Publication - Independent report
Race equality: immediate priorities plan
Progress made on the actions taken to implement the recommendations of the Expert Reference Group for COVID-19 and Ethnicity, and continuing work on race equality across government.
Annex B - Immediate Priorities for Race Equality 2021-23
| Summary | Action Owner | Key milestones/objectives and dates |
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| Publication of the Long-term Scottish Government Race Equality Strategy, to run from 2023 onwards | Equality, Inclusion & Human Rights | Currently underway is a long-term strategic review of race equality, to run from September 2021 to February 2022, which will establish gaps in current race equality strategy and identify key areas for development, including governance, reporting and monitoring arrangements, as well as focus areas for effective and meaningful structural change. This work will build on the review of race equality policy undertaken by CRER in the Spring of 2021. In April 2022, the results of our strategic review, and our planned way forward, addressing gaps in current race equality policy and strategy, will undergo consultation with key stakeholders and those with lived experience. This consultation will shape our strategy going forward. Objectives, milestones and outcomes will be developed in summer 2022 and will be established by August, along with monitoring, evaluation and learning practices, as well as governance and oversight both internal and external. This will form the basis for our next multi-year plan. Outcomes should be measurable and provide improved conditions for minority ethnic Scots over the period of the plan. This multi-year plan, once approved, will begin in February/March 2023. |
| New Human Rights Bill | Equality, Inclusion & Human Rights | In the coming year, we will consult on a new Human Rights Bill. This Bill will be part of taking forward the 30 bold recommendations from the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership. The Human Rights Bill will set out for the first time, and in the one place, the wide range of internationally recognised human rights belonging to everyone in Scotland. It will give effect to these human rights, as far as possible within devolved competence, and strengthen domestic legal protections by making them enforceable in Scots law. This will include the incorporation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. |
| Fair Work Programme Board and Systemic Recommendation 15 - Employment | Fair Work | As part of our work to address ongoing objectives from the Race Equality Action Plan 2017/21, as well as the recommendations from the ERG, we are improving data sources and access mechanisms for minority ethnic employment data. This autumn, we will publish our Fair Work race equality statement and resource for employers, outlining how employers can address race inequality through fair work. We will run a Fair Work Vision consultation, focusing on Scotland becoming a “Fair Work Nation”. The consultation will seek views on barriers to Fair Work and changes in the labour market in the context of COVID, EU Exit, demographic change, automation. This consultation is vital to improving our vision and policy, and will run September – November 2021. Our Vision will be published in early 2022 By the end of the year, we will have facilitated public authority-led workshops to address how we deliver the Equalities and Human Rights Committee’s recommendations in their report into race equality in employment. We will also have created an initial guide to positive action for employers to use. In December 2021, we will have evaluated the Minority Ethnic Recruitment Toolkit to see how effective it has been, and by next spring, , we will have developed an ethnicity pay gap strategy.. A suite of Equalities training will be delivered to School Coordinators focusing on race, gender and disability. The training is designed to provide tools to better support young people facing additional barriers to entering the workplace. The training will begin roll out by the end of 2021. We will also launch a Workplace Equality Fund (WEF) to run from 2021-2024. The fund involves collaborative projects between private business and charities/third sector organisations to reduce labour market barriers for certain priority groups. One of the priority groups the fund supports is minority ethnic workers. Key indicators of success:
The development of the SRS process represents an opportunity to embed the processes nationally in a way that supports internationally qualified workers to enter into and progress in employment for which they are trained and providing a better chance to overcome under-employment and unemployment; and equally supports employers recruit from a more diverse pool of labour, bringing extensive benefits to their organisation including greater innovation, new ideas and also addressing current or emerging skills needs. The SRS Project Team working with Scottish Government and stakeholder groups, will develop a plan to ensure the SRS process is ready to be embedded into the skills system in 2022/23. This will involve:
