Scottish Government

+TOWARDS AN EQUALITY STRATEGY
GRASSROOTS CONSULTATION WITH MINORITY ETHNIC PEOPLE IN SCOTLAND

SUMMARY

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INTRODUCTION

In January 2000, the Scottish Executive published a consultation paper - 'Towards an Equality Strategy'. This set out the Executive's commitment to equality and the main principles and proposals around this work. A key issue was how to ensure the effective consultation, communication and participation of people, with an interest in equality. Respondents outlined the barriers they faced and how these could be tackled. A report of their responses was published in June 2000. To learn more about improving participation, the Scottish Executive ran three events in August 2000 to discuss the issues in more detail, face to face, with people with direct experience of discrimination and exclusion.

Three 'Grassroots' events were arranged, one with minority ethnic communities, one with women and one with disabled people. The events were aimed at increasing the range and number of people in contact with the Executive, giving more people a chance to be involved in how policy is made and put into practice. The Executive and its partner agencies took steps to make the events as inclusive as possible, including support for travel, childcare and personal support costs, access audits for all venues and provision of Plain English Crystal Mark documents and alternative formats and communication support. Feedback from the events pointed out what further steps needed to be taken to address barriers to participation and this was an important aim of the events - to learn more about making consultation accessible to all.

Making the events happen required a lot of hard work from participants, facilitators and partner agencies. Their commitment and assistance helped us make the events a successful and effective way of hearing what different groups wanted to tell us, we learned a lot.

This is a brief summary of the day for consultation with people from minority ethnic communities. A full report of the event is available which provides much more detail of the content and discussions. Copies are available from the Equality Unit.

THE SPEAKERS

The day began with brief introductory talks followed by a series of workshops and was chaired by Kaliani Lyle from Citizen's Advice Scotland. Kaliani stressed the importance of looking at the content of what is consulted about and how consultation is done. The Grassroots events are the start of this process.

Dharmendra Khanani - Commission for Racial Equality

Dharmendra spoke about how the voices of people from minority ethnic communities could be heard in decision making and access to services - how could we create an open and honest dialogue?

The CRE has 3 main purposes:

• The elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of equality
• The encouragement of good race relations
• The monitoring of the Race Relations Act

Dharmendra said that minority ethnic communities want to be more involved and that the Lawrence Inquiry in particular has provided a new momentum and context for thinking about how minority ethnic people are seen. Race equality must be built in whilst there is an impetus for change. The Race Relations Amendment Act creates a positive duty to focus thinking on race equality and an opportunity to ensure that service providers try to eliminate discrimination. Looking at the impact on people is essential and these Grassroots events are an important part of this. However, the process must be carried on so that people from minority ethnic communities can continue to be engaged.

For the Equality Strategy to mean anything, it must be determined by the people who are affected by it and must make a difference to their lives and the services they receive. The Scottish Executive should have a process of consultation, an annual cycle held at different locations so that wider participation and Government accountability become a reality. Equality is not just important in itself but is central to good central and local Government. For communities to be properly involved they should:

• Know and understand what is happening
• Have information, in an appropriate way, to make and influence decisions, to lobby, engage and participate
• Participate in democracy

Jackie Baillie, Deputy Minister for Communities

Jackie Baillie thanked everyone for their help in developing the strategy. Not everyone could attend, but discussions were also taking place through the Race Equality Advisory Forum's own programme of consultative events and in others' work.

Jackie is responsible for equality, including race equality, and said that whilst there was a lot of work to be done, this is a unique opportunity for change. The move towards more open Government and the Scottish Parliament offer chances to become involved. The Lawrence Inquiry brought to the political table many key issues for minority ethnic communities and was a watershed for race equality work. Minority ethnic people face many problems, including poor housing, poverty and fear of crime; racism is 'alive and kicking' in Scotland. Racial harassment and discrimination are part of the everyday experience. Jackie said that this is unacceptable and there was a need to tackle complacency which denied that racism was an issue in Scotland. The Scottish Executive is determined to address the issues.

