Equality outcomes and mainstreaming report 2019

Part 2 - Equality Outcomes

1. The 2017 mainstreaming report included a suite of outcomes, and set out in detail the background to each outcome, the evidence collected and the associated workstreams. This report provides an update on progress to date and work that will be taken forward 2019-2021.

2. The suite of equality outcomes for 2017-21 cover the following themes:

1. Children Affected by Domestic Abuse and the Justice System

2. Participation in Decision Making (Ministerial Public Appointments)

3. Employment (both as an employer and as a policy maker)

• Scottish Government Outcomes: Increasing the diversity of our workforce^[9]
• Scottish Government Outcome: Fostering an inclusive workforce culture^[10]

4. Mental Health

5. School Education

6. Violence Against Women and Girls

7. Social Security

8. Hate Crime

8.1 Outcome 1: Children Affected by Domestic Abuse and the Justice System

1. This outcome aims to ensure that children affected by domestic abuse are increasingly recognised and supported in the justice system by 2021.

2. Equally Safe, Scotland's Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls, was published in 2014 and updated in 2016. It sets out a vision of a strong and flourishing Scotland where all individuals are equally safe and protected, and where women and girls live free from all forms of violence and abuse - and the attitudes that help perpetuate them. The definition of violence against women and girls we have adopted explicitly includes children of all genders as subject to harm through violence. This plan aims to improve the lives and experiences of all children affected by violence and the ways of thinking that maintain it.

3. Work on Equally Safe is now being driven forward by the various governance arrangements established, including the Equally Safe Joint Strategic Board and Joint Delivery Group etc.

4. The Scottish Government Justice Directorate is focusing upon developing a victim-centered approach to the justice system through a coordinated approach within both the civil and criminal justice systems. The profile of the violence against women and children agenda within the justice system has never been more prominent and the Justice Expert Group established to take this forward have sought to harness this momentum and continue to work through the existing issues that remain within the justice system, despite significant progress in recent years.

Domestic Abuse Bill

5. The Domestic Abuse Act 2018 brings clarity for victims so they can see explicitly that what their partner or ex-partner has done to them is wrong and perpetrators will see what they are doing is criminal and unacceptable behaviour. The offence will improve the powers of the police, prosecutors and our courts to hold perpetrators to account in specific cases.

6. During consultation on the specific draft offence a number of respondents raised concerns that the offence as drafted did not recognise that children are victims of domestic abuse committed against their parents/carers.

7. The aggravation was developed in response to the comments received during the consultation, as a means of acknowledging through the criminal law the impact that domestic abuse can have on children, and ensures that the fact that a perpetrator involved or directed behaviour at a child in committing the offence is formally recorded and that there is transparency as to what account has been taken of this in sentencing. Scottish Government officials met with a number of stakeholders who raised the issue of how the offence deals with the impact of domestic abuse on children to help inform development of the aggravation.

8. Consultation on Review of Children (Scotland) Act 1995. This sought views on how to further protect victims of domestic abuse and children in contact and residence cases. This includes whether to ban personal cross examination of domestic abuse victims in child welfare hearings.

9. The consultation closed on 28 September 2018. We received 255 responses to the consultation and we are now considering next steps.

Progress and underpinning Evidence (2019-2021)

10. Family Law Bill announced in the Programme for Government (PFG) 2018/19. The Bill will make a number of changes to family law, in particular to further ensure that the child's best interests are at the centre of any contact and residence cases. This includes further protection of domestic abuse victims in contact and residence cases and ensuring that cases are dealt with effectively and efficiently by the courts.

11. Family Justice Modernisation Strategy will be launched at same time as Family Law Bill is introduced. This will set out other non-legislative work we are doing and also further longer term work. This may include further work on protecting victims of domestic abuse and children.

12. As part of our commitments under Equally Safe, the Scottish Government is supporting the development of the 'Safe and Together' model of child protection in a domestic abuse setting in Scotland. Safe and Together is an American model that builds a framework for partnering with domestic abuse survivors and intervening with perpetrators to enhance the safety and wellbeing of children. The model is based on the concept that children are best served when we can work toward keeping them safe and together with the non-offending parent (the adult domestic abuse survivor). The Scottish Government has provided funding for Social Work Scotland to commission work with stakeholders to look at how best to deliver the model in Scotland. An event communicating initial findings and seeking views on how to move forward was held in February 2019.

Measurement Tools:

13. Feedback from children and their representative organisations on improved capacity and provision in terms of advice and support. Measurement will be identified as part of the development of the work programmes.

8.2 Outcome 2: Participation in Decision Making (Ministerial Public Appointments)

1. This outcome aims to ensure that Ministerial public appointments are more diverse and broadly reflect the general population by 2021.

What we have achieved

2. At August 2018:

• 47.5% of all regulated Ministerial appointments were held by women;
• The diversity of the Chair cohort has improved, with increases in the number of women, people under 50 and LGBO people holding Chair roles; and
• The proportion of applicants who have not held an appointment before is higher than ever accounting for 71% of those applying in 2017.

3. We are working on actions to support the Scottish Government's Race Equality Framework, BSL National Action Plan, and A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People as well as this Equality Outcome. We are also working to ensure that public body boards meet the requirements of the Gender Representation on Public Boards Act that 50% of non-executive members are women by 2022. Our work across all these areas is driven by a robust evidence base that disaggregates data by protected characteristics.

4. We have made progress across all work streams detailed when this outcome was set in April 2017:

• We worked with voluntary organisations such as CEMVO, BEMIS, PATH Scotland, Equate Scotland and Changing the Chemistry to promote public appointments to under-represented groups, address barriers to participation and familiarise potential applicants with the process;
• Between April 2017 and December 2018 we held 7 events for our Come on Board outreach programme: around 280 people attended these events;
• We worked with the Institute of Directors (IoD) Scotland and Standard Life to facilitate board shadowing projects aimed at women and people under 49;
• We have funded Inclusion Scotland to provide a project to support disabled people to shadow a board member. This project will launch Summer 2019;
• We have run a Future Chairs Mentoring Project since March 2017. The project supports existing board members from underrepresented groups to apply for Chair positions. To date 32 board members have benefited from one-to-one mentoring with a Board Chair and attended practice development workshops. As a result of taking part in the mentoring scheme two board members have already secured Board Chair positions. This project will continue in 2019/20;
• We have supported new board members by offering induction training; six induction days have taken place since April 2017 with over 100 new board members taking part. We have also facilitated a peer network for board chairs; and
• We are working in partnership with the Ethical Standards Commissioner on research into the benefits that diverse boards make to governance.

Progress and underpinning evidence (2019-2021)

5. Our work has achieved an increase of 28% in the number of people applying for appointments. There has been an increase of 71% of people from an minority ethnic appointed to boards and an 54% increase in numbers of women appointed to boards. We will continue to report annually on progress via the Ethical Standards Commissioner.

6. We will continue to carry out work which aims to deliver the outcome that public body boards reflect the general population by 2021. This will include a programme of Come on Board events, the Future Chairs Mentoring Project and the Board Shadowing Project with Inclusion Scotland.

7. We will work with analytical services colleagues to explore where we can disaggregate our data further to improve further our understanding of how people with particular characteristics fare in the appointments process stages and use this evidence to target awareness raising and development activity.

8. The Diversity in Governance research project will report on findings in 2020.

8.3 Outcome 3: Employment (both as an employer and as a policy maker)

1. This aims to ensure that employment inequalities, discrimination and barriers are reduced. Employment opportunities for women and ethnic minorities are increased and progress made towards reducing, by at least half, the employment gap between disabled people and the rest of the working age population.

Progress and underpinning evidence (2017-2019)

Employment Rates and DEG, 2017

Employment Rates

2. The disability employment gap (DEG) is defined as the difference between the employment rate of disabled people (as defined by the 2010 Equality Act) and the employment rate of non-disabled people.

3. Whilst Scotland's DEG has declined since 2016, our baseline year for halving the disability employment gap, the gap stood at 37.4 percentage points, it remains an enduring issue and one which requires further action by Scottish Government - both as an employer, and in terms of policy making.

4. In the year ending March 2018, the employment rate (16-64) in Scotland for ethnic white people was 75.1% compared to 57.9% for minority ethnic groups, an employment rate gap of 17.2 percentage points.

5. The employment rate gap has increased over the year due to the employment rate for minority ethnic groups decreasing over the year while the employment rate for the white ethnic group increased over the year. The employment rate for minority ethnic groups decreased from 59.7% in 2017 to 57.9% in 2018 (decrease of 1.8 percentage points) while the employment rate for ethnic white people increased from 74.1% to 75.1% over the same period (increase of 1.0 percentage points). Source: Annual Population Survey April 2017-March 2018

6. Female employment rates for the minority ethnic group are typically around 22.1 percentage points lower than male minority ethnic employment rates. This is nearly 4 times higher than the gap of around 6 percentage points between the employment rates for white males and females living in Scotland. Source: Annual Population Survey, April 2017-March 2018, ONS.

7. Compared to the UK, Scotland has a higher female employment rate (71.2% vs. 71.0%), a lower female unemployment rate (3.2% vs. 4.0%) but a higher female inactivity rate (26.4% vs. 25.9%). Over the last year, the female employment level in Scotland decreased by 16,000 to 1,277,000. (Source: Labour Force Survey, Jun-Aug 2018, ONS. Labour Force Survey).