We will gather data to see if any of the participants are from Under-represented Groups. The Apprenticeship Equality Action Plan came to an end in March 2021. Officials are having discussions with Skills Development Scotland to consider what will replace this moving forward. While objectives/targets have not yet been agreed it is expected that Race equality will be an area covered by the plan. |
| Delivery of the Race Equality and Anti-Racism in Education Programme | Equality in Education | 1. Curriculum Reform
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| Publication and implementation of the Child Poverty Delivery Plan, starting in March 2022, in particular action taken on the priority group “minority ethnic families”. | Action on Child Poverty | We will work closely with our partners, experts by experience and with children and young people themselves in order to prepare our next Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan. We will build upon the action taken to date and upon the strong evidence base established, guided by the recommendations and challenge offered by the Poverty and Inequality Commission. The Plan, to be published in March 2022 and covering the period 2022-26, will set out the range of action to be taken across government to deliver further progress toward our ambition to eradicate child poverty in Scotland. |
| Implementation of actions to support the recently published Equality Outcomes document and commitments within Equality Strategy for Social Security Scotland. | Social Security Scotland | We will review progress and report on Social Security Scotland’s equality outcomes and strategy this year. Our report will be available early December 2021. A focus for us in the report has been improving our understanding and use of intersectionality in data analysis, decision-making and service delivery, along with recruitment, and support for a diverse workforce. |
| Develop a new hate crime strategy which will contribute towards building more inclusive and resilient communities and support implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. | Connected Communities | We will work with our partners and stakeholders to develop and identify outcomes for a new hate crime strategy. This new Hate Crime Strategy will be published in 2022 and will set out priorities to build upon and enhance efforts to tackle hate crime and prejudice in Scotland, and will include implementation of the Hate Crime Act. As part of this, we will work with Police Scotland and stakeholders to develop data and evidence on hate crime, with workshops to begin in 2021. We will also work with stakeholders to develop a marketing campaign to coincide with the commencement of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. |
| Continued support and delivery of the John Smith Centre’s Leadership Programme | Participation and Representation | The first ever cohort of the Minority Ethnic Leadership Programme involving 50 minority ethnic young people are currently undergoing interviews and matching processes with a view to starting their interns in September 2021 for 9 months. The Scottish Government with the John Smith Centre are reviewing on an ongoing basis the full programme from the design of it as well as the impact it will have and how we utilise our learning from this year’s programme in any future agreed programme. |
| Health & Social Care Overarching Response to ERG recommendations, Data Recommendation 5 – Social Care Data Data Recommendation 7 - Co-ordinated Action Data Recommendation 9 -Participation by Minority Ethnic People and Communities Data Recommendation 12 – Social Care Workforce Data |
DG Health and Social Care |
b) ensure accountability and robust processes to monitor progress, outcomes and impact; c) achieve coherence, coordination and effective delivery of recommendations as well as initiatives to improve ethnicity data collection and use within Health & Social Care; d) enabling a more joined-up, collaborative approach across work strands; e) identify data required for policy and delivery organisations to improve services and outcomes for Minority Ethnic groups and inform the development of an overarching policy around ethnicity data collection and use in Health & Social Care; f) recognise the impact of racism and racialisation on health and unequal outcomes; involve and draw on the expertise of people who understand how racism and racialisation functions within data and systems so that our plans and actions do not contribute to systemic issues we are working to address; g) focus on improving racial literacy across Health & Social Care.
