The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE: LESSONS IN MAINSTREAMING EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

SECTION 3 MAINSTREAMING IN THE UK

UK discrimination law currently covers sex, marriage, race and disability. In addition the Government and other public bodies are bound by European Commission law which is expanding as a result of the Treaty of Amsterdam. The UK is also a signatory to a number of international treaties and conventions prohibiting discrimination on various grounds.

In 1997 the proportion of women MPs returned to the House of Commons doubled to 18.2%. Since the 1997 General Election, new co-ordinating government machinery has been developed including a number of Ministers for Women at central, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish levels. A Cabinet sub committee involving ministers from all major government departments aims to co-ordinate a 'women's agenda' across government. ⁷¹A Women's Unit was established, initially within the Department for Social Security, and later relocated in the Cabinet Office. In addition, an All Party Group on Sex Equality was formed in November 1997 in association with the Equal Opportunities Commission to promote issues of sex equality.

Mainstreaming in the UK is at an early stage. Constitutional change and the government's modernisation agenda are seen as important enabling contexts within which equalities work can develop both collaboratively and distinctively at different levels. The following brief account highlights some of the main features of its development at different governmental levels. Although equal opportunities legislation remains a matter reserved for Westminster; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each has responsibilities and duties to promote equal opportunities in the work of their parliaments, assemblies and other public bodies.

UK GOVERNMENT

The former Conservative government first issued guidance on policy appraisal for different social groups in 1992 which was revised, after consultation with various government departments, into Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment (PAET) in 1996. It was largely through PAET that the government carried forward its post-Beijing commitment to mainstreaming equal opportunities.

In 1998 the incoming Labour government issued new PAET guidelines to all departments. They cover equal treatment for race, sex, and disability and were jointly issued by the Home Office (which has responsibility for legislation on race equality), DfEE (which has responsibility for sex and disability discrimination legislation, civil rights for disabled people, promotion of race equality in employment and policy responsibility on tackling age discrimination in employment); and the Minister for Women in the Cabinet Office (who has responsibility for women's interests).

The Women's Unit is working to implement PAET and is currently committed to producing a framework for gender impact assessment as part of a broader project examining how to take mainstreaming forward. This work is in early stages and further details were not available at time of writing.

According to the guidelines, policy appraisal is about good government, making sure that policy has the effect government intends. Therefore departments need to know the impact of their policies on different groups. There are three steps to the policy appraisal process:

Policy makers are advised to make full use of existing research and statistics and, if necessary commission new data, disaggregated by gender, race, disability and age; to consult experts, interest groups and service users; and to carry out a differential impact assessment. Policy proposals must include an impact analysis 'which clearly brings out the effect on particular sections of the population, and how you have addressed any relevant differences'. ⁷²

PAET guidelines have been criticised as having significant weaknesses resulting from vague objectives and the lack of machinery for monitoring and evaluation. Further, while PAET is supposed to be carried out in every department, in practice gender-related work is often referred back to the Women's Unit. Although it is seen as too early to make anything other than provisional judgements, commentators argue that there is no clear view as to what mainstreaming entails or ought to entail and that practice falls far short of principle. Furthermore, mainstreaming has developed as a form of 'gender proofing' policy rather than involving women and other equality groups in policy development. ⁷³

Figure 3.1 Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment

SCOTLAND

The new Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive have each made a commitment to mainstreaming equal opportunities considerations into policy making, although the power to legislate on equal opportunities is reserved to Westminster. As defined in the Scotland Act 1998, equal opportunities means:

The prevention, elimination or regulation of discrimination between persons on grounds of sex or marital status, on racial grounds or on grounds of disability, age, sexual orientation, language or social origin, or of other personal attributes including beliefs or opinions such as religious beliefs or political opinions. ⁷⁴

The first elections to the Scottish parliament resulted in a substantial proportion of female MSPs (37.2 %) although there were no black or minority ethnic MSPs of either sex. In addition, women hold important ministerial posts and committee convenorships. An Equal Opportunities Committee has been set up in the Parliament, one of eight mandatory committees (there are sixteen committees in total), and an Equality Unit has been established within the Executive Secretariat of the Scottish Executive. The Minister and Deputy Minister for Communities are responsible for equality matters.

Equal opportunities was one of the key principles adopted by the Consultative Steering Group (CSG) which was established by the Secretary of State at the end of 1997 to help draft Standing Orders and Procedures for the parliament. The four key principles - Sharing of Power, Accountability, Access and Participation and Equal Opportunities - have subsequently been endorsed by the members of the new parliament. Under the Standing Orders and Procedures the parliament meets at times that are more compatible with family life and recognises Scottish school holidays. In addition, there is potential to feed-in the views of women and men in the community or from different groups and organisations in the consultative channels envisaged for the parliamentary committees and the pre-legislative process. The decision of the parliament to establish a Civic Forum also allows the opportunity for women and men to be represented in the Forum and to engage with the policy-making process. ⁷⁵

A Women in Scotland Consultative Forum was established in 1998 and continues to be an effective force. A Race Equality Advisory Forum was established by the Scottish Executive in 1999. The work of the Race Equality Advisory Forum will include forming action plans to eradicate institutionalised racism in all areas of Scottish life and advising on the best way for the Executive to consult people with ethnic minority backgrounds.

Mainstreaming is seen as one means by which the Scottish Parliament can deliver upon its key principles. ⁷⁶ The Standing Orders of the Parliament require that all Executive Bills are accompanied by a statement of their potential impact on equal opportunities, which is a significant step towards the development of a mainstreaming approach. In December 1999, a mainstreaming check list and explanatory leaflet was produced jointly by the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality in partnership with the University of Edinburgh Governance of Scotland Forum to assist MSPs in this scrutiny role and was launched by the First Minister. The EOC and CRE argued that,

Effective mainstreaming depends upon clear political commitment and will. All Members of the Scottish Parliament have a role to play in the appraisal of government policy and legislative proposals for equality implications; and the integration of equality from the outset in their own legislative proposals. MSPs as individuals and as members of Parliamentary Committees can act as visible champions of mainstreaming: scrutinising the equality implications of policies and legislative programmes; encouraging a culture of equality sensitive governance; monitoring the performance of policy makers; and ensuring two way communication between the public and political decision makers. The Equal Opportunities Committee has a crucial role in terms of building expertise and developing effective methods of monitoring and evaluation. ⁷⁷

The following questions were printed as a credit card sized checklist to assist MSPs as a first step towards mainstreaming.

