Gender policy coherence: annual statement 2025

Creating Conditions

Changing attitudes and culture is an essential part of creating the conditions for gender equality. The messages we receive can limit our choices about what we and others can do and be. Gender stereotyping and unconscious bias creates barriers for women and girls. Policies and practice also shape our lives. When services are not designed with women and girls in mind, and without their participation, then these services risk not meeting the needs of women. This can cause harm and create additional barriers for women and girls. Gender-sensitive design helps us get service design right for everyone.

This section looks at progress made on the NACWG recommendations around creating the right conditions for change. This includes work to improve gender equality in education and learning settings, as well as providing flexible, accessible and high quality childcare, supporting more women to work or study if they choose. This section also discusses co-producing service design with people with lived experience, and the collection and analysis of robust intersectional data to help us create the conditions for effective, gender-sensitive policy.

Create a Commission on Gender Equality in Education and Learning

Recommendation: ‘Create a Commission on Gender Equality in Education and Learning, covering Early Years, Primary and Secondary Education and Learning, tasked with providing bold and far-reaching recommendations on how gender equality can be embedded in all aspects of learning (from teacher training, to school behaviours/cultures, to the curriculum and CLD practice).’

The Scottish Government has established a Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning to address gender disparities that remain in Scotland’s education system and learning establishments from early years, through primary and secondary school, and community learning settings. For example, while girls’ performance overall in SCQF exams at all levels outstrips boys (in 2023, girls were 50.1% of National 5 candidates, 53.7% of Higher candidates and 55.2% of Advanced Higher candidates) girls are over-represented in subjects which are traditionally considered female and underrepresented in those traditionally considered male. During 2019-2023, female candidates at Higher were significantly over-represented in art and design, biology, drama, dance, all languages, fashion and textiles, and childcare and development. During the same period, male candidates at Higher far exceeded female candidates in mathematics, economics, accounting, graphic communications, PE, music technology, physics, computing and engineering science. This gender segregation in subject choice and career pathways contributes to women being under-represented in STEM careers, as well as the gender pay gap.

The Taskforce first met in early 2020; however early progress was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022 the group re-convened and engaged feminist research organisation The Collective, the Children’s Parliament and the Scottish Youth Parliament to work collaboratively to develop a theory of change model and recommendations in consultation with young women and girls.

The reports shone a light on the deep-rooted gender inequality which girls and young women continue to face in education settings. These issues include, but are not limited to: sexual harassment and gender based violence experienced by girls and young women; observing teachers experiencing sexual harassment and gender based violence; boys dominating playground space and dictating the type of games played; a reluctance to choose subjects traditionally dominated by boys; male teachers assuming that girls will not perform as well as boys in stereotypically ‘male’ subject areas; and holding them to higher standard if they do.

The Taskforce is now co-chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Jenny Gilruth MSP and Kathryn Dawson, Rape Crisis Sexual Violence Prevention Co-ordinator. Under their leadership, the Taskforce has re-shaped its focus so that it has the twin aims of:

• identifying and advising on measures to address gender inequality in education and learning settings and;
• being an action- and outcomes-focussed group, addressing the key drivers of gender inequality, establishing ways in which barriers can be removed, and working with leaders in the education sector to influence successful implementation of ambitions and strengthen accountability.

In practice, this means that it will:

• Provide focused stakeholder groups to take a strategic view of emerging and existing education policy ambitions, and apply a gendered lens to both the high level ambitions and detailed actions within them.
• Provide leadership, strategic direction and oversight that will drive systemic change.
• Develop and provide a systemic overview of gender equality across the education policy landscape that will:
  • Provide measures which determine what success looks like in terms of whole systems change;
  • Provide policy coherence across the education landscape;
  • Identify levers to tackle gender inequality in education;
  • Identify where gaps exist and where work requires to be undertaken to address those.