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| Systemic Recommendation 2 – No Recourse to Public Funds | Connected Communities | Delivery of a number of the actions in Ending Destitution Together has already begun. The Scottish Government and COSLA are currently developing the delivery and governance model for the strategy. This will be subject to agreement by the Cabinet Secretary and the COSLA Spokesperson. We are continuing to liaise with policy areas to obtain a full outline of planned progress |
| Systemic Recommendation 3 – Test and Protect and Future Health Measures | DG HSC | a. Ensure communication with individuals from Minority Ethnic communities by Test and Protect is effective. Our overarching key aim across every pathway for Test and Protect is to ensure it is an accessible, available, high quality system for all - particularly Minority Ethnic communities. This will be one of the key equality focuses for as long as Test and Protect operates. To do so, we will do the following:
b. Ensure the needs of minority ethnic communities are considered on vaccination. We will further embed an inclusive and equitable approach to vaccination throughout current and all future vaccination programmes building on learning from existing programmes and the Covid-19 vaccination programme. The Vaccination Programme Equality Impact Assessment will be published by autumn 2021. We will commence the collection of ethnicity data through vaccination programmes from Autumn/Winter 2021 onwards with appropriate data protection and information governance. Ethnicity data will be collected for people using the vaccination registration/booking digital or non-digital (helpline) system or at vaccination appointments. A published privacy agreement will inform the public what data is being collected and the reason. We will enhance existing relationships with minority ethnic communities, and stakeholder engagement with vaccination programmes by continuing to work with the National Vaccination Inclusive Steering Group and building further on existing relationships with minority ethnic communities through regular, responsive and direct engagement. Membership of the National Vaccine Inclusion Steering Group includes minority ethnic communities (represented on the group by representatives from the SG Expert Reference Group on COVID and Ethnicity, BEMIS (the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland), The African Council, Scottish Refugee Council; Members of SG Faith and Belief stakeholder group; Feniks Polish Charity and others. SG will continue to chair fortnightly National Vaccine Inclusive Steering Group meetings, and agree actions and delivery timescales at each meeting. The Autumn/Winter 2021/22 vaccination programme for flu and potentially Covid-19 booster has a dedicated inclusion work stream embedding EQIA and other recommendations throughout the programme. Vaccination informed consent material will be available in main community languages by end September 2021. Work to promote equality and reduce inequalities in population groups that would experience barriers to take-up the vaccine will continue. Health Boards will be expected to develop local Health Inequality Impact Assessments by end September 2021. c. Ensure the needs of Minority Ethnic communities on the highest risk list (formerly shielding) are considered The deployment of evidence-based model QCovid, whether that is through its integration with a clinical or public facing tool, or through its deployment at a population level for Scotland (i.e. Scotland’s adult population), will take into account ethnic group in the risk calculation. In providing access to this model, we are helping individuals, and the clinicians that support them, to understand the impact of ethnicity on their personal risk from Covid-19 and consider the protective steps they can take. Work is underway to commission a delivery partner for the clinical or public facing tool. Specific timeframes are yet to be confirmed although it is hoped the tools will be deployed by the end of 2021 or in early 2022. We also continue to engage with people on the highest risk list to ensure their needs are met, and continue actively ensuring respondents in this research represent people from Minority Ethnic Communities. We will continue to communicate with those on the highest risk list through established communications channels specifically for this group: letters from the Chief Medical Officer, an SMS text messaging service and dedicated pages at www.mygov.scot/shielding. We will continue to work closely with News, Social Media and Marketing to leverage additional communications channels to ensure we reach people on the highest risk list. We will continue to maintain an accurate and up to date ‘highest risk list’. Public Health Scotland, who manage the list, make weekly updates to add and remove recipients. We will continue to write to all new additions within a week of them being added. We will continue to offer translation of letters into any format and language needed. On each occasion, we produce 60 different variants of the letters, translated into ‘Easy Read’, large print, BSL, alongside several languages such as Urdu, Cantonese and Mandarin. d. Reinvigorate efforts on health promotion and disease prevention of diabetes for people from minority ethnic communities. Work will be taken forward with the aim of developing an implementation plan and associated milestones by the end of 2021 that will focus on culturally competent health promotion and disease prevention programmes for minority ethnic groups known to be most at risk in relation to diabetes. e. Reinvigorate efforts on health promotion and disease prevention of Cardio-Vascular Disease (CVD) for people from minority ethnic communities. We will establish a lived experience group and network by autumn 2021, ensuring representation from minority ethnic communities (especially South Asian and Black Caribbean individuals who are disproportionately at risk of developing heart disease, as highlighted in our EQIA findings). The Scottish Cardiac Audit Programme will consider the feasibility of collecting and reporting on performance of cardiac services broken down by ethnicity in order to identify areas for improvement. Engagement will take place throughout 2021/22 to define the scope of the programme, with delivery underway in 2022/23. |
