REPORT ON THE EQUALITY FRAMEWORK REVIEW

Introduction

This report provides an overview of the Equality Framework review. It provides information on the range of methodologies used to undertake this review and outlines the proposals we envisaged taking forward as part of the new Framework.

At a corporate level, this review wasestablished under the Strategic Projects Portfolio, with the Head of Strategy and Change Management Office as the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO). Similarly, it was included in the SPCB’s Strategic Plan (2010-2011) as a project to be delivered by March 2011.

The aims of this review were to:

-Streamline equality with a view to developing a more efficient approach to advancing equality;

-Reduce the level of bureaucracy associated with the existing framework;

-Embed equality into business planning and decision making practices;

-Align the framework to the requirements of the Equality Act, in relation to its principles and specific duties; and

-Produce one major output comprising of a revised equality framework incorporating four elements:

  • An equality strategy setting out the SPCB’s priorities to advance equality
  • SMART equality objectives for 2011-15
  • Revised monitoring and reporting arrangements for equality
  • Revised guidance and policies to reflect the requirements of the Equality Act

This is the first review of the Framework since 2001 and wassupported by an Equality Framework project team whose remit was to advise the SRO and project manager on the development of the new Framework.

Background

The Equality Act is the main driver for reviewing the SPCB Framework. It marks a significant shift from previous legislation, with its overarching aim being to simplify and create a more harmonious approach to equality. The Act strengthens the law on equality and gives equal consideration to all protected equality groups by removing the hierarchy of rights created by the previous legislation.

There is a new General Equality Duty and Specific Duties that will help the SPCB to meet the general duty. The SPCB is required to:

  • eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act
  • advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not; and
  • foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.

The new specific duties replace the previous separate duties on race, gender and disabilityand cover all protected equality groups. The SPCB must respond to these changes by reconsidering its equality priorities and identifying which protected equality groups are most relevant to business activities. Perhaps the most significant change is the requirement for equality considerations, across all protected areas, to be reflected in the design of policies and delivery of services and for organisations to decide how this can be best achieved. From April 2011, there is no longer a requirement to produce schemes on race, disability and gender. Instead, organisations are being advised to look carefully at their existing practiceswith a view to embedding equality into standard practices of business planning and decision making. In essence, equality should notbe considered as a separate element in taking forward business but as an integral aspect to the day to day work.

Over the last few years, the SPCB has made significant progress in promoting equality in the Parliament. There is a strong equalities culture which was highlighted in the staff equality audit in 2009, where it was clear staff felt valued and supported by the organisation. However, it is essential to focus our attention more on the mainstreaming of equality into the SPCB’sworking practices. We have already started working towards this approach with building Equality Impact Assessmentsinto the project governance process. The next step is to consider mainstreaming equality into our other practices which is what this review has recommended.

Given the organisation is going through a period of change it seemed appropriate for the SPCB to revisit its overall approach to equalityto reflect on our achievements, examine our strengths and weaknesses, and more importantly, find new ways of working creatively and efficiently.

Methodology

Equality and Human Rights Commission – Best Practice

In assessing our approach to equality, we were guided by the EHRC principles as to how best practice in equality can be delivered. These are as follows:

  • Demonstrable commitment to the framework from the top of the organisation;
  • Involvement of staff and stakeholders in the drafting of the equality framework;
  • Leadership;
  • Extensive promotion of the framework both within the organisation and to potential staff, contractors and suppliers;
  • Training provided to all staff to explain the framework and what it means to them in terms of obligations and the impact on their day to day activities;
  • Incorporating the policy into the organisation’s business strategy;
  • An explicit willingness to challenge and discipline anyone not following the framework;
  • Assessing the impact of workplace changes on equality;
  • Involvement and consultation;
  • Action Planning; and
  • Monitoring and reporting.

With this in mind, we carefully considered each of these principlesthroughout the review although it was evident that we already met a number of them in conducting our business activities. Our intention wastherefore to highlight this achievement by using our success as the baseline from which we will develop the new Framework.