Going forward in this way will result in policy coherence across all areas endeavouring to tackle gender inequality and which require expert input within the Scottish Government, executive agencies, and wider national and international commitments. These include, but are not limited to, the Scottish Government’s Behaviour in Schools Action Plan; Equally Safe at School; Education Scotland’s wider Equalities Work; STEM subject choice; Mentors in Violence Prevention; LGBTI Inclusion work; UNCRC; Learning for Sustainability; and Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Equality.

In 2024, the Taskforce worked with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour (SAGRABIS) in the development of the Behaviour in Schools Action Plan to ensure that a gendered lens was applied to the action with in it. Members of the Taskforce also sat on the Scottish Government’s Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group, contributing to the production of the Gender Based Violence in Schools Framework.

Provide 50 hours per Week of Childcare

Recommendation: ‘Provide 50 hours per week of funded, good quality and flexible education and childcare for all children between six months and five years old.’

As set out in our Strategic Childcare Plan, we are committed to high quality childcare that is flexible, accessible and affordable. We recognise the key role childcare plays as part of the economic infrastructure that supports parents and carers to work, train or study. Research shows that women are most likely to bear the responsibility for caring within families, and so are most impacted when there are barriers to accessing childcare.

Early Learning & Childcare

Affordable and flexible Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) can improve standards of living and address child poverty, as well as support equal employment opportunities between women and men. We fund the delivery of 1,140 hours of high quality ELC to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds, regardless of the working status of their parents – putting children first. Families can access up to 30 hours of funded ELC each week in term time, or around 22 hours a week spread across the calendar year.

The NACWG would like to see this expanded to 50 hours a week. However, our ELC offer is one of the most significant reforms to public services in a generation as we almost doubled the ELC entitlement from 600 to 1140 hours per year in 2021. In 2025-26 we will continue to ensure access to affordable, high-quality funded early learning and childcare services – investing around £1 billion a year.

In December 2023 we published updated guidance on Funding Follows the Child and the National Standard which sets out the expectation that local authorities use these principles and criteria to shape local funded Early Learning and Childcare. This means that in each area, parents and carers should be able to choose from a range of types of setting and different patterns of provision from the public, private or third sector, or a childminder.

Fair Work has been central to the delivery of 1140 hours of funded ELC. All providers of funded ELC must meet our Fair Work standards. The ELC Real Living Wage and Fair Work Implementation Group identifies barriers and support for the sector in implementing Fair Work practices. In 2025-26 we are making a further £9.7 million available to enable childcare staff delivering funded hours in the private and third sectors to continue to be paid at least the real Living Wage, building on the £16 million investment we made in 2024-25. This is an important part of our Fair Work agenda in a 96% female workforce. We are also working with the Scottish Childminding Association to scale up their innovative childminder recruitment pilots and test new approaches to improving retention in this largely female workforce.

We have a robust strategy for evaluating the impact of the early learning and childcare (ELC) expansion programme to 1140 hours. As part of our evaluation strategy we published a report from a survey of parents’ views on ELC. Most respondents (95%) were women. We also looked at income/SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation), rurality, household type (lone/couple parent), parental age group, whether parents had a limiting health condition (disability), a child(ren) with additional support needs, or English as a second language. 74% of respondents said the funded hours enabled them to work or look for work, 47% felt happier and 46% felt less stressed. Those living in deprived areas, lone parents and younger (under 25s) parents were more likely to report these benefits.

School Age Childcare

We know that an expanded childcare offering for school age children is crucial to tackling child poverty, promoting family wellbeing, driving greater gender equality and to Keep The Promise to our care experienced children. Our Delivery Framework for School Age Childcare sets out how we will build a system of school age childcare, centred around people and place, and how we will measure the impact of early delivery.

Our Equality Impact Assessment for the School Age Childcare Programme shows that the burden of school age childcare falls disproportionately onto women rather than men, particularly in blended families, impacting women’s capacity to take up work, education or training. The EQIA also highlights particular challenges in accessing school age childcare for families with children with disabilities and/or additional support needs, and that children in families with at least one disabled adult or child account for over two-fifths (42%) of children in relative poverty. There is also an underrepresentation of minority ethnic families using school age childcare, extending to other minoritised families including religious minority families, asylum seeker, refugee and migrant families and gypsy traveller women and families.