| Systemic Recommendation 4 – Fair Work Practices | Fair work and Employment | We will be focussing on increasing the numbers of minority ethnic staff in senior and executive team roles through our Leadership and Talent Management Programmes. In tandem, we are building a broad coalition of leaders at all levels across health and social care as senior allies, with reducing workforce inequalities as a core common purpose. To that end, we are working with organisations at Scotland and UK-wide level that are already doing work in this area, such as the British Medical Association and the Royal Colleges. We will also establish a national race equality network bringing together the Chairs of minority ethnic staff networks, equality and diversity leads and other key stakeholders. The national network will provide oversight and co-produce an action plan to tackle systemic racism in the health and social care workforce. We have asked Health and Social Care Partnerships to establish more minority ethnic staff networks, as a priority. A toolkit has been co-produced to help new and existing networks have a voice and influence to drive change. The toolkit makes clear, that staff networks need clear governance and lines of accountability, to empower them in their work. |
| Systemic Recommendation 5 - Investment in Minority Ethnic Organisations and Mental Health Services | DG HSC | a. Invest in NHS Scotland Mental Health provision and support for minority ethnic led sector organisations to provide the service required to support Scotland’s diverse demographics. Our NHS Recovery Plan lays out our plan for the recovery of NHS services over the next 5 years. Our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, supported by a £120 million Recovery and Renewal Fund, aims to transform services, with a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention. The Recovery and Renewal fund will:
We will introduce a Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. Focusing on prevention and early intervention, the Fund will support small grass roots groups and organisations to deliver community activities clearly focused on improving mental health and wellbeing. It will have a particular focus on addressing inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic and meeting the needs of the most at risk groups locally. This includes activity to promote the mental health and wellbeing of people from a Minority Ethnic background. We will agree guidance and funding criteria for local partnerships informed by consultation with the Mental Health Equality and Human Rights Forum by the end of September 2021. We will also work with local partnerships through network and support meetings to facilitate reporting on equalities by end of March 2022. We intend to invest an additional £200,000 to fund MECOPP and Progress in Dialogue to provide mental health and wellbeing support for Children and Young people from Gypsy Traveller Communities. This will enable them to provide an intermediary service ensuring that children and young people from Gypsy Traveller communities can access services. The service will work towards tackling hate crime, stigma and discrimination that exacerbate poor mental health outcomes. Milestones will be agreed prior to issuing a grant letter to the funded organisation. b. Scottish Government and NHS Scotland should deploy culturally competent and multi-lingual psychotherapists and counsellors as there are ethnic inequalities in accessing mental health services (build on work already done and follow models such as Black Thrive London). We will consider workforce diversity and related training needs as part of our work to develop a mental health workforce plan in the first half of this parliament. We will consult relevant groups as the Plan is developed. We will give consideration to how to advance the Expert Reference Group recommendation and the Race Equality Framework outcomes, through our work on the Mental Health Strategy review and refresh in 2022. We will review our mental health commitments against the Race Equality Framework outcomes to see if these contribute to it, and engage with stakeholders in our Equality and Human Rights Forum and those with lived experience to consult on what specific actions need to be taken to ensure we are meeting those outcomes. We will include these considerations in our review and refresh of the mental health strategy. We will host a dedicated Forum meeting to review progress against the Race Equality Framework and subsequent race commitments by January 2022. This feedback, and subsequent actions taken forward, will flow into the revision and refresh of our MH commitments and the MH Strategy in 2022. We will develop and launch a website to support mental wellbeing, which will be for the whole population with a specific focus on people from disadvantaged backgrounds, including Minority Ethnic communities (these groups are proportionally less likely to use traditional health websites such as NHS inform). NHS Inform have been commissioned to develop the website and