Equality outcomes and mainstreaming report 2017

1.2 Involving Equality Communities/Co-production

Race Equality Framework ( REF) for Scotland: 2015 -2030

On 21 March 2016, the Scottish Government published the Race Equality Framework for Scotland, setting out our long term ambition and approach to promoting race equality and tackling racism and inequality between 2016 and 2030.

Our vision for a fairer Scotland is that by 2030 Scotland is a place where people are healthier, happier and treated with respect, and where opportunities, wealth and power are spread more equally. The Race Equality Framework aims to ensure that this vision is achieved equally for people from all ethnicities, helping to build a Scotland where we all share a common sense of purpose and belonging.

Developing the Framework

During 2015, with support from the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights ( CRER), Scottish Government engaged with a wide range of people from grassroots community organisations to practitioners working in the public and third sector, academics and other key experts and encouraged them to have their say about advancing race equality and tackling racism.

A wide range of engagement activities was held throughout summer 2015 to ensure that the Framework was shaped by and reflects the voices of minority ethnic communities in Scotland. In total, we reached an estimated 700 people via the following engagement activities:

1. The Community Ambassadors Programme linked members of the minority ethnic community into the development of the Framework;

2. Reference Planning Groups - brought together a small group of people with particular expertise to assist with planning and evidence gathering;

3. Strategic Action Forums bringing together key stakeholders from the public and voluntary sectors and academia;

4. Survey on Race Equality in Scotland;

5. Desk based research and evidence gathering.

Through the Community Ambassadors Programme, minority ethnic community representatives, nominated by grassroots organisations and groups across Scotland, received training and support to conduct structured focus groups with community members. 42 Community Ambassadors completed the programme, supporting around 350 members of minority ethnic communities to engage with the policy development process.

In summarising the information we received, we identified core themes that reflect the views of those who engaged and from which we have developed 6 themed visions. The first vision sets out the overarching ambition for race equality in Scotland which we aim to achieve by 2030 and the following five core visions are: Community cohesion and safety; Participation and representation; Education and lifelong learning; Employability, employment and income; Health and home.

"Involvement as a Community Ambassador working with ethnic minority people living with sight loss gave us a crucial voice in this process. We hope for positive developments from Scotland's direction of travel away from racial discrimination."
Gozie Joe Adigwe; Senior Eye Health and Equalities Officer, RNIB Scotland; Community Ambassador

Implementation of the Framework

The work to progress the actions has been ongoing within Scottish Government and across our partner organisations throughout 2016 and beyond. Our approach to implementation looks at how the Framework can remain responsive and flexible to accommodate new evidence and change in the demographic and policy environments over the later phases of the Framework's life span and to reflect the progress made to date. As a model of mainstreaming, implementation against the actions includes linking and engaging external delivery partners and policy areas across Scottish Government, with an expectation that there will be a highlight report and action plan in 2017, an actions update report at the end of Year Two, and a published refresh of the plan in 2021, to take account of reviews and updates of the Framework over the 15 year period.

We are doing this collaboratively with key stakeholders and published a summary of our approach to implementation on 23rd February 2017. We have also taken forward new work around intersectionality and are scoping out a programme of engagement with both young people and minority ethnic women to make sure their voices are heard.

We held an event on 21 March 2017 to mark a year since the launch of the Framework; to provide further opportunity for engagement with stakeholders, and to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

We have continued our commitment to ongoing engagement throughout the implementation of the Race Equality Framework.

Fairer Future

Young Scot is working with the Scottish Government's Race Equality Team, through a co-design model with young people from minority ethnic backgrounds and communities to realise the vision and ambition of the Race Equality Framework.

Launched on 1 March, Fairer Future involves working collaboratively with young people and with partner organisations including BEMIS and CRER, to support young people to gather insights, experiences and views of the 6 themes of the Race Equality Framework. Using Young Scot's Co-design process, participants will identify issues of importance to the young people to begin to shape ideas, solutions and recommendations for the Scottish Government, and to create a young people's vision for race equality in Scotland for 2030. An Ideas Gathering Event to launch the final report is planned for 29 June 2017.

Minority Ethnic Women's Network

A minority ethnic women's network is being established with events being held in 2017 to link in to the REF actions. The first event was held on 22 February with over 90 women attending. As well as looking at the vision, purpose and structure of the network, employability issues were discussed in the afternoon, with potential solutions identified, which will feed into the ongoing implementation of the Framework.

