Fair Work Action Plan 2022 and Anti-Racist Employment Strategy 2022: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

5. Assessment of Refreshed Fair Work Action Plan

Headline action 1: We will lead by example on the Fair Work Agenda, including sharing and learning of practice, by 2025. We will continue to embed Fair Work in all public sector organisations, setting out clear priorities in the roles and responsibilities of public bodies.

Action 1.1: Scottish Government will undertake an equal pay audit examining pay gaps by gender, disability, race and age by March 2024. We will act on findings to review and refresh our recruitment and retention policies to address workplace inequalities by end of 2025.

The number of under 19s employed by the Scottish Government in Q3 of 2022 was 22. While no breakdown of job roles or grades is available, this small number of young people could benefit directly from an equal pay audit related to age. These individuals may also see intersectional benefits of pay gap audits in relation to gender, disability and race being carried out.

However, direct benefits are not the only ways in which children can be positively impacted by an action looking to address pay gaps in the Scottish Government workforce. Where children are living in a household with a parent or guardian who works for the Scottish Government, pay gaps being resolved could result in higher levels of income for the household. This will be particularly true in households led by a lone parent, the majority of which are women who will benefit from an audit related to the gender pay gap in Scottish Government.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Action 1.2: Work with equality organisations and public sector employers to co-deliver a series of engagements with the public sector by end of 2023 to support employers to address the recommendations of the Scottish Parliament's Equalities and Human Rights Committee's inquiry report into race equality, employment and skills which recommended employers assess their organisations' understanding of racism and structural barriers; employers subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty as a minimum, voluntarily record and publish their ethnicity pay gap and produce an action plan to deliver identified outcomes.

Further collecting, monitoring and analysis of ethnicity pay gap information could deliver tangible benefits in tackling labour market inequalities for racialised minorities.

Beyond direct impacts for workers who are both under 18 and from racialised minorities, tackling these inequalities could have indirect positive impacts children and young people from racialised minorities. As in Action 1.1, this could be through other members of their households being able to access and succeed in better paid employment through increased work to remove structural barriers and ethnicity pay gaps.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Action 1.3: The EHRC and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to:

Action 1.3.1: implement National Equality Outcomes across protected characteristics (including disability, ethnicity, sex) from Sept 2022 to Sept 2025, in order to:

• Improve student success and retention rates;
• Ensure access to and confidence in support for students and staff that fosters good relations and tackle prejudice and discrimination;
• Increase diversity of staff in the workforce and on College Boards and University Courts.

This action could achieve significant positive impacts for young people and children in Scotland, with National Equality Outcomes able to target measures at improving success for those groups of young people and children who are not currently thriving within the Scottish further and higher education sectors.

Across UK and Scottish data, it is consistently shown that there are differences in rates of pupils achieving positive follow-up destinations after schooling as well as differences in rates of success for students within further and higher education. While the percentage of school leavers in a positive destination has increased in recent years, there are still discrepancies in the rate at which different groups are accessing these positive destinations. This is particularly true for some racialised minorities and young people with learning disabilities. National Equality Outcomes and measures to achieve them could create benefits for children from these groups by tackling barriers to success.

These benefits could be enhanced through engaging with the lived experiences of young people when assessing progress towards the National Equality Outcomes.

Implementing a National Equality Outcome for disability could improve the success of disabled students and their representation in the workforce. Currently, disabled students are more likely to experience lower levels of educational attainment and less likely to enter higher education compared to non-disabled students. Therefore, action 1.3 could prioritise access to educational opportunities for disabled students which have influence over their future careers.

Increasing the diversity of staff in the workforce could create a diverse and inclusive workforce which is representative of the population. This simultaneously increases the proportion of currently underrepresented groups, including women, disabled people and racialised minorities. Consequently, these groups could share lived experience of discrimination and inform action to overcome inequalities for the most vulnerable groups labour market. Specifically, increasing diversity on College Boards and University Courts allows for the needs of an increasingly diverse student population to be met.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 1.3.2: develop a set of SFC annual thematic reviews to inform and direct improvement.

