Recruitment and retention plan for disabled people: 2019

2. Introduction

The Scottish Government is committed to reflecting the society which it serves. Our ambition is to be a world-leading, diverse employer where people can be themselves at work. This Recruitment and Retention Plan for Disabled People (‘the Plan’) sets out in one place the actions we will take as an employer to support more disabled people into work in Scottish Government and to enable existing disabled employees to thrive and succeed at work.

Every civil servant in the Scottish Government will benefit from its successful implementation. It has been developed across directorates, in collaboration with the Council of Scottish Government Unions, reflecting our Fair Work Agreement, and with our disabled colleagues as well as external organisations which represent disabled people.

Becoming a world-leading employer of disabled people will not be simple. It will require changes across our organisation. Not only in terms of process, but culture too. We know that it is not good enough to simply recruit more disabled people, we need to ensure that new and existing disabled colleagues feel supported enough to stay and progress within our organisation as well.

We are not starting from scratch: the numbers of disabled people in the Scottish Government rose from 6% in 2016 to 8% 2018. Additionally, there has been a substantial increase in the proportions of disabled staff recruited into the Scottish Government: in 2018 16% of recruits identified as disabled compared to 8% in 2016.

The Plan sits within a framework of other plans and programmes. Including:

• Fair Work Action Plan which sets out a vision for Scotland of becoming a world-leading Fair Work Nation by 2025. 
• A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: employment action plan which was published in December 2018, and commits us to reducing Scotland’s disability employment gap by at least half, by 2038.
• SG2020, which aims to support the National Performance Framework for Scottish Government by becoming a more open, capable, and responsive Fair Work organisation. 

It reinforces our two Equality Outcomes:

• Our workforce increases in diversity to reflect the general Scottish population by 2025;
• We foster an inclusive workforce culture and value the contribution of employees from all backgrounds.

Finally, the Plan underlines the commitment of the Scottish Ministers to meeting the target that by 2038 we will reduce the disability employment gap, by at least half.