Figure 3.2 Mainstreaming Equalities: A Checklist for MSPS

The first Parliamentary debate on equality was also held in December 1999 and the checklist was used/referred to on several occasions by MSPs.

The Equal Opportunities Committee has established several sub-groups, including gender, race, disability and sexual orientation. The committee is currently conducting an audit of equality statistics and related mapping information.

The Equality Unit's role in developing and supporting work on mainstreaming equality is central to the Scottish Executive's commitment. It published a draft Equality Strategy in January 2000 and is conducting a wide consultation on its proposals. The main strands of its proposed work programme include: a training and development strategy on mainstreaming equality across the work of the Scottish Executive, with public bodies and more widely; a strategy for raising awareness both internally within the Scottish Executive, and externally; work to secure improvements to baseline and ongoing information together with statistics, data and research; and work with the statutory equalities agencies and other bodies to develop practical tools for equal opportunities impact assessment and for monitoring and evaluation; and ways of sharing and disseminating good practice. It aims to work in partnership with and be supportive of all departments of the Executive including the Scottish Executive's Personnel Directorate, with sponsored bodies and more widely. The Unit plans to engage with existing networks such as that established by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA), and will build links with statutory equality agencies and with other external organisations, academics and interested parties. ⁷⁸

Preparatory work has already been carried out by a Women's Issues Research Consultant who was appointed in 1998. Such work included developing networks of academics and other researchers, disseminating research on women's issues, and setting up the Women in Scotland Consultative Forum. There is an ongoing process of dialogue between politicians, policy makers, and women's organisations, that it is expected will continue to develop and to inform policy making. A database of more than 1,000 organisations has been established which has greatly enhanced the Equality Unit's capacity for communication. It is currently being used to consult widely on the Unit's draft Equality Strategy.

One example of the new approach to policy making is the current research and consultation exercise commissioned by the (then) Scottish Office to explore issues affecting women's use of various forms of transport and to identify the key priorities for improvement. ⁷⁹ The project, which ends in Spring 2000, comprises a research review, a consultation with key organisations to identify their views of women's transport needs, a large scale self-completion questionnaire survey of women's experiences of transport, and a number of smaller discussion groups. The overall aim of the study is to produce a set of draft guidelines for central and local government policy makers to assist them in 'gender auditing' transport provision and future transport policy.

There are clear expectations by women's organisations and other equalities activists in Scotland that effective mainstreaming requires the development of meaningful models of consultation and participation, through consultative fora and other mechanisms. As such the democratic and participatory potential of mainstreaming is being emphasised by Scottish civil society. As Alice Brown notes:

There are high expectations that the new Scottish Parliament will provide a genuine opportunity for the participation of women in the democratic process, not just as elected members, and that there will be different channels and avenues through which the voices of women in Scotland can be heard and can have an impact. ⁸⁰

MAINSTREAMING IN WALES

As in Scotland, the new Assembly is seen as creating an opportunity to move forward with regard to equalities matters in Wales. Women are 40% of Assembly Members (AMs), although again, as in the Scottish case, no black or minority ethnic candidates were elected as AMs. An Equal Opportunities Committee has been created which is one of only two standing committees. The Committee, which will in the first instance concentrate on the issues of race, gender and disability, has a remit to ensure that the Assembly has effective arrangements to promote the principle of equality of opportunity for all people in Wales. It is responsible for producing an annual report on equal opportunities, as required in the Government of Wales Act.

Mainstreaming has been identified as a strategy for achieving this aim though it is at very early stages in the Welsh Assembly. The commitment to the strategy is based in Section 48 and 120 of the Wales Act which make specific reference to the need for due regard to equal opportunities in the functions and business of the Assembly. ⁸¹ Thus equal opportunities must be considered within all the Assembly's activities, procedures and outputs.

An Action Plan for mainstreaming equal opportunities in all of the Assembly's activities has been developed. The initial tasks include gaining an understanding of where the Assembly currently stands in relation to equal opportunities, and raising the awareness of all officers and politicians within the Assembly. The first of these two activities is underway in the form of an audit described below. The Equal Opportunities Committee will have responsibility for monitoring and auditing the work carried out under the plan and Heads of Division will be directly accountable for progress, or the lack of it, on equality issues. An Equality Policy Unit has been created in the administration.

Concerns have been expressed that mainstreaming in Wales could be 'a tag used without understanding' and that there is a need to move beyond words to practical actions. As a first step in the process of 'seeking under its obligations to make equality for all come true,' the Equality Unit has initiated an audit of all Assembly activities, that is, all policy divisions of the old Welsh Office. The audit, in the form of a survey involving interviews, briefings and so on, will gather information on the base line situation of current practice. The survey includes the following questions:

• how is policy developed and delivered?
• who and how is consultation being carried out?
• how are equality implications considered?
• are there statements in place on equalities at the moment?
• what monitoring and evaluation procedures are in place?

The Unit is working closely with Assembly Members on the audit and there will be an interim report in 2000. Following the report, practical strategies and measures will be devised to integrate equalities considerations within all policy areas and to start to change ways of thinking about equality. The overall aim of these strategies and measures will be to develop 'practical actions which treat people fairly - that is give proper regard and consideration to all.' ⁸²Although it is early days in respect of any assessment, Teresa Rees argues that:

Gender balance, together with the provisions in the Government of Wales Act, combined with the embedding of equality into the organisational arrangements bodes well for the establishment of a culture that takes equality seriously. ⁸³

NORTHERN IRELAND

The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement reflects the contribution of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition in the peace talks, for example, its sections on the treatment of victims, its extensive equality mainstreaming agenda, and the institution of a Civic Forum as a second, advisory Chamber. ⁸⁴ The 1998 elections to the new Assembly were more successful than those to the failed assemblies of the 1970s in returning women but only 14 of the 108 seats (13%) are held by women; far short of the levels of representation in the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.