are working on the development of a procurement platform. We will work with ME organisations to advise on the content of resources and to help with the production of materials throughout the process, starting in summer 2021. We will work with the Perinatal Mental Health Equalities Subgroup to ensure that an equalities focussed approach is prominent in the work of the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board. A joint meeting between the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Equalities and Workforce/Sustainability Subgroups will be held in autumn 2021. By summer 2021 the Equalities sub group will be consulted with on the actions within the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board’s 2021/22 Delivery Plan. In summer 2022 the Equalities Subgroup will review the 2021/22 Delivery Plan. c.Commission research to identify barriers and put in place a plan to address the unmet need and persistent ethnic inequalities in mental health care. As part of the Scottish Government’s Equality Data Improvement Programme, government analysts have committed to assessing equality evidence (including ethnicity/race) across the health and social care portfolio and to developing an action plan to improve equality data. By end-December 2021 Health and Social Care Analysis will scope out requirements for initial research on mental health and ethnicity, with the aim of getting work underway in 2022. |
| Systemic Recommendation 6 – Public Health Messaging | DG HSC | We will be building on the work done through the Inclusive Vaccination Programme to develop an inclusive communications framework and proposal for Health & Social Care. We will establish a Short Life Working Group to develop guidelines and recommendations by January 2022. |
| Systemic Recommendation 7 - Accountability – Independent Oversight Commission | Equality, Inclusion & Human Rights | The strategic review will appraise the range of models and set out a proposition on future governance and oversight by the end of October, for ministerial agreement. The proposition will also outline a delivery plan and timescale for implementation of the model in 2022. This model, resulting from the strategic review, will be used to develop our long-term race equality strategy, to begin in 2023 (see Action 1, above) As part of this work, an external oversight board will be established, embedded in the structure of ongoing race equality work. This board will also participate in a race equality audit of current work to identify gaps and areas for future focus. |
| Systemic Recommendation 8 - Functions | ||
| Systemic Recommendation 9 – Anti-Racism Actions | Equality, Inclusion & Human Rights | Going forward, the strategic review will focus on how to implement structural, systemic changes to Scottish Government practices and policies in order to produce anti-racist actions. This ongoing work will be overseen and audited by the above oversight commission, to be established as part of this IPP work. Actions in the long-term race equality work to take place from 2023 onwards will have been assessed by the external oversight board, as well as other stakeholders, as being anti-racist, and focused on tackling racism directly. |
| Systemic Recommendation 10 – Corporate Accountability | People Directorate | We will implement Key Performance Indicators for SCS staff on anti-racism by Dec 2022, and they will be evaluated on their effectiveness in 2023. CRER have been invited to present the findings of their commissioned report (see update in Annex A) to the Scottish Government’s People Directorate in September 2021. |
| Systemic Recommendation 11 – National Performance Framework | National Performance Framework | 19 NPF outcome indicators currently report an ethnicity breakdown, out of a possible (theoretical) total of 42. We will raise this number over the next few weeks and months as additional data is provided. Before June 2023, the NPF will be reviewed, with a view to improving reporting on disparities for minority ethnic people within the NPF. In addition, ongoing research is examining equality data collection in the public sector to improve understanding of current practice and barriers to collection. The Equality Data Improvement project (EDIP) is led by the equality analysis team. Its project board is chaired by the Chief Social Researcher and Chief Statistician and includes senior policy and analytical colleagues along with external stakeholders. The programme has a component within its project plan to analyse individual or household based NPF indicators to identify the extent to which equality breakdowns are available, and for each indicator set out a plan to either allow analysis of the existing indicator by protected characteristic or to identify an alternative means to provide evidence. We are also in the process of engaging data users of the NPF as part of our ongoing improvement work. |
| Systemic Recommendation 12 – A measure of racism | Equality, Inclusion & Human Rights | As the IPP is taken forward, the Race Equality Team will propose research undertaken as to how a workable measure of racism can be constructed. This research will form part of our wider strategic review (See IPP priority 1, above) and form a part of our design work for the new multi-year programme of work to begin in 2023. Research will be conducted during the lifetime of the IPP and a decision made as to whether a measure for racism is workable and serves the needs of minority ethnic Scots. If useful, this can be incorporated into ongoing race equality work in 2023. |
