Equality and Human Rights Mainstreaming Strategy: Consultation

Overview

• The Strategy is fundamental to achieving positive change and a fairer, more equal, society in Scotland for all of those who live here.
• The Strategy is key to tackling persistent inequality in society and sustaining equality of opportunity for all of those who live in Scotland.
• By establishing a clear framework for the Scottish Government and wider public sector’s approach to mainstreaming the Strategy will benefit all of those who live in Scotland by providing the foundation for improved policy, with better and fairer outcomes for all.
• The Strategy will provide the framework so that the Scottish Government and the wider public sector can apply a consistent focus on equality and human rights in policy and service delivery.
• The Strategy will guide the Scottish Government, the wider public sector, and our partners to better embed equality and human rights into all that we do. This will include an overall shared vision, a set of drivers and how we will achieve these to improve mainstreaming.
• We intend that the Strategy will provide a focus for every element of mainstreaming. This includes:
  • removing systemic barriers to achieving equality and human rights.
  • improving how decisions are made to advance equality and human rights.
  • establishing the culture, mindset and practice that ensures that the Scottish Government and public sector embed equality and human rights in policy-making and service delivery.
• We also intend the Strategy to guide how Scottish Government provides support to everyone who has a role in improving and supporting mainstreaming in the wider public sector.
• The Strategy will cover the next five years, until 2030. However, it will also set out a much longer-term approach to improve mainstreaming.
• The Scottish Government will also publish an action plan to set out the specific work we will do over the coming years. This will show how we will make progress towards our outcomes, and how we will measure that progress.
• At the point of publishing the Strategy, we will also publish a toolkit to support the public sector to mainstream equality and human rights.

How You Can Help Us / Our Next Steps

• In this consultation, we have asked a number of questions about the Strategy. Some of them are about what the overall shared vision should be for mainstreaming, some are about whether the drivers for change are the right ones, and some are about how Scottish Government can ensure the public sector has the right tools for mainstreaming.
• This consultation paper is also available in an Easy Read format.
• Whether you answer all the questions, or only some, your views will be carefully considered by the Scottish Government when we are finalising the Strategy.
• The consultation will run for 14 weeks until 5 February 2025.
• We will publish a summary of all the consultation responses. 
• The final Mainstreaming Strategy will be published in 2025. 

Why Your Views Matter

• Your views will help us shape the final Mainstreaming Strategy.
• The Strategy will guide the work that Scottish Government, and the wider public sector, will do to embed equality and human rights in everything that we do. 
• Therefore, it is important that we collaborate to develop a Strategy that will improve outcomes for all.