Race Equality Action Plan programme board minutes: June 2020

Attendees and apologies

Attending

• Paul Johnston, Director-General, Education, Communities and Justice (chair)
• Adam Reid, Deputy Director Fair Work and Labour Market Strategy (rep Dominic Munro)
• Alison Duncan, Head of People Strategy and Service Development (rep David Wallace)
• Andy Drought, Deputy Director, Workforce, Infrastructure and Reform (rep Graeme Logan)
• Angela Leitch, Chief Executive Officer, Public Health Scotland
• Claire Marr, Deputy Director People Development 
• Gavin Henderson, Deputy Director Civil Law and Legal System
• Jess Dolan, Joint Head Equality Unit
• Joanne Streeter, Head of Diversity and Inclusion
• Joe Griffin, Director for Safer Communities
• Sean Neill, Deputy Director Health Workforce
• Laic Khalique, NHS Tayside, Deputy Non-Executive Director
• Lisa Bird, Deputy Director Equality and Human Rights (attending as Chair of REAP Delivery Group) 
• Mandy Watts, Race Employment, Fair and Inclusive Workplaces Unit 
• Melanie Weldon, Health Improvement (Covid-19 Health Hub) 
• Nicky Richards, Director, People Directorate
• Shirley Laing, Interim Director for Housing and Social Justice
• Stephen Gallagher, Director, Local Government and Communities
• Stephen Pathirana, Deputy Director of Trade and Investment Delivery Division (attending as Race Equality Network Senior Lead)

Apologies

• David Wallace, Chief Executive, Social Security Agency
• Dominic Munro, Director for Fair Work, Employability and Skills
• Gillian Russell, Director of Health Workforce 
• Graeme Logan, Director of Learning 

In attendance

• Harry Dozier, Equality Unit
• Hilary Third, Equality Unit
• Jude Telford, Equality Unit

Items and actions

Paul welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Angela Leitch, Chief Executive Officer, Public Health Scotland as a new member of the REAP Programme Board. 

The meeting focussed on:

• the establishing of an Expert Reference Group to look at the impact of Covid-19, which met for the first time on 10 June
• feedback from the Ethnic Minority Resilience Network – a network of over 40 grassroots organisations
• proposed next steps for developing the SG response to Covid-19
• resourcing for the SG response

The Board reviewed all the information relating to the impact of COVID on minority ethnic communities that we have at this stage, and agreed that action was required to:

• ensure race equality is considered in plans for recovery and renewal
• continue taking into account feedback from the Expert Reference Group and stakeholders
• ensure a coproduction approach to developing plans

The following actions were agreed:

• Equality Unit to share outcomes from the Resilience Network meeting 
• Equality Unit to investigate what consideration is given to race/protected characteristics in current efforts to reduce digital inequality
• Joe Griffin and Stephen Gallagher will work to involve Local Government colleagues in renewal work to ensure all communities are engaged in this work
• Angela Leitch to investigate how Board can feed into Test & Protect programme for Covid-19
• Equality Unit to work with communication and marketing to ensure continued access to Covid-19 advice and information for minority ethnic communities
• Andy Drought will provide an update on Education’s response to calls for curriculum reform to include Scotland’s history with slavery and empire also school’s Digital Strategy
• Equality Unit officials to share Ministerial correspondence in response to current race equality issues
• Equality Unit to share outcomes from the Ethnic Minority Resilience Network meeting
• the next meeting would be held on 4 August

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