8. Since Apr-Jun 2017, female underemployment in Scotland has decreased by 0.2 percentage points while it has decreased by 0.8 percentage points in the UK. The Scottish female underemployment rate (8.4%) is higher than the UK's (7.9%).

9. Female self-employment increased from 82,600 in Jul 2009-Jun 2010 to 110,400 in Jul 2016-Jun 2017 and then decreased to 105,800 in Jul 2017-Jun 2018 (Source: APS Survey, Jul-Jun datasets, ONS).

10. The employment rate in Scotland, for women with dependent children, was 77.0%, higher than for the UK (74.1%) and the highest of the 4 countries of the UK. The employment rate for women with dependent children has increased by 2.9 percentage points in Scotland from 74.1% in 2008.

Pay Gap

11. Scotland's full-time gender pay gap at 5.7% in 2018 remains below the UK (8.6%) and is the lowest gender pay gap on record for Scotland (Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, ONS). Scotland's overall (full-time and part-time staff) gender pay gap at 15.0% in 2018 remains below the UK (17.9%).

12. The Annual Population Survey (May 2018) showed that an indicative pay gap for ethnicity in Scotland of 2.7% in favour of White employees in Scotland. This compares with the gap of 0.4% in the UK. Minority ethnic employees are younger than white employees in Scotland and the UK.

13. On 15 August 2017 the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published the Ethnicity Pay Gap report which highlighted that the ethnicity pay gap across the UK in 2016 was 5.7%. Their report highlighted that many of the causes for the ethnicity pay gap were similar to those for the gender pay gap.

We are taking action to reduce the gender pay gap

14. There are many drivers of the gender pay gap and no one solution to closing it. We are providing £205,000 to Close the Gap for July 2018 - June 2019 to challenge and change employment practices and workplace cultures.

15. As announced in the Child Poverty Action Plan we have established a Gender Pay Gap Working Group that includes expert stakeholders such as Close the Gap, Engender and STUC. The working group held its sixth meeting on 7th February 2019. Chaired by the Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills, the group has developed and published on 27 February 2019 a coordinated cross-Government action plan to reduce gender pay gaps across sectors as a key element of the Scottish Government's inclusive growth vision. This action plan also considers intersectionality.

16. The Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills telephoned the Chief Executives of some public bodies whose mean gender pay gap for all employees over the last two years was much higher than the national average in 2017 of 16.1%. The Minister discussed what actions the public bodies are currently taking and will be taking in future to reduce their pay gap.

17. The First Minister's National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG) has been established and their initial three year strategy developed. The NACWG was formed as a catalyst for change to address gender inequality by providing independent strategic advice to the First Minister and work strategically with all the other fantastic work being taken forward across Scotland, to avoid duplication. The NACWG has closely monitored and supports fully, the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan.

18. Our plan to nearly double funded Early Learning and Childcare entitlement for all 3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds to 1140 hours per year by 2020 will make a vital contribution to our priorities to grow our economy, tackle inequality, and close the attainment gap.

19. We are working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to tackle pregnancy and maternity discrimination. The Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination Working Group is chaired by the Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills and has a remit to create guidelines for employers to ensure best practice, as well as improving access to guidance for pregnant women and new mothers.

20. We have delivered on our commitment for a Returner's Programme to assist women to re-enter the workforce following a career break. We approved seven projects with a total value above £235,000. These projects aimed to address the under-representation of women in the STEM, finance, security and manufacturing sectors; increase business start-up rates for women and the number of women in senior positions. One project specifically supported black and minority ethnic women back into the workplace.

21. We have successfully reached the target set by FM to have 1,000 Scots based Living Wage accredited employers; there are now just under 1,300.

22. We are continuing to support the Poverty Alliance to deliver Living Wage Scotland and are providing them with £340,000 in 2018-19 to uplift a further 7,500 workers across Scotland to at least the Living Wage rate, giving particular attention to low paid sectors.

We are taking action to tackle the disability employment gap

23. In December 2018 we published A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan which the First Minister had committed at the Congress on Disability Employment and the Workplace on 30 April 2018. This sets out our immediate steps towards the commitment made in A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People (2016) to at least halve the disability employment gap by 2038. It is focused on three key areas - supporting employers to employ disabled people; supporting disabled people to enter and sustain fair work; and youth transitions - and includes commitments to:

• Set a target for the Scottish Government's own employment of disabled people in its own workforce. We will detail this in the Recruitment and Retention Plan which we will publish during 2019;
• Invest up to £1 million to establish a new Public Social Partnership, involving employers, government and disabled people's organisations, to develop, test, and implement solutions to the barriers that employers face in hiring and retaining disabled people. Alongside this, we will appoint a business leader to advise us on the steps we could take to reduce the perceived risk of recruiting people with fluctuating health conditions;
• Create a bespoke Scottish employability support service, to be in place from January 2020 when Specialist Employability Support contracts, currently operated by the UK Government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), ends in December 2019. This will meet the needs of disabled people for whom more mainstream employment support is not suitable;
• Invest up to £6m of additional resource from the Child Poverty Delivery Fund to co-produce with disabled parents and disabled people's organisations a pilot fund, targeted towards areas with the highest levels of child poverty and the lowest levels of employment of disabled people, to identify and address the barriers disabled parents face to entering and sustaining employment;
• Build on the Seven Principles of Good Transitions, and broader recommendations received from sector experts, disabled young people and their families and carers, we will work across government to improve transitions into education, learning and work for disabled young people;
• Develop and put in place, following the review of current support, a new flexible and responsive employability delivery model that will support people - including young disabled people - in ways that work for them; and
• Launch a new Careers Strategy in 2019 to align career information, advice and guidance services in Scotland. This will reinforce our commitment to enabling all individuals, including young disabled people, to receive high quality support to fulfil their career potential.

We are targeting support to help minority ethnic people into the labour market

24. Skills Development Scotland published the Year 2 update on Apprenticeship Equality Action Plan (EAP) on Wednesday 8 August 2018. In 2017/2018 the proportion of MA starts self-identifying as being from a minority ethnic group has risen to 1.9% compared to 1.7% in 2016/17^[11].

25. We will continue to utilise regionally devised strategies and engage with Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) regional groups, local authorities, schools, employers and regional colleges to develop tailored plans to meet the area's needs and specific targeting of populations. A particular area of focus will be on addressing employability skills issues for some groups. The BEMIS "MAs for All" project will focus on leaving a legacy of connections between community groups and contracted providers.

26. Scotland's Employer Recruitment Incentive (SERI) is focused on supporting the job prospects of young people who face the biggest barriers to employment, including young minority ethnic people. A package of tailored 'In-Work Support' complements and enhances SERI.

27. We are exploring with SDS how to increase access to effective careers guidance and employability support for people from minority ethnic communities who are in work, seeking work or in learning.

28. We are funding projects across Scotland through our Promoting Social Cohesion Fund, that are focused on supporting minority ethnic people into employment, these include Grampian Regional Equality Council Ltd, LINKnet Mentoring Ltd, Lothian's and Fife Project; PATH (Scotland), Sikh Sanjog and the Glasgow ESOL Forum Ltd.

29. We are awarding £110,496 funding towards a joint delivery and knowledge exchange venture between Bridges Programmes, Glasgow City College and the Dundee International Women's Centre to develop a year-long vocational English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) employability programme.

30. We are funding a recognition of prior qualifications, skills and learning pilot project being led by a key stakeholder group to build on existing evidence. Phase one (Jan-Mar 2018) was a scoping exercise, phase two (April 2018 - March 2019) aims to develop both the service and a live flexible database. This contributes to the work of our New Scots refugee integration strategy.

31. In March 2016 we published the Race Equality Framework for Scotland 2016 to 2030 which sets out the Scottish Government's approach to tackling racism and addressing the barriers that prevent people from minority ethnic communities from realising their potential. In December 2017 we published the Race Equality Action Plan (REAP) 2017-21 which outlines the actions we will take over the course of this Parliament to secure better outcomes for ethnic minorities in Scotland. This included a commitment to hold an event on Race Equality Employment, which is being planned for spring 2019.

Helping people into employment

32. Contracted employability support for long-term unemployed people has been devolved to Scotland since April 2017. We are developing a long-term 2020 and beyond vision to identify specific needs of clients and develop a fully integrated and aligned service that helps people move into good quality, sustainable work. Our intention is that some unemployed customers will have early access to the programme - this will include refugees and those from a minority ethnic background.

Taking action to reduce workplace inequalities faced by women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and older people.

33. The Scottish Government's £750,000 Workplace Equality Fund 2019/20 will address long standing barriers faced by women, older workers, minority ethnic and disabled people. The fund will also enable businesses with innovative ideas to embed the dimensions of the Fair Work Framework in their workplaces The Workplace Equality Fund, which will be delivered by the Voluntary Action Fund, will support delivery of the Scottish Government's Programme for Government; Race Equality Framework; Disability Action Plan; and Scotland's Labour Market Strategy.

34. The first round of applications for the Workplace Equality Fund ended on 31 March 2018 and nine projects secured funding totalling £315,608 for 2018/19. These projects will support women returners into business services; help a range of companies become age-inclusive; build flexible and agile workplaces for companies in the construction, STEM, finance, technology, and furnishing sectors; improve mental health in the workplace; and deliver training in leadership and boardroom governance to women in the technology sector.