The new statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 has grown from the Good Friday Agreement, and from recognition of the need to address the weaknesses of the non-statutory Policy Appraisal for Fair Treatment (PAFT). PAFT was used exclusively in the Northern Ireland Office. It has been criticised for a number of reasons including the lack of positive requirements to promote equality of opportunity and the lack of a clear and consistent notion of how the term 'unfairness' should be defined. Further, it was not clear when a PAFT should be carried out. The fact that the assessment was carried out behind closed doors meant that there was a lack of accountability and transparency, and resulted in a lack of monitoring and evaluation. ⁸⁵

The new duty aims to introduce a mainstreaming strategy by making equality issues central to the whole range of public policy debates. The key parts of the Act are Section 75 and Schedule 9. Under Section 75, each public authority is required, in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland, to have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity between persons of different religious beliefs, political opinions, racial groups, ages, marital status or sexual orientations; between men and women generally; between persons with a disability and persons without; and between those with or without dependants.

The requirement to pay 'due regard' was stated, rather than just 'regard' to reinforce the fact that it is a stronger requirement than that of promoting 'good relations'. This was a response to fears that the 'community relations' duty may be used to escape from the full implications of the equality duty. ⁸⁶ The two duties are to be seen as complementary. The duty to promote equality of opportunity is understood to positively include affirmative action. The key concepts in implementing the equality duty are impact assessment and participation and the duty relates to all relevant policies, not just those specifically aimed at promoting equality of opportunity.

A new Equality Commission for Northern Ireland was established in 1999 which took over the functions and responsibilities of the Commission for Racial Equality for Northern Ireland, the Equal Opportunities Commission for Northern Ireland, the Fair Employment Commission and the Northern Ireland Disability Council. In addition the Commission will assume responsibilities in respect of the statutory duty on all public bodies to have due regard to promote equality of opportunity.

Section 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 makes provision for the enforcement of the duties under Section 75. The Section is not exclusive, other methods, such as Judicial Review, may be used if the provisions here prove unsuccessful. In brief, public authorities are each required to produce 'equality schemes' which state how the authority will fulfil these duties. The equality schemes are to be drawn up within six months of the commencement of Schedule 9 and submitted to the Equality Commission. Exemptions can be given by the Commission in writing under limited circumstances, and can be taken away at a later date. Equality schemes must conform to guidelines issued by the Commission with approval from the Secretary of State.

Reflecting the emphasis on increased participation and consultation in the requirements, these guidelines will be altered following a consultation exercise. The schemes will contain the following elements: how the duty will be fulfilled in relation to the relevant functions; a timetable for measures proposed; arrangements for consultation, training and monitoring; and arrangements for ensuring, and assessing, public access to information and services provided by the authority. Public authorities are required to carry out five yearly reviews of their equality schemes and to inform the Equality Commission of the outcome of the review. The Equality Commission is required to produce an annual report on the operation of the equality duty and the steps taken to promote equality of opportunity.

Christopher McCrudden, an expert commentator on mainstreaming, has argued that the success or failure of the equality of opportunity duty in mainstreaming equality in the governance of Northern Ireland is dependent upon,

The willingness of all those involved, politicians, public servants, and civil society, to operate these provisions with skill, imagination, determination, and in good faith. ⁸⁷

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

In the UK context, it has been the case that local government has been more proactive and open than central government in promoting more equal opportunities for women and other disadvantaged groups in respect of both employment practices and 'gender-proofing' service delivery. Local government pioneered many progressive employment practices in the 1980s; and councils were commonly characterised as model employers of the 1990s; ⁸⁸ Scotland was no exception to this trend. ⁸⁹

By the early 1990s, more than half of all British local authorities had devised policies which fell within the broad remit of equal opportunities, although a far smaller proportion had specific structures such as women's or equal opportunities committees, or had specialist staff. Women's and Equal Opportunities Committees have made some significant advances in ensuring the representation of previously excluded or under-represented groups. In England, many specialist committees have now been disbanded, although specialist officers remain in the administration, often based within larger corporate policy divisions. Post local government reorganisation in 1996 there are a number of different approaches to managing equality issues in operation in Scotland, although it is still the case that the dominant model is to have specialist officers at the centre, linked to an equal opportunities committee or sub committee structure. In Wales, there has been a tendency to create new specialist posts and in some cases equality issues have become part of corporate policy making.

The development of equal opportunities good practice and mainstreaming is not uniform in local government, rather the pattern remains of pockets of good practice. However, whereas central government and the new devolved governments are experimenting with mainstreaming for the first time, many local authorities have considerable experience of some elements of what is regarded as mainstreaming or integrated equality good practice: training, information, action plans, gender perspective assessment, specialist support and co ordination, and specialist advisers within departments. Furthermore it is at local government level that some of the innovative consultation methods have been pioneered, for example, women's surveys, information and consultative road shows, specialist and community fora. ⁹⁰ This has allowed local authorities to review practice and reflect upon both the strengths and weaknesses of mainstreaming approaches.