In on-going policy development, and within our delivery projects, we are focusing on establishing the experiences, needs and concerns of minoritised families, to improve uptake and experiences of services. Building on the findings from our EQIA we have sought to identify opportunities within our programme to apply a clearer intersectional gender lens and ensure a deeper focus on the needs of minoritised women and families.

Early Adopter Communities

The childcare Early Adopter Communities (EACs) are expanding access to affordable childcare for low-income families with children from early years through to the end of primary school, and evaluating the difference this can make. This work is supporting families in 23 communities in Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Fife, Glasgow, Inverclyde and Shetland. The EACs will be a leading source of evidence, data and insights relating to the approach and outcomes associated with place-based, people-centred systems of childcare.

We are investing up to £16 million over two years within the six local authority areas participating in our EACs - expanding access to childcare services to tackle poverty and improve outcomes for children. The EACs are aligned with wider tackling poverty initiatives and public service reform Fairer Futures Partnership approaches, ensuring that we are focused on how to deliver excellent and sustainable public services for communities which support families to enter and sustain meaningful employment.

Our People Panel co-design discovery project found that school age childcare provision must be flexible to account for complex decisions and changeable circumstances families must navigate in work, family and finances. It highlighted that the burden of this complexity most often falls on women. In both phases of the People Panel Codesign Discovery project, people with intersecting protected characteristics were underrepresented and we are taking steps to address this.

To deliver on what the People Panel told us, we have invested in a programme of skills development to support and equip the EACs to embed our approach principles and ensure that they have the skills required to co-design local systems of childcare with parents, carers, and childcare providers. Developing their capacity to engage with minoritised families and equip them to apply an intersectional gender lens to the evidence they gather is an important focus. We are committed to going beyond our place-based services to better understand the needs of marginalised women and girls as we develop our policy further. We are also engaging with the Gender Equality Taskforce on Education & Learning to inform and shape this work and support alignment with other areas of Scottish Government.

Women in Scotland experience inequality in a wide range of areas, and mothers face additional, specific forms of disadvantage (in relation to employment, for example). In all of our tests of change, those benefitting from funded childcare are typically women. Our EACs have a high proportion of lone parents, almost 100% of whom are women. It is therefore important that the next phase of evaluation of our Early Adopter Communities considers gender wherever possible. Gendered and intersectional analysis has therefore been included as a requirement for the next phase of evaluation. This will include a focus on families, parents/carers, or children who fall into more than one of these groups:

• Minority ethnic families
• Families with children with Additional Support Needs (ASN)
• Single parents
• Disabled parents

For the next stage of EAC evaluation, we are working with internal and external gender equality experts to support the development of this intersectional data collection, analysis and outcomes reporting. This stage will include evaluation of impact on short- to medium-term outcomes, process and spend and we expect this evaluation to run between Spring 2025 and Summer 2026.

Finding, managing & paying for Childcare

We know that improving the quality and availability of information about school age childcare is an important step in removing the barriers experienced by parents and carers seeking to access it - the responsibility for which still falls primarily on women. Similarly, we need to ensure that all users have easy access to information about the childcare funding and support available from the Scottish and UK Governments, such as Universal Credit childcare element and Tax Free Childcare.

We are progressing work towards a digital service that will help parents and carers find and manage childcare that meets their needs. As part of this work, we have undertaken exploratory research on the needs of parents and carers and providers, in a potential digital service. During this work we focused on our six priority family groups, and held a dedicated workshop for minority ethnic parents and carers to share their experiences. Our EACs are also supporting parents to better access existing entitlements to childcare subsidies through Universal Credit and Tax-Free Childcare

Extra Time Programme

In a joint initiative with the Scottish Football Association (SFA), our ‘Extra Time Programme’ is supporting local football clubs and trusts to provide before school, after school and holiday clubs to targeted primary school children from low-income families. Over 2024/25, the Extra Time Programme is supporting 31 clubs across the country, providing around 3,500 children and families with access to vital services, to support them entering and sustaining employment, training and study, as well as better understanding the impact of reducing inequalities of access to children’s activities for those most at risk of living in poverty.

