Scotland's Year of Stories 2022: equality impact assessment

Part 4 - Key Findings

The Equality Impact Assessment process for the Scotland's Year of Stories has found:

• no negative impacts on any of the protected characteristics and the aim of the Equality Impact Assessment process for the Scotland's Year of Stories is therefore to further boost inclusion and to maximise the positive impacts for participants, audience members, volunteers, businesses/event organisers and also as a vehicle to increase the profile of Scotland's commitment to equality on the international stage;
• headline opportunities related to accessibility for disabled and older people and also boosting the wider participation of: disabled and older people; young people (building on the success of the 2018 Year of Young People); the LGBTI community; multi-cultural communities; and Scotland's most deprived communities. There are also other, related, opportunities related to people with intersecting identities;
• that the learning, lessons and legacy generated by the previous Themed Years and Homecoming 2014, on-going and wider national and partner activity to boost equality through Major Events and also current and planned actions to boost equality in tourism events (like VisitScotland's Inclusive Tourism Initiative) provides the Scotland's Year of Stories with a sound framework on which to build its own bespoke and contributing actions and to crucially build a legacy for the future;
• as evidenced by the significant success of the multi-cultural celebration of previous Themed Years (and the previous Scotland's Winter Festivals, in season 2021/22 led by BEMIS Scotland), the offer of grant funding to assist diverse communities to engage in Scotland's Year of Stories is a key tool to maximise impact and crucially to boost diversity and equality across the Year;
• to achieve best value the criteria for any funding offered in support of Scotland's Year of Stories needs to clearly showcase and actively promote the opportunity related to protected groups- addressed via the Communications approach delivered by VisitScotland in co-ordination with Working and Steering Group partners, and in particular in partnership with Museums Galleries Scotland in respect of the Community Stories Funds.
• protected groups also need to be pro-actively engaged as early as possible in the design and delivery of any funding opportunity to achieve best fit and to meet their needs. Application also needs to be pro-actively encouraged from protected groups and those organisations representing them and where necessary local communities in particular should be helped to build the skills and to develop the capacity to complete the application process which can be daunting for some, particularly minority ethnic communities and disabled people;
• evidence from stakeholder engagement highlights that one of the most effective ways to welcome all of the protected groups is through focused marketing and PR activity to underline the welcome and also to ensure that people see their communities reflected in media, for example via promotional images; and
• COVID-19 has particularly impacted on certain protected characteristics- for example age, disability, race and socio- economic disadvantage- and Scotland's Year of Stories provides a strong opportunity to boost the well-being, resilience and recovery of these groups going forward.