Scotland's careers strategy - moving forward: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

CRWIA – Stage 3

CRWIA for a non-legislative policy/measure

CRWIA title: Scotland’s Careers Strategy: Moving Forward.

Publication date:

Summary of policy aims and desired outcomes

The vision for our careers system is:

for a world-class, professionally-led, aligned and flexible system of CIAG services which delivers for every citizen, regardless of where they live in Scotland, their age or circumstance. A system through which citizens can expect a high standard of support that meets their needs when they need it most, a system that is fully interconnected to ensure citizens access the right people and services which includes employability and skills support.

To meet our vision for an enhanced careers system, the Strategy highlights the following overarching aims and principles:

• A national model for career education, information, advice and guidance services with shared principles adopted across education, training and employability services for young people and adults;
• a focus on strengthening collaborative partnerships and working more closely with target groups to co-create more CIAG designed to meet the needs of young people and adults;
• a sharing of knowledge and expertise in professional development for the CIAG workforce, quality assurance, and improved outcomes;
• a pan-sectoral leadership body focused on all-age CIAG provision and continuous improvement.

Executive summary

Scotland's Careers Strategy: Moving Forward highlights the important role that career education, information, advice and guidance (CIAG) services in Scotland can play in helping to address future skills demands and deliver inclusive growth.

The strategy has an impact on: all users accessing careers services; employers whose workforce will have the opportunity to access an all age careers service to help them make informed choices about upskilling and retraining opportunities; and careers professionals and organisations that deliver and support the delivery of services.

This Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment’s (CRWIA) is reviewing high level principles of the Careers Strategy document. It will be used to help shape future policy developments and the implementation phase of the Strategy. Further consideration and CRWIA’s will be undertaken for action points during the implementation stage.

The policy covered by this CRWIA will contribute to the National Outcomes:

• we are well educated, skilled and able to contribute to society” and;
• “we have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and fair work for everyone.

This policy has also considered the eight wellbeing indicators and recognised that it could contribute to:

• Achieving
• Respected
• Included

Whilst specific actions will be considered further at implementation, we expect the strategy to be relevant to the following articles:

• Article 2 - Non-discrimination
• Article 3 - Best interests of the child
• Article 5 - Parental guidance and a child’s evolving capacities
• Article 18(1,2) -Parental responsibilities and state assistance
• Article 23 - Children with disabilities
• Article 28 - Right to education
• Article 28(2) - Right to education
• Article 29 - Goals of education
• Article 30 - Children of minorities/indigenous groups

As a result, this CRWIA has not recognised any negative impacts the policy has in relation to the UNCRC articles or to children and young people in general. However, we recognise that further consideration and consultation with relevant groups is needed at the implementation stage once actions have been identified.

Background

The vision of the new careers strategy is for a world-class, professionally-led, aligned and flexible system of career information, advice and guidance services which delivers for every citizen, regardless of where they live in Scotland, their age or circumstance. We want to see a system through which citizens can expect a high standard of support that meets their needs when they need it most, a system that is fully interconnected to ensure citizens access the right people and services which include employability and skills support. Effective careers support will assist young people in making decisions about future education, training and jobs. In addition, the new career strategy aims to support individuals consider their careers, to reflect changes in personal circumstances, changes within the labour market and the wider economy. Helping these individuals to respond and adapt to such changes supports economic inclusive growth. This links with the national outcomes that “we are well educated, skilled and able to contribute to society” and “we have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and fair work for everyone.”

The Strategy will support the delivery of the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government, Fair Work Framework, Race Equality Framework, Disability Delivery Action Plan; Scotland’s Labour Market Strategy, The 15-24 Learner Journey Review and Fairer Scotland Action Plan, STEM Strategy, Commissioning of Widening Access, A Fairer Scotland for Women: Gender Pay Gap Action Plan, Strategy for Our Veterans and Scottish Veterans Commissioners Report: Employability.

