle, adopting the same change theory approach.

Profile piece: Diversity and inclusion governance group

Creating accountability

To successfully implement this strategy, accountability and ownership of actions has to be, and be seen to be at the right levels.

"We want to ensure that achieving progress is driven from commitment and action from the top down."

Claire Marr, Deputy Director Capability + Talent, Governance Group Member

The Diversity and inclusion governance group is a key internal point of accountability for employer diversity and inclusion efforts.

Diverse voices are at the table, with representation from diversity staff networks. And the Council of Scottish Government Unions to represent employee collective interests.

So too are external equality group organisations and senior leaders accountable for delivery of actions in their functional areas and role modelling the changes we want to see.

Chaired by the Executive Team Ally for diversity and inclusion, this group challenges and supports one other, action owners and the wider organisation. It will oversee successful implementation of this strategy, monitoring the pace and scale of impact our actions achieve.