Publishing annual thematic reviews could disseminate knowledge on contemporary inequalities within the education sector, including schools as well as universities and colleges, and develop mechanisms to embed equality in wider societal issues such as access to skills, education and labour market confidence.

Where this improvement is related to widening participation, increasing student success and retention and tackling inequalities, this would have a tangible impact on the outcomes for children entering the further and higher education sectors in Scotland. This information could direct funding for teaching and learning provision, research and other higher education activities in Scotland more inclusively, while also encouraging positive actions to be taken forward across colleges, universities and other funded bodies to account for their delivery of required outcomes.

Therefore, the diverse student population could benefit from the annual review of higher education services, particularly those with poorer outcomes such as black and disabled students.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Action 1.4: Work with partners to establish senior leadership networks to build capability and understanding of racism and racial inequality in the workplace by the end of 2023.

The establishment of senior leadership networks, equipped with the capability and understanding of racism, could bring positive impacts for children and young people directly where they are in work as they could face less racial inequality and indirectly by increasing employment outcomes for other members of their household, as in Action 1.1 and 1.2.

Further information on the scope, membership and focus of these senior leadership networks would be required to fully assess the impact on children of this action.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is uncertain.

Action 1.5: We will work with Scottish Government's analysts to run a series of official statistics dissemination sessions with interested stakeholders to help inform their understanding of the labour market landscape in relation to fair work. Where available data allows, this will include considering intersectionality.

Disseminating official statistics could highlight key inequalities within the labour market relevant to each stakeholder's industry and demonstrate best practice in monitoring progress through data. This could encourage positive action against inequalities and seek to establish a fair and inclusive workplace.

Stakeholders felt that more guidance and examples on cumulative effects would assist an intersectional approach to addressing labour market inequalities. The potential to consider intersectionality in dissemination could progress employers understanding of the most vulnerable groups with more than one protected characteristic and generate positive actions towards addressing these disadvantages.

Where this data considers age, direct positive impacts could be felt by children and young people in workplaces. It is more likely that indirect impacts would be felt in relation to other household members and their experience of the workplace.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Headline action 2: We will continue to use conditionality to further embed Fair Work in all public sector investment wherever possible.

Action 2.1: As part of the Bute House agreement and NSET, and within the limits on devolved competence, we will:

Action 2.1.1: Extend Fair Work conditionality with clear standards and minimum requirements to cover all forms of Scottish Government support within the limits of devolved competence. We will use all levers at our disposal to deliver on this commitment – including the use of grants, reliefs and licencing provisions.

Firstly, uplifting workers to the real Living Wage could contribute towards narrowing pay gaps in the labour market, including the gender, disability and ethnicity pay gaps. The impact of these pay gaps is likely to intersect with age where children and young people are in the workplace,^[44] they are likely to be in lower paid roles. This action could positively impact young employees aged 18-24 who are less likely to be paid the real Living Wage and under 18s who are not required to be paid the real Living Wage, even at accredited real Living Wage employers.

This action could also have positive impacts on the cost of living across disadvantaged groups in society. Payment of the real Living Wage could contribute to meeting the additional living costs faced by disabled people and alleviate in-work poverty for households with disabled members who are more likely to experience poverty. It could also reduce the levels of in-work poverty disproportionately experienced by racialised minority households and households with children.

Increasing purchasing power of households can be a significant factor in reducing the rate of child poverty present in Scotland. Payment of the real Living Wage could relieve the disproportionate financial pressures experienced by single-parent households, households with a disabled member and households with a baby during this economic crisis.

Stakeholders representing young women expressed the positive impact of being paid the real Living Wage in establishing equity in the early stages of women's career and uplifting them to a position not currently accessible. However, this stakeholder followed with a concern that employees could implement the Living Wage as 'standard pay' rather than enforcing pay brackets, which could restrict opportunities for progression in both pay and grade.

When discussing the universal payment of the real Living Wage, some business stakeholders raised concerns that with increased staff wage costs, some companies would feel the need to cut other costs including work placements and training programmes for young people. In addition, concern was raised on the impact on the number of modern apprenticeships which could be provided in some workplaces if the apprentices were to be paid the real Living Wage.