In particular it will contribute towards achieving the following outcomes (some of which relates to children and young people):

Scotland Performs

I. To maintain our position on labour market participation as the top performing country in the UK

II. To increase overall income and reduce income inequality.

National Performance Framework

• Improve the skill profile of the population.
• Reduce underemployment.
• Reduce the proportion of employees earning less than the Living Wage.
• Reduce the pay gap.

Developing the Young Workforce (DYW)

• Increase the employment rate for young disabled people to the population average by 2021.

The Learner Journey Review (15-24)

I. We will ensure every learner in Scotland has an online learner account to link their skills and attributes to better course choices. This work will start in 2018 and be accessible by the start of 2019

II. We will ensure learners in schools, colleges and universities receive a joined-up approach to careers, information, advice and guidance. This work will start in 2018.

The Child Poverty Delivery Plan

• The Child Poverty Delivery Plan identifies the steps the Government is taking to meet the ambitious targets set out in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017. The new Careers Strategy includes actions that seeks to provide people with career management skills and access to high quality career information and guidance to manage their careers in order to help to improve income from work and progression within employment.

Scope of the CRWIA, identifying the children and young people affected by the policy, and summarising the evidence base

The strategy was developed in collaboration with the wider careers system. To help develop the Strategy, EQIA and CRWIA extensive desktop research was undertaken. This included researching: Career Information, Advice and Guidance in Scotland - A Framework for Service Redesign and Improvement (March 2011); using evidence gathering conducted by SDS for their Equality & Diversity Mainstreaming Report 2019 – 2021; The Fairer Scotland for Disabled People Employment Action Plan; Scottish Parliament Committee Enquires into the Gender Pay Gap and Race Equality; and researching data and published reports on the labour market experience of people with protected characteristics; and analysing other countries career strategies such as Australia’s National Career Development Strategy.

Examples of evidence:

Summary statistics for schools in Scotland no. 10: 2019 edition

According to the 2019 statistics there are:

Pupils:

398,794 in Primary

292,063 in Secondary

7,132 in Additional Support Need schools

As such, by using the figures above we estimate that the strategy will potentially have an impact on 697,989 pupils.

The strategy will also have an impact on teachers and as such we estimate that it could have an impact on 52,247 teachers.

UCAS, (2019) “Chapter 1: Summary Of Applicants and Acceptances” in UCAS End Of Cycle Report 2019

“A record 541,240 people were accepted through UCAS to start an undergraduate course in the 2019 cycle. This is a 1.5% increase on 2018, and comes following two consecutive years of decreases.”

“There is a new record entry rate of 34.1% for UK 18 year olds. This is an increase of 1.1 percentage points from 2018, and continues the trend of increases which began in the 2013 cycle. The number of UK 18 year olds accepted has increased by 1.3% (3,135 students) to reach 241,515. This increase in acceptances, combined with the near 2% decrease in the overall UK 18 year old population, has produced the record entry rate of 34.1%. “

Regional employment patterns in Scotland: statistics from the Annual Population Survey 2018

In 2018, 57.2% of individuals aged 16-24 were in employment compared to 80.6% of individuals aged 25-34, 83.7% of individuals aged 35-49, and 69.7% of individuals aged 50-64

We recognise that those who are of a younger and older age, may face disadvantages in the labour market. Therefore the careers strategy seeks to develop a national model for career education, information, advice and guidance services with shared principles adopted across education, training and employability services for young people and adults. These shared principles include treating people with dignity and respect, ensuring a sharing of knowledge and expertise in professional development, quality assurance, and improved outcomes. This provides an opportunity to eliminate discrimination in relation to the delivery of careers services.

Regional employment patterns in Scotland: statistics from the Annual Population Survey 2018.

The youth (16-24) employment rate in Scotland decreased by 2.1 percentage points over the year from 59.3 per cent in 2017 to 57.2 per cent in 2018, while the UK rate decreased by 0.3 percentage points from 54.0 per cent to 53.7 per cent over the same period.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Poverty in Scotland 2018.

