Scotland's National Strategy for Economic Transformation Programme 5: A Fairer and More Equal Society Equality Impact Assessment (Record and Results)

Stage 4: Decision making and monitoring

Identifying and establishing any required mitigating action

Have positive or negative impacts been identified for any of the equality groups?

Projects under Programme 5 could have positive impacts for many including to the protected characteristics.

Only positive or neutral impacts have been identified.

Is the policy directly or indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010?^[24]

All projects within Programme 5 have been deemed non-discriminatory with impacts being seen as largely neutral or positive.

If the policy is indirectly discriminatory, how is it justified under the relevant legislation?

N/A

If not justified, what mitigating action will be undertaken?

N/A

Describing how Equality Impact analysis has shaped the policy making process

The equality impact analysis has shaped and informed the Scottish Government's policy development by:

• Adapting the EQIAs on an ongoing basis, which has allowed colleagues to structure and develop the policy intent for the development/implementation and continuous improvement of projects under Programme 5;
• Providing a baseline on the negative impact benefit sanctions can have on vulnerable people in society allowing Scottish Ministers to agree that all customers participating in Scotland's employability service should do so on a voluntary basis;
• Presenting a significant opportunity to design and deliver effective and targeted employment support in Scotland that better meets the needs of unemployed people, those of the employing community, and services that reflect national and local labour markets, building on existing service delivery in Scotland; and
• Providing an opportunity to better align not just mainstream employability support in Scotland, but also disability employment services with other Scottish Government and public sector support for unemployed Scots, such as Welfare, Health and Social Care, creating the opportunity to deliver more effective, targeted and joined up public services and seek broader progress and potential shared outcomes (and investment) in devolved services.

Recommended actions:

• Engage with a variety of individuals, with a focus on those with protected characteristics, during the design stages including deciding how to allocate funding based on local need.
• Target eligibility criteria for funding to support those the greatest barriers to employment to enable them to obtain, sustain and progress in employment.
• Ensure that all communications are accessible (including use of British Sign Language).
• Engage with Scottish Government colleagues to ensure activity aligns with the refreshed Fair Work Action plan and forthcoming actions (including disability employment, gender pay gap, and new ethnicity pay gap strategy) and The Promise delivery plan.
• Support employers to adopt and embed fair and inclusive workplace practices.
• Continue to support the adoption of the Fair Work Framework to address gender inequality across all dimensions of work – opportunity, security, fulfilment (including skills acquisition and deployment), respect and voice.
• Help to support delivery partners' knowledge and skills around intersectional gender analysis and gender sensitive service development.
• Support employers to provide flexible working, which is particularly crucial for young people with caring responsibilities (which is more prevalent for women).
• Local employability partnership support should be person-centred and consider the issues faced by all equalities groups, including women, people of colour, lone parents, LGBTQI+ in the labour market with support tailored to meet the individual needs.
• Provide particular support for young pregnant women and mothers at a local partnership level.
• Support employers to in turn support their employees, with opportunities to make use of resources from expert organisations including those representing disabled people, women, people of colour, lone parent families, care experienced and LGBTQI+.

Monitoring and Review

It is anticipated that NSET projects will develop in an iterative manner year on year, in response to learning and experience and the delivery of key performance indicators including the compliance of the minimum service standards.