35. A second round of applications for the Workplace Equality Fund opened on 2 July and closed on 30 August 2018. There were 13 successful projects securing funding totalling £434,392 which were announced by the Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills on 31 October 2018.

Next Steps and underpinning evidence (2019-2021)

36. We published our Gender Pay Gap Action March 2019 and will be taking forward the actions contained within in the Plan throughout this Parliamentary term and beyond.

37. As part of the Programme for Government 2018-19 there will be a commitment to take forward a range of actions to support women to return to work including investing an additional £5 million over the next three years to support around 2,000 women to return to work.

Parental Support package

38. In March 2018, we published No-One Left Behind: Next Steps for Employability Support which sets out the next steps we will take to deliver more effective and joined up employability support. During 2018, we carefully listened to the views of people and organisations about how we create a more joined up system that is focused on progressing people into the jobs and careers they choose. We will publish the findings of this work along with our plans for change in December 2018.

39. Through a cross-Scottish Government senior policy group and an external advisory group of disabled people's organisations (DPOs), service providers, local authority representatives and other key stakeholders, we developed proposals and interim targets for A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan, published in December 2018. The plan is a first step of the Scottish Government's commitment to at least halve the disability employment gap^[12] and covers the years 2019-21, albeit is recognised that tackling the disability employment gap will require a longer-term commitment and activity. The employment action plan focuses on three key areas: 1) Supporting employers to recruit and retain disabled staff. This includes increasing the number of disabled people within our own workforce; and investing up to £1 million in a new public social partnership involving employers, government and disabled people to develop, test and implement solutions to the barriers people face in hiring and retaining disabled people. 2) Supporting disabled people to enter employment. To support disabled people into employment, we will be investing up to £500,000 of new funding to provide support similar to that of Access to Work to support disabled people undertaking work experience or work trials, and creating a bespoke Scottish Employability Support service to meet the needs of disabled people for whom more mainstream support is not suitable. 3) Young people and transitions. The Scottish Government are committed to building on the seven principles of Good Transitions, as well as broader recommendations from sector experts, disabled young people and their families and carers to improve transitions into education, learning and work for disabled young people.

In relation to the 2nd theme, we recognise that the Scottish Government has a leadership role to play in reducing the disability employment gap - both as an employer and policy maker. As such, we will publish a Recruitment and Retention Plan, setting a target for the employment of disabled people in the Scottish Government and outlining other actions to improve the employment of disabled people in the organisation; and we will encourage other public sector organisations to follow our example by sharing the learning.

8.4 Outcome 3: Increasing the diversity of our workforce

This outcome aims to ensure that the Scottish Government workforce increases in diversity to reflect the general Scottish population by 2025.

What we have achieved

At December 2018:

• Our gender balance was 53.5% women and 46.5% men, with women comprising 44% of the Senior Civil Service;
• Of those who have provided information about their ethnicity, 2% identified as minority ethnic versus 4% of the working age population; and 3% of Senior Civil Servants identified as minority ethnic;
• Of those who have provided information about their disability status, 13% self-declared disabled versus 19% of the working age population;
• Of those who have provided information about their sexual orientation, 5% identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or other versus 2% of the working age population;
• People aged 16-29 years represented 15% of our workforce versus 28% of the working age population;
• Of those who have provided information about their religion, 37% identified as Christian, 3% as other, 54% as none versus 44%, 3% and 51% of the working age population, respectively; and
• Of those who joined between January 2017 and December 2018, 1,180 were women; 58 minority ethnic; 141 disabled; 127 LGBO; 1,043 aged under 30; 41 aged 60 or over.

The evidence above demonstrates that we are making sound progress towards delivering on this outcome. Key areas where we have focused our efforts in order to increase the diversity of our workforce include:

• We have set targets for the flow of disabled and minority ethnic people into the Senior Civil Service. We have conducted an analysis of the barriers to progression for employees who share protected characteristics and will be undertaking benchmarking and qualitative research with Trade Unions and our diversity networks to establish the developmental support and changes to policies/procedures needed. This will shape the actions we need to take to deliver on the targets;
• We have implemented positive action measures aimed specifically at increasing the recruitment of disabled people who identify as minority ethnic, disabled or socio-economically disadvantaged to our Graduate Development Programme and to Government Legal Service for Scotland;
• We successfully used new approaches to outreach and selection, along with bespoke assessment panel training and in-depth diversity data analysis through the selection process, to increase the application and success rates of diverse candidates in our 2018 external campaign to recruit 150 middle managers. The final cohort was representative of the Scottish working age population in respect of disability and gender. The proportion of candidates who identified as minority ethnic or LGBO was higher than the working age population; and
• We have undertaken in-depth analysis of appraisal markings by protected characteristic and by tenure in the organisation to try to understand factors which may influence performance markings.

What we will do during 2019-2021

• We will undertake an equal pay audit to identify the causes of and remedies for our gender pay gap. This will take an intersectional approach;
• We have committed to developing a disability recruitment and retention plan, to contribute to the Scottish Government's wider goal to reduce by half the disability employment gap. Our plan will include setting a disability target for Scottish Government as an employer; and
• We will ensure the lessons learned from recent external recruitment campaigns shape the review of our recruitment policy, scheduled for 2019.

8.5 Outcome 3: Fostering an inclusive workforce culture

This outcome aims to ensure that the Scottish Government fosters an inclusive workforce culture and values the contribution of employees from all backgrounds.

What we have achieved

We measure our progress here using key results in the UK Civil Service People Survey, which is completed annually by our employees, to measure inclusion in the Scottish Government. These are:

• "Inclusion and Fair Treatment" which combines scores across questions relating to being treated fairly, with respect, feeling valued, and perception that the Scottish Government respects individual differences (e.g. cultures, working styles, backgrounds, ideas, etc.);
• The "Engagement Index", which is shaped by experience at work as measured by the nine main themes of the survey; and
• Respondent's opinion on whether they have personally experienced discrimination, bullying and harassment in the previous 12 months.

We also measure trans inclusion using the inclusion index as assessed by Stonewall through our participation in their LGBT equality benchmarking tool, the Workplace Equality Index.

In 2018, 78% of our employees took part in our People Survey. We have assessed the results both overall and across key groups where evidence has pointed to differences in experience.

Key results show that:

• The rates of discrimination experienced by minority ethnic respondents have decreased significantly over the past two years;
• This progress was reflected in improved mean Engagement and Inclusion and Fair Treatment (IFT) Scores for Minority ethnic respondents;
• There are gaps between the discrimination and bullying and harassment rates of heterosexual/straight and LGBO staff, but the gap in discrimination rates narrowed over the past two years;
• While there are gaps in discrimination and bullying and harassment rates between LGBO and straight/heterosexual respondents, their mean Engagement and IFT Scores do not differ greatly;
• There have been persistent gaps in discrimination and bullying and harassment rates in terms of gender, disability and pay grade over the past two years;
• These gaps are reflected in mean disabled respondents' Engagement and IFT Scores to an extent;
• Respondents in higher grades also have higher mean Engagement and IFT Scores; and
• Female respondents have consistently had higher mean Engagement Scores than male respondents despite experiencing more discrimination and bullying and harassment.

In relation to trans inclusion, our trans inclusion index rose from 13% to 58% in 12 months.

The evidence above shows improvement in a number of areas, but some outcomes for disabled colleagues, colleagues who identify as LGBO, and women remain in relation particularly to discrimination, bullying and harassment. As an employer the Scottish Government is unequivocal that there is no room for any form of discrimination, bullying or harassment, or any other form of unacceptable behaviour, and we are committed to continuing to take action to build a safe workplace environment founded on openness, respect and kindness.

• We are undertaking a review of our Fairness at Work policy and guidance, informed by intersectional diversity analysis of employee experience to ensure our policies and procedures are sensitive to employees' needs;
• Our People Advice and Wellbeing team are focusing on early intervention and informal resolution;
• We are developing a Wellbeing strategy and a dedicated Wellbeing team, and have invested in Mental Health awareness training for the People Advice and Wellbeing team who are the first contact in Human Resources for employees seeking support;
• We have established mutual mentoring between minority ethnic employees and members of the Senior Civil Service, including our Permanent Secretary;
• We have refreshed our staff transgender policy and guidance which have respect and dignity for all at their core, and have increased the provision of gender neutral toilets across our main buildings;
• We achieved Disability Confident 'Leader' status;
• We have conducted access audits across our estate and completed work to respond to key areas identified by the audits;
• We are undertaking a programme of innovative work - in collaboration with disabled employees - to refresh our approach to workplace adjustments and ensure that the design and delivery of services empower disabled people and remove unnecessary barriers in the workplace;
• We commissioned an external company to carry-out a Discovery Service Design project to review and propose a revised approach for delivering a workplace adjustments service to disabled staff;
• Our corporate communications strategy which aims to build a meaningful understanding of our differences in order to embed action to enhance and support diversity and inclusion into all that we do, at all levels in our organisation; and
• Our diversity networks have played a key role in building supportive relationships and a sense of belongingness which are key elements of inclusion. Our race and disability networks held conferences in 2017 and 2018, and we appointed a lead co-ordinator focusing on the strategic development of the staff Race Equality Network.

