This peer reviewed case study from South Ayrshire Council Thriving Communities  provides an example of how Community Learning and Development (CLD) can use the Improving Gender Balance Equalities (IGBE) Data Guide and Self-evaluation Framework.

Improving Gender Balance and Equalities in South Ayrshire Council Thriving Communities video

Identifying a need for improvement

South Ayrshire Council Thriving Communities participated in an IGBE and CLD sub-group for developing a new resource to support the work of the sector. This presented an exciting opportunity to be involved in shaping and piloting a new IGBE resource which would allow us to evaluate and better inform our practice with an equality lens.

Using the self-evaluation framework

I began by identifying that I wanted to collect data around gender, achievement, participation, wellbeing and explore how these interlinked. My plan was to use the self-evaluation framework with current provision where it would be easier to gather and collate data.  I focused on CLD youth work provision in Lochside, Ayr and the surrounding secondary schools.

I used the data guide to help refine the data to be gathered and reflected on how other factors may also be relevant such as SIMD data disaggregated by gender. By analysing the gathered data, I was able to generate a deeper understanding of how gender impacts on, and is linked to achievement, participation and wellbeing and to draw some conclusions. For example, we had over 3 times as many referrals for support for males than females from one secondary school. This prompted us to review our referral methods and make changes to ensure balance and fairer provision.

The self-evaluation framework allowed me the opportunity to choose relevant and key themes for review around IGBE. I used the Quality Indicator 1.2 Improvements in equality, diversity and inclusion, and the challenge questions:

1. How well do we ensure a strong ethos of access and inclusion is embedded in our physical environments and organisational culture at all levels?
2. How well do we ensure all our participants are respected, treated fairly, know their rights are valued by us and free from gendered pre-conceptions?
3. How successfully do we remove gender-based barriers to access and monitor our approaches to ensure they are effective in reducing barriers to participation?

The challenge questions gave useful prompts and allowed me to draft a concise report with practical actions to take forward to develop. For example, our quality assurance paperwork now captures achievement by gender information which we can easily view at a glance.

Impact of using the resources

In line with the new CLD plan, our youth work programmes now capture data on the number of sessions delivered and feedback from young people around the UNCRC. This is invaluable in ensuring as many of our young people as possible understand their rights and how to identify and challenge discrimination.

There has been good progress in terms of staff evaluating our approach through discussions at Youth Work Development Group meetings and implementing changes. For example, our youth worker training calendar has been refreshed to include new inputs from professional organisations in-line with young people’s changing needs. There has been training for staff around the importance of weekly session records reflecting young people’s current gender pronouns and non-legal documents such as club registers using ‘known as’ section, promoting inclusion in terms of young people’s gender identity choices.

I learned that as a service we need to place an emphasis on recording information around young people’s achievements by gender and SIMD if we want to ensure we are providing the best support possible for our young people. I also learned that our youth participation is relatively evenly balanced between male and female young people. However, our sessional youth work staff are overwhelmingly female. This has prompted us to discuss as a team how our work is viewed, any associated stereotypes and how we can promote our service accordingly. We have prioritised updating our youth display boards to celebrate the diversity of our young people by showcasing their work and success stories and to promote relevant and current support available.

Using the Action Plan

We will consider how we can make more effective use of Equalities Impact Assessments. I can now review and change our quality assurance paperwork to ensure that as a service we are gathering the most relevant and useful data. I also have created an action plan with practical tasks which includes reviewing our work in local secondary schools and how young people are referred for our support.

Advice for other CLD providers

My advice would be to identify and target a manageable area when starting to collect data and then use the self-evaluation framework to evaluate.