The inclusion of limited exemptions to this conditionality, for example, where a grant is essential for an organisation to continue its activities and that potential grant recipient is heavily or entirely dependent on grant funding but cannot pay the real Living Wage. should help mitigate negative impacts on young people. It will be important that this is considered throughout the implementation stage to avoid children and young people suffering unintended negative consequences of the real Living Wage being paid more widely by recipients of Scottish Government support.

Further stakeholder feedback commented on young employees' engagement with channels for effective voice. Many young people will be in their first experience of employment and feel too inexperienced to speak out against workplace discrimination. Therefore, in implementing this Scottish Government should consider how voice can be inclusive enough so the youngest employees can participate, such as encouraging employers to inform young people of trade unions when onboarding.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 2.1.2: Consider how we can extend conditionality to the other Fair Work principles, including opportunity, security, respect and fulfilment by 2025.

The extension of conditionality to all five fair work principles could generate wide-ranging benefits for children and young people, directly and indirectly.

Extending conditionality to opportunity could equalise access to the labour market and generate positive impacts for protected characteristic groups most vulnerable to unemployment and underemployment. This could include women, older people, disabled people and racialised minorities, with children and young people benefitting from the positive impacts felt by others in their household.

Security is largely linked to having a consistent inflow of income and thereby could bring particular benefit to those vulnerable to zero-hour contracts and low-paid insecure work, including children and young people themselves but more often indirectly benefiting children whose parents or guardians are vulnerable to insecure work. This could be most acutely felt for single parent – the majority of which are women – and racialised minority households.

Respect encourages mutual support within the workplace and recognises that everyone is entitled to feel valued regardless of pay, status or characteristics. Therefore, this action could lead to minimising feelings of isolation, discrimination and harassment within the labour market for vulnerable groups such as disabled people, women and racialised minorities.

Fulfilling work engages with both personal development and career progression. Increasing access to fulfilment in employment could nurture a workplace culture in which employees feel engaged, committed to making a difference, have some control over their work and can source opportunities for growth.

Where both respect and fulfilment are prominent in workplaces, encouraged by conditionality, there could be increased positive mental health benefits or reduced negative work-related mental health outcomes. The ongoing impacts of the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis is having effects on mental health for families. 69% of single parent families, and four in five families with a baby have reported a negative impact on their mental health. This action could help to decrease these poorer mental health outcomes for families including children and young people.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Action 2.2: By 2023 update the Fair Work First criteria to better reflect priority action required to address labour market inequalities faced by women, people from racialised minorities, and disabled people, ensuring people can enter, remain and progress in work.

As in previous actions, the impact upon children and young people is likely to be both direct – where they are of working age and in one or more of the groups identified for priority action – and indirect where they are in a household with those who are.

At this stage, it is not possible to fully assess the impact on children of changes to the Fair Work First criteria, but this could be measured through the implementation stage of the new criteria.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Headline action 3: We will support employers to utilise the resources and support available to embed Fair Work in their organisations. We will work collaboratively to develop these resources to support and build capability among employers, employability providers and partners.

Action 3.1: By end 2023 we will work with partners to join up provision of advice and support for employers by establishing a central Fair Work resource, making it as simple and efficient as possible for employers to use. This would enhance and consolidate existing material to ensure employers have a clear route to access guidance, support and advice on Fair Work. It will involve:

• Advice and tools to promote the benefits of Fair Work and workplace equality
• Good practice case studies
• Advice on networking and establishing peer support groups
• Collaboration with existing trusted business support services and partners

A central resource to share tools such as advice and support on implementing fair work will be helpful to employers across Scotland in increasing their knowledge and capability in delivering fair work.

Stakeholder engagement highlighted the importance of engaging with lived experience through the provision of real-life case studies, this could be particularly useful where young people are included within the case studies. These could demonstrate practical positive actions for organisations who may struggle to engage with fair work and have a workforce with limited diversity, including in relation to age.

Recognition that this central resource must be "as simple and as efficient as possible for employers to use" could overcome accessibility barriers for employers with tight capacities, especially within smaller organisations, and generate more widespread impacts on protected characteristic groups across Scotland's labour market.