In the context of progressing equal opportunities work in local government the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) argues that there is widespread agreement that equal opportunities need to be 'built into' the policy process through mainstreaming. The integration of an equalities perspective into everyday policy making and service delivery in local government has been pioneered over a number of years by a small number of progressive local authorities, although they have seldom referred to such initiatives as mainstreaming. Such authorities have developed a comprehensive and even-handed approach to equalities, involving a systematic examination of the needs and concerns of different groups in relation to different areas of service provision, and accompanied by mechanisms for consulting these groups, which go beyond tokenism. These arrangements are likely to imply specialist advisers, inter departmental co-operation, strategic equality action plans and targets, multi-agency approaches and partnership initiatives. ⁹¹

The following figure outlines the EOC framework of essential elements for implementing mainstreaming in local government. Although some local authorities have built up expertise and good practice in this respect, it is unlikely that any one authority has fully implemented this holistic model. In particular, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are under developed although both the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) and the Local Government Management Board (LGMB- now renamed The Employers Organisation for Local Government) have piloted equality performance indicators. A number of authorities, for example Fife Council, have recently pioneered the use of Equality Audits in service departments. ⁹²

Links have been made between mainstreaming and other aspects of the government's programmes for modernising local government, such as community planning, partnership working, 'Best Value' regimes in service delivery; and issues relating to civic governance, democratic renewal and social inclusion.

Figure 3.3 Mainstreaming Local Government: EOC Framework of Key Components

Source: EOC (1997) Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Local Government: A Framework, p.8.

The Macpherson Report - with its emphasis on the responsibility of organisations as a whole to challenge institutional discrimination and change organisational cultures and its recommendation that there be a duty to demonstrate fairness - provides an impetus from which mainstreaming strategies can be (re)promoted and strengthened by the police, local government and other public agencies (see Section 1). The duty to demonstrate fairness highlights the significance of monitoring and evaluation within the mainstreaming approach, increasing the likelihood of achieving concrete results rather than just good intentions. Mainstreaming also offers a means to achieve new anti discriminatory institutional cultures through its involvement of the whole organisation, its emphasis on awareness-raising and education, and its promotion of new ways of working.

A number of projects are underway at local government level to try to develop generic equalities benchmarks and handbooks for mainstreaming generic equalities. For example, a collaborative project involving the CRE, the EOC and the Employers' Organisation for local government is currently working to develop and publish a new equalities standard for local government that covers race, sex and disability equality. The new standard will build upon and replace the existing racial equality standard (REMQ) which was published by the CRE in 1995. It will provide performance indicators and benchmarks by which progress can be monitored. Mainstreaming guidance has been developed by partnerships of statutory equalities agencies, local government, voluntary organisations and academics in both Scotland and Wales.

It has not been within the scope of the current project to conduct a comprehensive survey of mainstreaming initiatives in local government, although such work is needed and would provide valuable lessons for all levels of government. The following examples are illustrative of some of the practices and experiences of local authorities. We first report upon the London Borough of Haringey's race equality review and its proposed new generic equalities strategy, Mainstreaming Plus; we then reflect upon the lessons which arise from the mixed experiences of mainstreaming at the London Borough of Hounslow; we turn next to Fife Council's model of equalities work with its emphasis upon community participation and capacity building; and finally we discuss the City of Edinburgh Council's new mainstreaming anti discrimination strategy and a concrete example of mainstreaming in practice in respect of the needs of older people.

Mainstreaming and Haringey's Race Equality Review

Mainstreaming race equality was first introduced in the London Borough of Haringey in 1992. The strategy has recently been evaluated as part of Haringey's Race Equality Review of 1999 which followed the publication of the Macpherson Report. ⁹³ The Review found that while Haringey was still one of the leaders of race equality practice in the UK, and that mainstreaming has produced some concrete successes, there were also significant problems and weaknesses. The Review recommended adopting a new strategy, Mainstreaming Plus, to enhance existing race equality mainstreaming practices with specific equalities structures and actions.

The overriding concerns of the Race Equality Review report were: to improve race relations work and to tackle institutional racism; to protect against any further deprioritising of equalities; to create another push for mainstreaming; and to embed mainstreaming properly in the Council's structures and practices. The new commitment was driven by the understanding that:

It is important for all agencies adopting this approach to ensure that mainstreaming is not in practice a covert way of letting equalities slide back down the agenda of priorities. ⁹⁴

The failures of the existing mainstreaming strategy were put down to three broad trends:

• the lack of sustained political and managerial focus;
• the deprioritisation and denigration of Equalities; and
• the potential to remove Equalities from the council's agenda.

In more detail, the shortfalls identified were:

1. The initial effective implementation of mainstreaming had not been sustained.

This had been due to financial crises, the emergence of other priorities, such as the emphasis on finance issues, the lessening of the corporate steer on Mainstreaming, and the intensity of change within the Council.

2. Implementation had been considerable but was too patchy and inconsistent, varying from service to service and within services.

As a result, mainstreaming had not become securely embedded in the organisation.

3. The mainstreaming message had been diluted over time.

Insufficient reinforcement of the message had led to misunderstanding about the purpose and meaning of mainstreaming, of unhelpful attitudes going unchallenged, and in some cases of poor practices creeping back. The presence of mixed messages from management had added to this process.

Mainstreaming Plus

The enhanced approach, Mainstreaming Plus has been devised to push race and other equalities work forward and to overcome the weaknesses identified. The present political context is seen as helpful with respect to the government's modernisation strategy, the national currency and approval given to mainstreaming, and the recognition of the need to provide better services for a changing population.

The logic of mainstreaming and the Government's approach to anti discrimination nationally - with its emphasis on much more close working between the equalities commissions - would suggest that this should be a new generic approach to equalities and not to race equality on its own. ⁹⁵

In particular, the review argued that to refocus Equalities in Haringey required:

• strong and consistent political leadership - no mixed messages;
• a new and sustained managerial push - constant steer; and
• the embedding of Equalities in a permanent and sustainable way.

A main tenet of the enhanced strategy will be the duty to demonstrate. Building upon the recommendations of the Macpherson Report, the council has stressed the need for monitoring and evaluation to enable it to demonstrate its equalities work in concrete terms to the wider community.

