Scottish Government

Introduction

EQUALITY AND THE BUDGET

This Equality Statement sets out, for the first time, the actions that the Scottish Government has taken and is planning to ensure that the public money we spend contributes to greater equality in Scotland. It aims to explain how our budget for 2010-11, published in draft for consultation with the Parliament and with the people of Scotland on 17 September, aligns with our equalities objectives and will contribute to further progress in future.

The Scottish Government believes that what we do and how we spend our money should be directed at improving the lives of all our communities. It is therefore important to make spending plans in the light of equality considerations, and to develop ways of showing more clearly the links between evidence, policy, spending and equalities outcomes.

The Government also recognises the importance of providing a public account of how our budget contributes to progressing equality. While perspectives have been offered on a Portfolio basis, for example in evidence to Parliamentary Committees, there is a clear need for a comprehensive Statement for the benefit of the Parliament and the people of Scotland.

Our 2010-11 draft Budget seeks to prioritise front line public services that are most valued by the people of Scotland - in particular Health and Education - to maintain our efforts to promote economic recovery through skills and support for business and to protect households in this time of economic difficulty.

The draft Scottish budget is focused on delivering for the people of Scotland and protecting what matters most to them. It will contribute to a fairer Scotland and to improving people's life chances.

INFORMING THE BUDGET

National Performance Framework

At the beginning of this spending review period 2008 - 2011, we set out a clear Purpose for Government - to focus on creating a more successful country with opportunities for all to flourish through increasing sustainable economic growth. This combines the drive for good economic performance with a strong social dimension helping us build a fairer, more just, modern and successful Scotland. Our activity and spending over this period has been and will be geared to this purpose and focused on the economic targets and national outcomes outlined in our National Performance Framework, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/purposestratobjs

The National Performance Framework provides an opportunity for the first time to channel activity across the public sector towards common purpose and outcomes, including tackling inequality. The National Performance Framework is designed to focus on improving the lives of all the people of Scotland. If progress is not made for all communities then we will fall short of fully realising our outcomes. Therefore equality is an important and integral part of the Framework. Furthermore to give focus to our work on equality we have a specific national outcome to have tackled the significant inequalities in Scottish society (no.7).

Scotland is an increasingly diverse nation and this brings both opportunities and challenges. Opportunities to benefit from and be enriched by the contribution that a wide and different range of people can bring to our economy and society; challenges in ensuring that Scotland is able to embrace this diversity and can remove the barriers which prevent people from participating fully in the life of the country and reaching their full potential.

It is not in Scotland's economic or social interests for example, for women's skills and contribution to be under-utilised or undervalued; for disabled people and minority ethnic communities to find it harder to gain employment; for disabled people and older people to feel excluded or unable to live more independently if they choose; for those in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities to be subject to negative attitudes and prejudice; for women and children to experience violence and domestic abuse or for racism, sectarianism or religious intolerance to blight communities.

As we strive to move out of recession and towards economic recovery, consideration of equality matters becomes more, not less, important. We should not lose sight of the kind of Scotland we want - fairer and more just - nor on what needs to be done to achieve it. We need to be able to capitalise on the skills and talents of all and avoid the further marginalisation of vulnerable groups. Those that are most at risk of becoming long term unemployed or inactive are older men, those who have no or low education qualifications; lone parents with dependent children who are mostly women, disabled people and those who are long term sick. When resources are tight the most marginalised may find it hardest to compete for opportunities and without due diligence their concerns may be less readily heard.

The commitment to greater equality and to tackling the barriers which restrict individuals and communities from reaching their potential and flourishing is therefore relevant to the delivery of our national purpose and in realising our national outcomes. It is reflected in our three key social frameworks around the drive to eradicate poverty, create a healthier Scotland and provide the best future for our children by intervening early. It underpins and helps to shape our plans and programmes. No-one should be denied opportunities because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, faith, age or disability.

Purpose Target: Solidarity

The Government Economic Strategy has a number of targets, including delivering greater Solidarity in Scotland - a fairer distribution of income - which the Scottish Government believes is key to tackling poverty and creating the kind of Scotland we all want to live in. Solidarity ensures that government attention is focused on those who might, in other circumstances, miss out on the benefits of economic growth.

It is of course important in the context of the equality agenda, as for example in the three lowest income deciles single pensioner households and lone parent households, which are mostly headed by women, are over represented, along with households with adults who are over 60, households which are economically inactive and households which are actively seeking work.

Economic growth will be maximised when everyone in Scotland has the opportunity to contribute and fulfil their potential. Solidarity contributes to this by ensuring that those who are starting from a lower base get the opportunities and help they need to improve their own circumstances, and those of Scotland as a whole.

New ways of working

In addition to the new focus to our work provided by the National Performance Framework the Concordat with local government sets out a new relationship which changes the context for delivery and the provision of funding. The Concordat recognises the role of councils and councillors as leaders of their local communities and gives them the freedom to deliver in the best way for those communities. This brings with it a requirement to ensure that service delivery is supported by sound governance and robust performance management practices. Scottish and Local Government have a shared commitment to delivering on the national performance framework. In the Single Outcome Agreement ( SOA), councils and community planning partners decide which outcomes are relevant to local circumstances and how best to achieve them. The outcomes are supported by a number of national indicators from which councils choose those most relevant along with appropriate local indicators. There are annual reports on the Single Outcome Agreement and progress made in realising outcomes.

Both Scottish and local government are subject to the public sector equality duties as are the statutory partners to the community planning partnerships. It is expected therefore that local priorities and activity will be informed by equality considerations and relevant impact assessments. Advice on equality in the SOA process was provided to CPPs in March 2009.