The largest share of children in poverty for couple families is where one adult works full time and one is not in paid work. In around 90% of cases it is women who are not in work. Another large group of children in poverty are those in lone parent families. Lone parents are predominantly women. For children living in families where one parent works part-time, in over 80% of cases it is the woman who takes the part-time job.

Research Briefing: Looking at Gender Balance in STEM Subjects at School (2015)

If more women are to be encouraged to view STEM careers as an attractive option, teachers, careers advisors, work experiences and families need to do more to counter gender differences from an early age.

From the data above, we acknowledge that issues around women feeling encouraged into STEM careers are something that the STEM Implementation Group would review. However we also recognise that CIAG can help to overcome this challenge. Therefore, the strategy will consider linking up with the STEM Implementation Group during the strategy’s implementation stage to discuss CIAG.

In developing the Strategy and undertaking the EQIA (and as such this CRWIA) there was also consultation undertaken with a number of Scottish Government policy areas including: Business Engagement & Regional Economic Division: (Strategic Engagement and Co-ordination Policy, Economic Partnerships Policy, Cities Policy) Enterprise and Innovation Division, Directorate for Learning: (Senior Phase Policy, Curriculum unit) College policy, Higher Education Governance Policy, Post-16 Programmes and CLD policy, (Employability Division: Employability Policy, Service Design and Delivery Team, Employability Disability Policy), Skills Division, Fair Work Division, Industrial Sectors Policy, Manufacturing Policy and NMIS

Skills Development Scotland, as Scotland’s national skills body, maintain an on-going focus on ensuring diversity and equality is at the core of all CIAG services delivered through equality colleagues in the national CIAG team. They also have responsibility for ensuring CIAG colleagues have the professional training and resources to work effectively with customers from across all the equality groups. They also work collaboratively with the other two distinct equality teams within SDS: the HR equality team who are responsible for the implementation of mainstreaming within SDS and their national training programmes (NTP) equality team who focus on ensuring that underrepresented groups can participate and achieve within apprenticeships in Scotland. As such, SDS provided evidence to identify impacts and any data gaps within the EQIA and as such relates to this CRWIA.

All public bodies including SDS, Colleges, Universities, Schools and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) involved in the delivery of careers services have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Scotland regulations 2012 to conduct their own equality impact assessments to ensure that their services take steps which assist with equality and meeting people’s different needs, encouraging participation, and do not disadvantage anyone (including children and young people)

Further consideration and consultation with relevant groups will be given during the implementation stage of the strategy.

Children and young people’s views and experiences

Existing evidence and data as well as stakeholder collaboration in the Careers Strategy Steering Group, has been used to develop this CRWIA. However, we acknowledge that further consideration and consultation with relevant groups is required at the implementation stage of the strategy. We also recognise that there is scope to do more employer engagement coordinated activities with partners in primary, secondary, vocational education and training providers, higher and further education institutions.

Key Findings, including an assessment of the impact on children’s rights, and how the measure will contribute to children’s wellbeing

The strategy will help support public bodies in Scotland to meet their duties to safeguard, support and promote the wellbeing of children in their area. In particular the strategy will help promote the following wellbeing indictors: achieving, respected and included.

The Careers Strategy sets out how CIAG system will ensure that all individuals have access to careers support to fulfil their potential. The policy proposition does not discriminate based on age, and aims to reinforce an all-age service which is accessible to all.

We recognise that those who are of a younger and older age, may face disadvantages in the labour market. Therefore the careers strategy seeks to develop a national model for career education, information, advice and guidance services with shared principles adopted across education, training and employability services for young people (as well as adults). These shared principles include treating people with dignity and respect, ensuring a sharing of knowledge and expertise in professional development, quality assurance, and improved outcomes. This provides an opportunity to eliminate discrimination in relation to the delivery of careers services and therefore helps children and young people in Scotland to overcome social, educational, physical and economic inequalities.