We know that despite increased focus on the girl’s game, football is often still stereotypically seen as a boys’ sport with lower rates of female participation. Some clubs are offering ‘girls only’ activity club sessions as part of the Extra Time Programme, to encourage and increase girls’ participation in football. This year, clubs began reporting on the number of girls and boys participating in the programme. The data from the Extra Time Annual Impact Report, published in November 2024, shows that the number of girls taking part in the clubs during term time is above the SFA’s national participation gender breakdown.

Breakfast Provision

The £3m Bright Start Breakfasts fund we have recently launched will create more free places at breakfast clubs for thousands of primary school children across Scotland, and provide childcare before the school day. We know that women often work in sectors and roles with reduced flexibility and the important role that flexible and affordable childcare can play in supporting employment. Alongside the provision of food, breakfast clubs also provide valuable support to parents before the school day, enabling early drop off to provide them with increased opportunities for employment.

Engagement & Co-design

To support taking a people-centred and place-based approach to service design, we developed design principles to guide our co-design work, reflecting the approach outlined in the Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD). The principles can be understood as explicit commitments we make to co-design participants to ensure that that our work reflects established practice in person-centred design, and that co-design participants have clear expectations of how we will work with them. We have also been conscious of the impact of gender and other intersecting characteristics, and sought to take a ‘gender sensitive’ approach to design, as laid out in the SAtSD.

In all our engagement and co-design to date, we have prioritised the inclusion of people in our Tackling Child Poverty priority family groups, many of them members of minoritised communities, such as minority ethnic families, families with a disabled family member, families in which the mother is aged under 25 and lone parents, the majority of whom are mothers. We have also worked with organisations holding trusted relationships with those we have sought to engage, such as One Parent Families Scotland, BEMIS & CEMVO. When undertaking co-design with children for our National Children’s Charter for school age childcare, we worked with a local Young Carers Group to ensure that young carers’ needs were represented. Our EACs are working closely with local community organisations to ensure that the needs of minoritised families are considered.

In order to further embed the voices of intersectional women in the co-design of the School Age Childcare Programme, officials undertook a series of engagements with the Empowering Women Panel (EWP). Specifically, we sought to understand how we can shift complexity in accessing and using childcare from marginalised women onto government and other actors. We are now working through what we have learned to ensure it can be shared with other policy areas in government alongside shaping ongoing policy development and delivery within the SACC programme. In addition, we are sharing our learning about what it takes to engage meaningfully with marginalised women and the value of doing so with officials across the Scottish Government.

Co-production of Policy-making and Lived Experience

Recommendation: ‘People powered policy-making: The Scottish Government, Local Government and Public Bodies should build on existing work already underway (Scottish Approach to Service Design) to create a genuine effort in co-production of policy-making with evidence of lived experience at its heart.’

We are committed to ensuring that the voices of people with lived experience shape our policies so that the decisions we take make practical improvements in people’s lives. This is particularly important for intersectional women who are often furthest from power.

On 25 April 2025, we published our new equality outcomes for the period 2025-2029. One of these outcomes is focused on strengthening participation and embedding lived experience at the heart of our work. This reflects our clear commitment to ensuring that the voices of people most affected by inequality help shape the decisions we take.

We have set out a range of actions to drive meaningful change both in the short term (within one year) and over the longer term (across four years), considering the Scottish Government’s role as both a policy-maker and an employer. These actions will be regularly reviewed to ensure they remain effective in enabling genuine co-production and inclusive decision-making, leading to practical improvements in people’s lives.

In 2022, the Institutionalising Participatory and Deliberative Democracy (IPDD) working group published a report with recommendations on how to embed participatory approaches across the work of government, including but not limited to Citizens’ Assemblies. In 2023, Scottish Government accepted most of these recommendations. It was the intention that the IPDD recommendations would support the delivery of Programme for Government 2021-22 commitments to run more, and more regular, Citizens’ Assemblies, alongside local and routine participatory and deliberative engagements. Whilst resource constraints have limited progress in this area, our commitment remains to increased, high quality opportunities for meaningful public participation.

