Equality and Human Rights Mainstreaming Strategy: Consultation - Easy Read

About mainstreaming

Mainstreaming means making sure that equality and human rights are thought about:

• when decisions are made
• when policies are designed and developed
• in the way that services are delivered
• when money is given and spent

This will help us to make Scotland fairer and more equal for everyone who lives here.

We are writing a Mainstreaming Strategy so we have a clear plan.

It will include:

• a toolkit – a pack of information that organisations can use for support and guidance
• an action plan that sets out the work we will do

The Strategy puts people and their rights at the centre of policy making.

The Strategy works to show how different people’s identities might work together.

This is also called intersectionality.

For example, this could mean looking at:

• the age, race and disability of a person
• how those different identities affect their life

The Strategy has ways to check if rights are being protected.

The Strategy is being written to make sure it meets the needs of the different types of communities in Scotland.

When we use the word communities in this Strategy we mean both:

• people who live in the local area
• people who are part of a group like a religious group or different age groups

What we want the Strategy to have in it

We want the Strategy to cover every part of mainstreaming.

This includes:

• getting rid of things that make it difficult for equality and human rights to happen
• improving how decisions are made to make equality and human rights better
• making sure the Scottish Government and public services put equality and human rights at the centre of their policy decisions and the way they deliver services

This would be done by putting human rights and equality at the centre of:

• the culture of an organisation – this means its values, beliefs and attitudes
• mindset – how staff think about things
• practice – how staff work

The Strategy covers the next 5 years until 2030.

It will also set out ways to make mainstreaming better long into the future.