Setting our Priorities

An important part of this review was to consider the areas of business which are most relevant to equality and to determine their level of priority for setting equality objectives for 2011-15. To avoid paying lip service to equality, we identified the areas of business which are of greatest relevance to equality. Firstly they were considered in relation to the General Equality Duty and the relevance of each of these functions to the Duty. We also considered their relevance to each of the protected characteristics and the level of reputational risk associated with a function if it was to adversely affect an equality group. This exercise was based on a scoring system with weighting assigned to each function. The business areas that we identified as high priority areas were:

  • Internal audit, strategy and corporate planning;
  • Providing support to Members;
  • Employment policies and practices;
  • Procurement and management of contract services;
  • Preparing annual budgets;
  • Leadership and the role of the Clerk/Chief Executive and Presiding Officers;
  • Support to Committees*;
  • Public engagement and events;
  • Visitor experience of the Parliament;
  • Private and Members Bills*;
  • Media relations (promoting the work of the Parliament and providing information on parliamentary business and engagement activities);
  • Providing information to the public on the work of the Parliament;
  • Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) services to Members and staff;
  • Maintaining the estate and fabric of the building;
  • Space planning;
  • Managing specific policies relating to the building such as meeting rooms, car parking and the crèche; and
  • Health and safety policy.

Items marked with an asterix (*) are not subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty as they are related to the proceedings of the Parliament and therefore exempt from equalities legislation. However, it is recognised that staff should be supporting the function to take account of equal opportunities in the work that is carried out, either for a Member or a Committee.

Due to financial constraints in the organisation,we intentionally focused on those areas which are of high priority. Whilst we recognise we have to fulfil our legal obligations, the Act does allow for some flexibility on prioritising equality objectives as long as an assessment has been carried out of which areas are most relevant to equality and where disadvantage or exclusion is most likely to be prevalent.

Gap Analysis

The Requirements of the Act

As part of this review we undertook a gap analysis to determine any potential gaps in relation to the requirements of the Equality Act, how this fits with the existing Framework and whether there wereany specific actions to be carried forward from the existing Equality Schemes and action plans.

It was clear from this exercise that the existing Framework met most of the requirements of the Equality Act– and this was a reflection of the SPCB’s commitment to work beyond minimum compliance. The Framework aimed to promote equality across all protected characteristics and consequently,reported across all the strands through the Equality Annual Report rather than just the requirements to cover race, disability and gender.

The Equality Act, however, does require a very different approach to equality. Public bodies such as the SPCBare expected to focus their attention on mainstreaming and streamlining equality and to consider the effects of their policies and practices for all protected equality groups. The existing Framework did to some extent take account of these requirements, but the focus on mainstreaming and streamlining needed to be stronger and greater attention is needed towards the other protected groups.

The Framework wasalso in need of updating - the legal definitions were out of date and there werevarious developments in legislation that are now part of the Equality Act which werenot alluded to in the Framework.

Existing Equality Schemes on Race, Disability and Gender

A review was carried out on the existing Equality Schemes to identify whether any actionsshould be carried forward and if any actions from the three Equality Schemes could be merged to take account of all protected equality groups. For example, each Scheme included an action on undertaking an Equality Impact Assessment. We merged this action into one and extended it to cover all protected areas.

We found that the majority of actions in the three Schemes had been achievedand those which were still to be met were included in the proposals which we subsequently took forward with Heads of Group.

Consultation with key stakeholders

Having undertaken the gap analysis, we used this information as the basis of our consultation to gather views on what the SPCB neededto do to promote equality in these areas and whether there were any issues specifically relating to the protected equality groups that need to be considered. To simplify this exercise we divided our functions into eight categories. These were:

  • Services to the public;
  • Supporting Members of Scottish Parliament;
  • Visitor Experiences;
  • Accessibility of the Parliament Building;
  • Access to information about the Parliament;
  • Employment Policies;
  • Public Engagement; and
  • Legislation.

Having considered different options for consultation, the most effective method given the time constraints, was to use a focus group approach. The idea behind this approach was that information could be gathered in a reasonably short time span whilst still giving people the opportunity to contribute their views in a meaningful way.

Our aim was to gather the views of all our key stakeholders including Members, Members’ staff, SPS staff, and external organisations representing each of the protected equality groups.

Four external focus groups were arranged in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness with two events in Edinburgh, one of which was a disability perspective focus group.

Invites were issued using the Parliamentary Equal Opportunities Committee database to organisations that work with or on behalf of people with protected characteristics.

Aninternal focus group was arranged for staff while Members gave their views in one to one meetings.