| Systemic Recommendation 13 – Housing and Overcrowding | Housing and Social Justice | We will provide funding for Gypsy/Traveller accommodation through our £20m Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund. Funding will initially be focused on a number of demonstration projects that can establish examples of model sites and inform a Site Design Guide. Initial proposals have been submitted by Local Authorities. Recommendations on allocations for 202-21-22 and 22-23 are expected in Autumn 2021. In parallel, we will continue to deliver the other accommodation actions under the Gypsy/Traveller Action Plan; to understand the accommodation needs and preferences of Gypsy/Travellers to inform future provision and making sure that the planning system works better for Gypsy/Traveller communities. Delivery of the review of the Social Housing Charter and progressing the Rented Sector Strategy as set out above will be our strategic focus areas for addressing the housing needs of minority ethnic groups in 2021 and early 2022. The Social Housing Charter consultation – including the “involving all” targeted approaches – took place in June and July 2021. A tenant involvement process to inform scope of the Rented Sector Strategy will be undertaken in Summer 2021 (timetable to be confirmed with Ministers) leading into a consultation towards the end of 2021. The tenant involvement process will include targeted engagement seeking to understand the views, experiences and housing needs of people from minority ethnic groups. Work on the review of housing adaptations systems is underway and is expected to completed by the end of 2021. The review will make recommendations on planning, efficiency and resourcing. As part of this work we will engage with stakeholders and use lived experience to identify the concerns and barriers minority ethnic older and disabled people have when seeking housing adaptations and to seek views on solutions to increase access |
| Systemic Recommendation 14 - Recovery and Remobilisation Plans, Investment Fund and Reporting | Race Equality Policy Development – (b) and (c) (a) is owned by Health Equalities Team, DG HSC | a. NHS remobilisation and recovery plans: Work with Health Boards to address ethnic health inequalities By winter 2021 we will have agreed equality priorities for Health Boards for inclusion in their three year plans, aligning with the NHS Recovery Plan. This is likely to include an expectation that there will be improved collection and use of ethnicity data. Progress, outcomes and impact will be monitored via the Health & Social Care Race Equality Oversight and Implementation Group (as referenced in the H&SC ‘overarching response’). b. Embedding an equalities and human rights approach across policy thinking and development for economic recovery and renewal Mainstreaming equality, human rights and race equality A strategy for mainstreaming equality and human rights is under development and the Equality team is in close contact with the Mainstreaming Equality team as we seek to align collective narrative. Engagement with equality and human rights advocacy groups and public bodies (including those specific to health sector) are being taken forward over summer/autumn. CRER and the ALLIANCE are part of an external reference group for the strategy. The Race Equality team is scoping out a long-term anti-racist and race equality strategy for Scotland. Young Person’s Guarantee
Young Person's Guarantee - implementation: progress report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) c. Race Equality Transformational Investment Scheme Work is continuing to scope where other potential streams might be available to fund this scheme. Additional funding made through our Youth Guarantee and No One Left Behind initiatives for 2021/22 has contributed to our recovery and remobilisation response around employment, skills and training. |
| Systemic Recommendation 16 – Change the Curriculum for Excellence | Equality in Education | Officials will continue to support the work of the Race Equality and Anti-Racism Education Programme (REAREP) Programme Board, Stakeholder Network Group and associated sub groups as they develop their work plans and create actions and recommendations. Scottish Government Ministers have met members of the Stakeholder Network Group, including young people engaged in the process to set out their commitment to embedding race equality and anti-racism in schools and the wider education system. Officials are in the process of procuring the services of an organisation to establish a REAREP ‘children and young people’s shadow group’, consisting solely of children and young people, in order that they can have their voices heard as part of this programme and be able to influence change. This has been a clear ask of stakeholders who wish to see young people regularly engaged as part of this work. A methodology for evaluation has been considered and progressed at the August discussions for the Stakeholder Network Group, using the expertise of our Education Analytical Services. The Curriculum Reform SubGroup will consider as part of its remit whether the curriculum framework needs changed to explicitly include the teaching and learning of Scotland’s historical role in empire, colonialism and transatlantic slavery and how that history is manifest in the present, in addition to any wider changes required to fully recognise the importance of race equality and anti-racism. Curriculum Reform Specific milestones include:
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| Systemic Recommendation 17 - National Museums and Statues | Historic Environment Scotland | The steering group on Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s Museums will conduct a public consultation of their work, and will publish a report detailing recommendations on how Scotland’s role in empire, colonialism and slavery can best be incorporated into our Museums and other history education. |