Public Sector Duties

The Scottish Government takes seriously its responsibilities under the public sector equality duties as indicated in its race, gender and disability schemes and corresponding annual reports. We believe that the duties assist the public sector to improve policy development and service delivery. They also help to support the mainstreaming of equality.

There are specific duties on Scottish Ministers to provide leadership on gender and disability equality in Scotland. This is done by reporting on progress and identifying priority areas around which public authorities might work more closely together. Scottish Ministers have decided, that tackling violence against women and addressing occupational segregation should be the gender equality priorities for this coming period. The areas for co-ordination on disability are yet to be finalised.

These priorities will be reflected in the work undertaken by Government In the period ahead.

Mainstreaming Equality

We want to make sure that the policies we develop and the activities we undertake can be of benefit across all our communities. To achieve this we are committed to mainstreaming equality across all that we do - by mainstreaming we mean integrating equality considerations into our everyday work. This approach is one shared with the wider public sector, is reinforced by Best Value and the public sector equality duties, and chimes with public sector reform and its focus on delivery and improved services.

A key element of mainstreaming equality is equality impact assessment - a process for ensuring, as part of the development of policies, frameworks and activities, that the impact on different groups is considered and proposals are adjusted accordingly. In the EQIA process we expect account to be taken of the diversity of needs and experiences of those affected and for the proposals to be informed by relevant equality data. We have produced guidance on the conduct of equality impact assessments and have a tool for recording assessments which is available online for policy makers across Government. We are working on improving the tool and guidance to make it easier to use and to ensure better coverage of resources.

We continue to work with the Equality and Budget Advisory Group ( EBAG) http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/18507/13477. EBAG has helped to shape the approach of the Scottish Government to matters relating to equality in the budget and to the development of the Equality Impact Assessment tool used across Government. In this next period we will be concentrating our effort on developing the process of equality analysis with regard to the budget for 2011/12. A report of the Group's considerations will be made available to Ministers in summer 2010 to inform the budget setting process for 2011 and beyond.

Equality Data

An essential requirement of the equality impact assessment process and good policy making is quality data. We recognise that in the UK, and in Scotland there is limited equality data, and we are working to address this.

There is a commitment to provide and promote access to statistical sources disaggregated by equality groups across all Scottish Government's statistical outputs and sources for use by Government officials.

• The Office of the Chief Statistician ( OCS) has compiled a multi-purpose database detailing which equality strands are included in each of the Scottish Government's statistical outputs and sources (c. 170 sources and 150 outputs).
• Equality data has been made available in a number of ways including the Portal to Resources and Information on Mainstreaming Equalities¹ ( PRIME), the Gender Audit of Statistics² (2007) and the High Level Summary of Equalities Statistics³ ( HLSES) (2006).
• OCS established a ScotStat (Scottish Statisticians) Network of analysts from local government and other public bodies which co-ordinates and facilitates demand led workshops on methodological and cross-cutting issues. Two workshops on equality data were undertaken in February 2009 with Scottish Government analysts to provide advice on collecting and analysing equality data.

Better Measurement of Equality

The Government's analytical services are working to ensure that the equality dimensions of the Scottish Government's National Performance Framework are monitored and supported by evidence. For example, we have developed harmonised questions on gender, ethnicity, religion/belief and age ⁴ to be used in our main social surveys in Scotland. Work is currently underway to develop a harmonised question for disability and sexual orientation.

These harmonised questions will help improve the quality of statistics across the six equality strands and will allow for analysis into multiple discrimination and the complex inter-linkages between equality strands. While we recognise the significant challenges in producing data on multiple discrimination, we are undertaking work to integrate our five core surveys ⁵ allowing us the possibility of combining samples to increase numbers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission ( EHRC) has developed the Equality Measurement Framework EMF⁶, which covers all equalities strands and will highlight the position of different groups across the UK and Scotland. The Scottish Government is keen to see this framework developed further to align with the National Performance Framework. It will be an important addition to strengthening our measurement of equality and supporting the process of equality analysis. The Equality Measurement Framework will form the basis of a triennial report by the EHRC indicating the progress made towards the elimination of discrimination and the promotion of equality of opportunity. The triennial reports for the UK and Scotland are due to be published in 2010.

Developing the information base

Gender remains a key variable for data analysis in all government surveys, including government modules on the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey. Differences between women and men in their attitudes (for example, towards government and public services) will continue to be reported in annual survey reports. Furthermore, important evidence on the prevalence, nature and extent of discrimination and positive equalities attitudes in Scotland will continue to be drawn from national social surveys, to help shape policy.

From 2008-2014, through the Economic Social Research Council ( ESRC) and Scottish Government Collaborative Schemes, we will be supporting and increasing research capacity on issues concerning diversity. Furthermore we will also be conducting a review of the available evidence on how the impact of the economic downturn varies across the equalities strands.

Equality is an important consideration for us in developing our policies, programmes and spend and in ensuring better performance and delivery. We continue to look for ways to improve how we embed equality across our activities.

We have made some progress in improving the data on equality, in the mainstreaming of equality and in the process of policy equality impact assessment. However, there is more that needs to be done to link these developments to budget setting and spending decisions and to explain more clearly the links between equalities considerations and the prioritisation of public spending. We are working with the Equality and Budget Advisory Group to develop a programme of work over the next year which will support the consideration of equality in the next spending round, covering the years from 2011-12 and enable us to provide more comprehensive equality analysis.

In the meantime this statement on equality provides information on how the 2010/11 draft budget contributes to advancing equality and expands on the outline provided in draft budget document.