Equality mainstreaming 2023 to 2024: Introduction and background

This report provides an update on the progress we are making to mainstreaming equality as an organisation. The introduction of the Equality Act 2010 harmonised a range of existing legislation and policy. The Act introduced a new public sector equality duty which replaced duties relating to race, disability and gender. Secondary legislation was introduced in 2012 which implemented “specific duties.” The purpose of the legislation is to ensure that public bodies consider how they are positively contributing to a more equal society through advancing equality and good relations in their daily functions. In particular, how they:

take effective action on equality.
make the right decisions, first time round.
develop better evidence-based policies and practice; and
act in a way that is more transparent, accessible and accountable, and deliver improved outcomes for all.

The Purpose of the Equality Duty of Education Scotland

The purpose of the Public Sector Equality Duty is to ensure that Education Scotland, like other public bodies, complies with equality legislation appropriate to its role as employer and educational improvement agency. The legislation outlaws direct discrimination (including, for example, discrimination by association, perception and arising from a disability), indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation because of the protected characteristics of:

age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnerships
pregnancy and maternity
race (including colour, nationality; ethnic or national origin)
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation

Our Approach

In 2022, Education Scotland introduced an Equality Strategy for Education Scotland that demonstrates our continued commitment to embedding an ethos and practice of equality, diversity and inclusion in everything we do. It outlines the equality outcomes we aim to deliver over the next few of years. Education Scotland’s Equality Strategy not only aims to capture our work to improve outcomes for those who share protected characteristics, but also those whose life chances are impacted by wider inequalities (e.g. those with non-protected characteristics such as care-experience and socioeconomic barriers).

In developing this strategy, we took a collaborative approach, working with colleagues from across Education Scotland Directorates to ensure our strategy, and the delivery of it, is owned by everyone. We also invited external members from our Advisory Board and Scottish Government Equality Unit to advise and provide support and challenge during the development of the Strategy (Equality Strategy 2022 - 24 (PDF)). Union representatives were also involved to provide assistance in our internal focus. The most recent Mainstreaming Report on the Equality Strategy can be found here: Mainstream Report (PDF)

The development of the Equality Strategy took into account of the need to demonstrate impact and outcomes resulting from the delivery of our objectives. Using a logic model methodology, we outlined the short-, medium- and long-term outcomes we wished to achieve. The logic model effectively captures the changes we wish to make internally and externally and clearly demonstrates the links between our activities and the outcomes we hope to achieve. Considering the national context of education reform, the Equality Strategy was designed to be a live, iterative strategy, reflective of changing needs, outcomes, and on-going evidence as we engage in activities to support our objectives. We are mindful of the complexity of the issues we are attempting to address and the fact that many of our activities depend on working through others to achieve long-term outcomes.

Given that Education Scotland will be replaced with a new Inspectorate and a refocussed National Agency for Scottish education in 2025, this mainstreaming report is focused on our short-term outcomes. These are the outcomes we have the most direct control over and where we will be able to confidently link our achievements with our specific activities. However, the longer-term outcomes identified during the development of the strategy will continue to fully inform all that we do as we continue to work in a period of change.

Short-term Outcomes

For the purpose of this report, we will focus on the internal and external short-term outcomes as outlined below.

Internally focused short-term outcomes

More candidates from diverse backgrounds apply for roles.
All Education Scotland staff increase their awareness, understanding, knowledge, confidence and skills around equality and diversity and the benefits of being a more diverse organisation.
Education Scotland has improved insights and targeted actions to improve the equality and diversity of our organisation.

Externally focused short-term outcomes

Increased availability of accessible equality and diversity information for parents/families.
Education practitioners increase their knowledge, understanding, awareness, confidence and skills in relation to equality and diversity issues, including practice.
Education practitioners increasingly indicate they are likely to implement learning from ES in practice/make changes to processes.
Leaders across all professional levels are increasingly cognisant of the barriers to promoted posts for certain equalities groups and proactively work to break down these barriers.