Responsibility for legislation on equal opportunities rests with the UK government, but the Scotland Act allows the promotion of equality. The Programme for Government states a commitment to equality; the Equality Unit was set up in September 1999. The Race Equality Advisory Forum was set up in November 1999 and the equality strategy is being developed as a framework for future action across the Scottish Executive on promoting equality of opportunity for all.

The proposed equality strategy has a number of key themes:

• Support for mainstreaming
• Partnership
• Establishment of channels of communication and dialogue
• Training and awareness raising
• An improved statistical and research base
• Development of action plans, targeting and monitoring

The strategy is more than 'warm words' but is about integrating equality into policy, legislation, services and budgets. It is about developing good employment practices and the active promotion of equality. An action plan will underpin the strategy and implementation will be evaluated. The Parliament and the Civil Service must become examples of good practice and strive to be representative, open and accessible.

Jackie said that there is a climate of excitement about change, but change will not be easy and will take time. To make it happen, the Executive must work with different communities and individuals and must communicate and consult if the barriers are to be overcome and minority ethnic communities' views heard. Today is about looking at whether the proposed Equality Strategy will work; how dialogue can be improved and put into action. Today is the beginning not the end of a process.

Jackie concluded by stressing that an equality agenda is fundamental to the vision of an inclusive and just Scotland, where there is no place for racism, prejudice or discrimination.

Question and Answer Session

Some people were not allowed to attend events such as this as part of their work, could the Scottish Executive help?

Jackie said that the Scottish Executive cannot make employers allow staff to attend meetings like this, but the answer might lie in helping them see connections between meetings like today and particular areas of work. Dharmendra and Kaliani thought that mainstreaming equality in local authorities and providing guidance might help achieve this.

Whilst work might have been done, it is not always possible to see the changes in how people live and work. When will changes begin to impact on people at local level?

Jackie said that as a Minister it can be frustrating that just saying something doesn't make it happen. Change takes time, partly because there are so many different bodies involved in services. National government has commitment and influence but no direct control. New duties on local government and legislation might help speed up the process. Kaliani said that all organisations should work to the highest standards to remove variations across the country. Dharmendra said that people should recognise they have power, use their vote and get involved. Also, requirements for local government and others to set targets and review and report on them annually could help.

Most people at the event are from the voluntary sector, how can wider groups be involved?

Jackie said that we need a range of different ways of involving people. Networks in communities can be more effective than leaflets. Consultation includes more than the voluntary sector and events like this are aimed at widening consultation. People here today can help us find better ways of communicating.

There are no minority ethnic MSPs, what steps are being taken to address this?

Jackie said the political parties are aware of the disappointment, although there were candidates, they were not in winnable seats. Parties needed to look at widening participation in different ways, for example as elected members in local government, to provide role models.

THE WORKSHOPS

There were 4 morning and 4 afternoon workshop groups. All the 4 groups looked at the same issues and morning and afternoon sessions focused on different questions. A women-only group was also offered on the day to see if this was a useful approach. The report of these sessions covers the points raised in the workshops and on the forms with no attempt to decide whether any point was more or less important than any other.

The morning workshops looked at the equality strategy and barriers to it. The groups considered:

• How the strategy might be developed
• Barriers to minority ethnic people's involvement in decision making, getting and feeding in information and participation in public life
• The effects of the barriers

The afternoon workshops considered:

• What changes are needed to address the barriers
• Examples of Good Practice
• The Way Forward

Discussions were wide ranging and covered many issues. Because there was a lot of overlap across the questions, the points made in both workshops and on the forms have been pulled together into broad categories.

