This report outlines the progress Education Scotland is making to mainstreaming equality as an organisation, in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Equality Act (2010). The report describes in detail a wide range of activities, programmes and data, from 2023 to 2024, aligned with identified outcomes from Education Scotland’s Equality Strategy. A summary of our progress is included here for accessibility.

Examples of effective initiatives for our internal progress include the establishment of an Equalities Staff Network with opportunities for professional development for all staff and the use of positive action to recruit diverse participants on professional learning and leadership programmes. The increased use of Equality Impact Assessments has been a welcome development. The learning from this process can support the increased use of Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments.

In terms of our external progress to support practitioners, leaders, parents/carers and partners in areas of inclusion, equalities and diversity, Education Scotland has focused primarily on three key strategies outlined below.

Professional learning and leadership

The Education Scotland website hosts professional learning resources available to all, such as Professional Learning Activities, the Keeping the Promise Award Programme and the Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities Professional Learning Framework. These can be used for self-directed learning and some include facilitation notes that can be used to support individuals to lead the professional learning of others in groups or at in-service training days.

Some facilitated professional learning and leadership programmes embed equality and diversity in their modules and sessions, as is the case for Into Headship. Other facilitated programmes have a specific focus on an area of equality such as Building Racial Literacy, Leading Gender Equality in Education, Dyslexia and Inclusive Practice and Autism and Inclusive Practice. Certain programmes complement the skills and knowledge needed for equality and diversity. For example, with the Keeping Trauma in Mind programme, trauma-informed approaches can enhance equality and diversity initiatives.

Other professional learning has focused on building the capacity of others to lead and deliver professional learning, such as the development day on Leading Effective Anti-Racist Professional Learning for Building Racial Literacy alumni and Train the Trainer sessions for the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme and for Relational and Restorative Approaches.

In addition, Education Scotland has facilitated many individual focussed sessions, online and in person, for practitioners and leaders in local authorities on areas such as anti-racist education, children’s rights and effective learner participation, mental health and wellbeing and disability.

Establishment of specialised networks for educators and leaders

Education Scotland coordinates a range of specialised networks that provide invaluable support for educators, leaders, local authorities and partners. These include:

Rights and Participation Network

National Social, Emotional and Behavioural Needs Network

National Complex Needs Networks

National Safeguarding Network

Building Racial Literacy Alumni Network

Anti-Racist Clubs Network

Supporting Anti-Racist Education Across Local Authorities

In addition to specialised networks, Education Scotland also facilitates and contributes to a number of Scottish Government strategic groups, such as the Additional Support for Learning Project Board, the Anti-Racism in Education Programme and the LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation Group. These groups play crucial roles in the strategic development of equality and diversity in education at a national level.

Creation of resources, such as toolkits and case studies, to showcase effective practices

Finally, the development, update and publication of guidance and summary pages, such as Promoting positive relationships and behaviour, continue to be an important part of our work. Some of the resources are hosted on our website, including the Breaking the Mould Principles for an Anti-Racist Curriculum and accessible information on equality and diversity for parents and carers on Parentzone. Other resources are linked in our website pages, such as our Promoting Anti-Racist Education resource and numerous Wakelets on, for example, Curriculum and Accessibility and Improving Racial Literacy for Community, Learning and Development practitioners. In our next strategic phase, we will improve the digital accessibility and user-friendliness of our online presence. This will address some of the variations in page views and increase accessibility.

To evaluate the impact of our work, we have used a mix of quantitative (e.g. page views and attendance at sessions) and qualitative data (e.g. participant quotes) in this report. Low response rates and variations in data gathering are some of the barriers to evaluation. Since the majority of our work is with practitioners, it can also be difficult to measure the impact on outcomes for children, young people and adult learners. Nevertheless, as we have been acutely aware of this ongoing challenge across Education Scotland, a focus on research has been resourced with the creation of a new Data, Performance and Research Team. These considerations will contribute to the ongoing discussions within Education Scotland about improving our approaches to capturing data, analysis, and evaluation.

Our findings show that we have achieved significant strides in enhancing the awareness, understanding, and skills of our staff and of the people we serve. The length of this report illustrates the breadth and depth of our equality and diversity work. At the same time, we acknowledge we still have far to go, recognising the many benefits of becoming a more inclusive, diverse entity which promotes and embeds equality in all of our work.