What we will do during 2019-2021

Fostering an inclusive workforce culture

• We will deliver the review of the role and purpose of our diversity networks which we committed to in our People Plan, in order to maximise their valuable contribution to delivering our diversity and inclusion agenda;
• We will develop training and further guidance to accompany our refreshed Trans Equality and Inclusion Policy, to contribute to building a supportive environment for trans colleagues. We will develop further guidance for trans employees and their colleagues to support the refreshed policy;
• Changing organisational culture will be a key focus of our disability recruitment and retention action plan, to increase understanding and a positive attitude to disabled people and increasing awareness of discrimination, prejudice and barriers faced by disabled people;
• We will undertake research to understand the experiences of women returning to work after maternity leave; and
• We will implement a leadership framework together with development in core areas of leadership including a strong focus on inclusive leadership and collective leadership. These are key areas which our Theory of Change shows are critical to developing effective teams and thereby reduce discrimination.

8.6 Outcome 4: Mental Health

This outcome relates to the work being done over the 10 years of the Mental Health Strategy, to achieve parity between mental and physical health.

Progress and underpinning evidence (2017-2019)

1. The Scottish Government published a ten year Mental Health Strategy on 30 March 2017, and at the time, the government committed to provide a regular progress update to Parliament. The first update was published on 26 September 2018.

2. The Scottish Government has developed a mental health strategy data framework. The aims are to have data that is useful to planners of services, clinicians, and people developing policy, and to cut back on the collection of data that is under-used or not fit for purpose.

Associated work-streams

3. The Strategy contains 40 specific actions and within the first 18 months of the Strategy 13 of the 40 actions are complete or nearly complete. Each action is intended to tackle a specific issue and, in this way, the Strategy will make a positive and meaningful difference to people with mental health issues, including those across the protected characteristics, and will contribute towards the improvement of their overall health and wellbeing. Actions laid out in the Strategy cover the first 3-4 years. Other priorities will emerge through time.

Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)

4. Following a positive meeting in May 2018 with representatives from various protected characteristics groups Mental Health Division are refreshing the EQIA which had been prepared for the Mental Health Strategy.

5. Analyst colleagues are working on a new, more detailed and updated, EQIA. Protected characteristics organisations have been asked to provide any relevant research which could contribute to this assessment.

6. Upon completion of the research stage of the EQIA, it is anticipated that organisations will be invited for further discussion with mental health officials as the EQIA moves towards the impact assessment stage.

Suicide Prevention Action Plan

7. Following engagement, Every Life Matters: Scotland's Suicide Prevention Plan was published on 9 August 2018. To further inform the content of the final version, we also engaged directly with a range of partner organisations from NHS, the voluntary sector and academia. Among the actions in the plan are: Identifying and facilitating preventative actions targeted at risk groups - which includes, among others, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults and young people and Gypsy/Travellers.

National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group

8. To implement the plan, the Scottish Government has set up a National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group (NSPLG) chaired by Former Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick will chair the group. It was agreed by the Chair early on in the process that we would be asking organisations for two nominations to ensure a diverse and equal group of members were selected.

9. After discussion with the chair and advice from policy colleagues, we approached the Scottish Human Rights Commission to offer them a place on the Leadership Group as it was felt they were an organisation that represented a vast number of individuals. The commission have had to decline a place at the moment due to capacity issues.

10. The Group published its Delivery Plan in December 2018. This Delivery Plan sets out work towards the vision of Every Life Matters and so it describes an initial, sequenced and high-level summary of our work in that context. All of the actions in the Delivery Plan are underpinned by equalities.

Taskforce on Children and Young Peoples Mental Health

11. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing recently announced the establishment of a Children and Young People's Mental Health Taskforce, chaired by Dame Denise Coia, building on the 'rejected referrals' work and looking at workforce, information systems, service settings, data and outcomes and meeting the expectations and rights of children and young people.

12. As part of her initial discussions, Dame Denise has spoken to a range of individuals and organisations to seek their views. However, it has not been possible to reach the wide range of stakeholders requiring mental health services nor explore the particular issues around protected characteristics. Nonetheless, Dame Denise has heard views on particular needs, lack of equality of access, parity and stigma and the Taskforce will continue to explore those issues in more depth. We intended to have wider stakeholder engagement moving forward.

Physical and Mental Health

13. There is known link between physical and mental health, and that people with poor mental health often experience physical ill health. Tackling this inequality will help support parity and accessibility to - and availability of - services, as well as supporting prevention and earlier interventions work. Tackling it will also help to ensure non-discrimination in a human rights based approach.

14. This is why the Scottish Government has two specific actions in the Mental Health Strategy aimed at improving the physical health of people with mental health issues:

1.1. Action 30: Ensure equitable provision of screening programmes, so that the take up of physical health screening amongst people with a mental illness diagnosis is as good as the take up by people without a mental illness diagnosis.

And

1.2. Action 31: Support the physical activity programme developed by the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) thereby improving the physical and mental health of people experiencing physical and mental health challenges, enabling them to live longer and healthier lives through increased levels of physical activity.

2. Progress reports are available here: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Services/Mental-Health/Strategy/StrategyImplementation/MentalHealthStrategy-ReportsonProgessJune2018

Funding

3. The Scottish Government are supporting health boards with £150 million of extra funding over five years, including £54 million to help improve access to mental health treatment through workforce development, recruitment and retention, and service improvement support.

4. Programme for Government set out a package of measures, backed by £250 million additional investment, to do more to support positive mental health and prevent ill health. These new actions build on our mental health strategy and will include using technology to extend access to a range of support services, including: improvements to the NHS24 Breathing Space service; extending online access to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy; improving access to psychological assessment and therapy in rural areas; and strengthening the handling of mental health calls to the 111 service.

5. To support mental health in primary care, the Scottish Government has already invested £10 million to encourage the development of new models of care in primary care to ensure that people with mental health problems get the right treatment, in the right place, at the right time. In 2018/19, a further £5.5 million of funding will be released.

6. The Scottish School of Primary Care was commissioned by the Scottish Government to evaluate the new models of care being tested in primary care. A report providing evidence to support different models of care is due to be published this autumn. This will provide valuable evidence to support local areas in developing and delivering their Primary Care Improvement Plans.

To improve the quality of data to help drive improvements in mental health services?

7. In October 2018, the Scottish Government launched a Mental Health Quality Indicator profile, which will provide a benchmark for operational improvement in mental health services. These indicators focus on service quality, reflecting the importance that needs to be placed on ensuring that the efficiency and effectiveness of mental health services is optimised. However, the QI profile has been designed to sit alongside a Mental Health Framework, which will provide population-wide data on wellbeing and mental health.

8. Officials are also working with ISD to improve the completeness and consistency of the current data collection, and to develop and improve the current range of data sources relevant to the ambitions of the Mental Health Strategy (including waiting times data) going forward.

8.7 Outcome 5: School Education

1. Within the longer-term outcome that every child and young person should thrive and have the best opportunity to succeed regardless of their social circumstances or additional needs, there will be progress by 2021 in the educational experience of those for which evidence indicates their success is impacted negatively due to a protected characteristic.

Progress and underpinning evidence (2017-2019)

Introduction

2. There are many policies and interventions which underpin the Scottish educational context of inclusion and equality in schools, including Curriculum for Excellence, the getting it right for every child approach and the Framework for Professional Standards for teachers, and there is encouraging evidence that outcomes for children and young people are improving year-on-year^[13]. This report focuses on progress related to the protected characteristics which we consider are priority areas. As with previous years we use a range of evidence to measure progress and look to present an overview of the current and changing picture. To give a flavour of the wide range of relevant work we are doing, we have set out some specific activity against each theme. We also reference some activity, which while not specific to any protected characteristic, supports inclusion and equality in schools.

3. This equality outcomes report should be considered alongside the National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan (NIF) which provides the context for all our work around achieving excellence and equity in school education. Scottish Ministers have a statutory duty to plan, publish and review the Framework each year and this was last done in December 2018^[14]. The NIF includes a definitive and detailed list of completed, ongoing and planned activity to drive improvements for all children and young people.

Progress and underpinning evidence - Race

4. We have identified Gypsy/Travellers as a priority group given their poor outcomes and educational experience. For example, data shows in 2014/15 to 2015/16, only 76% of White Gypsy/Traveller leavers attained 1 or more qualification at SCQF level 3 or better (compared to 98% of all school leavers), only 75% went on to a positive destination, and this group experienced the highest exclusion rate of any ethnic group.

5. Gypsy/Travellers aside, statistics^[15] show a general improvement in attainment across the majority of ethnic groups. Pupils recorded as Asian-Chinese continue to have the highest level of achievement - in 2016/17, around 90.8% achieved one or more awards at SCQF Level 6 or better, compared to 61.2% of all leavers. Overall, attainment for the mixed/multiple, Asian and African/Black/Caribbean ethnic groups remain well above the average for all leavers. Nearly all ethnic groups have seen increases in attainment across all qualification levels, in line with general increases in attainment since 2014/15.

Percentage of school leavers achieving 1 or more passes at SCQF Level 6 or better, 2015/16 to 2016/17

Source: https://public.tableau.com/profile/Scottish Government.eas.learninganalysis#!/vizhome/SchoolLeaverAttainmentandDestinationsDashboard/Home

6. Similarly, Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) Levels 2017/18 return shows a higher percentage of pupils of Asian-Chinese ethnic background are achieving the expected CfE level in numeracy compared to all other ethnic backgrounds. The data also shows minority ethnic groups overall, with some small exceptions, perform better than average in achieving expected curriculum levels in literacy and numeracy in primary and secondary stages.