The direct and indirect impacts on children and young people should be considered in the development of materials and in the implementation of the central resource itself.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Action 3.2: Develop a communications strategy to highlight and promote the benefits of Fair work and a diverse workplace to employers including;

• adoption of payment of at least the real Living Wage;
• effective voice channels, tackling the gender pay gap; and
• recruiting, employing and supporting disabled people and workers from racialised minorities.
• The strategy will be informed by sectoral and regional analysis and utilise a range of channels.

A communications strategy to share the benefits of fair work will be helpful to employers across Scotland in increasing their knowledge and capability in delivering fair work.

It will be particularly beneficial for young disabled people and young people from racialised minorities as guidance is provided to employers on how best to recruit, employ and support them.

However, before the focus and content of the communications strategy is developed, it is not possible to fully assess the impact on children and young people at this stage.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Action 3.3: Increase the number of people who have security of pay and contract by encouraging employers to seek real Living Wage and Living Hours accreditation. We will achieve this through our continuing support of Living Wage Scotland to achieve an additional 5,000 workers uplifted annually to the real Living wage through increases in employer accreditation.

As discussed in Action 2.1.1, an increase in the number of people having security of pay through the payment of the real Living Wage provides significant benefit for children and young people. This is true for those children and young people for whom household income would increase through parents or guardians being uplifted to the real Living Wage and for those young people entering the world of work. One stakeholder argued that this was of particular benefit to care-experience young people, who face specific barriers as they enter work, including lack of financial support for travel.

Increasing the number of people who have security of contract through Living Hours accreditation will benefit children and young people through similar indirect impacts related to household employment but also help to address the overrepresentation of young people in roles and sectors where insecure, contract work is prominent.

While a target of 5,000 workers being uplifted to the real Living Wage may appear significant, there are no conditions surrounding this which targets young people and they may not experience the direct impacts. For example, one large, newly accredited employer could fulfil this action alone. Therefore, the implementation stage should consider how the benefits of this action could be accessed by young people, both directly and indirectly.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Action 3.4: By the end of 2025 we will review and disseminate learning and best practice from on the conclusion of the 2024 Workplace Equality Fund.

The sharing of learning from the 2024 Workplace Equality Fund will be helpful to employers across Scotland in increasing their knowledge and capability in delivering fair work. However, it is not possible to assess the impact on children and young people at this stage.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is uncertain.

Action 3.5: We will develop and promote guidance to encourage more employers across all sectors to use positive action measures as per the Equality Act 2010 giving particular attention to sex, pregnancy, race, age and disability by end 2024.

Broader promotion of guidance and the practice of positive action could inform progress to addressing labour market inequalities and could enable organisations to fulfil their equality duty. The recognition of 'all sectors' in this action demonstrates that during implementation the Scottish Government intend to secure far-reaching positive action across the public, private and third sector.

Children and young people could benefit from increased security of work and income for parents and guardians in their households. For example, women could experience greater liberation in the labour market because of this action, including uplifted wages and status, and pregnant women could overcome the 'motherhood penalty'. Targeted positive action measures could help to narrow the disability employment gap and remove barriers to certain roles and sectors for racialised minorities. Young people themselves, who are currently overrepresented in zero-hour contracts, could access more secure employment.

One business stakeholder felt that organisations may not have the skills to implement these fair work practices, especially when applying positive action to recruitment processes. Insufficient digital skills to recruit a younger workforce were reported across members of this organisation, which could limit the scope of their equality duty in terms of age. Therefore, to secure equal access for young people and children in positive action initiatives, guidance should not only disseminate knowledge on positive action for employees, but also skills development for employers and managers within organisations.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 3.6: We will continue to promote existing and new advice and guidance on the benefits of flexible working to organisations across Scotland by working with public bodies to assess provision and highlight best practice throughout this parliamentary term (by 2026).

The continued promotion of advice and guidance in relation to flexible working will be helpful to employers across Scotland in increasing their knowledge and capability in delivering fair work. Where this leads to increased provision of flexible working arrangements, this is likely to have positive benefits to those with caring responsibilities, including childcare, who are predominantly women.

However, it is not possible to assess the impact on children and young people at this stage.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is uncertain.

