Employee passport: equality impact assessment

Screening

Policy Aim

Describe in this paragraph what the purpose of your policy/strategy/plan is and its desired outcomes and to which National Outcome(s) it contributes.

National outcomes:

• Fair Work and Business: We have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and fair work for everyone^[1]
• Human Rights: we respect, protect and fulfil human rights and live free from discrimination

Scottish Government Equality Outcomes:

• The Scottish Government's workforce increases in diversity to reflect the general Scottish population by 2025.
• By 2025, workforce culture will be more inclusive with employees from all backgrounds and characteristics and experiences reporting they feel increasingly valued

In progressing its Equality Outcomes the Scottish Government has made a commitment to empower disabled employees to realise their potential in the workplace, removing unnecessary barriers to recruitment, retention and progression. The Recruitment and Retention Plan for Disabled People 2019 (DRRAP) sets a target of 25% of external recruitment of disabled people over the next seven years.

The plan sets out the actions we will take as an employer to support more disabled people into work in Scottish Government and to enable existing disabled employees to thrive and succeed at work.

The anticipated outcomes for the project align with the desired outcomes of the DRRAP to:

• create an accessible workplace where everyone can perform without barriers
• have corporate policies and practices that work well, and work well together, to enable disabled people to thrive at work.

One of the commitments to support this outcome was to consider and take forward the findings of the Scottish Government: Reasonable Adjustments Discovery report published December 2018 and conducted by Storm ID to review and propose a revised approach for delivering a workplace adjustments service.

The aim of the Discovery research was to provide evidence so that Scottish Government had the knowledge it needed to remove barriers to recruitment, retention and progression of disabled staff. Workplace adjustments are a significant vehicle for this. Workplace adjustments and the employee passport are inextricably linked. The passport is a significant tool for understanding, mainstreaming, increasing uptake and establishing the new approach for workplace adjustments within Scottish Government. The Discovery research can therefore be used as an evidence base for the employee passport.

Who will it affect?

All core Scottish Government employees. In particular\;

• colleagues with circumstances that impact on their day-to-day work life.
• colleagues with ongoing or long-term medical conditions
• new recruits to Scottish Government.
• those on the Graduate Development Programme who move from post to post and line manager to line manager as part of the Programme.
• disabled interns
• line managers

What might prevent the desired outcomes being achieved?

1. If the passport is not a co-production involving the various staff networks within Scottish Government from the outset then it will be seen as something which is being imposed on staff rather than something than has been widely consulted on and developed in partnership – a co-production.

2. Lack of uptake of the new passport because of lack of trust in managers or HR services and/or a perception that disclosure may have a negative impact on their job.

3. Benefits of the passport must be clear for both users and line managers.

4. Despite being for all core SG employees, the most likely users must be targeted and accommodated and this must be reflected in policy, process and guidance. It must adopt the Social Model of Disability.

5. Disabled colleagues have been promised a Disability Passport. This passport encompasses that passport and expands upon it. We must ensure that the new passport is seen to go further than the original promise rather than breaking it.

6. Data security must be a prime consideration. There must be clear processes for users and line managers handling data especially regarding retention (keeping it safe), sharing and disposal (when the line management relationship ends). Any data breach by the workplace adjustments team may also undermine its use so a DPIA will be needed as well as fully-trained staff.

7. We must ensure there is sufficient capacity in the workplace adjustments team to manage the expected increase in requests.

8. Communications on, and promotion of, the passport must be ongoing long after the launch.

9. The review of the workplace adjustments service concentrated on new starts. There is a blind spot for current staff and the issues they may wish to address which the team may not have managed previously.

10. The passport cannot be for core SG employees only. If successful, to avoid feelings of bias or less favourable treatment, the workplace adjustments team must work with agencies and NDPBs to enable them to offer the passport or a version thereof with suitable tweaks to the process.

11. A process for ongoing feedback and improvement must be built in.

12. The passport must highlight its main goal of inclusion and be careful not to be seen as something for disabled colleagues only.

13. The passport may not be considered by all staff networks, such as REN and LGBT, as applicable to them.

14. Both the passport and the passport process must be easily accessible or it will alienate potential users.

15. The passport cannot be seen as a one-off exercise but rather something that is a working document that needs periodic updating.