1
Notes of the College Liaison Group meeting,
7 October 2015, College Development Network, Stirling
Attendance
Rachel / Adamson / SFCHelen / Archibald / Dundee and Angus College
Marla / Baird / Ayrshire College
Elaine / Ballantyne / South Lanarkshire College
David / Bass / Equality Challenge Unit
Lisa / Beresford / South Lanarkshire College
Nancy / Birney / Glasgow Clyde College
Fiona / Clark / Fife College
Patricia / Currie / Glasgow Kelvin College
Freya / Douglas / Equality Challenge Unit
Helen / Duncan / Perth College UHI
Shelagh / Fraser / West Lothian College
Claire / Hall / Fife College
Pauline / Hanesworth / Higher Education Academy
Debbie / Kerr / Borders College
Barbara / Lawson / Equality Challenge Unit
Eve / Livingston / City of Glasgow College
Priscilla / Marongwe / SRUC
Claire / Nairn / Borders College
Jen / Russell / West Lothian College
Caroline / Storey / Forth Valley College
Sarah / Taylor / Edinburgh College
1. Welcome and apologies
=Introductions took place, ECU thanked College Development Network (CDN) for hosting the meeting.
=ECU noted apologies from: Jo Aitken (SRUC), Graeme Brewster (City of Glasgow), Sophie Dunnett (UHI), David Killean (Borders), Susan Inglis (Edinburgh), Suzanne Marshall (CDN).
2. Notes of the last meeting
=The draft notes from the meeting held on 17 June 2015 meeting were approved and will be added to the ECU website.
=The group was reminded about City of Glasgow College’s survey on trans data collection.
Action: members to complete survey and send to Graeme Brewster.
3. ECU briefing paper
ECU ongoing work
=The college statistics report and online data tables had been successfully completed and mailed to members. Members were reminded to request additional copies as required and to share with colleagues.
=ECU has completed a review of colleges’ performance of the specific duties reporting requirements in April 2015, which will go online in October, accompanied by examples of innovative practice on each reporting requirement.
=ECU had published an updated toolkit for embedding equality in outcome agreements to support colleges to meet the enhanced SFC requirements on E&D, including conducting an equality impact assessment (EIA) of the outcome agreement. Most members had not previously been involved in outcome agreement processes, but some felt this new requirement around EIA may enable their involvement.
=ECU will be developing a handbook for college board members on their E&D role and responsibilities in spring 2016, and possibly unconscious bias training for boards. There was particular interest from the group in the unconscious bias training.
=ECU is developing a project to investigate equality for college staff. A meeting has taken place with Debbie Kerr of the HR Development Network and Beth Dickson of Colleges Scotland to scope next steps. ECU will attend the November HR Development Network meeting to consult with HR leads about the project.
=ECU provided an update on the development of SQA’s new PDA ‘Advancing E&D through inclusiveness’, which will be delayed in order to ensure the structure and content meet the needs of all users, including for training on disability needs assessment. ECU and several members of the CLG continue to be involved in the Qualification Development Team.
=The articulation and equality project is almost complete; the data tables and briefing will be online before the end of the year.
=The Attracting diversity project has been launched to support colleges embed equality in student recruitment through consultancy support and regional and sector meetings.
Action: members to send completed expression of interest forms to ECU by 16 October.
=There will be webinars for academics/teaching staff on competence standards and reasonable adjustments in November-December, hosted by HEA.
Action: ECU to send webinar advertisement to CLG for information and distribution.
Action: members to share details with academics/teaching staff once these are advertised.
=A conference on E&D for colleges and HEIs will be held in April 2016. Members were advised to look out for further details soon.
SNEIP update
=DB fed back from the second meeting of the Scottish National Equality Improvement Project (SNEIP), being delivered by Scottish Government to help the public sector better perform the Scottish specific duties. ECU is involved in the sounding board for the project as representative for the HE/FE sectors.
=This meeting brought together representatives from across public sectors to identify the key challenges in delivering the duties, with a focus on employee information.
=ECU had been asked to bring delegates for the HE/FE sectors. CLG were represented by Nancy Birney, Head of Equality and Inclusion, Glasgow Clyde College; Graeme Brewster, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, City of Glasgow College; Zelda Franklin-Hills, Organisational Development Manager, Fife College;as well as Halena Gauntlett, Senior Policy/Analysis Officer, Scottish funding Council.
=Key issues identified and ideas suggested: a national campaign to encourage disclosure, a greater emphasis on collecting and publishing staff data in colleges from the SFC and Scottish Government, and influencing the development of the next round of census questions.
=The Scottish Government was also interested in sector priorities for national level initiatives.
Action: ECU to feed back to SG that colleges would be interested in national level initiatives on improving Equality Impact Assessments as well as to support and encourage disclosure.
=There will be one more SNEIP event in October, with a focus on gender pay gap and occupational segregation.
=A national event/conference will follow in December. All will be invited.
4. ECU review of specific duties performance 2015
=ECU presented its high-level review of colleges’ performance of the specific duties reporting requirements in April 2015.
=The group discussed challenges such as gathering employee information post-merger and how to clearly separate reporting on mainstreaming and equality outcomes.
=The group would appreciate the following support in 2016:
–A reminder briefing on the 2017 reporting requirements.
–An event to help with the development of new sets of equality outcomes for 2017, including how to use HR data to inform these.
–A focus on mainstreaming equality into team evaluation frameworks.
Action: ECU to ask the HR Development Network their views on what support is required.
Action: ECU to circulate the presentation slides for its performance review.
5. Gender Action Plan - Scottish Funding Council
=Rachel Adamson from the SFC spoke to the group about the SFC’s gender action plan, including the background and drivers for the plan, its purpose and scope and how it will be linked to outcome agreements.
=The focus is on improving the work colleges are already doing with schools to widen access, rather than on developing lots of new initiatives.
=Initial activity this year would focus on the subject groupings identified by the SFC’s data analysis. Subsequent years would entail broader activity (for instance including gender focused initiatives at college board level).
6. Gender initiatives research - Higher Education Academy
=Pauline Hanesworth of the HEA spoke to the group about the research she is undertaking into effective initiatives to achieve greater gender balance, which has been commissioned by SFC and is linked to the SFC’s gender action plan.
=Over the next couple of months, she will be contacting colleges to request further information on initiatives that are underway, and will also approach five-six colleges to undertake interviews. The group agreed to be first points of contacts for their colleges for this work.
7. Structure and resourcing of E&D in colleges
=A mapping exercise was undertaken with the group to identify the structure and resource for E&D in the colleges present. For example, whether there was a specific E&D lead or team, whether they also had other remits, whether there was an SMT lead for E&D and what budget was available for E&D.
=The group discussed the benefits and challenges of their current structures for E&D.
Action: ECU to circulate a note of the discussion and publish on its website.
8. Next CLG meetings:
=Dates for 2016 meetings will be circulated in October. They will be held in March, June and October at College development Network, Stirling.
Action: ECU to circulate dates for 2016.