Cashback for Communities Programme: EQIA

Equality Impact Assessment - Results : Cashback for Communities - Phase 5

Title of Policy

Cashback for Communities - Phase 5

Summary of aims and desired outcomes of Policy

The CashBack for Communities Programme takes monies recovered through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and invests them into community programmes and activities largely, but not exclusively, for young people at risk of turning to crime and antisocial behaviour.

Phase 5 of the Programme will run from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2023 and will support Scotland's National Performance Framework and the Scottish Government's Justice Vision and Priorities by having a focus on young people at risk of entering the criminal justice system and communities most affected by crime.

Directorate: Division: team

Safer Communities: Cashback and Firearms Team

Executive summary

The public sector equality duty requires the Scottish Government to assess the impact of applying a proposed new or revised policy or practice. It is a legislative requirement. Equality legislation covers the characteristics of: age, disability, gender reassignment, gender including pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, and sexual orientation.

An equality impact assessment (EQIA) aims to consider how a policy (a policy can cover: activities, functions, strategies, programmes, and services or processes) may impact, either positively or negatively, on different sectors of the population in different ways. This EQIA has been undertaken to consider the impacts on equality of the development of policy for Phase 5 of the Cashback for Communities Programme.

CashBack for Communities is a Scottish Government programme which takes money seized from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act and invests it into activities for young people to raise their attainment, ambition and aspirations.

The impact analysis has confirmed that the focus for Phase 5 is not discriminatory and is intended to support the Scottish Government's wider approach regarding Equality in particular for young people aged between the ages of 10-24. No significant equality issues have been raised that will require changes to the framing of the Programme for phase 5 although some improvements have been identified and implemented.

The EQIA we have undertaken as part of the policy development of Phase 5 has identified that further data capture by the partners delivering projects to ensure that we record the equality characteristics of the young people taking part in the programme. Additionally, as part of the application process potential applicants are being asked to demonstrate how they will use EQIA to develop their project. This will support the delivery of the programme and also will inform future policy development.

Background

Ministers announced in June 2007 that they would use the funds recovered from criminals under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) in a positive way to expand young people's horizons and increase the opportunities they have to develop their interests and skills.

The Cashback Programme commenced in 2008. The intention was to support an expanded range of activities for children and young people in the areas of sports, culture and arts that helps them develop personally and physically.

Phase 1 of CashBack, which ran from 2008 to 2011, allowed the testing of different approaches. Under Phase 2 there was an expansion of the programme as a result of windfalls, appointment of a delivery partner and improved monitoring and reporting. Phase 3 sharpened the focus on providing opportunities for young people to get into positive destinations, such as further education, volunteering and employment.

The specific aims of Phase 4 of CashBack (which runs from 2017 to 2020) are to tackle inequalities by providing activities which raise the attainment, ambition and aspirations of young people disadvantaged by:

• Living in areas of deprivation; and
• Being unemployed, not in education or training; and/or
• Being excluded, or at risk of exclusion from school; and/or
• Being at risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour, offending/ re-offending.

Each phase of Cashback has built on the success of the previous phase, learning lessons and developing to better support the ambition of young people in Scotland.

Phase 5 will provide a range of activities for young people between the ages of 10-24 which:

• Supports people, families and communities most affected by crime
• Support those most at risk of being involved in antisocial behaviour, offending or reoffending into positive destinations
• Support young people most at risk of entering the justice system.

The programme will also support activities, which are not limited by age, which meet the criteria above and:

• Provides intergenerational support for parents, families and children impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences.

On 15 May 2019, the Minister for Community Safety announced Phase 5 which will see a further £18M committed between April 2020-March 2023. This will mean that nearly £110M has been committed to the Cashback for Communities Programme since 2008. The number of partners and range of activities for Phase 5 will depend on the applications that are selected.

Part of the success of the Cashback Programme has been how it has delivered activities for young people targeted at those from Scotland's most deprived communities. For Phase 5 this is a theme that we are keen to retain and once again the application process will seek bids to specifically set out the need for proposed activities and how they link to Scotland's most deprived communities using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

The Scope of the EQIA

The Cashback for Communities programme is aimed at young people aged 10 – 24 living in areas hardest hit by crime across Scotland and has been successfully operating since 2008. Therefore, we assess that it requires a high level impact assessment.

The Cashback Programme has a thorough process of reporting and evaluation. This consists of quarterly reports, annual reporting and a wider evaluation of each Phase. The EQIA has considered these sources of evidence as part of its scope.

Evaluation of Phase 3:
https://cashbackforcommunities.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CashBack-full-evaluation-report-2017-withInfographic.pdf

Cashback for Communities Annual Report 2018:
https://spark.adobe.com/page/xOtxPDV6J6tTd/

The development of Phase 5 and EQIA also included a survey of young people who have taken part in Phase 4 and a roundtable event on 28 February 2019 where the Cabinet Secretary for Justice heard directly from young people about their experiences of the Programme and what improvements they would like to see.

Alongside this the policy team undertook an engagement event with the delivery partner - Inspiring Scotland - and an extensive round of meetings with policy leads from across Scottish Government.

Key Findings

Our assessment has supported the development of Phase 5. The criteria and focus for Phase 5 is intended to provide a sharper focus on the Justice Vision and Priorities. The main focus of the programme is traditionally on young people aged 10-24, although for the Phase 5 programme we have introduced an additional element to the programme to provide intergenerational support for parents, families and children impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences. This element of the programme does not have an age limit and so the focus is likely to be opened out as a result. Our assessment has concluded that the focus of Phase 5 is not discriminatory and it is intended to fit with the Scottish Government's wider approach regarding Equality and Inclusion.

The assessment process has allowed us to identify some improvements for Phase 5. The current data capture and evaluation process will be developed to include additional information on participants and their equality characteristics.

Additionally our assessment process has led us to include additional elements in the application process regarding minimum requirements for potential partners who will be asked to:

describe how they have used an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations across your project. They should include information on how you intend to collect information relating to protected characteristics of participants.

provide information regarding their ability to provide ACEs support and relevant staff training, qualifications and procedures.

To provide further insight and an additional perspective for the first time we have included young people aged 10-24 who have previously taken part in Cashback events as part of our assessment panels. Our objective by seeking to include a young person in the assessment of Cashback applications is, as part of our wider service desgin, to ensure that the key target demographic are included as widely as possible in our delviery of Cashback projects.

Recommendations and Conclusion

We have used the views of young people directly to shape the development of the focus for Phase 5. This has enhanced our understanding of the Programme and has allowed us to strengthen its focus on the Justice Vision and Priorities.

The Cashback Programme will continue to be delivered through a range of partners and, as described above, we will continue to embed equality monitoring as part of the ongoing programme of reporting and evaluation. This will support the delivery of the programme and also will inform future policy development.