Public Sector Equality Duty
The new public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 5 April 2011.
Scottish Ministers may make Regulations to place specific duties on Scottish public authorities to enable the better performance of the public sector equality duty. Regulations were laid before Parliament in March 2012 and are will come into force on 27 May 2012.
Equality Unit Funding 2012-15 - Equality Fund
The deadline for applications to the 2012-15 Equality Fund was 6 February 2012.
The Equality Fund incorporates the former Race Religion & Refugee Integration Fund as well as elements of Gender Funding and Disability/BSL Funding. Allocations formerly made for work in these areas were transferred into the new fund, therefore the funding available for each strand was not reduced. Applications for funding of up to £100,000 were considered.
The Equality Fund was open for applications from any organisation for work across all equality characteristics. Themes relate to key priorities across the range of equality interests, and were designed to ensure support is available for activity and provision across all the protected groups.
Particular focus was given to:
· Supporting activities to reduce disadvantage and inequality in employment and economic activity;
· Supporting measures to address hate crime and its underlying causes;
· Shifting focus to early intervention and prevention;
· Increasing the capacity of communities to engage with mainstream providers, including public and third sector, around the redesign of public services and the prevention agenda; and
· Supporting the effective implementation of the public sector equality duty.
We wished to focus activity on what would make a difference on the ground in tackling inequality and promoting equality. Applicants were asked to set out their outcomes, within the context of the above themes for the Equality Fund, explain what would be delivered and how it would be measured.
Applicants to the Equality Fund must be voluntary organisations based in Scotland, and must be incorporated and registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
Equality Fund 2012-15 Application Form
Equality Fund 2012-15 Finance Spreadsheet
Equality and the Budget
On 21 September 2011 the Scottish Government published an Equality Statement alongside the Scottish Spending Review 2011 and Draft Budget 2012-13 A report on The Position of Scotland's Equality Groups: Revisiting Resilience in 2011 was also published.