Statistics^[16] show that for all minority ethnic groups other than 'mixed or multiple ethnic groups' and 'not disclosed/not known' the percentage of school leavers in a positive follow up destination is above the average for all leavers, although there have been marginal falls in percentage rates since 2014/15 for the African/Black/Caribbean group and mixed or multiple ethnic group.

We continue to see a fall in exclusions across all ethnic groups. White-Scottish pupils continue to have the highest rates of exclusions. Pupil attendance has remained fairly stable across all ethnic groups.

Some specific activity related to race

7. In December 2017, the Race Equality Action Plan (REAP) set out the key actions for the Scottish Government to drive positive change for minority ethnic communities. It included a range of education actions on varied themes such as staffing and staff development, Early Learning and Childcare and careers guidance.

8. We published Improving educational outcomes for children and young people from travelling cultures to provide guidance on inclusive educational approaches which benefit Travellers. [See also Equality Outcome on Gypsy/Travellers]

9. We have taken a number of actions relating to race-related bullying, including publishing Respect for All - The National Approach to Anti-bullying for Scotland's Children and Young People.

Progress and underpinning evidence - Disability

10. For leavers that have been assessed or declared disabled, we are seeing faster rates of improvement in attainment and follow-up destinations than for their non-disabled peers. The percentage point improvement in attainment over the three year period from 2014/15 to 2016/17 is shown in the following table. Over the same period, percentage of school leavers declared or assessed disabled with a follow-up positive destination improved by 1.1 percentage point, compared to a percentage point increase of 0.9 for their non-disabled peers.

Percentage point difference for school leaver attainment at SCQF Level 4 to 6, by declared or assessed disabled, 2014/15 to 2016/17

Declared or assessed as disabled	1 or more at SCQF Level 4 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 5 or better	1 or more at SCQF Level 6 or better
No	0.2	1.0	1.1
Yes	1.2	3.9	3.2
All leavers	0.1	0.9	1.0

11. Using dyslexia as an example, we continue to see improvements in attainment and positive destinations, which are roughly comparable with rates of improvement for all leavers.

12. Overall exclusions across all characteristics continue to fall and for pupils assessed or declared as having a disability, the exclusion rate has fallen from 63 to 48 (per 1000) since 2012/13. However, the rate of exclusions for pupils assessed or declared as having a disability continues to be high at nearly twice that for other pupils. In 2016/17, percentage attendance for all pupils assessed and/or declared as having a disability was slightly lower than other pupils at 91.4% and 93.4% respectively. The equivalent figures for 2012/13 were 91.9% and 93.7%.

Some specific activity related to disability

13. We progressed a broad range of actions from the attainment of pupils with a sensory impairment work plan developed following a parliamentary committee Inquiry, and the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills wrote to the Committee in March 2018 to provide an update on the substantial progress made.

14. Working with Education Scotland, we: published the refreshed Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit in March 2017 to ensure effective identification and support; in partnership with Dyslexia Scotland and Open University, launched three online learning modules for teachers, school management and GTCS registered local authority education officers; and developed Dyslexia and Inclusive Practice GTCS Professional Recognition Pilot, which is due to be complete in spring 2019.

Progress and underpinning evidence - Sex and Gender

15. Overall it is an improving picture in terms of positive destinations and attainment for females and male school leavers.

16. Female school leavers are still more likely than males to be in a positive follow up destination. In 2012/13, 91.6% of females went onto a positive destination, 2.3 percentage points higher than males. Since then the gap between males and females has fluctuated year to year, but never widened, and was 1.7 percentage points in 2016/17.

17. The difference between genders continues to be larger in attainment with the gap widening with increasing qualification level. In 2016/17, the gap was in favour of female school leavers for one or more qualification at: SCQF Level 4 or better; Level 5 or better; and Level 6 or better, with 0.8, 4.1 and 11.7 percentage points respectively. The achievement of curriculum for excellence (CFE) levels 2017/2018 data also shows that at all stages and across all four organisers, females continue to outperform males.

18. The rate of exclusions for male pupils continues to be much higher than for female pupils, although we continue to see a decrease in exclusions for all pupils. Attendance rates for males and females remain very similar.

19. We are making progress through our work with partners to address the under-representation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) courses and careers. Between 2007 and 2018, the numbers of passes by girls in the STEM Higher qualifications were up by 13.3%. For the same period, the number of passes for girls in Higher Chemistry and Physics were up by 12.6% and 0.9%, respectively.

Some specific activity related to gender

20. We published our STEM Education and Training Strategy in October 2017, and the First Annual Report of the Strategy in February 2019. The Strategy aims to build Scotland's capacity to deliver excellent STEM learning, and to close equity gaps in participation and attainment in STEM.

21. The innovative Improving Gender Balance pilot, a partnership between Skills Development Scotland, the Institute of Physics and Education Scotland, concluded in March 2018. Education Scotland has recruited a team who will work with schools to challenge unconscious bias in STEM, develop a gender champion network and spread best practice.

22. Education Scotland published a suite of Improving Gender Balance Action Guides for teachers and early learning and childcare practitioners.

23. Through the Digital Skills Investment Plan, we have established a Gender Action Group to tackle the gender gap in ICT subjects and careers.

24. Within the context of Violence Against Women and Girls, addressing gender inequality and the Equally Safe Strategy we have taken forward a number of work streams relevant to ELC and schools.

Bullying

25. We recognise bullying, and prejudice-based bullying, as a key issue impacting on children and young people's education experiences and outcomes, not least LGBT young people and Gypsy/Travellers. We have taken a number of significant steps over the last 2 years including:

Some specific activity related to bullying

26. We published 'Respect for All - The National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland's Children and Young People', which includes an explicit commitment to addressing prejudice-based bullying.

27. We established a working group which developed a uniform approach to recording and monitoring incidents of bullying in schools, and produced accompanying guidance for local authorities and school. The approach, which will record reported instances of prejudice-based bullying, will be fully implemented by 2019/20.

28. We provided funding to LGBT Youth Scotland to work with respectme to produce a resource and deliver practice seminars to address homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying; and funded the Coalition of Racial Equality and Rights (CRER), to produce a resource on racist bullying which published in January 2019.

Additional Support for Learning

29. It can be useful to see progress towards the Equality Outcome in the context of outcomes for children who are recorded as receiving additional support for learning The Additional Support for Learning Act requires education authorities to identify and provide support to overcome barriers to learning, some of which may relate to a protected characteristic. It is a very inclusive framework, considered to be world leading, which aligns with and supports the Equality Act provisions to prevent discrimination and make reasonable adjustments.

30. Despite challenging circumstances, children and young people with additional support needs are continuing to achieve:

• 87.1% of 2016/17 school leavers with additional support needs had a positive follow-up destination. A 5.1 percentage point increase since 2011/12;
• 69.1% of 2016/17 school leavers with Additional Support Needs (ASN) left school with one or more qualification at SCQF level 5 or better. An increase of 13.8 percentage points since 2011/12; and
• 90.4% of 2016/17 school leavers with ASN left school with one or more qualification at SCQF level 4 or better. An increase of 4.8 percentage points since 2011/12.

Some activity taken to address inequalities and inclusion, directly or indirectly, across a range of policy areas^[17]

31. We established and worked with the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group, and accepted all 33 recommendations of their report meaning that Scotland will become the first country in the world to embed the teaching of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights in the school curriculum.

32. We undertook a review of Personal and Social Education (PSE), including consideration of pastoral care and guidance, as well as school counselling services, and in January 2019 published the report of its findings and 16 recommendations.

33. In response to the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) findings we published 'Developing a positive whole school ethos and culture: relationships, learning and behaviour' in June 2018.

34. We continue investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge in 2019/20 with £62m allocated to deliver the Challenge Authorities and Schools Programme, Care Experienced Children and Young People funding and a range of national programmes; as well as £120m Pupil Equity Funding.

35. We published: an Equality Impact Assessment on the Scottish Attainment Challenge; an evaluation of the Attainment Scotland Fund which demonstrated it was supporting children and young people experiencing barriers related to protected characteristics; findings from a survey of local authority views about the Pupil Equity Fund.

36. We published and revised Pupil Equity Fund National Operational Guidance which, in line with Education Scotland's framework How Good is Our School 4?, made clear the need to promote equity by considering equality groups when planning support and interventions.

37. The Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS) updated the guidance Included, Engaged and Involved Part 1 on managing attendance in schools, to ensure that all children and young people are supported to attend schools.

38. We published Included, Engaged and Involved Part 2: preventing and managing school exclusions which supports schools to consider contributing factors, including protected characteristics, when making decisions related to exclusions of children and young people. 400 stakeholders attended implementation workshops.

39. We established, through the Strategic Board for Teacher Education, a short-life working group on diversity in the teaching profession, which published its report Teaching in a diverse Scotland: increasing and retaining minority ethnic teachers.

40. We published a content analysis of initial teacher education (ITE) in Scotland in May 2017. From that, Education Scotland developed a self-evaluation framework for ITE which helps evaluate how the training experience prepares students for teaching, including in terms of their knowledge and understanding of safeguarding, wellbeing, equality and inclusion.