Our Social Research Working Group on Participation and Lived Experience is developing guidance and standardised processes within Social Research for conducting participatory and lived experience work to the highest ethical standard. A focus of this work has been the publication in 2024 of guidance on paying participant expenses and compensating participant time, developed in collaboration with a range of stakeholders and welcomed by the sector. This builds on our Participation Handbook, produced through the 2018-20 Open Government Action Plan.

The 2021-25 Open Government Action Plan includes activities on participation. This initially focused on improving equality aspects of the Participation Handbook, and using this to deliver participation training across Scottish Government that focuses on inclusive practice. New activities with a focus on participation have been added through the course of the Action Plan, such as developing a procurement framework for participation work with adults (to complement an existing framework in place for participation work with children and young people), and establishing a staff network and associated training to support delivery of high quality advice on public participation.

Wider and future Open Government work will consider options for monitoring and evaluating participatory work taking place in Scottish Government, and using this to drive improvement. Throughout 2025, we will be co-creating our next Open Government Action Plan and expect to see renewed commitment to ensuring that the people of Scotland can see, understand and get involved in decisions that affect them.

Co-design

Following this NACWG recommendation, the Office of the Chief Designer delivered a programme to develop and embed design approaches, working with a broad range of health and care services, as well as children and families, including women. This focused on high profile reviews such as the Independent Review of Adult Social Care (IRASC) and the Independent Care Review (The Promise). This saw the development of the ‘design school’ model, which helps teams ensure service and policy design is legal, inclusive and ethical. It takes teams through an end-to-end design process, from readiness, capacity building and defining the problem, to creating and testing solutions. Each iteration of the ‘design school’ is evaluated and improved.

Initially designed with The Promise Scotland, the Promise Design School training programme supports collaboration across multi-agency projects, and centres lived experience. This model was the basis for the Children’s Hearing System Collaborative Redesign project and is currently being delivered within Scottish Government for the National Care Service programme and the ‘Getting It Right For Everyone’ (GIRFE) pathfinders.

Taking an intersectional approach requires careful consideration of who is involved in research and design work and a plan for the collection and analysis of data. The Lived Experience Experts Panel (LEEP) for the National Care Service (NCS) programme provides opportunities for those with lived experience to get involved in the co-design. Collecting equality data, including protected characteristics, at point of sign-up allows for an intersectional approach to policy and service design. This includes the detailed segmentation of data and the development of insights, as well as highlighting gaps to be addressed. The National Care Service (NCS) is partnering with organisations that represent communities under-represented in the work so far. Guidance has been provided by the Office of the Chief Designer to ensure continuity in approach and organisations are asked to collect data on protected characteristics using specific segmentation guidance for reporting purposes. Co-design sessions started in October 2023 and are led by CEMVO, SCLD, MECOPP, SACRO, Simon Community, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, and Alzheimer’s Scotland. ‘Collaborative sense-making’, the process of making sense of data together, helps develop collective understanding, reduces bias and creates shared ownership of insights.

Design guidance and tools

There is ongoing work to develop the design guidance, training and tools that are built into the design school model, and to share examples of good practice across the public sector, including Local Government, the NHS and the third sector. The aim is to drive consistency and consider deeper forms of engagement to complement traditional consultations. This includes methods to help organisations, for example, grow capacity and capability to undertake co-design projects; create safe and supported spaces; analyse data collaboratively; assess and mitigate risk; develop segmentation and sampling strategies; use tools such as research-based journey maps and composite stories to show different experiences, avoiding over reliance on generic personas; and understand and mitigate the unintended consequences of gender-specific bias.

Intersectional Data

Recommendation: ‘We recommend adequate resourcing to enable the collection and analysis of robust intersectional data.’

