Progress in meeting short-term internally focused outcomes

More candidates from diverse backgrounds apply for roles

Education Scotland's recruitment activity sits under Scottish Government resourcing policy and processes. Our approach is guided by the vision and values across Scottish Government, which sets the standard and policies for embedding inclusion into our recruitment and resourcing policies and processes.

The most recent Workforce Diversity and Inclusion data includes plans to increase the workforce diversity are set out in the Scottish Government’s policies.

Race Recruitment and Retention Action Plan

Recruitment Retention Plan for Disabled People

Gender equality in the workplace

Socio-Economic Diversity Action Plan (not currently published externally)

Transgender and Non-Binary Equality and Inclusion Policy (not currently published externally)

In January 2022, the Scottish Government launched an Employee Passport to provide a framework for colleagues and managers to discuss any circumstances that might impact on a staff member’s work and any adjustments that might help. These circumstances include health conditions, caring responsibilities and disabilities, but really, it can be absolutely anything that impacts a staff member at work. The passport is open to all, it is voluntary and is aimed at creating an inclusive and supportive environment which allows everyone to perform at work at their best. It is also part of work by the Scottish Government to make the organisation an employer of choice for disabled people. The Equality Impact Assessment for the Employee Passport can be found here. The Employee Passport can contribute to creating an inclusive working environment in the Scottish Government and Education Scotland, contributing to efforts to helping us retain diverse employees and attract diverse candidates applying for roles.

Positive Action to Recruit on Professional Learning and Leadership Programmes

In the co-design and construction of the Building Racial Literacy (BRL) programme in 2021/22, it was agreed with design partners to introduce protected places on the course for educators of colour. The aim of this approach was twofold:

1. to ensure affinity spaces to support the learning of Black and minority ethnic programme participants, and
2. to break down structural barriers to promotion in the Scottish education system.

Affinity Spaces

Alongside their self-directed learning on the programme, participants had three opportunities to engage in collaborative learning based on their racial identity, their professional identity and the region in which they worked. In ‘The Power Of Affinity Spaces’(2020), Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin identifies the impact of spaces for marginalised groups as providing healing, connection, safety and the ‘de-centring of dominant identities.’

Systemic and structural barriers

In ‘Teaching in a diverse Scotland: increasing and retaining minority ethnic teachers’ (Scottish Government, 2018), Black and Minority Ethnic teachers shared their lived experiences of barriers to opportunities and promotion. The report found that:

“non BME teachers and school leaders lack the experience of engaging and working with and within a diverse workforce. This leads to a mixture of awareness of the daily lived experiences of minority ethnic people. The lack of experience and awareness or the presence of racial prejudice impacts on recruitment and selection into programmes of initial teacher education as well as the appointment and promotion of minority ethnic staff into senior positions” (Scottish Government, 2018, p. 10).

Protecting places for applicants provides a positive action approach to increasing the number of educators with diverse perspectives in leadership roles in Scotland.

Broadening this approach

The learning from the protected places recruitment onto BRL informed Education Scotland’s work in the design of a pilot programme, Making Sense of System Leadership (MSSL). Each induction had a limited number of places. It was recognised that protected places for those who self-identified as having a protected characteristic (under the Equality Act 2010) would be a positive, small step towards breaking down these systemic and structural barriers. In the recruitment of MSSL, there were 161 applicants, with 14 applicants self-identifying as having a protected characteristic. (9 based on religion or belief, 2 on race, 2 on disability and 1 on sexual orientation). This meant that priority placing was given to these applicants in the case of over-subscription for specific inductions.

Important to note that most Professional Learning and Leadership programmes in Education Scotland currently delivered online (for example Aspiring to Middle Leadership) don’t have a cap on numbers so the same approach hasn’t needed to be taken. We still recognise, however, that ongoing engagement with marginalised groups is needed to continue to attract diverse applicants onto programmes and into our workforce.

2. 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.

3. Education Scotland has improved insights and targeted actions to improve the equality and diversity of our organisation.

New Equalities Staff Network

To take forward the short-term internal outcomes 2 and 3, a new internal Equalities Staff Network for Education Scotland staff was launched in August 2023. In the pre-network baseline survey (47 respondents), 34.1% agreed or strongly agreed that ES consistently embeds diversity, inclusivity and equalities across the org. This indicated a strong need for the Equalities Staff Network which was developed by the new Equalities team. Introduced with a Connect with Colleagues session in June 2023 (85 attendants), the network now has 50 staff members (including the Equalities team who facilitate it) with representation from all directorates. It is designed to be a safer space for:

• people experiencing inequalities related to protected and non-protected characteristics, signposting relevant support and wider Scottish Government staff networks, such as the Disabled Staff Network.
• everyone to learn, build their skills and raise issues of equality, accessibility and inclusion.

The network shares meeting minutes, resources, events, research and opportunities via a Microsoft Teams space. With monthly online meetings (generally 15 – 30 attendees), the network invites members to suggest agenda items and engage in professional learning, with two sessions so far on the language of diversity and digital accessibility (100% of feedback form responses gave it a five star rating).

