The Scottish Government

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4. THE EXECUTIVE AS AN EMPLOYER

Equal opportunities and diversity policies

4.1 The Scottish Executive's employee policy on equal opportunities is that all staff should be treated equally irrespective of their sex, marital status, age, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief, working pattern, employment status, gender identity (transgender), caring responsibility, or trade union membership.

Diversity Strategy

4.2 The Scottish Executive's 5-year Diversity Strategy, Positive about You, was launched in November 2000. It set out a range of action points, under the heading of five main drivers to progress diversity. These were:

• It is the right thing to do;
• Scottish Executive policy;
• Civil Service reform;
• The law; and
• The business case.

4.3 The Strategy was reviewed in 2004 to ensure that it remained fit for purpose and because many of the action points had already been achieved. It was re-launched as Positive about You - 2004 and Beyond, in December of that year. The revised Strategy has a renewed focus on the mainstreaming of diversity across the organisation and aims to consolidate the substantial progress that has been made so far.

4.4 It highlights three main areas to progress the diversity agenda.

• Focus on leaders and managers

4.5 We have re-affirmed the importance of our leaders and managers in leading by example in placing diversity at the heart of every policy and process; in acting as role models in promoting our culture of diversity and in supporting staff in doing likewise.

4.6 We confirmed our commitment to valuing diverse behaviours and to ensuring they are embedded seamlessly in our business planning and performance appraisal processes. We will also work to ensure equality of opportunity in access to training for all and to provide support to help all staff realise their potential.

• Our wider HR Strategy - Changing through People

4.7 Through our wider HR Strategy we will continue to use recruitment and interchange programmes, including tailored outreach, to change our organisation into one which broadly reflects the communities that we serve. We will continue to put in place policies to ensure a safe and discrimination-free environment and consider how we can continue to develop flexible working arrangements to assist all staff in achieving a satisfactory work-life balance. We will also work closely with our colleagues in Equality Unit and across the wider Executive to ensure that equality and diversity policies are embedded throughout all of our HR employee policies and practices.

• Involving all staff

4.8 Through our programme of internal outreach and awareness raising, we will continue to work to ensure that all staff understand that they have a role to play in equal opportunities and diversity issues. We will help them to identify ways in which they can demonstrate their personal commitment through their own actions and behaviours and ensure that they undertake appropriate diversity-related training. We will use our staff networks, and the partnership with our trade unions, to make diversity a personal responsibility for everyone.

4.9 The Strategy provides a broad policy statement of the Executive's diversity commitments as an employer and will be underpinned by specific actions contained in the HR Policy Business Plan and individual performance objectives.

Supporting Policies

4.10 We also have in place a range of other Human Resources employee policies which support the progress of equal opportunities and diversity issues, including Dignity at Work and Flexible Working. A range of others are currently under preparation, including policies on Domestic Abuse, Gender Re-assignment, and Civil Partnerships.

Collection of Employment Data

4.11 We have a legal duty to monitor the ethnicity of our staff. We do this by requesting that staff complete self declaration forms when they join the organisation and at regular intervals during their career. By asking all staff to complete these forms we hope to obtain information which will help us to meet the duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act and ensure that the information held on the existing HR system, and the planned new e- HR system, is accurate.

4.12 The information obtained on these forms will be used by staff in HR Policy (Diversity) and HR Statistics to assist the Scottish Executive to develop its equal opportunities policies. Data from the forms is also submitted to Cabinet Office on an anonymised basis to form part of the Civil Service staffing statistics database.

4.13 Occasionally, we are also asked to provide statistics on the background of our staff for Ministerial briefings, Parliamentary Questions and similar matters. Data from these forms will be used for this purpose, but it will never be given on a basis which would allow staff to be individually identified.

4.14 The data is used in accordance with the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 and is held in the Scottish Executive's HR database. The information on the database is held securely and is treated in the strictest confidence. It is only used for the purposes set out above. Access to the data obtained is strictly limited to the appropriate HR Policy (Diversity) staff and HR Statistics teams who require access to the information for the purposes set out above. The Data Controller is the Scottish Executive as stated in the data protection notification made to the Office of the Information Commissioner.

Reporting mechanisms (internal and external)

4.15HR Policy Team, in conjunction with the Executive's HR Statistics Team, undertakes the key reporting role on equal opportunities and diversity issues for the Executive as an employer.

4.16 We report to our Management Group Corporate Issues Sub-group on a quarterly basis on a wide range of staffing issues, including progress towards our targets for under-represented groups: women in senior posts, disabled staff and staff from a minority ethnic background. The table below provides the latest information. We will update and publish (on the Executive's website) these statistics on a quarterly basis.

4.17 In addition, we provide a statistical summary of this progress to Cabinet Office every six months. This summary is accompanied by a detailed narrative of actions taken in the previous period on equal opportunities and diversity issues, both by the core Scottish Executive and also its Agencies and associated Departments. HR Statistics Team provides an annual submission to Cabinet Office as part of the UK-wide collection of information on civil servants.

4.18HR Policy Team also co-ordinates the information from other parts of HR Division and Agencies and associated Departments which informs the Executive's reporting on its obligations under its Collective Employment Monitoring Scheme (see section further down on employment duties).

SE PROGRESS -DIVERSITY TARGETS OCTOBER 2005

* Figures to be treated as confidential to preserve anonymity (numbers less than 5).
** No target set
*** Most recent figures

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