Scottish Government

NOVEMBER 2005
ISBN 0 7559 2837 7
This document is also available in pdf format (420k)

Dear Colleague

OUTCOME OF THE REVIEW OF RACE EQUALITY

I am writing to send you details of the outcome of the Scottish Executive's race equality review and to thank you for your extremely valuable contribution. Your input has helped us to shape our framework for action and we look forward to working with you on its delivery. I have enclosed for your information a summary of the review outcomes and the document which sets out the evidence gathered entitled 'Review Of Race Equality In Scotland: Summary And Discussion Of Evidence'. Both documents are published on the 'One Scotland Many Cultures' website - www.infoscotland.com/noplace

As you know the review of race equality was initiated by Margaret Curran, then Minister for Communities and conducted between June 2004 and February 2005. The review was carried out because the context for race equality work has changed dramatically in the last six years. There are new challenges for us all and we need to make sure that we have the right approach to deal with them. Devolution has given Scotland the opportunity to find Scottish solutions to Scottish issues and in the context of equality and race equality work to adopt Scottish approaches to UK issues.

The summary outlines the framework for our race equality work over the next period. By carrying out this work, we are hoping to develop a modern dynamic Scotland that fosters integration but respects diversity; where all are able to help shape Scotland's future and to share in what it has to offer. We want a Scotland where no one is held back because of their colour, race or background and where there is no place for racism.

As you will see from the enclosed papers, there are a range of measures which we will embark on immediately not least of which is creating a £2M Race Equalilty, Integration and Community Support Fund and the establishment of a National Coalition on Race Equality. We will also be developing a Race Equality Strategy and Action Plan which we intend to publish in June 2006.

The review process was an extremely interesting and useful one, and we are very grateful to the many individuals and organisations who shared their views and experiences with us. Our proposals are very firmly founded in the evidence we gathered, and we are therefore confident that they will provide the platform for real and sustained change. We have laid the foundations for a comprehensive set of measures to tackle disadvantage and discrimination in Scotland and thereby make race equality a reality.

I hope that you will welcome the measures we have taken and that you will continue to work with us in the fight to tackle racism and to achieve race equality.

Yours sincerely

YVONNE STRACHAN
Head of Equality Unit

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE REVIEW OF RACE EQUALITY WORK IN SCOTLAND: A SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW AND THE WAY FORWARD

1. Introduction and background

Between June 2004 and February 2005, the Scottish Executive conducted a comprehensive review of race equality work in Scotland. The review was initiated by the previous Minister for Communities, Margaret Curran. The current Minister, Malcolm Chisholm, personally oversaw the review through to its conclusion. The primary purpose of the review was to determine the best approach required to deliver tangible improvements in the lives of Scotland's diverse communities whilst ensuring resources are maximised and directed to best effect.

In order to ensure as many people as possible participated in the review a variety of methods were used to reach out to those with an interest in the area. We heard from people in writing, in one to one meetings, through public meetings around the country, and through a variety of other mediums. The Executive is extremely grateful for the contributions made by the respondents to the review, which have shaped the policy. Background documents, including a complete analysis of submitted evidence, can be found on the Scottish Executive's 'One Scotland. Many Cultures' campaign website http://www.onescotland.com/onescotland/files/Summary%20and%20Discussion%20of%20Evidence.pdf

The review built on a number of pieces of work already undertaken by the Executive: the study in 1999 into the Black and Ethnic Minority Infrastructure in Scotland, 'Listening to the Voice'; the Scottish Executive's Equality Strategy, published in 2000; the report of the Race Equality Advisory Forum ( REAF) published in 2001; the Audit of Research on Minority Ethnic Issues in Scotland from a Race Perspective, published in 2001; the Executive's Race Equality Scheme ( RES), published in November 2003; the Annual Report on the RES, published in 2004; the Audit of the REAF recommendations, published in 2004 and the Analysis of Ethnicity from the 2001 Census, published in 2004.

2. The Context in which we work

We want a modern dynamic Scotland that fosters integration but respects diversity; where all are able to help shape Scotland's future and to share in what it has to offer. We want a Scotland where no one is held back because of their colour, race or background and where there is no place for racism.