Themed Roundtables

Additionally over the course of 2017 we are organising a series of Themed Roundtables linked to REF themes involving policy officials with key experts from a range of statutory and third sector organisations and academia. The first Roundtable event is scheduled for
3 May and will focus on Housing.

Race Equality Framework Adviser

On 7 December 2016, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, Angela Constance, announced the appointment of Ms Kaliani Lyle as an independent Race Equality Framework Adviser. In this innovative role Ms Lyle will champion race equality and help drive forward the implementation of the Race Equality Framework for Scotland. The appointment builds on the momentum and enthusiasm seen since the launch of the Framework in March 2016, and delivers on the commitment given in the Programme for Government to appoint an independent Race Equality Framework Adviser to help deliver its key actions.

Kaliani Lyle and Angela Constance

"I welcome the opportunity to work with Ministers and stakeholders to tackle racism and advance race equality through the implementation of the Race Equality Framework.

The Framework was developed jointly with organisations and minority ethnic communities throughout Scotland. We know from evidence that while there has been some progress in tackling discrimination and changing attitudes over the past 30 years there exists today a huge gap between aspiration and achievement. We need to come up with new and innovative ways to remove the blockages that fail to recognise diversity of need; to co-ordinate and embed race equality across government and public sector policy. This is a critical time in our history. I believe that Scotland can take a lead in demonstrating the strength inherent in the creation of a fair and just society for all its people."
Kaliani Lyle

Measures to increase participation in the Modern Apprenticeship programme by ethnic minorities

Our evidence gathering and stakeholder involvement processes demonstrated that there are areas in which school leavers from minority ethnic backgrounds could be better supported. We know that Modern Apprenticeships have historically had low levels of participation from minority ethnic groups, and as part of an action within the Race Equality Framework, we will work with Skills Development Scotland ( SDS) in their delivery of the Equality Action Plan for Modern apprenticeships.

Furthermore, SDS and our key race equality partner BEMIS have jointly embarked on a pilot project to raise visibility and awareness of Modern Apprenticeships within the ethnic and cultural minority communities, and increase their participation in the programme.

The Project aims to:

1. Raise knowledge and understanding of apprenticeship programmes;

2. Build networks of new referral routes;

3. Raise capacity and confidence within apprenticeship providers;

4. Raise visibility through targeted campaigns.

SDS has continued to invest in the project in 2016-17. This work will help us deliver the goal to "Reduce barriers and provide support for minority ethnic people who are new to the labour market, including school leavers and new migrants".

Disability Delivery Plan

"It is vital that action to make disabled people's human rights a reality is led by us, disabled people ourselves. Only we know first-hand what needs to be done."
Dr Sally Witcher OBE Chief Executive, Inclusion Scotland

The Scottish Government is committed to promoting and protecting equality and human rights for disabled people and is working in co-production with disabled people, the experts on what needs to change, to shape our policies and services.

A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People - our Delivery Plan to 2021 for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was launched on Friday 2 December 2016 to mark International Day of Disabled People on 3 December.

It is the Scottish Government's contribution to the UK Government's report to the United Nations Committee on the implementation of UNCRPD, and sets the overall direction of travel for the Scottish Government over the lifetime of this parliament (2016-21).

The Delivery Plan has five long-term ambitions aimed at transforming the lives of disabled people in Scotland and ensuring that their human rights are realised. These are: Support services that meet disabled people's needs; Decent incomes and fairer working lives; Places that are great to live in; Protected rights; and Active participation.

The plan also sets out 93 actions which will be taken forward during the current parliamentary term, and includes:

1. halving the employment gap for disabled people;

2. setting a target to increase the percentage of disabled people in the public sector workforce;

3. offering the highest level of financial support to disabled Modern Apprentices;

4. introducing a work experience scheme for disabled young people;

5. providing additional support to disabled children and young people at points of transition;

6. implementing the Accessible Travel Framework in full;

7. increasing supply of wheelchair accessible housing.

The Access to Elected Office Fund, which was introduced in 2016, will continue beyond the local government elections in 2017 to support potential candidates for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2021.

Inclusive Communication Hub - one of the actions in the Disability Delivery Plan

Inclusive communication means sharing information in a way that everybody can understand. It is both important and is a right.

For service providers, it means recognising that people understand and express themselves in different ways, whilst for people who use services, it means receiving information and expressing themselves in ways that meet their needs.

A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People states that we want communication to be accessible to, and inclusive of, all. It includes an action to actively promote a new Inclusive Communication hub across the public sector in early 2017, providing advice and practical assistance.

The Inclusive Communication Hub, which was launched on 21 November 2016, is the first of its kind for Scotland, and is an easy to use online tool, for all who wish to be more inclusive with the information they give.