Barriers to consultation and communication

Information and Understanding by the Scottish Executive

A number of criticisms related to the lack of information and understanding of minority ethnic communities within the Scottish Executive. This included poor information on organisations and lack of an up to date database of contact details. People criticised the Scottish Executive for not knowing enough about minority ethnic people, their cultures or life experiences and the reality of racism and how it could inhibit participation. The Executive tended to treat minority ethnic people as a homogenous group and did not recognise or understand multiple discrimination, and is largely unaware of the needs and interests of minority ethnic communities. Some felt that communication was undermined by jargon or inappropriate vocabulary.

There should be commitment to anti racism from the top, covering all policy areas. The Scottish Executive should be an exemplar, take a lead and encourage others and set good practice standards. What was needed was an up to date database and more thoughtful use of language, including less jargon. Innovative ways of involving women, older and younger people and disabled people were also required. Some people felt that the Executive needed fundamental research into the experiences of minority ethnic people to underpin consultation, others felt that there had been enough research - what was needed was action.

The Executive must show that it accepts that institutional racism is a problem in Scotland, that it is a priority and show people that it means what it says. It must understand that the needs of minority ethnic people are different to those of white people. It must also accept that people may fear change.

Transparency and Accountability

The second set of comments concerned the transparency of the consultation process. People wanted to know why certain groups were consulted and others not. Some felt that the Executive tended to consult with people it knew and felt comfortable with, so that some groups/interests were consulted a lot, others not at all. Some felt that a number of important groups were not represented and that some organisations consulted were out of touch with grassroots views. People did not know how to become involved, or how to raise issues or make complaints. Respondents wanted details of who to contact for advice and information, to know who was representing them on groups and forums. These applied to the Grassroots event itself, the Race Equality Advisory Forum and decision making in general, and there was a lot of emphasis on the need to be open about processes and decisions, to involving community members at all stages.

Whilst these problems were said to apply to organisations, they were even more relevant to individuals. Respondents wanted the Scottish Executive to go beyond paid staff and central belt organisations to reach out into communities across Scotland. They wanted to see greater involvement of individuals and service users - more grassroots involvement. A number of people said that whilst the Executive thought it was consulting communities, the people it consulted did always not represent communities. Staff from across the Executive should be trained in equality awareness and go out into communities

Plans and progress reports should be made widely available and accessible and the Executive should regularly feedback on progress to minority ethnic communities.

Effective Consultation

There was some criticism of how the Executive went about consulting with minority ethnic people. This included ineffective and limited consultation, lack of proper planning, briefing and linking, not allowing sufficient time for consultation and the need to involve organisations from the beginning. What was needed was more understanding of cultural issues around consultation and more imagination in how to engage, plus an understanding that language can be a major barrier to participation for people from minority ethnic communities. People also felt that consultation should be a continuous process and cover all policy areas; not just those the Executive felt were relevant to minority ethnic communities. Consultation should be built in from the beginning. There should be a more equal relationship between minority ethnic communities and government. Government should be involved in ongoing discussion, it should ask people, and not just tell them, what they need. Civil servants and Ministers should meet with people, participate and communicate effectively. It should review how it consults and communicates

Communication is a two way process and should be done strategically and creatively, e.g. newsletter, through networks, effective dissemination to communities and provision of contact details for Scottish Executive officials and use of minority ethnic press, community languages on digital stations and other media. The Executive should not however ask groups to distribute materials for it; often they do not have resources. The Executive should note that many minority ethnic people have less access to electronic media. Finally, there is also a need for people to liase with the Parliament.

Helping People Participate

A number of points related to the need to ensure that people from minority ethnic communities are able to participate fully. This ranged from the Executive improving how it uses and resources interpreters and translators, capacity building for participants, participants being better resourced, fully briefed, particularly as a representative of an organisation rather than as an individual. Advice and advocacy might also be required and resources for expenses such as travel, loss of earnings and childcare to allow people to participate. Particular attention should be paid to including excluded groups, including minorities within minorities and younger and older people.