The first focus group event took place in Glasgow on Monday 29th November. Due to the severe weather conditions on the day of the event only eightindividuals attended. Unfortunately due to the ongoing severe weather conditions the second event scheduled to take place in Inverness on Wednesday 1st December was cancelled.

The two events arranged for Edinburgh took place on Monday 6th December. Attendance at these events was again affected by the adverseweather conditions with only fiveindividuals attending the general focus group and nineindividuals attending the disability focus group.

A focus group for SPS staff was arranged for Tuesday 7th December with tenmembers of staff attending to share their views and experiences. The focus group planned for Members and Members staff was not held due to the limited response. However, individual meetings were arranged with those Members who had indicated they wished to contribute to the consultation.

The format for the focus group was a workshopand we used a variety of participation methods to enable informal and open discussions. As part of these discussions, we encouraged people to come forward with new ideas on how to further enhance the Equality Framework.

Overall the consultation was a valuable exercise. It was useful to hear staff feedback based upon their own experiences at work and they offered a number of positive suggestions that we could take forward. Similarly, it was useful to hear from the external groups on specific issues relating to a protected equality group that were not already covered by the existing Framework. It was reassuring, however,to note that a number of issues that were raised by the participants were already in place in the Parliament.

Once the consultation was completed,we developed a draft Equality Action Plan setting out the SPCB equality objectives for the next four years. The Action Plan was formed based on the findings of the consultation, the prioritisation exercise and the gap analysis which we carried out prior to the consultation. Each section is broken down by Group and there is a separate section setting out specific actions to be taken forward by the Leadership Group.

Engaging with Heads of Group and Office

We arranged meetings with all the Heads of Group as the next stage in the process. The purpose of these meetings was to engage Heads of Group in the development of the SPCB Equality Action Plan for 2011-15. Heads of Group were presented with a set of proposed actions for their business areasand were asked to consider whether they could be taken forward and incorporated into operational plans. These meetings were invaluable as they gave a sense of the reality of operatingin an environment where efficiencies have to be achieved.

Cost implications to the business area

There were a number of considerations relating to the proposed actions on equality. The first of these was in connection with the cost of implementing the Equality Action Plan in particular business areas. We therefore looked at the Action Plan to ascertain where there would be any major costs and made adjustments to the plan which meant that they could be more easily accommodated.

For example, instead of undertaking an accessibility audit at a cost of approximately £5000- £10,000, we agreed to invite disabled groups who use our building to give us feedback on their experience.

Timescales were also put back in some cases given the uncertainty of office reviews and some actions where there is a cost implication, such as including subtitles into video files, were agreed to be postponed until the organisation is in a better position financially.

Hence, the overall outcome of this exercise means that there are no significant costs associated with the plan except for staff resourcing costs and costs already covered by existing budgets.

Impact of Office Reviews

There were some actions that were amended to take account of the office reviews and the uncertainty over how the Chang Management programmewould impact on their existing work. For example, instead of an action specifying that equality was built into the Responsible Purchasing Strategy, this was amended to ensuring that equality isbeing built into the review of Procurement Services to take account of any equality considerations in the Responsible Purchasing Strategy. More widely, we included a specific action in the planwhich covers all office reviews under the Change Management programme.

Identifying Current Practice

A further suggestion made was in relation to the differentiation between new actions and actions considered to be business as usual. As there were a number of actions that were already being met by offices, it did not reflect the progress already made to promote equality within operational areas. We have therefore responded by identifyingin the Action Plan actions representing current practice and new actions to take forward in 2011-2015. This separation clearly demonstrates what we have achieved so far in embedding equality into our working practices and what actions will be taken to further progress equality.

Equality monitoring and services

There was a useful discussion relating to equality monitoring and the impact on resources, particularly in relation to the provision of services and the undertaking of surveys. However, given there is a requirement upon the SPCB to monitor the effects its policies are having on people from protected equality groups, it has required us to look at this carefully to consider how best this can be done without having to use additional resources. We have therefore committed to focusing on those areas where monitoring is already carried out and, beyond this, to monitor the impact our services are having on the advancement on equality. So instead of conducting visitor surveys, a more sensible approach is to collect data on the way in which we deliver our services and how that impacts on equality. An example of this is to monitor the uptake of the wheelchair loan service, or the impact of the events booking system in accommodating the needsof disabled people.