The network has become a safer space for staff to raise issues and engage in difficult conversations related to equality and diversity. For example, members brought forward the issue of the lack of physical accessibility guidance and support for Scottish Government and Education Scotland office buildings. This issue is currently being taken forward with the support and expertise of the Scottish Government’s internal Disabled Staff Network. Furthermore, psychological safety has also been a recurrent theme in discussions. As a result, members identified individual and organisations actions that can be taken, which were shared with a series of staff bulletin items and a staff blog.

In a Jamboard exercise in December 2023, members did not identify anything the network should stop doing, however, they requested that the network continues to:

• use the staff bulletin to share information
• be a vehicle to feedback to senior leaders on challenging topics
• create a safe space for staff to connect.

It is still too early to identify the substantive impacts of this network, with further evaluation planned for June 2024. However, anecdotal and qualitative evidence suggests that the network has increased awareness of equality and diversity issues across the network members and through its engagement with internal communications (e.g. staff bulletin).

Equality Impact Assessments (EQIA)

An Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) helps us look at how our work impacts on people because of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. An EQIA process is not just about identifying (and mitigating) negative impacts. It is also about proactively looking for opportunities to promote equality..

Last reporting period, we described the efforts made to help colleagues understand when and how to carry out Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs). Procedures and processes were improved with the inclusion of:

• a step-by-step flowchart to provide staff with a clear overview of the EQIA process
• a screening survey to help staff determine whether an EQIA is needed
• participant information sheets and standardised consultation templates
• Guidance for staff to help them understand the role and responsibilities of the Lead Officer throughout the EQIA process
• Guidance for staff to help them understand the legislative context of the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty 2011 (Scotland)
• Training material to help staff become confident consultation facilitators
• Links to reliable evidence sources for obtaining pupil and practitioner data
• Consultation feedback survey as a driver for continuous improvement

As a result, we saw a welcome increase in the number of EQIAs that were been developed over the last reporting period, with over half of all staff having participated in at least one EQIA, of which 42% self-declared as having no prior experience of taking part in one before.

For this reporting period, we have seen yet another increase of the number of EQIAs undertaken: from 6 EQIAs in 2022 – 2023 to 10 EQIAs in 2023 – 2024. The ongoing impact of this work is evident and positive. Further consideration will be given to maintain and accelerate this progress and how learning from this improvement could be applied to Children’s Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA) and Island and Rural Communities Impact Assessments.

Internal Professional Learning

As part of yearly Objective Setting and Performance Appraisal processes, every staff member is required to identify one mandatory Diversity Objective. Staff at Education Scotland are also encouraged to engage in internal professional learning and to keep a Personal Learning Plan to help keep track and plan for their ongoing development. While it has been difficult to gather data on these objectives and personal learning plans, there has been some evidence of staff engaging in equalities professional learning and identifying targeted actions for improvement through the Equalities Staff Network, Connect with Colleagues sessions, the Building Racial Literacy programme and related sessions that have been offered to some teams.

Our Connect with Colleagues online sessions generally run over a couple of days each month. They are a series of informal information sharing sessions, which provide space to learn, collaborate and connect. The following sessions included some elements of equalities:

• Creating accessible digital content (June 2023)
• Equalities Staff Network and Mandatory Diversity Objectives (June 2023)
• The Scottish Attainment Challenge: Framework 2023-24 (August 2023)
• Adolescent health and wellbeing: how are Scotland’s young people doing? (November 2023)
• Introducing the Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities Professional Learning Framework (November 2023)
• Youth Work and Schools Partnerships (January 2024)
• Strengthening Curriculum Design for Social Justice, Rights and Equalities: a Big Ideas Approach (January 2024)
• Scottish Attainment Challenge Refresh and Additional Support Needs Interconnectivity (February 2024)

To help those unable to attend or who wish to review the learning, slides and recordings from the Connect with Colleagues sessions are accessible to all staff at Education Scotland.

Some professional learning programmes offered by Education Scotland have also welcomed members of Education Scotland to join as participants and/or facilitators, learning alongside educators and system leaders. For example, between 2022 and March 2024, 16 staff members have experienced the Building Racial Literacy programme as a participant and/or facilitator, including an inspector, officers from the following teams: Curriculum Innovation, Learning, Teaching and Assessment, Inclusion, Wellbeing and Equalities, Community Learning and Development and Professional Learning and Leadership.

In addition to this, bespoke racial literacy one-day sessions were offered to some teams, including the Leadership and Extended Leadership Team in May 2023. From the evaluation responses received from the Leadership Team session, 100% agreed or strongly agreed that their knowledge and understanding increased. Feedback on the most valuable aspects of the session included:

“The learning, so clearly evidence-based, which was shared with us during the day. The opportunity to discuss opportunities and challenges related to anti-racist education openly and in a safe space.”

“Having the time to think and reflect on the issues as they present themselves in our roles.”

“I thought the training was really worthwhile - it has definitely increased my awareness and made me more determined to act as well as to know. I think, as discussed, we should maximise Leadership Team engagement at this stage to widen participation and awareness of this important work across Education Scotland.”

Following this session, a session on racial literacy has been planned for Corporate Services staff (approximately 60 people) in March 2024, with opportunities to revisit the learning at a future date.

As a result of many of these engagements with anti-racist professional learning, several Education Scotland staff members have been proactive in identifying and implementing anti-racist actions in their different areas of work and this has led to the strengthening of equalities and anti-racist education in Education Scotland professional learning offers and programmes, evidenced in this section and this section of the report.