Contemporary Scotland is rightly proud of its distinct heritage and of the new cultures, faiths and traditions it continues to embrace. It is the richer for this. Scotland has a reputation for warmth and welcome, has an increasingly diverse population and has opened its doors to refugees, students, migrants and visitors from around the world for generations. But until recently, Scotland was in denial about the extent and effects of racism in our country. There was a myth that because Scotland had a small minority ethnic population, racism was not a problem. This meant that, despite the efforts of many organisations and individuals, racism and discrimination were not high on the public and political agendas and it often went unchallenged. Public policies, services and programmes were designed and delivered largely without consideration of race equality. The legacy of this complacency and lack of awareness was racial disadvantage and continued racism.

Devolution has altered the context for race equality work in Scotland. Since 1999 Scotland has had the opportunity to find Scottish solutions to Scottish issues and in the context of equality and race equality, to adopt Scottish approaches to UK issues.

The MacPherson Report, which followed the tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence, was a watershed in race relations - opening up the issue of institutional or systemic racism for more careful scrutiny and public debate, thereby creating a powerful impetus for legislative change. Scotland responded quickly by establishing two national forums in 1999 to consider appropriate judicial and public policy responses. The Lawrence Steering Group and the Race Equality Advisory Forum both consulted widely and provided well considered recommendations for change. These recommendations form much of the basis for current race equality work.

The Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive placed equality and race equality in particular, at the top of the political agenda. There was endorsement of the Executive's Equality Strategy and widespread acceptance of mainstreaming equality. The issues of poverty, regeneration and equality which for some time were being tackled in parallel and not in concert, began to be approached as integral and related issues.

In order to address the lack of public debate and poor awareness of racism in Scotland, the Executive launched its One Scotland Many Cultures campaign. This was, and remains, a first for government in the UK and has successfully stimulated debate and increased awareness of race issues across Scotland.

More recently, Scotland's demographics have focused debate on how we might attract people from abroad and better engage the talent we already have here. This is particularly important for minority ethnic communities who suffer an ethnic penalty in the labour market. The growing minority ethnic population, the dispersal of asylum seekers to Glasgow; the debates around citizenship and identity, the increase in migrant labour through the expansion of the EU, and the introduction of the public duty to promote race equality have altered the landscape on which we operate. But it has been the issues such as Iraq, 9/11, the conflicts in the Middle East and latterly issues of immigration and asylum, and the bombings in July 2005 which have captured headlines and reverberated within communities - pulling communities together on the one hand, and heightening tension on the other.

Major legislative changes are also taking place which will impact on race equality work within Scotland. The establishment of a single body dealing with equality and human rights - the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights ( CEHR), the introduction of anti-discrimination legislation for religion, sexual orientation and age, new public duties to promote disability and gender equality, will significantly alter the framework within which we operate. These developments will of course encourage closer collaboration and joint working across equality strands and work on race equality will need to reflect this new environment without detracting from the agenda to deliver a racially just Scotland.

So acknowledging this complex and challenging social and political context Ministers reviewed the focus of the Executive's race equality work to ensure it was prioritising the right issues, focusing on what needed to be done to achieve race equality and using its resources to best effect.

3. What the Review told us

In summary the review told us that:

• The Executive should provide more strategic leadership and direction on race equality
• A national partnership for race equality in Scotland should be developed
• A national strategy and action plan should be developed
• Public bodies should accelerate the delivery of race equality
• Racial disadvantage must be tackled in key public policy areas
• There must be engagement of majority and minority communities and capacity built in both
• Development and capacity building were necessary for the ME voluntary sector
• Mechanisms for communication, engagement and consultation with minority ethnic communities should be reviewed
• Data and research gaps needed to be identified and addressed
• Processes for information sharing and dissemination should be developed
• Standards and tools for evaluation of race equality work should be developed

These points were also raised:

• Scotland lacked a shared vision on race equality
• There was a lack of a clear theoretical basis for race equality work and an absence of shared understanding of the issues, definitions, principles and nature of racism and race equality
• There was a lack of public debate and discourse

On specific communities or policy areas the following were identified as requiring more dedicated work and action:

• Gypsies/Travellers
• Asylum Seekers and Refugees
• Race equality in rural areas
• Participation in the labour market, including issues around in-migration and migrant labour

The Executive has considered the issues and views expressed during the review process and proposes the following Framework for Action to ensure lasting and effective change and the ultimate delivery of race equality in Scotland.