Action 3.7: Working with employers, equality stakeholders and training providers, develop and implement an intersectional and anti-racist training framework by 2025.

Developing an anti-racist training framework could reduce labour market stigma responsible for racially motivated structural and systemic barriers to employment. Embedding race equality training in all positions and responsibilities within an organisation could lead to an improved workplace culture, greater support for racialised minorities in the workplace and better-informed policies and practices to address racial inequality. This could directly benefit young people from racialised minorities in workplaces who could face intersectional inequalities in relation to race and age.

Engagement with equality stakeholders and training providers could also benefit the framework through providing lived experience and expertise in racial inequality.

However, as the framework is still to be developed, it is not possible to fully assess the impact on children and young people at this stage. It will be important to consider the direct and indirect impact on children over the development and implementation stages of this work.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is uncertain.

Action 3.8: We will work with employers and trade unions, in sectors where low pay and precarious work can be most prevalent, to develop sectoral Fair Work agreements that deliver improved employment outcomes such as payment of the real living wage, better security of work, and wider "Fair Work First" standards.

The development of sectoral Fair Work agreements could generate positive impacts for the most vulnerable protected characteristic groups in the labour market who are overrepresented in low-paid and precarious employment. This includes young people, women, disabled people and racialised minorities.

Accompanying greater security in employment and increased salaries could be improved workplace culture in which these groups are feel more valued and respected by co-workers.

The impacts of paying the real Living Wage discussed under action 2.1.1 are also relevant here, especially amongst women, disabled households and racialised minority households. The positive impacts discussed could also be linked to increased socioeconomic wellbeing and uplifting people out of in-work poverty.

Similarly, increasing security of work could particularly benefit young people, women and racialised minorities who are disproportionately represented across zero-hour contracts and insecure work. Removing the inappropriate use of these contracts could secure regular hours and flows of income for these populations. This could generate an indirect positive impact of improved personal finances and household finances which increases the affordability of basic and essential items.

While working with trade unions positively represents employee voice, other effective voice channels could be engaged with such as employee forums. It was raised by stakeholders that the awareness of trade unions was more limited among young people just entering the workplace and it would be important to not solely rely on this in relation to providing effective voice for employees. Therefore, the sectoral Fair Work agreements could benefit further from wider engagement with employees and employee stakeholders.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 3.9: We will work with employers, workers and trade unions to strengthen effective voice, through a range of appropriate channels. We will do this by supporting strong trade unions and, in line with our NPF employee voice indicator, will promote the benefits of collective bargaining (including sectoral agreements) and other forms of effective voice at individual and collective levels.

Strengthening effective voice and highlighting the value of collective bargaining could establish an open line of communication within the workplace and nurture an inclusive and fair labour market.

This action could encourage the involvement of young employees in effective voice channels. Representative stakeholders expressed a current lack of knowledge or confidence to participate in workers' unions, which minimise contributions of lived experience. Thereby, enhancing the focus on workers voice could increase the representation of the views of young people across appropriate channels, potentially raising awareness to tackle barriers facing them in the workplace.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Headline action 4: We will work collaboratively to develop resources to support workers to access, remain and progress in fair work.

Action 4.1: Work with enterprise agencies and Business Gateway to promote Fair Work and deliver wider conditionality, and:

Action 4.1.1: By end of 2023 undertake a review of the Business Gateway website, utilising analytical and tracking techniques to ensure that disabled people find the website accessible, and are able to utilise the advice given to overcome the barriers they face.

The review and improvement of accessibility of the Business Gateway will be helpful to disabled people across Scotland, including young disabled people, in accessing support and overcoming barriers.

However, while young disabled people face particular barriers in relation to the labour market, it is not possible to assess the specific impact that this review will have on children and young people until it is clear what changes will be made.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is uncertain.

Action 4.2: Scottish Government Employability Delivery: we will continue to work with Fair Start Scotland providers, within the timescales of the current contract until March 2023, to implement a continuous improvement approach to enhance delivery and outcomes for disabled people and those furthest from the labour market, including racialised minorities and women. This will include drawing upon learning from Pathfinders/ test and learn projects being delivered by Disabled People's Organisations and the pilot project on community engagement being delivered by CEMVO Enterprises CIC in 2022/23.

