Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) - results - Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design

The Scope of the EQIA

The EQIA has been delivered with support from VisitScotland (who have been mandated by Ministers to deliver the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design), the Royal Incorporation of Architects Scotland and BEMIS Scotland.

VisitScotland leads an Inclusive Tourism Steering Group- which includes disabled people, a range of their representative organisations and the tourism industry- to maintain a strategic overview of the Inclusive Tourism project (also led by VisitScotland) . The Inclusive Tourism Steering Group will have a strategic overview of the activities being delivered by VisitScotland to celebrate the YIAD.

BEMIS Scotland has provided expert advice on the opportunities related to boosting minority ethnic community participation in the YIAD and continues to be engaged throughout the EQIA process.

Partners such as Young Scot, Education Scotland and Skills Development Scotland have been working together to scope out the opportunities to engage younger people in the YIAD.

The EQIA is under-pinned by data from a variety of sources such as National Records of Scotland, Scottish Household Survey, Scottish Health Survey and also the 2011 Census. The evaluation reports delivered by BEMIS Scotland related to their EQIA supporting activity for Homecoming Scotland 2014 and also the 2015 Year of Food and Drink have also helped provide evidence to support the EQIA process for the YIAD. The LGBT tourism research delivered by the Equality Network has also helpfully contributed to the EQIA.

The Festival of Architecture

The Festival of Architecture 2016, led by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, is a key component of the celebration of the YIAD. The Festival was launched on 2 December 2015 and is supported by funding of £400,000 from the Scottish Government ( SG) and £100,000 from VisitScotland ( VS).

It has been agreed that Equality Impacts for the Festival of Architecture will be explored by the Scottish Government, VS and RIAS as part of the wider EQIA process for the year.

RIAS has been working closely with a range of partners, such as Education Scotland and Local Authorities, to help engage people with protected characteristics in the Festival.

To further engage young people in the Festival, Education Scotland have also developed a blog for the Education Sector at: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/foa2016/

In addition, diversity related information is being gathered by all events participating in the Festival of Architecture as part of the terms of their grant offers and will be included in their event evaluation report. Going forward this information will be shared with partners to further boost equality and community engagement.

Further information on the Festival of Architecture is available at: https://www.foa2016.com/