4. The Framework for Action

By proposing this framework for action we aim to:

• Eliminate racial inequality and disadvantage
• Combat racism and racist crime
• Drive up public sector performance on race equality and improve access to and benefit from public services
• Foster integration and promote dialogue and understanding between communities
• Develop the awareness and capacity of both majority and minority communities to engage with this agenda, to tackle racism and promote race equality
• Develop the organisational capacity of the Minority Ethnic ( ME) voluntary sector and promote closer working with mainstream services

What Actions will be taken:

4.1 A National Strategy

A national strategy and action plan will be published in June 2006.

The strategy will set out the vision, basis and direction for the future work on race equality and the action plan will outline how the Scottish Executive will seek to implement change to deliver the above aims. Within this national strategy there will be an opportunity to develop shared understanding of the definitions and principles of racism and race equality. This will be particularly important in the light of current debates around multiculturalism, integration, pluralism and identity.

The strategy will be informed by:

• the findings of the review
• developmental work which will be commenced immediately in dialogue with stakeholders, to scope work in key areas highlighted by the review and will be completed by Spring 2006
• the work of four short-life groups which will examine issues in relation to the areas review respondents highlighted as needing further specific work. As mentioned above these are:
• Asylum Seekers and Refugees
• Gypsies/Travellers
• labour market issues
• race equality in rural areas

These groups will meet from November 2005 to May 2006.

4.2 Strategic Leadership/Dialogue with Communities

The Executive wishes to influence opinion and activity on race equality at different levels of society, encourage public leadership, promote more 'joined -up' ways of working and engage directly with communities to hear what they have to say. The Executive intends to take this forward in a number of ways by:

• The establishment of a high level public sector group on equality, including race equality, which will look at the implementation of the equality public duties and equality legislative requirements. It is hoped this will help co-ordination of activity across the public sector, encourage closer working across the different equality strands and prepare the way for operation under the CEHR.
• A national coalition on race equality, comprising key stakeholder organisations. It will provide a forum for discussion and input on the development and implementation of the Strategy and action plan. The coalition will be chaired by the Minister for Communities.
• Developing, in collaboration with the CRE, a federation of Race Equality Councils and race equality partnerships to build the links between minority ethnic communities and other equality strands and to engage with CPPs.
• Establishing a series of meetings with minority ethnic communities and organisations across Scotland, hosted by the Minister for Communities.

4.3 Combating Racism and Racist Crime

The level of racism and the increased number of racist incidents in Scotland is of great concern to the Executive. The voluntary sector has taken a leading role in developing work in these areas, and, recognising their expertise, we will work in partnership with them to take this agenda forward, in a number of ways:

• The Executive will explore the development of a national monitoring system for racist incidents, the development of an appropriate framework to maximise effective intervention at the local and national level, and with others, tackle the under-reporting of racist incidents.
• The Executive will work with police services and the CRE in the improvement of police/community relations in the light of the recent independent review of policing in Scotland.
• The Executive will continue its One Scotland Many Cultures campaign, reinforcing the message that there is no place for racism and emphasising the positive contribution made by all communities to Scotland.
• The Executive will continue to work with authorities, youth organisations, teachers and educational bodies to raise the awareness of young people and provide for the development of schools based activities on the promotion of race equality.
• The Executive will convene a network of academics, researchers and practitioners to consider how to improve the public discourse on key race issues in contemporary Scotland. We will consider holding a major symposium with prominent speakers in late 2006/early 2007 to promote and stimulate wide debate on the key issues.

4.4 Driving up Public Performance and delivery on race equality

Whilst many public bodies are committed to change and are making progress in tackling race inequality and disadvantage, the pace of change is slow. Respondents to the review indicated that there are wide variations in provision across Scotland and good race equality performance often seems to be an agency discretion rather than a public service guarantee. Concern was expressed about poor levels of knowledge and awareness on race equality in key public sector areas; the lack of internal 'know how' within organisations on how to deal with race equality matters; and the limited range and use of external networks.