Organisations need resources to participate, more is needed to resource securely grassroots organisations and partnership working, short term and temporary funding restricts organisations' ability to get involved, they need core funding. Funding for equality was not given sufficient priority and special consideration should be given to less well developed groups. At the same time, some felt that organisations did not always pass information on to key groups and could act as gatekeepers. Community contacts (some people called them 'gatekeepers') need to be helped to use information better and to actively involve and empower wider membership. There should be local forums to feed into this. Capacity building and resources should be made available for grassroots work with individuals and communities.

There needs to be an infrastructure to bring people together and identify different organisations and different geographical areas. Solutions to increased participation lay in developing effective mechanisms and structures for minority ethnic voices to be heard and for positive action to be taken. Some wanted a range of national and local forums or a national forum to oversee the process; some wanted to elect community representatives to these. The Executive could play a role in encouraging collaboration across different institutions and sectors. There was a need to encourage and support minority ethnic-led organisations to provide a strong collective voice and leadership. Change will only happen if minority ethnic communities are involved.

Some felt there should be more grassroots events, that the Race Equality Advisory Forum was too limited and events should be in different venues at different times, focussing on specific issues, with independent convenors, a variety of information and entertainment. It was important not to exclude people through the selection and invitation process. Different methods and approaches should be used for diverse groups. Account should be taken of festivals and so on.

Again, the Executive could play a role in helping to build on existing mechanisms and seeking to fill gaps. It could also play a role in helping to identify and spread good practice

After Events

Consultation alone is not enough, there must be action. There should be output from consultation - reports or plans must be accessible and meaningful to participants. There should be action and feedback on outcome of consultation and concrete results. People assume that the Government will not listen.

Barriers to Public Appointments

Attitudes, racism, discrimination and prejudice

Not surprisingly, racism and discrimination were suggested as barriers to minority ethnic people accessing public bodies. This was pervasive, including that political parties are not willing to put forward people from minority ethnic groups in winnable seats as they think they will lose votes; institutional racism and general public attitudes; a lack of government understanding of issues facing minority ethnic communities; the lack of minority ethnic representation in the Scottish Executive, and a lack of race awareness training at grassroots level in large organisations which deters minority ethnic people from applying. There are not enough minority ethnic representation on committees and decision making bodies, and voluntary sector management committees often exclude minority ethnic people.

Lack of support, positive action

People also pointed to the lack of support and positive action to help minority ethnic communities participate. This included a lack of role models as MPs, MSPs and civil servants due to various factors including lack of training, no positive action programmes for minority ethnic people; people often being in temporary or insecure posts; people not supported or developed effectively and not having the most made of their qualifications. People in posts were isolated and lacked the lines of communication to become involved. The Executive should tackle this using a range of methods, including target setting, mentoring, shadowing and positive action. Barriers to positive action, including legal ones, should be addressed. For example, training for people who want to be MSPs, (which there is in England).

Other problems were a lack of information on the political process, including how to become a councillor or get elected. Work was also required to change people's perceptions that they would not succeed and discrimination must be tackled at all levels. All public bodies should include anti racist training and awareness raising; using properly qualified and experienced trainers. The appointment of a Minister to provide support and identifiable contacts would also help.

Again, attendees felt that the government should appreciate more that people need resources to be able to participate and the involvement of minority ethnic communities was essential for change to occur. They should also remember that people need support when they are in positions. People felt that the Government does not motivate or push for involvement for minority ethnic people as it had for women. The Scottish Executive should also take a role tackling negative images in the media

Some people said that minority ethnic communities need to see change before they see the point of participation. There is too much talk and not enough visible change. The Government should prove to people they are serious about the issues by taking action, e.g. employment quotas.

The Executive should also promote voluntary community activity to help people learn skills and how decision making works and should pay attention to the needs of different groups. For example, older people are often marginalised and there should be support for younger people who are becoming active

The Changes Required

The responsibility initiating for change lies with public sector and mainstream organisations not the minority ethnic community. People want to see changes and action; they want feedback on what happens and how information is used. The Executive should take the lead in ensuring there is public recognition that institutional racism is an issue in Scotland and that it needs to be tackled.

