Race Equality Action Plan programme board minutes: May 2020

Attendees and apologies

Attending

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

Apologies

• Dominic Munro, Director for Fair Work, Employability & Skills
• Stephen Gallagher, Director, Local Government & Communities
• Gillian Russell, Director of Health Workforce

Secretariat

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

Items and actions

This virtual meeting of the Board was called in order to consider the impact that COVID-19 is having on ME communities.

Paul welcomed everyone and introduced Claire Marr who has joined the Board in her new role within People Directorate. 

The meeting focused on the following:

• looking at the data we hold to date
• considering the intelligence we have received from key stakeholders in Scotland
• reviewing the range of activity underway across Government
• agreeing next steps

The Board reviewed all the information held at this stage, and agreed that urgent action was required to:

• ensure we have a clearer picture of the context in Scotland
• develop a clear set of actions to inform the SG’s response

A number of initial actions were agreed:

• Laic Khalique to share data from the Institute of Fiscal Studies for distribution to Board.
• Sean Neill to update the Board on the development of guidance to healthcare frontline staff.
• Adam Reid to ensure that guidance for employers in relation to risk specifically takes race into consideration.
• Nicky Richards to engage with Adam’s team on how to apply any employer recommendations to the SG as an employer.
• Paul Johnston to speak to Public Health Scotland to invite a representative to attend Board.
• Sean Neill to link with Melanie Weldon on how health employment can be involved with the Hub. 
• Equality Unit to draft a submission to Ministers covering - data landscape; update on the Whitehall inquiry (and the parameters of that inquiry); communication lines outlining current activities in relation to supporting ME communities; next steps
• another additional meeting should be held ahead of the next scheduled Board meeting on 4 August. The focus of the additional meeting would be to review progress of the support to ME communities during Covid-19, taking on board feedback from Ministers. 

Dates will be confirmed in correspondence.

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