Equality and diversity/Fairer Scotland Duty

Equality and diversity
Fairer Scotland Duty
Integrated Impact Assessments
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Reporting on equality and diversity

Equality and diversity relates to all of the Scottish Borders community, including our staff and members, so is integral to everything we do.

We have a duty to:

eliminate discrimination and harassment
promote equality of opportunity
foster good relations

To demonstrate how we are achieving this we are required to produce an Equality Mainstreaming Report every four years, with an update in the two year period in between.

These reports set out the progress we have made in embedding equality and diversity within our work and services.

We are also obliged to publish equality outcomes in the Equality Mainstreaming Report. These are results we aim to achieve to further equality and diversity.

Our previous Equality Mainstreaming Report was published in 2017 and covered the period 2017-21. An Equality Mainstreaming Update Report was published in 2019 covering the period 2017-19.

We are therefore required to publish an updated Equality Mainstreaming report for the period 2021-25.

Equality Mainstreaming Update Report 2021-23

Equality Mainstreaming Report and Equality Outcomes 2021-25

Background

The development of the Equality Mainstreaming Report 2021-25 has taken account of the work that we have undertaken on equalities over the past four years and the legislative, economic and social changes, both locally and nationally, that have impacted on equality matters. We have been looking at progress in taking forward the eight equality outcomes contained within the 2017-21 Equality Mainstreaming Report and embedding equalities in our policies, processes and work practices.

Executive Summary

The report lists our Equality Outcomes, and describes how we are considering equality in our work as:

a service provider
a policy maker
an employer

The report demonstrates why it is important to mainstream equality and in doing so the benefits that it can bring. Progress against the Equality Outcomes is reported along with details on mainstreaming the equality duty in Education, as an employer and by the Scottish Borders Licensing Board, which are specific requirements for reporting in the equalities legislation.

The Equality Mainstreaming Report concludes that the equality outcomes set during 2017-21 are still relevant and should be maintained. A set of high level actions together with performance indicators have been produced to facilitate further progress in embedding equalities for the period 2021-25.

Key aspects within the Action Plan include:

ensure that communities and groups are consulted/involved in the formulation of our strategies/policies
continue the work in establishing effective performance indicators for ourl services
ensure that the business plans for service areas fully embed equalities and equality outcomes
develop a training programme on Integrated Impact Assessments (IIAs) for our staff and Councillors
use the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) process when carrying out core business functions and have officers trained in the current IIA process and requirements
ensure that Children and Young People continues to link into our overall approach to equalities
for Human Resources (HR) to continue to strive to improve the information we hold for each of the protected characteristics in respect of employees and to analyse the reasons for the gender pay gap and address these

The Equality Mainstreaming Report provides details on our employee data analysed by the protected characteristics and operational aspects. It also includes information on equal pay and the gender pay gap.