The Executive proposes a number of actions to help the capacity of agencies to deliver better performance:

• To provide Non Departmental Public Bodies ( NDPBs) with strategic direction and guidance where required
• To fund, through Community Scotland, two posts to work with Community Planning Partnerships ( CPPs) including on Regeneration Outcome Agreements, to improve capacity and understanding of race equality
• To fund a post within the Local Government Improvement Service to work with local authorities on race equality and to embed this work within the Best Value framework
• To develop work with CRE, Audit Scotland and audit/inspection bodies on a relevant suite of race equality performance measures across key public sector areas.
• To fund a short-life project with the National Resource Centre for Ethnic Minority Health to develop a good practice model for effective Health Board consultation with ME communities.

4.5 Building the ME Voluntary Sector, increasing capacity of communities

Respondents to the review consistently raised the issue of the lack of development across the ME voluntary sector and the lack of capacity amongst communities generally on race equality and in ensuring their voices are heard.

There is therefore a need to support the ME voluntary sector to become more robust and able to articulate need and to improve the understanding and capacity of both majority and minority communities to tackle racism and promote race equality.

The Executive therefore proposes to:

• Work with a variety of organisations in the ME and mainstream voluntary sectors to improve community support; increase voluntary sector development; support the mainstreaming of race equality (and equality) and explore models for organisational capacity building
• Consider models of good practice locally that could be rolled out to other areas.
• Continue to support work with host and asylum seeking/refugee communities to facilitate integration and build safe communities
• Continue to support the work of the specialist ME voluntary sector in their two-fold roles of providing direct services to minority ethnic communities as well as working to challenge racism and encourage the embedding of race equality into mainstream services

Integration and community support

The review also highlighted the pressing need to foster greater integration, understanding and dialogue between communities and to provide support to tackle issues of inequality and integration. We need to focus increasingly on, both majority and minority communities, to develop a shared agenda across communities - to encourage people to work together on what are common problems and mutual areas of concern. At the same time we must recognise that our communities are diverse and this must be respected. Minority ethnic communities are not all the same and will have different needs. Communities need to be supported to articulate that need and to work with others to secure change. The review placed an emphasis on the need to encourage greater partnership working and improved engagement between minority ethnic communities and public sector bodies.

All the Executive activities outlined above will help this process. However we believe there is a need to provide specific support to achieve change. To this end we are creating a £2M Race Equality, Integration and Community Support Fund which will run from April 2006 - March 2008. Further information is given below.

4.6 Translation and Interpretation

The Executive is awaiting the outcome of research on this matter and will consider what actions should be taken as part of the development of the race equality strategy and action plan.

5. Funding

The Executive will establish a new Race Equality, Integration and Community Support Fund to develop work on race equality, to encourage community integration, to enable greater engagement with mainstream services and to tackle racism.

The new fund will be operational from April 2006. Application forms and guidance will be available from mid-November 2005. Bids will be assessed according to published criteria and declared priorities. The Race Equality, Integration and Community Support Fund will be worth £2m over two years.

The new fund will provide:

• clarity on what the Executive is prepared to fund and why
• openness about funding arrangements and decision making processes
• transparent criteria by which all applicants must abide
• monitoring and evaluation to ensure projects are accountable
• outcome focused activity thus ensuring greater accountability and increased value for money

In addition the Executive will spend a further £2.3m in 2006/2008 on race equality - covering current commitments, new development work with the community and voluntary sectors and work to support the delivery of race equality across the public sector.

Furthermore the Executive has allocated £2.4 million to support the integration of refugees and asylum seekers.

6. Conclusion

The Scottish Executive has a responsibility to provide leadership in the fight against racism and in the efforts to eliminate racial disadvantage and inequality. But this is not just an issue for Government or for public bodies - it is an issue for everyone. Our approach will therefore be to work in partnership with a range of interests to secure improvement and change. We will continue to emphasise that this agenda is not just about minority ethnic communities - it is about all communities. It is also an evolving agenda and so we will build flexibility and review into all that we do.

If you would like further information about the review, please contact:

Alison Colvine

Tel: 0131 244 0560
Email: alison.colvine@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Scottish Executive, November 2005.