There is a striking and inescapable need to demonstrate fairness ... in order to generate trust and confidence within the minority ethnic communities, who undoubtedly perceive themselves as being discriminated against by the system. ⁹⁶

Monitoring and evaluation are seen as an essential part of mainstreaming at all stages in order to provide a baseline and to determine need, to ensure a fit between principle and practice, and to demonstrate outcomes. The inadequacy of ethnic monitoring of service delivery was named the most important practical deficiency of equalities work in Haringey. The Review argued that monitoring must become a systematic part of all Council activity and data 'must be analysed, evaluated and used in demonstrable ways to inform future business planning, service redesign and service improvement initiatives'. ⁹⁷

The Review favoured creating a borough-wide partnership incorporating the requirements of modernisation (consultation, participation, and partnership working) to tackle cross-cutting issues of equalities. It was therefore proposed that Haringey Council should lead the establishment of a new Haringey Equalities Partnership (HEP) with multi-agency membership based around a shared common purpose of tackling inequality, promoting cohesion and respecting diversity.

The lack of a cross-directorate forum focusing on equalities issues was seen as one of the weaknesses in existing equalities structures. It was therefore proposed that a new Equalities Management Team was established, chaired by the Chief Executive, serviced by the Head of Policy, Equalities and Diversity, and attended not just by the equalities officers in directorates, but by a senior manager in each directorate. New Equalities Forums were proposed where they do not already exist, reporting to the directorate management team.

Turning to employment issues: the two main concerns identified were the under representation of specific communities and the under representation of equalities groups at the most senior levels. To address these issues, the council intends to work with minority ethnic communities to identify barriers and take positive initiatives and to establish a new and separate target for senior posts. The use of a search agency to identify suitable candidates has been suggested to help achieve the new target.

The Review recommended that there should be a dedicated Equalities and Policy Resources in each Directorate combining in equal measure equalities and generic policy responsibilities to encourage embedding equalities in generic policy initiatives.

Clear evidence of effective mainstreaming and good service delivery was found, especially in the areas of Housing and Social Services; Regeneration, Partnerships and Social Exclusion, and Education Services. However, across directorates the review revealed:

• Relatively poor understanding of equalities issues and their relevance to effective service delivery;
• Weak monitoring systems with few linkages to policy development of service redesign;
• Situations where equalities is often marginal to the directorate policy and planning process;
• Pockets of resistance to moving equalities forward;
• Too many casual assumptions that professionalism and officer neutrality is a guarantor of equal treatment; and
• Limited evidence of initiative and innovation on equalities from mainstream management.

Further, practice was seen as too variable between directorates and between services, with insufficient management drive in some areas. There was a lack of a cross-directorate body or structure and some directorates had no structure for managing equalities across their wide-ranging services.

Research by Eve Featherstone into the implementation of mainstreaming in Haringey council also highlighted weaknesses. ⁹⁸ In particular, it found that management systems, such as the appraisal scheme and service planning, were in place but not in use throughout the organisation. Thus policies relying on these structures, such as mainstreaming, could not succeed. The reliance on these structures also meant that staff tended to avoid addressing their own and their team's values and attitudes towards equalities issues. The lack of functioning systems downgraded the perceived importance of mainstreaming, thus support and systems needed to be developed at this level. Commitment also needed to be embedded at all levels in order that equalities work be kept on the agenda, and be more resistant to set-backs. There was a lack of clarity as to the role of managers in mainstreaming equalities. Further, equalities work was viewed as a high-risk no-win activity. In other words, staff and managers were more worried about attempting to tackle equalities issues than about not implementing them. They felt it was very easy to get this work wrong, and that they were more likely to get blamed as a consequence of this than if they ignored the issue. There was a lack of basic information and understanding by staff of equalities issues, and a large gap between policies and procedures on the one hand and, on the other hand, real work practices.

This demonstrates that, even in a council which is at the forefront of race equality, there are problems with implementing a mainstreaming strategy. These have arisen primarily from a lack of political commitment, lack of structure, and lack of understanding and knowledge. In the face of these obstacles, equalities good practice remains in isolated pockets and mainstreaming fails to take root. However, evaluation has highlighted these problem areas and there now exists the opportunity to strengthen these areas and to establish mainstreaming more firmly. According to the council, in a context of rapid change and competing priorities, the importance of mainstreaming must be clarified and continuously stressed.

Mainstreaming lessons from Hounslow Council

Hounslow Council developed mainstreaming strategies for equal opportunities in 1987 and its long experience in this area provides useful lessons to be learnt. As with Haringey Council, while much has been achieved - problems and weaknesses have also been identified. At present it is felt a new emphasis on mainstreaming is necessary in order to build on existing achievements and to ensure continuing successes. The example highlights the difficulties faced in ensuring that change happens in practice and that efforts do not simply constitute 'paper exercises'. ⁹⁹

Mainstreaming was not used to describe equalities work in Hounslow when it began, rather the term 'integration' was favoured. This was a strategic decision due to the perceived dangers attached to the use of the former term, which was often interpreted to mean the disbanding of specialist provision without building other expertise (the term mainstreaming was used later as the strategy developed). Integration or mainstreaming was introduced with the aim of providing better services, which were targeted at those with the greatest need, and which were flexible and appropriate. It was seen as a mechanism for redress in the sense of creating access where this had previously been denied.

All departments and sections were involved in the implementation of the strategy. An Equality Unit was created and based in the Chief Executive's Office, and the community was also involved in the process. The Head of the Equality Unit was also part of the corporate team, providing access to the corporate level, thus mainstreaming in theory permeated all levels and sections of the council. At its height, the unit employed ten staff and dealt with a range of equalities issues, including gender, race and disability. There was a concentrated effort to mainstream in service delivery from 1987 to the early 1990s, this push has since diminishes and the mainstreaming structure weakened due to resource pressures.

Mainstreaming was co-ordinated by the Head of the Equality Unit, who also held responsibility for its implementation, while nominated persons from departments were responsible for co-ordination at the departmental level. Through the realisation of their action plans on equalities, all staff were involved in mainstreaming on a day-to-day basis; while some of these people would have been involved with equalities work previously, this was not the case for the majority. A process of learning both by the experts and by 'ordinary' staff in departments existed, with staff encouraged to bring forward their own ideas and solutions. Consultants on equality issues were brought in from outside the council, but on the whole, expertise was 'home grown'. Networking with other equalities people in other councils was considered important.

