Hate crime strategy: delivery plan

Annex A: Activity to tackle prejudice and hatred, and promote equality and inclusion

We are driving an ambitious and progressive agenda to ensure equality, inclusion and human rights are embedded in all we do. By 2026 we will have delivered world-leading human rights legislation, subject to the agreement of parliament, protecting economic, social and cultural rights; and will have established an Equality and Human Rights Mainstreaming Strategy across the public sector.

We continue to take forward a range of activity aimed at tackling prejudice and promoting equality and inclusion across government, including:

• establishing the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland, which will provide support and oversight of anti-racism work across Scottish Government and the public sector. We continue to track progress of commitments contained within the Race Equality Framework (2016-2030);
• engaging with Gypsy/Travellers and Roma communities to understand the key priorities for these communities as we work with COSLA to develop next steps following the conclusion of the current Gypsy/Travellers Action Plan;
• taking forward actions within our anti-racist employment strategy to support and encourage employers to take an anti-racism and intersectional approach to data, employment policies and practices, and workplace culture;
• implementation of our Faith and Belief Engagement Strategy (published March 2023) which will strengthen communication, engagement and collaboration between the Scottish Government and Scotland’s diverse faith and belief communities;
• progressing our commitment to a Bill on ending conversion practices (subject to consultation and parliamentary approval), at the first stage by publishing a consultation by the end of 2023;
• developing a package of non-legislative, supportive measures to end conversion practices and support survivors, to sit alongside any future legislation. Our first step has been to provide funding to LGBT Health and Wellbeing to run a helpline to support victims and survivors of conversion practices, which is now in operation;
• developing a non-binary equality action plan, including an engagement phase with LGBTQI+ stakeholders and community members, which we intend to publish this year;
• the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was successfully passed by the Scottish Parliament in December 2022, but was prevented from proceeding to Royal Assent by a UK Government Order under Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998. That Order is currently the subject of Judicial Review after which the Scottish Government will set out next steps;
• work with Disabled People’s Organisations– Glasgow Disability Alliance, Inclusion Scotland, and Disability Equality Scotland- to develop and implement an Immediate Priorities Plan that delivers actions to help meet the barriers faced by disabled people. In doing so, we commit to increasing our own disability competence within government to improve our policy making and its impact on disabled people;
• working with our Older People’s Strategic Action Forum, and other partners, to deliver a Festival of Ageing which will be held in January 2024 to help articulate a vision for Scotland where business, public sector and third sector organisations can work together with communities and civic Scotland to shape the national narrative on ageing;
• providing funding over the next 3 years for 53 projects working to tackle social isolation and loneliness across Scotland following the publication of the Social Isolation and Loneliness Delivery Plan ‘Recovering Our Connections’ in March 2023;
• working with partners to refresh the New Scots refugee integration strategy, a partnership strategy developed and led by the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Scottish Refugee Council, which sets out a distinct approach to supporting refugees and asylum seekers from ‘day one’ of arrival in Scotland;
• implementing Equally Safe, Scotland's strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls, including the Delivering Equally Safe fund which supports the delivery of Equally Safe by providing £19m per year to support 121 projects from 112 organisations that focus on early intervention and prevention, as well as support services;
• bringing forward legislation to criminalise misogynistic conduct as informed by the public consultation on Baroness Helena Kennedy KC’s report;
• contribute to the refresh of Scotland's National Events Strategy, following a public consultation which concluded on 30 June 2023, to further harness the significant potential of events to promote inclusive and supportive communities; to celebrate cultural diversity; and to showcase Scotland's core values of equality, fairness and inclusion across the country and internationally.

There are also a number of actions we are taking forward, specifically in relation to education and learning, including:

• embedding anti-racism within Scottish education through the Anti-racism in Education Programme (AREP), driven through the work of four workstreams – Education Leadership and Professional Learning (ELPL); Diversity in the Teaching Profession and Education Workforce (DiTPEW); Curriculum Reform; and Racism and Racist Incidents (RRI);
• delivery of an Anti-Racism in Education summit, which will seek commitment from organisations and individuals in the education sector to take action to embed anti-racism within the education system in Scotland;
• appointment of a Black-led organisation to carry out a programme of engagement with children and young people from racialised minority backgrounds to inform the AREP, running from August 2023 until June 2024;
• amplifying the 'Principles for an Anti-Racist Curriculum, Breaking the Mould',^[9] in schools and early learning settings across Scotland and the development of new resources to promote inclusive and anti-racist learning and teaching for all;
• welcoming a fourth cohort of participants in November 2023 for the anti-racist professional learning, Building Racial Literacy programme.^[10] Once that cohort has completed the programme, it will have seen engagement from over 400 educators, across all 32 Scottish local authorities;
• updating Scotland's national anti-bullying guidance, Respect for All, including reviewing its guidance on prejudice-based bullying, to complete in 2024;
• delivering improved learning environments for all children and young people through LGBT inclusive education, in partnership with the LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation Group, who supported development of the lgbteducation.scot online platform containing teacher training modules and learning resources;
• promoting our Supporting Transgender Young People in schools guidance to support schools to deliver a safe and supportive learning environment for all pupils, regardless of gender, to ensure everyone's rights are respected;
• supporting seven anti-sectarian projects to engage with children and adults across our communities to build understanding of the consequences of sectarianism, as well as preventing and tackling attitudes that underpin sectarian behaviour;
• progressing the amitions of the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learnning, which include short, medium and long term outcomes to achieve gender equality in education and learning;
• developing, in collaboration with the Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group, a framework document to help ensure consistency in messages on sexual harrassment and gender based violence for everyone working with children and young people in schools, due to complete in 2023. We will also commission an independent review to establish positive practice and further areas for improvement, during this parliamentary session.