The Executive and the public sector as a whole have a key role to play in setting an example through all its work, including being a good employer. The Executive should publish figures on minority ethnic people and strategies for improving the diversity of its workforce. Work should be systematic and strategic, including work in schools to encourage young people to become involved and work to challenge public attitudes and stereotypes. Minority ethnic community groups should be resourced and supported to play their part also, for example to participate, to challenge racism, undertake training and consultation and support further and wider participation. Resources should be provided for proper funding and for capacity building in communities, especially those in most need, including asylum seekers and people who come to Scotland for arranged marriages. The role of mentoring should be explored and supported.

Information on minority ethnic communities and good practice were essential to ensuring more effective mainstreaming of race equality into public services and policy making. There were some examples of good practice where there was effective communication with communities. The Executive should support and disseminate good practice across sectors. The Scottish Executive must make a determined effort to broaden the consultative base with groups and organisations across Scotland, beyond Glasgow and Edinburgh. There should be a systematic and sustained approach to this plus support for better discussion on specific policy areas, in particular, health, education and housing.

Comments on the strategy

The proposed strategy was said to be too bland and boring and would not appeal to people. Some felt that there was too much jargon, and the focus should be on housing, health, education and making a difference. Some were disappointed with the lack of progress. What was needed were hard targets, timescales in an action plan, clear, measurable outcomes and a clear outline that the Executive would be accountable and monitor its progress. It must report on its work in an open and accountable way and undertake regular reviews, including assessing the costs and best value, measures of effectiveness and how many recommendations are acted on. The strategy should be properly resourced.

Some people were concerned about mainstreaming in that it can mean no one taking responsibility and nobody being accountable, and that a specific strategy or action plan was required for race equality issues. It was important that race equality was not lost within the wider equality remit. Others pointed to the need to resource mainstreaming and require staff to comply with it and for sanctions for non-compliance.

It was stressed again that the Executive must consider minorities within minorities and address multiple discrimination and recognise the diversity of communities.

Issues arising over the 3 events

Grassroots events were also held with women and disabled people. A number of themes arose across the 3 events. These are summarised briefly below.

The Executive should move quickly from strategy to developing detailed action plans, informed by the findings of the events. These should identify:

• the themes affecting groups individually
• actions required and ways themes will be addressed
• how issues which have arisen will be embedded in action plans

The plans should include clear statements about measurable outcomes, timescales, responsibility and resources and should be monitored properly. The plans and information on progress should be made publicly available.

In all the events there was a degree of cynicism about whether the hopes would be translated into reality, but also some optimism that now is the time to make a difference with a Scottish Executive that is willing to listen

The Executive should say how the findings of the days have been used, and materials should be circulated in draft to facilitators to ensure that everyone is happy about how their discussions are represented.

Resources are needed to support effective involvement in consultation and to implement change. Many suggestions were made about how to improve consultation, communication and participation for different equality groups.

Good consultation and participation should run alongside the action plans. And the Equality Strategy should spell out how change will be actioned and demonstrate a clear will to do so.

All recognised that there could be problems balancing a mainstreaming approach with an appreciation and focus on the diverse groups it encompassed. Individual action plans must take account of the needs and experiences of different troupes and people facing multiple discrimination.

The strategy and action plans must be taken on across the Scottish Executive and senior figures with the Government must endorse and act upon the strategy. Training and awareness raising for staff and politicians are also required.

The Executive should recognise the expertise within communities and foster equal partnerships, engaging partners on a regular basis and providing feedback on what account has been taken of their views. This makes the process more inclusive and accountable.

All recognised the problems of seeking the views of a wide range of groups and individuals, and that the consultation base must be expanded. This is a task for the Scottish Executive and requires an up to date database of organisations and contacts and a concerted effort to tackle barriers to participation.