Mainstreaming is perceived to have changed the way people worked 'in pockets'. It aimed to change the policy-making process at a structural level, but formalising such change was difficult and thus structures tended to be impermanent and fragile; in practice, new networks and lines of responsibility often did not take effect. Departmental loyalty and organisational cultures were cited as barriers to such change, the current modernisation of local government was seen to represent an opportunity to tackle this kind of resistance.

The Equality Unit ran several successful pilot projects in the community as well as exercises to ascertain the needs of the community and how these affected service provision and participation. One project examined issues around access to the council for people with disabilities. As part of the exercise, people with disabilities were invited to a meeting around access issues and were asked to find their way to the appointed location in the civic centre and to report on the experience. It was discovered that while the route for abled-access was well-signed, this was not the case for access for people with disabilities; the room was hard to find and the route was badly maintained. A second exercise, looked at participation by the community in the service planning process. It monitored service users of the environmental planning service and found that the service was used predominantly by white men. Further research showed that many women and members of ethnic groups expressed the desire to be involved but cited barriers to participation including access, safety and transport.

Review

An independent review of the Council's mainstreaming strategy was carried out after the first five years, while it noted the council's achievements and supported the approach taken, it identified time resource problems and a number of organisational barriers to implementation. The recognition by the review that equalities should be the responsibility of directors, not of specialist equalities staff was seen as a major advance. New action plans resulted which pledged a recommitment to equalities work (it is interesting to note that a similar process has occurred following Haringey's review - see above). To promote equalities, staff attended a briefing session and watched a training video, and a poster and postcard campaign was launched in the community to foster and demonstrate support for equalities work there. Despite this new push, it was felt by some that mainstreaming suffered from a lack of commitment and many of the initiatives proposed were in practice no more than 'paper exercises'.

The restructuring of Hounslow Council in the early 1990s led to the loss of equality resources. Equality officers were given combined jobs, including policy and equality officer roles, which meant that equality issues were de-prioritised as other issues were pushed to the fore. This reorganisation and its consequences for mainstreaming underlines the fragility of mainstreaming and the position of equalities work. The lack of organisational support meant that it was left to individuals to implement the policy, creating more pressure for those who face a disempowerment within the organisation which often reflects that faced in society, as equalities champions tend to come from equalities groups. Cut-backs were felt to be consequences of the de-prioritising of equalities within the council and in the political environment more generally.

Two examples of innovative instruments developed in Hounslow which, it is argued, were not fully implemented due to lack of political will were STEPS and the 'setting standards' initiative. STEPS, which stands for Strategic Equality Plans in Service Delivery, was developed by Hounslow council as a model for reviewing existing services from an equalities perspective. It had been hoped that it would be integrated in Best Value reviews, however this did not happen, although the instrument was picked up and used in this way by other authorities. For the 'setting standards' initiative, a draft paper was produced, outlining bronze, silver and gold equality 'kite marks'. The marks were designed so that the majority of departments would be at the lowest standard already and could aim to attain higher. It had been hoped these would become part of Performance Indicators already used by the council, however the attempt to integrate charter-marks into performance review processes did not come to anything in practice. For the future it was recommended that such issues must be addressed at Chief Officer level and that responsibility for reaching equality performance marks must lie at this level to ensure that principle moves on into practice. ¹⁰⁰

Lessons

Former Head of the Equality Unit, Munira Thobani felt there were lessons which should be learnt from Hounslow's experience with mainstreaming equal opportunities, these are summarised in six points below: ¹⁰¹

• All vacancies at the top levels of the council structure should be used to redress the under-representation of equality groups. If this 'gap' were closed it was felt the larger numbers of women and representatives of equity groups would promote a culture of sensitivity and listening. The failure to promote equalities groups to the top levels and the subsequent impact on equalities work was considered to represent a 'collective failure of the organisation' and thus redressing this must be a top priority. Haringey's proposal of using search agencies to get applicants from minority groups into recruitment processes above P08 level (see above) was suggested as one way of doing this.
• More training and awareness-raising amongst staff, particularly based on case studies giving concrete and real examples of how and why policies need to change is needed. Training must also address issues of backlash and resistance, and factual based training is identified as the only way to do this. At present, it was seen as difficult to get Members to go on training courses. Learning also needs to occur within specialist departments, there is often an assumption that just because someone may have knowledge of one equality issue or area this extends to all, however this is normally not the case.
• Focal points for equality work are needed within departments and it is necessary to make lines of accountability clear to ensure that responsibilities are taken seriously. In Hounslow, each directorate nominated a senior manager to be responsible for equalities work and the nominated officers together formed an equality sub-group at chief officer level. This responsibility was written into job descriptions but was not carried out in practice as demonstration of carrying out this task was not required.
• Equality work is central to delivering quality and to assessing need. It should be considered as part of doing one's job properly. People-focused services must take people and their needs as drivers, and this means addressing diversity.
• While real problems with implementing a mainstreaming strategy were identified, this was not necessarily recognised throughout the council. The fact that mainstreaming was in principle being applied sometimes meant in practice that nothing was done and that equalities issues have not been discussed. This danger was amplified by two factors, firstly, the lack of sanctions which could be used against those who did not integrate equal opportunities into their work, and secondly, the lack a duty to demonstrate. Thus the introduction of both sanctions and a duty to demonstrate were seen as crucial.
• In order for mainstreaming to produce real outcomes, explicit thinking about equalities was essential within the organisation. It was felt that this was not happening in Hounslow. A more productive relationship needs to be built between the specialists within the council and other members of the organisation. Too often the specialists are regarded as some sort of 'thought police' rather than as occupying a supportive role. This process could be aided if requirements for integrating equalities came from the top level of the organisation.