Young people often identify parents and/or carers as the most significant influencer in their career choices and decisions. Therefore the strategy must consider that parents and carers may also require support to progress and advance their own career, including where they may need to upskill and reskill in response to shifts in the economy and labour market. My Kid’s Career online platform acts as a powerful vehicle for innovative work with parents and/or carers. This is only one single strand of work with parents/carers – more can be achieved through a multi-agency outreach approach. Also, there is scope to begin career-related learning early in primary schools which will be considered further at implementation.

The strategy aims to adopt a consistent ‘Needs based model’. Not only does this acknowledge the age and stage of individuals, but it allows a blend of factors to shape the services an receives or accesses. This model will be applied to all services but will be targeted at transition points in a person’s life where they are most in need of help and support. This includes progression through learning and training, getting a job, progressing a career and responding to redundancy.

The strategy aims for a National Resource of an online profile tool that every individual in Scotland will have access to. This will be a life-long support tool, which will be accessible to all, and designed in a way that follows the individual throughout education and their career. This contributes to the ‘achieving’ well-being indicator, recognising that supporting and guiding children and young people in their learning and in the development of their skills, confidence and self-esteem at home, at school and in the community is important.

For children and young people with a disability the Careers Strategy sets out how CIAG system will ensure that all individuals have access to careers support to fulfil their potential. We acknowledge that there are inequalities and issues facing disabled people, including young disabled people, when entering employment that the ‘A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: employment action plan’ considers. However, CIAG has a role in addressing these inequalities and as such the careers strategy will:

• work with delivery partners to better promote and communicate career options through their activity targeting those with protected equality characteristics, including disabled young people;
• maximise opportunities to engage with parents/carers, face to face and online, to provide the information they need to improve engagement with partners, including schools and parents, to increase understanding of what works in building resilience and aspiration among disabled young people.

Those with the greatest need can expect more intensive support. The Strategy states that it is critical to target our collective resources effectively and efficiently to those who need more intensive support. Targeted interventions at an early stage of a person’s career journey, through effective CIAG, will continue to be used. This links with the wellbeing indicator to be included ,having help to overcome social, educational, physical and economic inequalities and being accepted as part of the community in which they live and learn

Online services including use of BSL and advanced technology more effectively are also being considered as part of the strategy

The EQIA of the strategy recognises that the strategy has a positive impact on eliminating unlawful discrimination in regards to sex. We acknowledge that issues around women feeling encouraged into STEM careers are something that the STEM Implementation Group would review. However we also recognise that CIAG can help to overcome this challenge. Therefore, the strategy will consider linking up with the STEM Implementation Group during the strategy’s implementation stage to discuss CIAG.

In addition, the strategy links with “A Fairer Scotland for Women: Gender Pay Gap Action Plan” as it sets out the high level vision for high quality CIAG services accessible to all, and which reflects the importance of challenging occupational segregation.

The Strategy acknowledges that it is of central importance that CIAG services pro-actively promote fair and equitable access to opportunities and challenge inequalities such as stereotyping. This means recognising and responding positively to diverse needs with respect to gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, disability, or age, and supporting those who may experience discrimination for their identity within these or other social categories. It also means pro-actively supporting those experiencing poverty, socio-economic disadvantage, or barriers related to their social class or status. This will involve supporting and encouraging individuals to access careers and industrial sectors where they are under-represented in order to address occupational segregation and widen the opportunities available to them. This will be considered further and in consultation with stakeholders during the development of the implementation plans.

Monitoring and review

The Careers Strategy will state high level ambitions for the careers sector and services delivered through it. During the implementation phase, we will consult with interest and equality groups to determine how these high level ambitions will be delivered on a local/organisational basis, with consideration to key equality groups.

CRWIA Declaration

Authorisation

Policy lead
Scott Gray
Gillian Lacey
Nichelle Gill
Victoria Beattie

Employability Division/Careers and Employability Strategy team

Date

Deputy Director or equivalent
Gavin Gray, Employability division, Deputy Director

Date
13/03/2020