Having intersectional data available helps us to better understand different women’s experiences, for example: disabled women, older women, and minority ethnic women, and the specific barriers they may encounter because of multiple discrimination. This helps us to develop better and more informed policy, and to know when additional targeted measures might be needed.

The Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) aims to strengthen Scotland’s equality evidence base. This will help us better understand difference women’s experiences so we can make better informed policies to help all women. Our Equality Evidence Strategy (2023-25) sets out three core principles and 45 prioritised actions to improve the equality evidence base across most policy areas, by:

• Establishing processes (e.g. with stakeholders) to enable more equality data collection;
• Enhancing equality data collection/collection of new equality data in existing datasets;
• Commencing new data collection (e.g. a new survey) including one or more equality variables;
• Enhancing analysis of equality data;
• Enhancing reporting or publication of equality data collected.

The actions cover a range of equality and intersectional variables, including data on all nine protected characteristics. An Interim Review of the Equality Evidence Strategy was published in December 2024, which highlights where progress has been made. As of January 2025, of the 45 actions in the strategy, 13 are complete and 23 are on course for completion by the end of the strategy period, demonstrating strong commitment to advancing equality evidence across many policy areas. Six are delayed, one is not yet started, and two are now marked as no longer feasible to complete due to a lack of appropriate dataset.

We recognise that embedding an intersectional approach into policymaking, as per Scottish Government’s mainstreaming approach, requires resourcing across the Scottish Government. The actions in the Equality Evidence Strategy are led by multiple analytical and policy areas. For example, Labour Market and Employability analysts analysed and published equality data collected through a new ‘No One Left Behind’ data template (including on trans status and disability) before publishing intersectional analyses of data on Fair Start Scotland. Health and Social Care analysts now produce cross-tabulations (a way to analyse the relationship between two or more categories, such as sex and age) of Scottish Health and Care Experience (HACE) Survey results by equality variables. Poverty researchers also now publish more equality breakdowns with the Poverty and Income Inequality reporting , which helps us better understand women’s experiences of poverty. Examples of additional equality data activity outside of the Strategy include work in Social Security Scotland to improve the quality of their equality data collection and analysis and their inclusive communications.

On 25 April 2025, we published our new equality outcomes for the period 2025–2029. One of these outcomes is centred around strengthening equality evidence in the Scottish Government. Specifically, it focuses on improving how data is collected, analysed, and applied to inform decision-making. High-quality, disaggregated data is essential for developing a robust understanding of the diverse experiences of people across Scotland and for identifying where inequalities persist. Through this outcome, we are committed to enhancing the availability and use of intersectional evidence across government and public bodies. The actions set out will support more informed, data-driven policy-making and ensure that interventions are better targeted to address the needs of those most affected by inequality.

In 2022, Scottish Government published an evidence synthesis of literature on intersectionality, examining what the concept means, its application to policymaking and analysis, and spotlight examples. A good proportion of the Equality Evidence Strategy Actions are improvements to intersectional data and analysis specifically. For instance, we are creating a series of evidence reviews which focus on the outcomes and experiences of people with intersecting characteristics. The first of these was published in December 2024 and focused on the experiences and outcomes of Minority Ethnic Women in Scotland. Similarly, the Equality Analysis team will be undertaking new analysis of the Scotland Census 2022 dataset, drawing out intersectional findings where available and relevant.

Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission

Recommendation: ‘Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission consider producing a set of scrutiny principles to support this methodology/approach for public bodies, similar to their recent “Principles for Community Empowerment”, (linked to the Policy-makers National Standards).’

While recognising that this recommendation is for Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission to consider and respond to, we are supportive in principle.

Paid Paternity Leave

Recommendation: ‘Create two “Daddy months” of use-it-or-lose-it paid paternity leave in Scotland, using existing and additional powers transferred by UK Government.’

In the absence of legal powers governing parental leave and pay, Scottish Ministers in 2020 called on the then UK Government to enhance paternity/partner leave to provide 12 weeks fathers/partners leave on a paid, non-transferable “use it or lose it” basis, among other enhancements to maternity and neo-natal care pay and leave. Scottish Ministers wrote this year to the current UK Government on this issue.