Learning from previous initiatives such as Pathfinders and the community engagement work being carried out by CEMVO in 2022/23 could provide a solid base for improvement of Fair Start to address the needs of priority groups.

The impact of this on children is likely to be indirect, where continuous improvement is undertaken in delivery, the results for these groups in terms of labour market outcomes should be improve. This could lead to increased job security and household earnings which would decrease the number of children and young people at risk of experiencing poverty.

Further assessment will need to be carried out following on from the sharing of learning and the development of a new approach for delivery with Fair Start Scotland providers.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is neutral.

Action 4.3: Scottish Government to work with stakeholders to develop a Delivery Plan 2023-26, outlining the next phase development of No One Left Behind (NOLB) from April 2024.

Action 4.3.1: Build Fair Work outcomes into the design of No One Left Behind by taking account of the lived experience and needs of disabled people, people from racialised minorities, women and the over 50s.

This action could inform the delivery of a person-centred employability system which is responsive and flexible to a diverse labour market. It could increase Scottish Government's engagement with the lived experience of protected characteristic groups to better prepare employees for work through an employability system that is tailored to their needs. This could further promote a better working relationship between employers and employees through a shared understanding of labour market experiences.

Updating the No One Left Behind partnership for disabled people this way acknowledges the social model of disability. Engagement with lived experience overcomes the stereotype of disabled people being passive recipients or care, and instead acknowledges their contributions to the working economy.

Further, this action could eliminate race-related structural and systemic barriers to entering and progressing in employment. This could generate mental health and wellbeing benefits for racialised minorities and children and young people.

Additional indirect benefits for children from this action could also be felt through its ability to tackle gender and pregnancy discrimination in the workplace by challenging labour market stereotypes associated with women. It could tackle occupational segregation which traps women in low-paid 'women's roles', typically in caring professions, as well as the motherhood penalty which restricts career progression for pregnant women and returning mothers. These steps could benefit children through improved household earning and lower potential exposure to poverty.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 4.3.2: Draw upon the findings and recommendations of the following:

• Health and Work Strategy Review (2019)
• Supported Employment Review (2022)
• Health and Work Support Pilot final evaluation (2022)
• Individual Placement and Support Review (2022 – forthcoming)

Action 4.3.2 has the potential to deliver positive impacts for disabled individuals, particularly those with learning disabilities, or those with a health condition,.

This action could narrow the largest employment gap in the Scottish labour market – the disability employment gap. These reviews offer mitigation against the risk of losing employment due to ill health and facilitate return to work after health-related absence. This could lead to positive impacts for children and young people through increased household earnings and a decreased vulnerability to poverty.

A full assessment of the positive impacts action 4.3.2 generates is dependent on the implementation of these recommendations.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.

Action 4.4: Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) will, on an annual basis, review disaggregated management information including the newly disaggregated Learning Disability statistics and take action where required where poorer outcomes or underrepresented groups are identified. This will include:

Action 4.4.1: Review the equality incentives for disabled people in relation to Work Based Learning (WBL) and make recommendations by end March 2024 with regard to impact on participation and achievement rates for disabled people.

Reviewing disaggregated data could generate positive impacts through providing a more comprehensive overview of labour market inequalities and identifying the most vulnerable groups with specific needs. Disproportionate positive impacts could be generated through engagement with the newly disaggregated Learning Disability statistics. Previously, data on learning disabilities has not always been separated from 'disabilities' data. This creates a barrier to assessing whether the needs of those with learning disabilities are being fulfilled. Therefore, this action could identify previously unknown outcomes and take forward positive action for children and young people with learning disabilities where necessary.

The focus of action 4.4.1 on Work Based Learning could generate disproportionate positive impacts for young disabled students undergoing the transition from school to employment. This group are particularly vulnerable to unemployment and underemployment. Therefore, the potential for increasing participation and achievement rates for disabled school leavers could be positive.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 4.4.2: Review learning from pilot projects for Foundation Apprenticeships for disabled pupils and mainstream lessons learned by October 2023.