Mainstreaming within Fife Council

Fife Council provides a good example of the development of consultation and participation necessary for successful equality mainstreaming. Brief details of mainstreaming in Fife Council are given before turning to focus on aspects of consultation and participation. ¹⁰² The definition of mainstreaming used by the council is given in its Social Equality Strategy below:

Figure 3.4 Extract from Fife Council's Social Equality Strategy

The council's equality work is organised at three interrelated levels: corporate strategy; areas of 'themed' work; and practical service delivery. The key difference with other Equal Opportunities strategies, is that the Equality Unit does not do the equalities work. The Unit tries to co-ordinate and create a sense of uniformity among the work of the different departments, providing guidance and support. This is achieved partly through the adoption of key principles, such as plain language requirements.

Mainstreaming is co-ordinated by specialist equalities officers. There has been support from the top for mainstreaming but this has been patchy in practice. Specialist staff believe that 'rubber stamping' of service plans occurs to some extent. Resistance has been met at all levels, which specialist staff see as based upon a fear of change, an unwillingness to commit resources and a lack of knowledge.

Specialist staff in corporate policy have a strategic role in the development of equal opportunities work, specifically their remit is to:

• co-ordinate work on equal opportunities throughout Fife Council;
• ensure that the implications for equality of opportunity are reflected in the key corporate strategies such as decentralisation, participation, anti-poverty and quality;
• develop corporate policy in the field of equal opportunities;
• support the activities of services in developing equality initiatives; and
• establish and support mechanisms for consultation with disadvantaged groups.

Each strategy sector has established a working group on equal opportunities, chaired by senior officers. These groups are responsible for drawing up annual action plans on equal opportunities.

The provision of services for people with hearing difficulties was given as an example of a service which had been successfully mainstreamed. Previously, a person with hearing difficulties would have to go through the deaf / hearing department. This in effect meant that there was one person, the leader of the department, who had a detailed knowledge of the hearing impaired community. This both compromised confidentiality and, when this person died suddenly, left the community with no access to services. In light of this, provision was mainstreamed and the hearing impairment service closed. Experts were moved out to departments so that the hearing impaired can go straight to the relevant department and their needs are catered for. There is now also access to a communicator who can accompany a client to appointments, for example at a health centre or a parent's evening. The service is paid for by the education or health service concerned.

In 1997 an equality audit was conducted to determine the current baseline situation on equalities work within the council. The audit identified pockets of excellence, however these were not mirrored elsewhere, and for most departments the baseline situation was low. The Equality Unit has attempted to foster centres of excellence and to disseminate good practices elsewhere.

Fife's work with consultation and participation in the community.

Fife has sought to extend 'ownership' of mainstreaming: in the first instance by involving departments; and in the second instance by promoting meaningful consultation and participation by the community in the development and monitoring of services. Various models of capacity-building and improving consultation have been successfully tested by the Council and community forums involving, for example, women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled people. There is a strong focus upon issues of diversity and responsibility within the forums. Community networks around issues of gender, race, disability and sexuality, have increasingly taken on more responsibility for consultation and representation. Currently about 50 per cent of the Equality Unit's resources go directly to the community through these networks. This is seen as important as it gives organisations control over the development of issues and enables innovation. Those networks which already had strong organisational bases to support them, and where there was also an obvious overarching body, have been the most successful. Joint communication strategies exist among the networks.

The Women in Fife directory is an example of a women's network producing and using a handbook in an innovative way. Small groups within Fife Women's Network worked on specific areas to provide information about services and facilities available to women in the region (for example, health services, leisure facilities and training opportunities). The experience of creating a database, researching and producing the directory provided training and empowerment for members and led to increased participation.

While the network approach has proved largely successful, networks are not as diverse as had been hoped. In particular, mental health, sexuality and social inclusion issues and perspectives are under represented. Equality specialists argue that consultation and participation exercises need to be extremely sensitive to the danger of further marginalising groups which already suffer exclusion. If such exercises leave part of the target population uninvolved, these people will then face an exclusion from the defined 'excluded group'. ¹⁰³ Fife Council address this issue, in part, by monitoring non-users of services as well as service users. It operates a 'proactive' strategy to encourage capacity-building and participation in these communities.

Fife Council has used the networks to facilitate a major consultation exercise called, People's Priorities in which networks carried out consultation with the community on what should be in the Council's service plans. The exercise was seen as taking mainstreaming beyond the Council by involving people at the level of agenda setting. A 'Balanced Reporting' was attempted with the views of network members balanced by other Fife residents, in order that the report was seen as coming from the people of Fife in their totality, rather than from specific equity groups. ¹⁰⁴

Lessons from City of Edinburgh Council

The City of Edinburgh Council has recently endorsed a comprehensive approach to mainstreaming and the development of an anti-discriminatory organisational culture. Edinburgh 2000: Mainstreaming and the Development of an Anti-discriminatory Organisational Culture defines the objective of mainstreaming as:

To change the formal organisational culture to one which ensures that targets are set, objectives agreed and outcomes monitored in a way which is inclusive of the needs of equalities groups and communities of interest. Change in the formal organisational culture must be underpinned by change in the informal organisational culture. Achieving change in the informal culture is a long term process which will require support for employee development and training as well as on-going commitment from senior managers and elected members. ¹⁰⁵

In order to achieve effective mainstreaming and ensure the development of anti discriminatory organisational culture the council has identified the need for action in the following areas:

• involvement of elected members as the public face of the council
• leading role of chief officers to drive change
• involvement of middle managers and other staff to 'own' the strategy and deliver change
• participation of equalities groups and communities of interest
• policy development and monitoring
• service planning and provision and monitoring
• employment policies
• employee development and training
• specialist resources

The strategy is at a very early stage and a Chief Officer has been nominated to co-ordinate and steer the overall strategic approach to mainstreaming within the council. Proposals include: training and awareness raising programmes for politicians, senior officers and other staff; focus groups to explore the attitudes and knowledge of staff; the development of mainstreaming initiatives for incorporation in service plans, including performance indicators; equalities issues to be integrated into staff development programmes, including customer care; review of consultative and complaints mechanisms to ensure inclusivity; the development of tools and techniques such as differential impact assessment and service users statistics; specific equalities considerations and involvement to be built in to performance measures, partnership agreements, service planning processes and Best Value reviews.

