National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG) 2019 - report and recommendations: SG response

Leadership

Under the heading 'Leadership' the NACWG makes three recommendations with the objective of "creating a culture of gender equality policy-making in the Scottish Government". These recommendations are:

1.1 The creation of a standalone Equalities Directorate along with the establishment of "Centres of Expertise" created in all Scottish Government Directorates, on intersectional gender competence.

1.2 The creation of a senior officials and leaders group.

1.3 The creation of "Policy-makers National Standards" to support quality standards and accountability on intersectional gender competence in policymaking, with a requirement that all policy and analytical staff will adhere to it.

The creation of an Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights Directorate

The NACWG's first recommendation to Scottish Government is to scale up the current Equality Unit to a standalone Directorate.

"To integrate an intersectional gendered approach into policymaking the Scottish Government needs to substantially scale up its mainstreaming work. To provide the necessary levers to lead the change required, we recommend that the current Equality Unit should be scaled up to a standalone Directorate".

NACWG

The Scottish Government accepts this recommendation.

On 29 January 2020, shortly following publication of the NACWG's 2019 report, the First Minister confirmed that following an internal review, the Scottish Government Executive Team, led by Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans had decided to establish a new Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights. This will incorporate the existing Equality and Human Rights Division, as well as the Connected Communities Division which has responsibility for policy relating to community cohesion, hate crime, asylum and refugee integration and faith and belief.

"The new directorate will help to raise the status of the government's equalities work. And I think it will help us to build an even greater regard for equality – across government and across society".

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, 29 January 2020

In September 2020, the Scottish Government advertised for a Director of Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights to take forward the establishment of this new Directorate. This appointment was advertised externally to attract diverse applicants with exceptional leadership experience, including from the wider public, private and third sectors, in addition to the Civil Service, and with a passion for realising a more equal Scotland.

Following the conclusion of the recruitment process, Madhu Malhotra became the inaugural Director of Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights on 14 December 2020. She brings over 25 years' experience advocating for equality, inclusion and social justice, working in global grassroots organisations, international non-governmental organisations and the United Nations.

As part of her role, Ms Malhotra will provide senior leadership to ensure equality and human rights are consistently and effectively embedded in policy and decision making throughout the Scottish Government, reflecting our legal obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, our commitment to respect, protect and uphold human rights and the overarching duty on Ministers to comply with the law, including international law and treaty obligations, as set out in the Ministerial Code^[10].

This will include senior responsibility for overseeing the delivery of commitments set out in the Government's Programme for Scotland 2020-2021, which includes the development of a Mainstreaming Equality and Human Rights Strategy. Ms Malhotra will also join the Scottish Government Executive Team, led by Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans.

However, it is important to acknowledge that mainstreaming equality and human rights is not the responsibility of one team or Division, or a single Director. It is the responsibility of all policy-makers and all senior leaders in the Scottish Government and across the wider public sector to promote and advance equality and human rights in policy and decision making.

Additional Resource

In combination with the other actions which we will take in response to the NACWG's report, creating a new Directorate will help to further raise the profile and status of equality and human rights throughout the Scottish Government, driving change to help us realise our vision of a fairer and more equal Scotland.

We recognise that structural change alone will not deliver the NACWG's ambition that the Scottish Government "substantially scale up its mainstreaming work". This requires investment alongside a clear and consistent strategic approach, primarily in teams who have the requisite capacity and expertise to support the mainstreaming of equality and human rights throughout the Scottish Government. We are continuing to build on our work to deliver an increased mainstreaming support function, and resourcing will be a key and early consideration for the new Director and Ministers.

Centres of Expertise

Sitting alongside the new standalone Directorate, the NACWG recommends that 'Centres of Expertise' be created in all Scottish Government Directorates.

"To support and embed this wider focus on mainstreaming we would also like to see the establishment of a parallel programme on mainstreaming gender equality that will have "Centres of Expertise" created in all Scottish Government Directorates, on intersectional gender competence, responsible for leading and ensuring minimum levels of knowledge and analytical capability on gender in their Directorates, and therefore across all civil servants, in what can sometimes be a transient workforce."