Improving the quality and inclusivity of apprenticeships by learning from pilot projects aimed at increasing the number of disabled pupils in foundation apprenticeships would have tangible benefits for young people.

By mainstreaming lessons learned into Foundation Apprenticeship programmes, as well as other forms of apprenticeships, it could be possible to remove barriers faced by young disabled people to this form of access to employment.

However, this learning should be applied comprehensively across apprenticeship provision as limiting this to Foundation Apprenticeships risks limiting access to, and success in, apprenticeships for young disabled people which may be inappropriate for the skills which they possess.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 4.4.3: Use intelligence from training and learning providers and participants to develop and deliver disability equality-focused continuous professional development to build the capacity of learning providers to support disabled individuals and ensure a continuous development cycle is implemented by 2023.

The development of disability equality-focused continuous professional development is likely to bring significant positives to disabled individuals and employers. However, it is not possible to fully assess the impact on children at this stage. The particular needs of young disabled people should be considered throughout the development and implementation of this approach.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is uncertain.

Action 4.5: Skills Development Scotland (SDS) will:

Action 4.5.1: Implement Scotland's Career Review recommendations and develop a model to ensure future career services across sectors provide meaningful and accessible support for disabled people that is both tailored to their needs and available when they need it. The implementation phase of the Career Review is due to be completed by the end of 2022.

Scotland's Career Review recommendations were published in February 2022.The review engaged with the lived experiences of young people and stakeholders representing a diverse range of backgrounds and generated recommendations tailored to the needs of those who are most vulnerable in the labour market.

Implementing meaningful support for disabled people in careers services, whether community based or digital, will create positive impacts for young people and children who are disabled or whose parent or guardian is disabled.

In terms of children, the pandemic exemplified how disadvantaged households may disproportionately suffer due to material deprivation. Reliance on remote working highlighted how disadvantaged children and young people, who lacked access to IT hardware and broadband services at home, found homework more challenging, and this then negatively impacted the pre-existing attainment gap. As such, access to digital careers support could be challenging for some young disabled people, especially those with learning disabilities, so the combination or provision suggested in Scotland's Career Review could mean that no young people or children miss out on the benefits.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 4.5.2: Skills Development Scotland (SDS) will continue to implement the Principles of Good Transitions across our Career Information Advice and Guidance (CIAG), through targeted Continuous Professional Development for all customer-facing CIAG colleagues and managers by the end of March 2023.

Skills Development Scotland continuing to implement the Principles of Good Transitions across their career information advice and guidance will have a significant positive impact on children and young people in Scotland.

This could generate positive impacts through recognising the dependencies between career services and post-school pathways, especially for disabled young people between the ages of 14 and 25 undergoing the transition to adult life. These impacts could include a reduction in post-school unemployment and an increased representation of disabled students across higher education.

Further, increasing organisational awareness of these principles through professional development could encourage services to employ a person-centred approach and place young people in the centre of their transition planning, giving them the autonomy and access to opportunity the current labour market lacks.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is major positive.

Action 4.6: Health and Work: Aligning with the Scottish Government's Fairer and More Equal Society (FMES) Programme by December 2023, Public Health Scotland (PHS) to:

• Collaborate with NHS Boards to develop the NHS Scotland contribution to achieving fair and healthy work outcomes for people across Scotland; and
• Work with Scottish Government, Local Government and NHS Boards to define the health offer to enable those with health conditions to secure, sustain and progress in work.

Aligning the Scottish Government's FMES programme with actions from Public

Health Scotland will help to promote greater healthy work outcomes as well as enabling those with health conditions to enjoy fair work. This should benefit children and young people directly where they are in work and indirectly where others in their household are.

If fair and healthy work outcomes are increased across Scotland, this will benefit young people who are employed as well as parents and guardians. As discussed in action 2.1.2, increased fair work could help to reduce poor mental health outcomes, benefiting families with children.

However, a full assessment of this approach will need to be built into the work of each intervention by local government, NHS boards and Scottish Government. As these are currently still to be defined, it is difficult to accurately assess the full impact on children and young people.

The provisional CRWIA score for this action is minor positive.