Mainstreaming the needs of older people into service delivery design, an example from Edinburgh Council

A preliminary review of council services for Older People has just been completed by the City of Edinburgh Council. The review will have several stages, hopefully culminating in a proposed City Plan for Older People. The first stage involved defining key issues which affect older people and the report of this stage is currently being written up. The published report is intended to become a basis for wider public consultation and participation. ¹⁰⁶

The process of review is understood to be in itself a process of mainstreaming, through which expert knowledge and understanding is spread throughout the council, raising awareness in all departments of issues affecting older people. While it was decided that at present a specific initiative was needed to consider the needs of older people within Edinburgh; it is hoped that in the future increased awareness and understanding by all of the issues involved will mean that such considerations are routinely addressed.

The review covers: access to adult education and lifelong learning; leisure and recreation services; social care services; transport; housing; advice services (including welfare benefits and financial advice); older people living in the city's Social Inclusion Partnership areas; community safety; and carers' support. It also takes account of plans for health promotion and health services. In addition, the review takes into account issues already identified as of particular concern to older people such as low income, poor housing, illness and disability, and residential care. ¹⁰⁷

It was recognised that there are many sub-groups within the group of 'older people', for instance, older women, minority ethnic elders, older disabled people, and that these people will experience different needs. The following example is concerned with the work on mainstreaming the needs of older people from minority ethnic groups, including, the specific requirements of minority ethnic elders who also suffer from ill-health and who have disabilities. The review also recognised that older women have specific needs and form the majority of the older population, of people with disabilities and are often more impoverished than their male counterparts.

The Chief Officer, seconded to carry out the review, worked with members of other departments to raise awareness and improve understanding within these departments as to how their service provision might affect older people and to develop ideas about what changes needed to be made. These representatives formed a City Planning Group at corporate level which worked on the service review. The Equalities Officer, the Chief Officer and planning group were involved with mainstreaming on a day-to-day basis. While there was not an explicit policy of mainstreaming when this process started, it became clear that a mainstreaming strategy was being used to achieve the policy of addressing the needs of minority ethnic elders in a fairer and more open way. The City planning group identified the need for a 'strategy manager' who will oversee the review and act as a 'progress chaser' or co-ordinator, this will be the responsibility of the Chief Officer. There were no experts brought in from outside.

The aim of mainstreaming was to ensure that the needs of older people from minority ethnic groups were given full consideration in developing a new City Plan for Older People. As a group, older people's needs have been difficult to assess, agree upon and meet within existing mainstream planning and provision. The City Plan will cover a five to ten year period, but the work of mainstreaming the needs of different groups into service provision will be ongoing.

According to the review team, it is at present hard to assess whether this example of mainstreaming changed the way people thought about their work, or the process of working. The approach has, however, played a part in shaping the final report. Mainstreaming is seen as a much more robust and open approach than previous equal opportunities strategies providing a more proactive and positive way of working; there is also a greater sense of partnership with the communities concerned. It is anticipated that the real testing point for the strategy will come when the service changes are implemented, and that this is the point at which problems will show if they exist. Training needs have not yet been assessed, but it is anticipated that they will be linked to the needs of front-line staff. So far, no resistance has been encountered. Feedback so far from minority ethnic communities has been good. A recent consultation exercise with minority ethnic elders was considered very successful with a much higher turnout and participation rate than anticipated. ¹⁰⁸

KEY POINTS AND COMMON THREADS

Mainstreaming was adopted relatively early in many local authorities and the experiences and lessons learnt here could be used to inform the development of more recent mainstreaming approaches in other bodies and levels of government. The government's modernisation agenda, and emphasis on social inclusion, poverty, 'joined-up' government, consultation, needs-based delivery, and so on, are seen to provide an enabling context within which to pursue equalities mainstreaming. There are common threads running through the examples from local government which are reinforced by other research in Britain and elsewhere.

Mainstreaming has been effective as a strategy for promoting equal opportunities in the work of local government and concrete results have been achieved in terms of raising awareness about the importance and relevance of equal opportunities, of building commitment, and in improving service provision, participation and consultation. These achievements are, however, uneven and have tended to occur in 'pockets' rather than throughout the organisation. Mainstreaming as a strategy has, in some cases, resulted in local authorities disbanding specialist structures and staffing, or not establishing equalities machinery in the first place. There are concerns that this interpretation of mainstreaming results in ineffectual tokenism, in the absence of adequate knowledge, resources and structures; and without the strong presence of women and members of equalities groups in senior management and as elected members. ¹⁰⁹

Several key lessons have emerged from these and other examples, which are outlined below:

• it is hard to sustain mainstreaming without strong political and managerial support;
• it takes time and a lot of effort to embed mainstreaming in the formal and informal structures of an organisation, and that until this time, mainstreaming will be vulnerable to organisational changes and to the loss of dedicated people;
• continual reinforcement and emphasis of the mainstreaming message, and clarity in statements, reminders, monitoring and so on, are vital to guard against resistance, apathy, and confusion;
• monitoring and evaluation are essential;
• the 'duty to demonstrate' should be made common practice;
• mainstreaming requires structural changes to facilitate cross-departmental working;
• staff need to feel that they can be confident in tackling equalities issues and that they will be rewarded for good work, and reprimanded for ignoring these issues. This will be essential in overcoming the present zero-sum attitude found in many authorities. In other words, at present there is more incentive not to do equalities work than to do it;
• mainstreaming presents the danger that in practice equalities issues are ignored because 'mainstreamed' issues are not seen to require any special attention;
• there is a need to ensure that equity groups are represented at the top levels of organisations;
• there is an ongoing need for training and awareness-raising;
• consultation and participation with and by the community is a crucial plank of effective mainstreaming.

« Previous | Contents | Next »