41. Education Scotland launched an online professional learning module, for educational practitioners and local authorities, on inclusion and equality set within the context of Scottish education.

42. We published revised guidance on the Presumption to provide education in a mainstream setting and commissioned independent research on children, young people and families' experiences of additional support for learning.

43. We launched Learning Together - Scotland's national action plan on parental involvement, parental engagement, family learning and learning at home, which includes a dedicated section on Equalities and Equity.

44. We launched a 4-year long £2m Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Inclusion Fund in 2018 which provides funding to ELC settings to support children with additional support needs (ASN) to access their funded entitlement.

45. Anticipating the opportunities of the ELC expansion, we developed a programme with partners to increase the number of males accessing ELC college courses, and fund CEMVO (Council of Minority ethnic Voluntary Sector Organisations) to promote ELC career opportunities with BME communities.

46. We published the details of the new Funding Follows the Child approach. This is underpinned by a National Standard, which is built on a range of criteria including Inclusion, that all providers delivering the funded Early Learning and Childcare entitlement will have to meet from August 2020.

47. We published annual reports detailing the progress made in taking forward the ambitions of the Commission for Developing Scotland's Young Workforce.

48. We agreed a funding package with COSLA to ensure ELC expansion is fully funded, and to support those who will benefit most, we have directly supported an ELC Two Year Old Uptake Improvement Practicum of nine local authorities. As part of their consideration of barriers to uptake, they are expected to identify, and seek to mitigate, the impact of protected characteristics.

49. Education Scotland developed, and began implementation of, their Equality Strategy and Policy 2017-19 which has already led to improved models of professional learning for equality and inclusion, and an enhanced and increasing range of resources.

50. Education Scotland recruited a team of six Gender Balance and Equalities Officers.

51. We agreed a partnership funding package with COSLA to ensure Scotland has a sustainable supply of Educational Psychologists who have a significant role in ensuring children and young people who need additional support for learning, whatever the reason, get effective support.

52. We published the report of the 15-24 Learner Journey Review in May 2018, in which the themes of excellence and equity are intrinsic.

Next Steps and underpinning evidence (2019-2021)

53. We will work with local government to deliver on our Programme for Government commitment to take action to secure more positive experiences for those receiving additional support for learning.

54. We will publish mainstreaming guidance (planned for 2019), which will take account of research findings and consultation responses.

55. We will implement, in partnership with COSLA the recommendations of the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group, as overseen by an Implementation Group.

56. We will support all schools and local authorities to implement the national approach to recording and monitoring bullying by August 2019.

57. We will take forward actions from the report Teaching in a diverse Scotland: increasing and retaining minority ethnic teachers.

58. As committed to in the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan, we will work with the Scottish Council of Deans of Education to consider how gender and other equality issues can be made more prominent in teacher educations.

59. We will commence a range of work to address the issue of sexual harassment in schools including developing guidance and resources to support schools to end sexual harassment.

60. We are establishing a Personal and Social Education (PSE) Delivery and Implementation Group, which will be jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA, to take forward the recommendations of the PSE Review.

61. Taking account of the outcomes of the PSE review, we will review the Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood teaching guidance

62. We will continue to evaluate the Scottish Attainment Challenge, as set out in the evaluation strategy, and work to address clear gaps in evidence. The next evaluation report will publish in 2020. We will review the EQIA analysis as necessary to take account of new data or evidence to monitor its impact on equality groups.

63. To support parental involvement, we will provide £350,000 between 2019 and 2021 to develop small scale research and best practice materials on a range of equalities themes.

64. The Scottish Study of Early Learning and Childcare (SSELC) will evaluate the expansion of early learning and childcare (ELC), examining the impact of the expansion on child, parent, and family outcomes. Data is being collected on various characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and long-term health conditions.

65. The ELC Inclusion Support Fund will continue to run until 2022.

66. We will develop a strategic framework on after school and holiday childcare, for public consultation in 2019. Research shows that out of school care can provide improved outcomes for children from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

67. We will work with GTCS and the Scottish Sensory Centre to review and update the professional competency guidance for teachers.

68. Education Scotland will work with schools to challenge unconscious bias in STEM. We will extend the successful Improving Gender Balance project across all schools by 2022.

69. Education Scotland will publish, in 2020, an Equality Action Plan with issues of gender-segregation in education to the fore.

[See the separate section on Gypsy Travellers for work aimed at supporting Traveller communities]

8.8 Outcome 6: Violence Against Women and Girls

The aim is that violence against women and girls is reduced, along with the harms of gender-based violence on women and their children.

Progress and underpinning evidence (2017-2019)

1. We have a range of evidence sources to inform our interventions and understanding of the current position and help us progress towards our goals. Current evidence tells us that:

2. In 2017-2018, the police recorded 59,541 incidents of domestic abuse. Where gender information was recorded around four out of every five incidents had a female victim and a male accused. This proportion has remained very stable since 2011-2012.

3. Sexual assault accounted for 40% of Sexual crimes in 2016-17. This category has been on an upward trend since 2011-12, having increased by 47% since that time. This includes an 8% increase from 3,963 in 2015-16 to 4,281 in 2016-17.

4. In 2017/18, 2,225 rapes and attempted rapes were reported to the police in Scotland. Where gender was known, 95% had a female victim.

5. In 2016/2017, there were 4,360 recorded incidents of 'other sexual crime' which represents an increase from the 4,254 incidents recorded in 2015-2016. Where identifiable, the clear majority of victims of 'Other sexual crimes' were female and the vast majority of perpetrators were male.

6. In 2017, the UK National Referral Mechanism (NRM) received 207 referrals of potential victims of human trafficking where the referral was subsequently sent to Police Scotland for crime recording considerations; this represents a 38% increase on 2016 referral totals and 4% of all UK referrals to the NRM. The 207 referrals were comprised of 87 females (42%) and 120 males (58%). There were 144 (70%) individuals referred for adult exploitation categories and 63 (30%) referred for exploitation as a minor.

7. The 2014 social attitudes survey on public attitudes towards violence against women findings tell us that people are less likely to recognise verbal abuse and controlling behaviour (as opposed to physical abuse) as being wrong and harmful, and there are circumstances under which people view abusive behaviours as less serious (e.g. an extramarital affair has occurred). People tend to think that sex without consent is less seriously wrong or harmful if perpetrated by the victim's spouse than by someone she has just met. More than a third of people believe common myths about rape, and people are much less likely to be negative about commercial sexual exploitation than about the other forms of violence against women. Stereotypical views on gender roles persist, and those who held stereotypical views on gender roles are consistently less likely to view a wide range of abusive behaviours as wrong or harmful. Attitudes of young people showed they were less likely than adults to think the various kinds of violence against women that they were asked about were very seriously wrong, or to think that they would cause a great deal of harm. In some cases, the extent to which young people appear to hold more permissive views than adults about violence against women is striking. Stereotypical gender views played a role in this.

8. We recognise that it is challenging to draw definitive conclusions on the progress made with our various interventions. This can primarily be attributed to the nature of gender-based violence and the fact that this violence overwhelmingly remains hidden and underreported. Our main aim moving forward is therefore to focus on primary prevention, the overall objective that underpins our strategy. Through our delivery plan, we aim to raise awareness of gender-based violence, dismantle the structural, cultural and societal contexts in which this violence occurs and challenge the attitudes and harmful attitudes and stereotypes that create the societal conditions for gender-based violence to flourish. We aim to increase confidence in reporting and shift public attitudes so that gender-based violence in increasingly recognised as unacceptable.

9. In order to help us achieve our goal, we are implementing Equally Safe, Scotland's strategy to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls. Our Delivery Plan was published in November 2017. We are currently undertaking the following actions:

10. The establishment of a refreshed Joint Strategic Board, co-chaired by the Minister for Older People and Equalities and the COSLA Community and Wellbeing Spokesperson comprising senior representation from a range of stakeholders and partner organisations.

11. The establishment of a Joint Delivery Group which will meet to ensure that each agency is meeting its commitments under the Delivery Plan, complemented a Stakeholder Advisory Forum and Experience Expert Panel. The Experience Expert Panel specifically includes representation from organisations who represent groups with protected characteristics to ensure we take cognisance of their views during our implementation phase.

12. Record levels of funding to help tackle violence against women and girls current funding levels of £12 million per annum from the Equality Unit is being maintained to tackle all forms of violence against women and girls. This has been used to fund a range of measures to tackle violence against women and girls and put in place better services and support for survivors.

13. The publication of Scotland's first National Action Plan to tackle female genital mutilation in February 2016. A report detailing progress since publication was published 13 October 2017. Multi Agency practitioner guidance for agencies and others responding to FGM was published November 2017. We have established a national action group to oversee implementation of the action plan and ensure that every agency is delivering against its commitments.

14. The passing of The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act (April 2019) which creates a specific offence of domestic abuse that will cover not just physical abuse but also other forms of psychological abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour.

15. Providing funding to increase the Caledonian Project to 19 local authorities across Scotland to help local authorities provide support to and educate perpetrators of domestic abuse.

