Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) project board minutes: May 2022

Attendees and apologies

Scottish Government (SG)

• Audrey MacDougall (AM), Chief Social Researcher (Chair)
• Jonathan Wright (JW), Senior Principal Researcher, Equality and Social Justice Analysis
• Jon Hunter (JH), Statistician, Equality Analysis Team
• Maisy Best (MB), Senior Social Researcher, Equality Analysis Team
• Nanjika Nasiiro (NN), Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights Directorate
• David Holmes (DH), Directorate for Chief Economist
• Trevor Owen (TO), Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights
• Nadine Thomas (NT), Senior Social Researcher, National Performance Framework (NPF) Unit (attending for agenda item 2)
• Dan Craig (DC), Assistant Statistician, Equality Analysis Team (attending for agenda item 2)

External

• Sandra Robb (SR), Public Health Scotland (PHS)
• John Wilkes, Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
• Mark McAllister, COSLA
• Emily Lynch, Improvement Service

Apologies

• Ally McAlpine, Chief Statistician
• Nick Bland, Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights Directorate
• Alan White, Non-Departmental Public Bodies Equality Forum (NDPB Equality Forum)
• Steven Reid, NDPB Equality Forum
• Lesley Crozier, Scottish Council’s Equality Network

Items and actions

Welcome

AM welcomed attendees to the meeting and invited introductions from new attendees.

Following introductions, AM advised that Roger Halliday has moved on from his post as Chief Statistician in the Scottish Government and has been replaced by Ally McAlpine. Ally will co-chair the EDIP Project Board meetings with AM going forward.

AM summarised the agenda for the meeting - to update on progress; to discuss work underway to improve the equality data available for NPF indicators; and to review the revised proposed stakeholder engagement approach for the next iteration of Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy.

Progress update

JH provided an overview of the Highlight Report (Paper 1).

Attendees discussed the importance of ensuring links with work underway beyond the Scottish Government, including the Future Generations work underway by the Welsh Government and work on secondary data carried out by the MRC at the University of Glasgow. JH and NT confirmed that links are in place with counterparts at the Welsh Government.

NN highlighted a need for work to promote understanding of intersectionality among policy professionals in the Scottish Government, and was supportive of plans for a seminar on intersectionality.  

AM asked for an indication of the types of actions included in improvement plans. JH and MB confirmed that there are a range of actions, from improvements to current data collections to making more equality data breakdowns publicly available. The collated improvement plan will be shared with the Project Board prior to the consultation going live.

AM asked about the timescales of the data linkage project. JH suggested that colleagues working on the data linkage project could provide an update at a future Project Board meeting.  

Update on NPF equality data improvement work

NT presented an overview of the NPF equality data improvement work.

Attendees discussed whether there are any trends in the recency of a dataset being introduced and the availability of breakdowns by protected characteristic. NT detailed the complexities in producing equality breakdowns from some datasets due to time series.

NT highlighted that a review of the NPF outcomes that is currently underway and will conclude in 2023. NT noted that the review could result in changes to the indicators, but the focus of the EDIP action to improve the availability of equality breakdowns would remain.

Attendees discussed the importance of ensuring that the outcomes analytical framework for the COVID Recovery Strategy has an equalities focus. NT confirmed that the NPF Unit are linked in with officials working on the strategy.

Revised engagement approach for the development of Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy 2023 to 2025

MB presented an overview of the revised stakeholder engagement approach for the development of the next iteration of the Equality Evidence Strategy (Paper 2 - will be published once finalised).

Attendees provided positive feedback on the structure and revisions to the document.

TO noted the importance of ensuring links with the Mainstreaming Strategy as it progresses.

Attendees made a number of specific suggestions for revisions to the document:

• moving the data users row to the top of the stakeholder table
• highlighting ways in which data users beyond Scottish Government users would be reached
• highlighting how people at all levels of seniority would be reached
• ensuring the Strategic Scrutiny Group are reached
• including references to the PSED, including highlighting that equality evidence is key to ensuring public sector bodies meet their duties

Actions

• SG to circulate consultation paper and draft consultation questions for review by the Project Board
• SG to revise the engagement approach document and circulate a revised version to attendees to seek sign off from the Project Board
• SG to arrange for an update on data linkage project at a future Project Board meeting