It will provide a central place for information about a lot of good work that has been developed by many organisations throughout Scotland and will provide tools and guidance on how to make information accessible to people.

It can be accessed at http://includeusall.org.uk/.

Disabled People's Annual Summit

Independent Living in Scotland (a project of Inclusion Scotland) hosts the Disabled People's Annual Summit with and on behalf of Scotland's disabled people. The Summit is held on or near to 3 December 2015, the International Day of Disabled People.

The first Summit was held on 3 December 2015 and was organised around the theme "Getting our Rights Right". It provided disabled people and their organisations with an opportunity to discuss the Scottish Government's consultation on its Delivery Plan. It was addressed by the then Minister, Marco Biagi MSP. The report of the 2015 Summit was submitted as a collective response to the consultation on behalf of attendees.

The second Summit was organised around the theme "Our Place Our Space", and was held on 2 December 2016. It was attended by Jeane Freeman MSP, Minister for Social Security, who spoke about A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People, which had been launched at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland earlier that day. The remainder of the Summit focused on disabled people's housing.

The report and other outputs of the Summits will be shared with decision and policy makers and used to influence actions which will protect and accelerate delivery of disabled people's rights to independent living.

British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015

On 17 September 2015 the British Sign Language ( BSL) (Scotland) Bill was unanimously passed by the Scottish Parliament. The aim of the Act is to promote and facilitate the use and understanding of BSL, including tactile BSL, across the public sector.

Among other things the Act requires Scottish Ministers to publish a BSL National Plan by October 2017 and listed authorities (including local authorities and regional NHS boards) will have to publish their own BSL plans by October 2018 - based on the national plan.

The Act will improve the way we understand and respond to the needs of people in Scotland whose first or preferred language is BSL and will make a real, tangible difference to the day to day lives of BSL users and their communities.

A BSL National Advisory Group ( NAG) has been set up to advise the Government on what should be in the BSL National Plan. It is made up of ten Deaf BSL users (two of whom are deafblind and three of whom are under 18) and one hearing parent of a Deaf child, working alongside nine public bodies and supported by BSL interpreters and electronic note takers.

Membership of NAG enabled Deaf citizens to continue to play an active role in shaping the future for their community.

The draft BSL National Plan was signed off by NAG in January 2017 and following consultation the first BSL National Plan will be published in October 2017.

Scottish Older People's Assembly

The Scottish Older People's Assembly ( SOPA) is an organisation which provides a voice to older people about their concerns and experience of life in Scotland, and also raises issues about equality of older people.

It identifies matters of concern to the older population, conveys messages from the grassroots to the Scottish and Westminster Governments and arranges an annual assembly to discuss matters of concern to older people throughout Scotland.

The 2016 national Assembly took place in the main chamber of the Scottish Parliament on 25 November and was attended by over 160 people. The event was opened by the Parliament's Presiding Officer and addressed by, among others, Jeane Freeman MSP, Minister for Social Security, John McCormick, Chair of the Commission on Parliamentary Reform and representatives for older people's organisations and networks.

An interactive session was chaired by Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, Deputy Convener of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee.

Topics discussed at the Assembly included:

1. funeral poverty;

2. recruitment and retention of EU nurses and care workers after Brexit;

3. preventing older people from adult mental health services by age capping at 65;

4. marginalisation of certain groups, such as older people of African origin and war veterans.

Questions were also asked about:

5. loneliness, falling, the cost of joining sports centres and problems with home care services.

Top: Rt Hon Ken Macintosh MSP, Presiding Officer and Assembly Chair, Tom Berney, Chair SOPA
Below: Jeane Freeman OBE MSP, Minister for Social Security

The 2016 Assembly was streamed live from the debating chamber of the parliament and was viewed widely across Scotland.

Courtesy of SOPA 2016

Fairer Scotland Conversation

Objectives:

1. To engage with disadvantaged communities and individuals across Scotland - those who don't normally get involved - to ensure they had their say;

2. To really hear what matters to them on how Scotland can be a fairer country;

3. To focus on doing things with rather than to individuals and their communities;

4. To capture every single view;

5. To feed these views back to Minsters and into the development of social justice policy.

What was different:

1. Engagement took different forms, speaking at conferences, running workshops, informal chats in community cafés, churches, mosques, prisons, town halls and with the homeless community

2. At a time and place that was convenient to communities - we went to them!

"I did not think the Scottish Government would come to our café - I am glad they did";
"The Civil Servants were real people too - they shared their own stories"