16. The establishment of a Taskforce for the Improvement of Services for children and adults who have experienced rape and sexual assault. To support and underpin the Taskforce's work, the Scottish Government is consulting on legislation to improve forensic medical services for victims of rape and sexual assault

17. The establishment of a Multi-Agency Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation to develop steps designed to reduce the harm associated with this kind of violence, to support women to exit and tackle in a holistic way issues that can lead to women and girls being exploited in this way. This group is currently developing a work plan to inform our approach and work in this area moving forward.

18. Increasing our focus on prevention with a suite of interventions aimed at educating children and young people about gender-based violence, consent and healthy relationships. Current and relevant interventions include Rape Crisis' Sexual Violence Prevention Programme and the 'Whole School' approach to tackling gender-based violence. A successful pilot has already been completed in two schools.

19. Publishing an Equally Safe in colleges and universities toolkit which provides resources for colleges and universities to tackle gender-based violence on their campus. All institutions in Scotland are expected to adopt the toolkit and factor a gendered analysis into their approach to this issue.

Next Steps and underpinning evidence (2019-2021)

20. We published a Year 1 report on implementation of Equally Safe in November 2018 during the 16 days of action against gender-based violence. It illustrated the progress made with our Strategy and highlight our key achievements and progress. We will continue to build on this as we move forward and will publish yearly progress reports to measure our success.

We will continue to build on the actions detailed above in a number of ways:

• We will run a major campaign to raise awareness of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act;
• We will invest an additional £1.5 million in Rape Crisis centres across Scotland to help meet demand for services;
• We will take forward work to strengthen the existing legislative framework for the protection of girls and women from female genital mutilation;
• We will also engage with media companies to help tackle harmful gender stereotypes;
• We will take forward a review of the funding and commissioning of specialist domestic abuse and sexual assault services;
• We will continue to explore how we can improve survivors' experiences in the criminal justice and will explore new models for taking evidence from vulnerable witnesses such as the Barnahus model to explore how an immediate trauma-informed support for child victims of serious and traumatic crimes can operate within the context of Scotland's healthcare and criminal justice system; and
• We will monitor a pilot accreditation scheme for employers which will support employers to tackle gender-based violence in their work place.

8.9 Outcome 7: Social Security

Mainstreaming Equality is at the heart of the development and creation of a devolved social security system for Scotland being designed in partnership with the people of Scotland. The development of the Social Security System for Scotland consists of two work-streams. Understanding this is important to put in context the progress, and future work, towards meeting this outcome.

The Agency

On 1 September 2018, Scottish Social Security Agency (the Agency) came into being as an Executive Agency. The Agency is now delivering Carer's Allowance Supplement and Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby payment. Later in 2019, the Agency will also start delivery of four further benefits including the Best Start Grant Nursery and School Payment, Funeral Expense Assistance and the Young Carer Grant. This is known as Wave 1, the delivery of Wave 2 will come later and this will include the Scottish replacement for Personal Independent Payment and other forms of support for people with long-term illnesses, injuries or impairments. This is still in development by a wider Scottish Government Programme.

The Programme

1. The Social Security Programme refers to the way in which the Scottish Government is managing its work to design, build and implement the services the new Agency will deliver including delivery of the new Scottish benefits. It is delivering the components of the new social security system on an incremental, benefit-by-benefit basis.

Working together

2. The Agency and the Programme will work closely over the lifetime of the programme in order to make sure the Agency's services are delivered to a high standard, including making sure that equality is at the heart of the system. This update outlines the work of both the Agency and Programme and reflects on the associated actions that underpin the Social Security outcome theme in the Scottish Government Mainstreaming Report.

Progress and underpinning evidence (2017-2019) - cover up to the period April 2019

3. With the Agency in its infancy, much of the progress to date has been taken forward by the Programme. The Agency however is aware of its obligations under equality legislation, and the importance of working towards this specific Scottish Government outcome. The Agency's approach will be outlined in detail in an Equality Strategy which is currently being developed.

Principles

4. All aspects of the new system are being developed in accordance with the legislative principles established in section 1 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. These principles are intended to establish a supportive, rights-based ethos for the Scottish system. They deliberately correspond to fundamental aspects of the right to social security as outlined in key human rights instruments and associated UN guidance. Collectively these principles speak to the creation of a system with equality at its heart. They are:

(a) social security is an investment in the people of Scotland;

(b) social security is itself a human right and essential to the realisation of other human rights;

(c) the delivery of social security is a public service;

(d) respect for the dignity of individuals is to be at the heart of the Scottish social security system;

(e) the Scottish social security system is to contribute to reducing poverty in Scotland;

(f) the Scottish social security system is to be designed with the people of Scotland on the basis of evidence;

(g) opportunities are to be sought to continuously improve the Scottish social security system in ways which -

(i) put the needs of those who require assistance first;

(ii) advance equality and non-discrimination; and

(h) the Scottish social security system is to be efficient and deliver value for money.

5. These principles also guide the work of the Agency, and can be seen in a number of ways, including through a local delivery approach. They also influence our organisational strategic approaches and are clearly visible within our strategies for continuous improvement, data protection and corporate assurance.

6. The Agency has been established to take a rights-based approach to the delivery of social security supporting the National Performance Frameworks human rights outcome.

The Charter

7. The Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 places a duty on Ministers to create a social security Charter. The Charter offers a more detailed expression of the Principles, describing in clear terms what people are entitled to expect from the system and the actions the system will take to ensure the Principles are realised in practice. In this way, the Charter will ensure that the Principles are carried from high level legislative ambitions into everyday delivery, meaningfully improving the experience of individuals. This includes action specifically aimed at advancing equality and non-discrimination.

8. As with every aspect of the new system, the Charter was co-designed with the people of Scotland. A core group of people with lived experience of social security were recruited and made key decisions about what the Charter should look like and contain. Empowering people to participate in this way is itself a key component of a rights-based approach. A separate stakeholder group, including organisations who represent equalities groups, was also set-up to provide feedback and advice to the core group.

9. Both the Programme and Agency will be bound by the commitments in the Charter and will require to report to Parliament on the actions taken to progress these. This means that, as well as ensuring that the right people receive the right payments at the right time, the Agency must treat people with dignity and respect and must carry out its work in ways which comply with the Act, the Principles and the Charter.

10. This means the Agency's purpose is directly linked, not just to a legal requirement to provide assistance, but also to a set of requirements in the Principles and Charter which say that the Agency must make sure that the people it serves enjoy a positive experience. In other words, 'how' the Agency does its work is as important as 'what' it does.

Experience Panels and Stakeholder Reference Groups

11. In 2017, Experience Panels were established with more than 2,400 volunteers from across Scotland. These are people with direct personal experience of the benefits that are being devolved who are helping the Scottish Government to design how benefits are delivered. To make sure equality groups are represented on this group, the Experience Panel team worked closely with stakeholders at the recruitment stage to both ensure that recruitment was accessible to all (including providing a range of formats, support for completing registration forms, and language and British Sign Language translation services); and to increase awareness of the project across national and local stakeholder networks.

12. Current members of the group were consulted about the appropriate time to ask members to provide personal information on protected characteristics. Members asked if this could be done once trust had been built up. A survey was undertaken in 2018, rather than in 2017, to ask members for data on ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and transgender status. We found that:

• Over 80% of panel members have one or more disabilities or long-term health conditions;
• Half have caring responsibilities (for disabled adults/children or someone in old age);
• As is common in research of this kind, there are slightly more women than men, and there are more people from older age groups than younger;
• 2% say they are from ethnic minorities;
• 9% say they are lesbian, gay or bisexual;
• Fewer than 10 respondents identified as transgender; and
• We have been running work alongside the main Experience Panels with ethnic minorities, with over 120 people participating in focus groups to date.

13. Work is also underway to ensure that groups who are usually less represented can be involved in discussions. For example, a series of focus group events are underway with minor ethnic older people, to both get their input and encourage registration as panel members. Over 120 people have participated in this to date, and this number isn't included in the 2% figure above. We also have a separate Young Carer Panel, with over 50 young carers participating in focus groups, and over 50 in a survey to date, to inform the new Young Carer Grant.

14. Finally, where there are gaps in representation among Panel members with experience of specific benefits, user researchers on service design teams supplement panel member participants with separately recruited volunteers. For example, research for Best Start Grant involved 10 panel members, and other participants to ensure that single parents and those with a range of support needs were included.

15. The panel is only one method of collaboration/engagement on social security. There are a wide number of stakeholder reference groups including the Carer Benefits Advisory Group, the Best Start Grant Reference Group and the Funeral Expense Assistance and Funeral Poverty Reference Group who have been informing and influencing policy options relating to these benefits. The Disability and Carer's Benefit Expert Advisory Group advises Scottish Ministers on specific policy options for a range of disability and carer-related benefits and part of their remit is to work with the Experience Panels. Consultation with these groups has been ongoing since March 2016 and they will continue with this role to assist with implementation of a Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

16. Both the Programme and Agency understand the importance of having the right data to help inform policy and service delivery, and this is of particular importance for equality groups. The Agency has started collecting equality data with the introduction of the Best Start Grant. This will not just inform delivery and policy, but will be reported on within our Annual Report. Section 20 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 puts an obligation on the Agency to publish within our Annual Report an assessment of how the Scottish social security system has affected the circumstances of persons living in households whose income is adversely affected, or whose expenditure is increased, because a member of the household has one of more protected characteristics, within the meaning of section 4 of the Equality Act.

Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs)

17. The Programme is committed to producing robust EQIAs for all the benefits that will be devolved and for any new benefits. An EQIA was undertaken for the Best Start Grant (BSG) and Funeral Expenses Assistance, and these are published on the Scottish Government website. Policy officials sought views through consultation on draft regulations and worked closely with the reference groups and individual organisations in order to ensure we considered the different equality characteristics in relation to these benefits.

18. Within the Agency, equality impact has been included on the Governance Checklist for papers for consideration or decision by the Senior Leadership Team, Executive Advisory Body, and Audit and Assurance Committee to ensure policy and diversity implications are considered for proposed recommendations or changes to process.

Recruitment

19. The Agency aims to have a workforce that reflects the full spectrum of Scottish society and the people we serve. To help achieve this we are continually working to make our recruitment process as accessible as possible and to make people from all parts of society aware of the employment opportunities we have on offer. These include:

19.1 Removal of the educational requirements for entry level posts and the full consideration of reasonable adjustments to work design to remove barriers;

19.2 Consulting with equalities groups, stakeholders and partners to identify issues and barriers in our recruitment process and taking action to minimise or remove these;

19.3 Having the same groups proof advertising and information materials to ensure the language used is accessible;

19.4 Running roadshows and information sessions in local communities where information on jobs is provided and practical advice of submitting an application is offered;

19.5 Offering face-to-face feedback after the initial sift process to all applicants who do not get past that stage; and

19.6 Offering jobs that have genuine flexibility in terms of hours of work for those that need it and a willingness to discuss individual needs and circumstances.

Learning

20. Within the Agency, the Learning aim is to not only provide people that are skilled, knowledgeable and able to effectively carry out their jobs, but to ensure they have an understanding, not only of the technical aspects of their role but also the benefits environment and what the day-to-day experiences of our clients can be like. This includes:

20.1 Learning inputs from partners and stakeholders to better understand the needs of the people we serve. These are, where possible appropriate to the benefits being introduced, and for Carer's Allowance Supplement, MECOPP, Carer's Trust and Dementia Friendly delivered sessions to the Client Advisor group. Dementia Friendly have also delivered a session for the whole Agency team;

20.2 Online learning from partners including Citizens' Advice to help our people understand the UK Benefits landscape;

20.3 Facilitator-led learning on a range of topics, both technical and people-based, which are designed to cater for individual and differing learning needs; and

20.4 Development of additional learning routes including e-content and individual coaching to ensure our people have a range of learning options open to them.

Accessibility and Inclusiveness

21. In line with our commitments to accessibility and inclusive communication as set out in the Social Security Act and the ongoing work around the Charter, the Social Security Programme has implemented measures on behalf of the Agency to provide an accessible and inclusive service. This includes being able to provide communications and correspondence in various alternative formats such as braille and easy read, and in various languages including Gaelic. Clients are able to communicate with the Agency via multiple channels, and we will be recording client's preferred communication channel, format and language so that we can proactively communicate with them this way in any future interaction. Our online application is compatible with various assistive technologies which we are testing with real users to make sure we get the user experience right.

The Agency have also recruited 19 Local Delivery Leads across 32 local authorities to engage with stakeholders in each area. This will help to design a local delivery service that meets the needs of each town and city, ensuring all clients can access pre-claim support from the Agency, and be able to apply for their benefits in a way that best suits them. Recruitment has commenced for the Client Support Team Leader roles who will provide a key role in delivering this service, as the Agency moves into Wave 2 of delivery of further benefits.

Progress and underpinning evidence (2019-2021) - future work and how the above will be built upon.

The Agency

22. The purpose of the Agency is to administrate the Scottish social security system effectively, in accordance with the Principles and Charter. The Agency has an Interim Corporate Plan which outlines how we will achieve this and build on the work outlined above. There are four strategic objectives:

• Dignity, fairness and respect;
• Equality and tackling poverty;
• Efficiency and environment; and
• Economy society and environment.

23. Under each, we set out what this will mean in practice through specific action statements. One is 'equality and tackling poverty', however within each there are actions that will be undertaken that demonstrate work towards this outcome. A summary is presented below.

Summary of relevant actions within Corporate Plan:

We will ensure that our services deliver on the expectations of the Social Security Charter.

We will communicate inclusively, in ways which meet the needs of the people we serve.

We will make sure that our buildings work for our people and the people we serve.

We will deliver consistent, high-quality services in keeping with the principle that social security is a human right.

We will implement an Agency - wide equalities strategy, to continuously improve our services in ways which advance equality and non-discrimination.

We will work with people with lived experience of social security, to ensure that our services are accessible, efficient and meet the needs of recipients (This will be done specifically through the Social Security Experience Panels but also more widely through a client-centred approach).

We will listen to the people we serve and take account of their feedback.

24. There is a specific action detailing the development of the Agency's Equality Strategy/Action Plan. The strategy will be the main vehicle towards ensuring equality and diversity is at the heart of the Agency. The strategy will have far reaching equality outcomes, and set out how we strive to achieve both our obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. The strategy will make links to this specific equality outcome, but will also be specific to the functions and activities of the Agency, and will detail a wide set of activities which will help us towards delivery of these (some of which are already in progress and noted above). The strategy is in its early stages of development and will be developed during 2019. We have though already held a positive workshop with Equality organisations whereby we discussed key themes for outcomes and reflected on practice to date.

25. The Equality Strategy will cover a number of themes, but one it will cover is equality data. As stated, we have specific obligation under Section 20 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. Reference to data collection is outlined above, but through this strategy we will seek to improve on this, and seek ways to collect better information so that we can report effectively on this and use that information to inform our policy and service decisions.

Experience Panels and stakeholder involvement

26. The Experience Panels will continue and people can make expressions of interest to join the panel and further recruitment is planned.

27. A survey was undertaken earlier this year with the Panel^[18] and we are currently looking at all of the information given to us through surveys, interviews and focus groups. There is a 'next steps' page which outlines that further work will be undertaken to increase representation from specific groups currently underrepresented on the panels.

28. We will also soon reopen recruitment for new panel members. While recruitment will be open to everyone with recent experience of the benefits being devolved, we will also target specific groups to boost their membership. This will include ethnic minorities, young people and people in remote locations and islands. We are also hiring researchers to help inform our thinking as to how we can best engage with as broad a range of communities and people as possible.

29. As stated above, both the Agency and Programme will continue to use this group and established reference groups to help shape the delivery of social security and seek to ensure equality groups are fairly represented.

30. Social Security Scotland will also use its Engagement and Relationships Strategy to build engagement with equalities groups. This engagement will ensure we can work in partnership to:

• understand the barriers people will face in accessing our service and identify how best to address them;
• benefit from the expertise of stakeholders in designing services that are accessible to all;
• develop an accessible communications approach that will increase benefit take-up; and
• identify the steps we can take to build a representative workforce and ensure our people have all the training they need to ensure that equality is at the heart of our service.

31. Within the Agency, equality impact has been included on the Governance Checklist for papers for consideration or decision by the Senior Leadership Team, Executive Advisory Body, and Audit and Assurance Committee to ensure policy and diversity implications are considered for proposed recommendations or changes to process. We are also working on an Equality Impact Assessment process and this will be developed alongside our Equality Strategy.

8.10 Outcome 8: Hate Crime

1. This aims to ensure that people feel increasingly confident in reporting hate crime when they experience it or witness it; and the prejudicial attitudes that drive hate behaviours are reduced.

Progress and Underpinning Evidence (2017-2019)

Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities

2. In June 2017, we published our Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Plan^[19] - our ambitious programme of work to tackle hate crime and build community cohesion. We have established an Action Group chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government with key stakeholders to take this work forward. The Action Group has prioritised work on under reporting, third party reporting, hate crime data and campaign activity.

Campaign activity

3. Within our Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Plan we committed to develop a public awareness campaign and in October 2017 we ran our six week 'Hate Has No Home in Scotland' campaign. The campaign aimed to raise awareness of what hate crime is and encourage both victims and witnesses to report it. The campaign evaluation^[20] was positive and showed that it was particularly successful among those who have experienced hate crime.

4. At the Action Group meeting in March 2018 the previous Cabinet Secretary for Equalities asked for advice on running a further campaign in 2018 in the context of increased media around Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in particular.

5. In order to effectively build on the previous campaign results, it was agreed that the next campaign focus on witnesses and what action they can take, addressing concerns around the perceived police response.

6. On 26 September 2018, a hate crime campaign was launched by the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Cabinet Secretary for Justice in partnership with Police Scotland. It aimed to encourage witnesses to report hate crime. The campaign evaluation has been published on the Scottish Government's website.

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA)

7. The Scottish Government formally adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism on 13 June 2017 in the Cabinet Secretary for Equalities statement to parliament. Adoption of the IHRA definition reflects the value we place on tackling anti-Semitism and on ensuring people in Scotland feel valued and have a sense of belonging.

Respect for All

8. Respect for All: The National Approach to anti-bullying for Scotland's Children and Young People' was published on 15 November 2017. It aims to ensure a consistent, holistic approach to anti-bullying and includes an explicit commitment to address prejudice-based bullying.

Progress and Underpinning Evidence (2019-2021)

9. We will continue to work to implement the actions within our Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action plan and we will publish an update on progress in 2020.