| Data Recommendation 2 – Linkage to Census Data Recommendation 4 – Ethnic group Populations Data Recommendation 6 – Flexibility in Data Collection |
Directorate for Digital Health and Care | It is not legally possible for an ethnicity field derived from the census to be added directly to CHI, because census data is only available for research only. We would not be able to differentiate between operation/medical use (not allowed) vs research and statistical purposes (this is allowed). However, as data from the census is allowed to be used for research, the Data & Intelligence Network are working with partners in Research Data Scotland and NRS to create as complete a picture as possible of equality protected characteristics as possible, which will then be available for research and statistical analysis. The EAVE II project as well as this D&IN project aims to bring together an ongoing research database for these kind of questions outside of a COVID lens. Officials with responsibility for topics such as vaccine uptake or secondary health harms can commission research via this route. We are also working to improve Equality Data across the government through the Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) designed to improve and strengthen data on the protected equality characteristics collected and utilised across the public sector. The first phase of this programme comprises a series of projects led by the Scottish Government that will be undertaken over an 18 month period. |
| Data Recommendation 3 - Develop a CHI field | DG HSC | Next steps and milestones to effectively embed ethnicity to ensure that it links with the CHI system will be agreed by the Health & Social Care Race Equality Oversight and Implementation Group or relevant subgroup. |
| Data Recommendation 8 -Primary Care Health Ethnicity Data Collection | DG HSC | Scottish Government and Public Health Scotland will lead on work to propose, and seek to implement, a system of ethnicity recording in primary medical care, starting with GP registration. A detailed (draft) proposal will be in place by end-December 2021. Implementation is planned by Quarter 1 2023, in line with the roll-out of the new CHI system, thereby ensuring that information is available across NHS systems and not confined to primary care. |
| Data Recommendation 10 - Monitoring Workforce Data | Health Workforce | Analysis of responses to the 2020 Health and Social Care Staff Wellbeing Survey, by ethnicity and other protected characteristics, is underway and will be completed by autumn 2021. The analysis will also consider intersectionality. The results of this analysis will help us consider if more targeted wellbeing and other support to minority ethnic staff across health and social care is needed. Demographic questions, including on ethnicity have been included in the 2021 iMatter Health and Social Care Staff Experience Continuous Improvement Model questionnaire for the first time. iMatter provides a team-based tool for measuring employee engagement levels. The iMatter questionnaire is run annually. The questions in iMatter are mapped around the NHS Scotland Staff Governance commitments, namely that staff should be:
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| Data Recommendation 11 – NHS Workforce Data | Health Workforce | At present, for ethnicity and other protected characteristics, the granularity is limited to age and sex. In line with the ERG recommendations, we will work with NHS Education Scotland (NES) and with Health Boards to ensure that data on pay, promotion and recruitment is recorded in a standardised way, so it can be published. This will show what variances there are in the employment experience of staff with protected characteristics and what action Health Boards need to take to deliver better outcomes for these staff. A working group to take forward this recommendation will be established by end 2021. |
| Data Recommendation 13 – Reporting Data by Ethnicity 13a - A dashboard is created by the Scottish Government to report regularly on the impact of decisions made by the public bodies on minority ethnic people and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, this should also include data from the disruption to health and social care (second-order effects), and financial poverty (third-order effects). | The Scottish Government, in conjunction with key stakeholders, have established an Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) Equality Data Improvement Programme Project Board: terms of reference - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) which is designed to improve and strengthen data on the protected equality characteristics collected and utilised across the public sector. The first phase of this programme comprises a series of projects led by the Scottish Government that will be undertaken over an 18 month period. A key part of the improvement of our data in later stages is the accessibility of this data for minority ethnic people in Scotland. As part of this programme, and as part of the wider strategic work ongoing to establish new, long-term race equality work, we will investigate how best this data can be published and accessed. This includes the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. | |