NACWG

We accept the NACWG's recommendation that there should be centres of expertise across all aspects of the Scottish Government's work to ensure that every policy maker can benefit from access to colleagues with a level of expertise on equality and human rights which directly relates to their specific policy focus.

We have already committed to the development of a centre of expertise on equality and human rights in the Economy family of Directorates, as part of our response to the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery's report "Towards a Robust, Resilient Wellbeing Economy for Scotland"^[11].

The Economy Centre of Expertise on Equality and Human Rights will work across the economy portfolio to develop an understanding of and the evidence base on equality and human rights; ensure we identify and capitalise on opportunities to advance equality and human rights, and build capacity, skills and understanding within policy teams.

Building on the learning gleaned from this work as it develops, we will consider the best means and models to deliver centres of expertise throughout the Scottish Government as part of our work to develop a Mainstreaming Equality and Human Rights Strategy. We will review models used within the Scottish Government, consider examples of best practice utilised elsewhere in the UK and internationally, and learn the lessons from our efforts to strengthen the mainstreaming of equality and human rights as a more cohesive joint endeavour during the period of our response to COVID-19.

A Senior Officials and Leaders Group

The NACWG's second recommendation under the pillar of 'Leadership' is the creation of a senior officials and leaders group. The NACWG says that this group should have "the express purpose of ensuring intersectional gender competent policy coherence across Scottish Government's policy development" and "have a role in ensuring the consistent application of EQIAs across policy-making by also acting as a review panel, should the competence of an EQIA be questioned"^[12].

The NACWG also recommends that external members are included and that the Scottish Government Directors' Child Poverty Group could be a potential model for the new group.

The Scottish Government accepts this recommendation. In establishing a new group, we will:

• Consider the role of the group in relation to the development and subsequent implementation of our Mainstreaming Equality and Human Rights Strategy and related activity, to ensure senior collective corporate ownership of this agenda;
• Consider the relationship between the group and existing senior structures, including the Scottish Government Executive Team and Directors' Network, and the Scottish Leaders' Forum. We will also consider if and to what extent, certain functions envisaged by the NACWG for the new group would be more effectively discharged within those existing senior structures;
• In relation to the NACWG's suggestion that this group should act as a review panel for EQIAs, consider the outputs of a literature review commissioned by the Office of the Chief Social Policy Adviser which will provide evidence on other governments' approaches to assessing different policy impacts and their effectiveness, and use this to shape the Group's approach;
• Look at the linkages between the NACWG's report and the recommendations of the Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and Ethnicity which has highlighted the importance of leadership to addressing systemic issues which contribute to poorer outcomes for minority ethnic and migrant communities in Scotland.

Policy-makers National Standards

The NACWG's final recommendation under the heading of 'Leadership' is the creation of Policy-makers National Standards "to support quality standards and accountability on intersectional gender competence in policy-making". The NACWG says that standards should "include a level of knowledge and skill that will enable officials to carry our intersectional gender analysis as part of policy development".

The NACWG further recommends that "gender competence should be integrated into the performance management framework of civil servants", with an expectation that policy-makers access continuing professional development in this area, and that "annual reviews should discuss how individuals have taken a gendered approach to their work".

The Scottish Government accepts this recommendation.

Through the development of our Mainstreaming Equality and Human Rights Strategy, we will build on the framework provided by the Policy Profession Standards, identifying ways to ensure that policy-makers have increasing access to tools, resources and training to deliver gender competent policy which reflects equality and human rights. Linking to our commitment to explore additional ways of strengthening our individual and corporate responsibility to embed equality and human rights in policy-making, we will consider how equality and human rights competence is embedded within performance management frameworks and use the best available evidence to determine an effective approach in the future.

Our approach will be informed by the findings of the literature review commissioned by the Office of the Chief Social Policy Adviser on other governments' approaches to assessing different policy impacts.