Scottish Government diversity information: FOI release

Information requested

1. In the Scottish Government’s “Delivering diversity & equality” document from FOI 202400445449, there is an employer equality outcome 1, described as ‘our workforce increases in diversity to reflect the general Scottish population by 2025’. Regarding this outcome:

a. What quantitative measures are used to track progress on this outcome?

b. For each of the quantitative and qualitative measures used to track progress on this outcome, what would be their optimal value or contents – the set of measurements that, if observed, would indicate that that outcome 1 had been perfectly achiev to the extent that it is explicitly measured. For example, if two quantitative measures of women% and nonwhite % were used, the set of measurements indicating perfect achievement might be 50% and 5%. A qualitative measure ideal might be a ‘outstanding’ rating from a recognised expert on some requested topic.

c. For each of the quantitative and qualitative measures used to track progress on this outcome, are excesses (values exceeding the optimal point) treated as problematic as deficiencies (values below the optimal point), and if so, why/why not.

2. On the Scottish Government’s “Delivering diversity & equality” document from 4/12/2024, provided in FOI 202400445449, there an employer equality outcome 2, described as ‘foster an inclusive workforce culture and value the contribution of employees from all backgrounds’. Regarding this outcome:

a. What quantitative measures are used to track progress on this outcome?

b. For each of the quantitative and qualitative measures used to track progress on this outcome, what would be their optimal value or contents – the set of measurements that, if observed, would indicate that that outcome 2 had been perfectly achieved to the extent that it is explicitly measured.

c. For each of the quantitative and qualitative measures used to track progress on this outcome, are excesses (values exceeding the optimal point) treated as problematic as deficiencies (values below the optimal point), and if so, why/why not?

Response

1.
a. The proportion of staff belonging to a particular diversity characteristic is compared against the proportion within Scotland’s population aged 16 to 64. This is used as our target. Staff that we have no data on are excluded from the calculation of this proportion. A RAG (red-amber-green) status is used to track progress for each of the following groups of staff:

• Disabled
• Ethnic minority
• LGB+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and other non-heterosexual sexual identities)
• Female
• Christian
• Non-Christian religions
• Aged between 16 and 29
• Aged 60 or over

For each of these groups, progress is marked as green if the target has been met or exceeded. Amber if the current value is within 25% of the target. Or red if the current value is less than 75% of the target.

b. Outcome 1 is considered met when the proportion of all staff that have completed a diversity question with one of the responses above, has met or exceeded our latest population comparator. The current list of values used (taken from Scotland’s Census 2022) is as follows:

• Disabled – 20.0%
• Ethnic minority – 7.7%
• LGB+ – 5.2%
• Female – 51.1%
• Christian – 34.7%
• Non-Christian religions – 10.0%
• Aged between 16 and 29 – 26.6%
• Aged 60 or over – 10.7%

c. Areas exceeding the optimal values where reflective of positive experience are not considered problematic. The aim of The Diversity and inclusion employer strategy for Scottish Government is to focus attention
where data shows poorer experiences for particular groups, therefore meriting focused attention.

2.
a. We compare core Scottish Government scores for inclusion and fair treatment, discrimination, and bullying & harassment against Civil Service averages. We also compare these scores for individual  diversity characteristics (e.g. female, disabled, ethnic minority) against the overall score for core Scottish Government.

b. While no specific target is currently set at an organisational level, we monitor our performance against Civil Service averages and against ourselves year-on-year. Further work is underway to set thresholds around
this.
c. Comparison between a particular group and the overall score involves calculating statistical significance, as described in our workforce diversity Official Statistics publication.

Outcome 2 is considered met for a particular demographic group when the score for that group is not significantly different from. or is significantly better than. the overall score.

Overall scores being better than the Civil Service comparators are not considered problematic. Scores for a particular demographic group being better than the organisational average are not considered inherently
problematic either. However, this situation usually arises if another group is worse than the average. (For example, if the inclusion and fair treatment score for female staff is significantly above the organisational
average, this usually means that the same score for male staff is below the organisational average).

About FOI

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