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IMPROVING THE HEALTH OF THE SCOTTISH MINORITY ETHNIC COMMUNITIES
APPENDIX C General Overview of Race Equality Schemes and
Fair for All Action Plans
Race Equality Schemes and
Fair For All Action Plans: Meeting the General Duty and Specific Duties Required by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act
Functions and policies
The process of identification, assessment and prioritisation of functions and policies was covered fully in 12 of the Schemes (of a total of 27). In a further six Schemes, work on this process was still underway whilst another one Scheme expressed a clear intention to carry out such work. However, for a further three Schemes the work did not seem to have been carried out to any significant extent whilst for another four Schemes it was not at all clear how much work had been done.
Partnership working
In 18 Schemes, there was a real feeling of planning and/or action in terms of partnership working. Some of the new partnership forums seem dynamic and energetic and likely to deliver change across a wide equalities agenda. Only five Schemes contained no substantive discussion or even clear commitment to working with partners.
Procurement
Considerable progress has been made in terms of procurement issues between publication of Race Equality Schemes in November 2002 and submission of
Fair For All Action Plans in March 2003. Thirteen of the 27 Schemes now include some discussion of procurement issues with a number of Boards having already made progress. Some Boards have yet to match their commitment to change with detailed planning for action and some are currently undertaking wider reviews of contract and tendering procedures.
Publication of schemes
Fifteen of the 27 Schemes seem to have been published on or around the due date of completion (ie 30 November 2002). However, in only a few cases was it absolutely clear if and when publication had taken place. (The specific duties under the RRAA did not give clear stipulations as to how publication was to be notified and who the Scheme should be submitted to after it had been completed.) Several organisations seem to have produced their Schemes late and several were still subject to consultation or Board approval or revision generally. Overall there was an impression of Boards and Trusts having put a great deal of time and effort into the production of a Scheme but of their also having started the work late so that they were still involved in fine tuning or consultation or seeking approval at the time of the publication deadline. Most organisations were committed to making their Schemes available in a variety of formats and in different languages and/or in summary form. Some Schemes had developed with substantial local consultation along the way rather than just at the last minute on a final draft.
Consultation arrangements
Ten of the 27 Schemes laid out adequate details of the usual arrangements adopted for consultation. However, another 14 Schemes were generally inadequate in terms of their arrangements for consultation: either there was no significant discussion of such arrangements or they seemed to be at a very preliminary stage of development. Several organisations seemed committed to a thorough review of their arrangements for consultation so that best practice could be established.
Treatment of issues around consultation with staff had improved since production of the Schemes in November 2002. Twelve Schemes gave at least fair coverage to this issue. However, in the remaining 15 Schemes there was either very little or no discussion of how staff might be involved in taking forward work on race equality and cultural competence.
Nearly half of the Schemes had some discussion at least of planning or actual initiatives for wider engagement with black/minority ethnic communities, i.e. beyond the basic consultative framework.
Communications strategy and planning
Much of the work on strategies for communications taking into account the information needs of different communities has yet to be carried out. Of the 27 Schemes, there was no satisfactory detail in 10. The remaining 17 Schemes which recognised the need for such a strategy generally show the satisfactory completion of such a strategy. Translation and interpreting needs were generally quite well covered; however, in some Schemes this was the only communications issue to be discussed.
Awareness of the general duty and specific duties
Only eight of the Schemes failed to mention training programmes to raise awareness of the requirements of the RRAA and of FFA (or else were not clear about such programmes). Most of the Schemes included plans with timescales for completion and a number of organisations already have such work well underway.
Employment and other human resources monitoring
Half of the 27 Schemes provided evidence either of current monitoring of the workforce or of plans to monitor staff by ethnic groups. Most also provided details of monitoring of staff in position, applicants for employment and of staff leaving employment. Five of these Schemes showed considerable detail, i.e. of database management and publishing of results. However, 10 Schemes were inadequate in terms either of employment or other human resource monitoring (i.e. for training, promotion, performance assessment, grievances and disciplinary procedures) or both. There was generally a lack of detail on arrangements for the monitoring of employment and other human resources issues, for example on how the results of such monitoring would be reported and analysed.