| Data Recommendation 13 – Reporting Data by Ethnicity 13b - Public Health Scotland must publish an annual monitoring report on ethnic group health inequalities in Scotland. | Public Health Scotland | PHS aims to increase the reporting of ethnicity within statistics publications and other analytical outputs and dashboards, in line with the improvements in data quality and availability. PHS also aim to instigate a process of more regular reporting on ethnic health inequalities with links to other government outputs such as the National Performance Framework (NPF) and the Equality Evidence Finder. Planning is underway for a further reporting of ethnic inequalities before the end of 2021, focusing on the continuing impact of the pandemic in the first instance. |
| Data Recommendation 13 – Reporting Data by Ethnicity 13c - The National Performance Framework must include specific indicators on the impact of racialised inequalities or the impact of systemic racism on minority ethnic people to supplement the current 81 National Indicators. | National Performance Framework. | There is a statutory requirement for the NPF to be reviewed within every five years, with the next review due to commence by May 2023 at the latest. Options and timing for the NPF review are currently being considered and it will need to align within the Government’s priorities e.g. on COVID recovery, and the legislative programme. The review provides the opportunity to examine improvements to the NPF including how it will need to adapt in response to the issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent developments. While staff resources are constrained, NPF team have made a bid for an SGSSS PhD intern to start a programme of work to review equality information (including ethnicity) reported within the NPF and make recommendations on how to improve NPF reporting in this area going forward. |
| Data Recommendation 14 – Accountability and Governance | Health Workforce | The Scottish Government has commissioned the Coalition of Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) to identify examples of anti-racist performance objectives with proposed performance measures that could be used by public bodies. CRER will present its recommendations in September 2021. Following this, an anti-racist objective and performance measures will be agreed (based on CRERs recommendations) and set for NHS Chairs. This will include a wider equality objective, focussing on NHS Chairs, seeking assurance from NHS Chief Executives that minority ethnic and staff with other protected characteristics, have a voice, dedicated resources and time (through staff networks) to shape the policies and initiatives that affect them. Accountability and governance is provided by the Director General of Health and Social Care in her role as the Senior Sponsor of the new National Ethnic Minority Forum. The Forum brings together the chairs and members of Health Boards minority ethnic staff networks. This is significant because, for the first time it provides a mechanism for Scottish Government to hear first-hand about the issues affecting minority ethnic staff. The Forum will have a role in setting the direction of travel for Scottish Government and Health Boards on tackling systemic racism, as well as ensuring policies and initiatives are culturally competent. The Forum is currently considering its priorities for the next 18 months, under the themes of employment, workplace culture and mental health. Resources for Health Boards, flowing from the Forum’s work plan, will be agreed and developed over the next 18 months. |
| Public Bodies and Appointments | The Scottish Government is progressing a review of the operation of the PSED in Scotland and published in March 2021 a stage one report which set out learning from the experience of seeking to discharge the equality duty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stage two of the review will include further stakeholder engagement and consultation on potential regulatory changes to strengthen duties on relevant public bodies, with a view to progressing the areas of focus identified in the stage one report in order to improve the operation of the PSED in Scotland. This will include consulting on proposals to expand the existing duties on public authorities to publish information on their gender pay gap to include reporting on ethnicity and disability pay gaps. | |
| National Performance Framework | The Scottish Government, in conjunction with key stakeholders, have established an Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) Equality Data Improvement Programme Project Board: terms of reference - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) which is designed to improve and strengthen data on the protected equality characteristics collected and utilised across the public sector. The first phase of this programme comprises a series of projects led by the Scottish Government that will be undertaken over an 18 month period. The EDIP will consider quantitative and qualitative data, including from surveys and admin sources, in relation to the nine protected characteristics and intersectionalities. It aims to understand barriers to equality data collection; to understand how to increase response levels; and to develop good practice guidance and case study examples. The programme will also include actions that will make progress in data development in priority areas. It will aim to link into, showcase and learn from data development that is already underway across the Scottish Government, such as the ‘Data & Intelligence Network Core Data on Equality Protected Characteristics’ project, which aims to develop as complete a picture of the protected characteristics across the Scottish population as possible using existing administrative and census data. A page outlining changes and updates to the indicators within the National Performance Framework has been added to the NPF website, and will be reporting on changes to NPF indicators going forward. |
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