Preparation of both Race Equality Schemes and
Fair for All Action Plans
Race Equality Schemes and
Fair for All Action Plans have been prepared by 18 Boards and seven Trusts (four Greater Glasgow and three Lothian). In addition, Schemes were prepared by two Boards which have since been amalgamated into other bodies (Clinical Standards Board and Health Education Board for Scotland): their Schemes are therefore subject to review and revision. An Action Plan was also prepared by the Health Department.
This work represents a huge commitment to improving the performance of NHSScotland in meeting the health needs of Scotland's minority ethnic communities more effectively and to achieving race equality within the health service.
Element 1 Energising the Organisation
In only three cases out of the total of 27 Schemes and Action Plans, were the Action Plans considered to fall far short of what was expected under
Fair For All guidance. (One was very thin and preliminary in nature, another aimed at a wide equality agenda but missed many FFA requirements. A third Scheme included much action planning but it was not presented in an action plan format.
The likely impact of much action planning was often hard to assess: many Action Plans contained little detail and just gave a commitment to do certain things that were required in the guidance. Many Action Plans could have been more explicit about outputs rather than outcomes (i.e. what would be achieved by training courses rather than just the number of staff passing through the training). In six of the Action Plans submitted by the end of March, costings had not been established to a full or satisfactory extent raising doubt in some cases as to how quickly the plans could be implemented.
In terms of project leadership and planning, most Action Plans showed clear evidence of senior involvement and commitment. Adequate statements of organisational intent were included in most Schemes (17 out of 27). Eighteen of those Schemes gave a sense of partnership working. Most Schemes and Action Plans showed clear allocation of responsibility for implementation. In only five cases was the allocation of responsibilities within the Action Plan either missing entirely or less than satisfactory. For another six Schemes there was a lack of clarity about some aspects of arrangements for responsibility and management.
Element 2 Demographic Profile
A third of the Schemes did not provide adequate information on plans to survey the local population with particular attention to ethnic make up. On the other hand, most Action Plans at least mentioned that 2001 census data would be used and quite a few organisations committed themselves to working in partnership for gathering and analysing this information.
Eighteen Schemes out of the 27 described work for a local health needs assessment, either already in progress or still being planned. However, only a few organisations stipulated that this would be made public as required under the
Fair For All guidance. In a number of Schemes there was evidence of good practice in commitments to undertake assessments in partnership with local organisations and relevant local communities.
Most Schemes mentioned at least a commitment to further research. However, a further 11 Schemes either did not mention, or else failed to give, a satisfactory response to meet the
Fair For All guidance.
Element 3 Access and Service Delivery
Only four of the Schemes included no specific detail of the approach to be taken for an audit of services. Other organisations had all established methods to ensure a systematic review of all their policies and functions.
Around half of the organisations had developed plans for addressing issues around personal care and dietary needs. However, that means that many organisations have either still to address the issue or have so far provided very little detail of how plans might be implemented in practice. Very few Schemes (six) failed to address spiritual care provision and many Schemes gave quite good detail of planning in regard to spiritual care.
Translation and interpreting was recognised as a priority area for action by most organisations. Most organisations appear to have made considerable progress in this area. This leaves six organisations which have committed to take action but have not provided detail of their plans and implications.
Half of the Schemes gave a solid indication of plans relating to advocacy. On gender specific services, however, over half of the Schemes have either failed to present any planning or have only provided general statements without any detail to substantiate a commitment.
Element 4 Human Resources
Only 10 of the Schemes gave detail of an Equal Opportunities Policy. An equal number of Schemes gave either no mention of such a policy or insufficient detail to judge compliance or otherwise with the Fair For All guidance.
Harassment and bullying policies were described in most of the Schemes however, few described plans for dissemination of such a policy. A further nine Schemes had either no mention or no detail with regard to a policy for bullying and harassment.
Element 5 Community Development
Most Schemes (16) had either established what seemed to be an appropriate consultative forum in accordance with FFA guidance or seemed to be at least well on the way to doing this. Six Schemes did not discuss a consultative forum whilst action was not clear in another three Schemes.
Half of the Schemes discussed a directory of individuals and agencies and fewer than half had adequate plans for supporting local carers
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