In October 2024 the UK Government introduced the UK Employment Rights Bill. This Bill intends to expand employment rights with added protections that will support women in the workplace such as: strengthening protection from dismissal for pregnant workers and for parents returning from parental leave; including sexual harassment in protections from whistleblowing; expanding the preventative duty on employers to take ‘all’ reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace; and increasing the burden of justification on employers to accept flexible working requests. It has committed to removing the qualifying period of employment for parental and paternity leave making this a day one right; introducing the ability to take paternity leave following shared parental leave; and introducing a right to one week unpaid bereavement leave. The Scottish Government welcomes the introduction of this Bill and the wider Make Work Pay agenda. It aligns closely with our Fair Work approach to strengthen worker voice and trade unions, end one-sided flexibility, and review measures on pay and family-friendly policies. It provides the opportunity to put on a statutory footing some of the progress we have made with the levers at our disposal.

The Scottish Government has, however, consistently made clear that in order to fully protect Scottish workers, employment law should be fully devolved. As stated in Building a New Scotland: Education and lifelong learning in an independent Scotland, part of a series which set out the Scottish Government’s proposals for an independent Scotland, future Scottish governments could consider improvements to the parental leave and pay system, with higher minimum standards than those currently set by the UK Government.

On 3 February 2025 the Minister for Employment and Investment wrote to the UK Government to set out the Scottish Government’s position on these issues and his support for wider reforms as part of the Make Work Pay agenda, including the review into the Parental Leave and Pay System. The Minister called for reform and would particularly like to see the introduction of ‘non-transferable’ pay and leave for fathers/partners. This would help to increase the take-up of paternity leave; help ease the pressure and financial worry that often forces fathers to return to work sooner; and would support a more gender balanced approach to childcare. He also called on the review to consider the provision of at least three days paid miscarriage leave and is keen for the Scottish Government to participate in this review. The Minister received a response from the UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Employment Rights, Competition and Markets on 20 April 2025. It noted the specific points raised by Scottish Government regarding the consideration of ‘non-transferable’ leave for fathers and partners and expressed his desire for his department to work with interested parties to deliver this review, including the Devolved Governments.

Gender Sensitive Design

Recommendation: ‘Embed gender sensitive approaches in all work relating to programmes developed through the new Scottish Government ‘Scottish Approach to Service Design’ model.’

The Office of the Chief Designer reviewed best practice in gender sensitive design, focusing on the barriers that may prevent women and girls taking part meaningfully in policy and service design activities. An advisory group of Scottish Government officials, the third sector (Engender, Young Scot), the educational sector and NHS was set up to review progress, and act as ‘critical friends’. A report on making design methods more gender sensitive was published in 2021. Gender sensitive design considerations have been incorporated into the minimum evidence framework for the Digital Scotland Service Standard, a set of criteria that central government organisations must meet when delivering services.

Create a ‘Gender Beacon Collaborative’

Recommendation: ‘Create a “Gender Beacon Collaborative” – made up of Scottish Government, a Local Authority, a public body, a third sector agency and a business to take a holistic and systemic approach to gender equality and work.’

We fund Close the Gap to support selected local authorities, public bodies, third sector organisations and the Scottish Government (the ‘Gender Beacon Collaborative’) to achieve the Equally Safe at Work (ESW) Bronze Accreditation. This innovative employer accreditation scheme aims to advance workplace gender equality and prevent violence against women and girls by requiring organisations to fulfil approximately 30 criteria across themes such as leadership, data and workplace culture. The Gender Beacon Collaborative has worked with a number of local authorities to achieve the Bronze Accreditation and is now working with NHS Boards and Third Sector organisations.

Scottish Human Rights Commission and CEDAW

Recommendation: ‘We call on the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to appoint a Commissioner tasked specifically with promotion and protection of Women’s Rights. This Commissioner would lead work to realise rights for all women and girls as set out in CEDAW, the Istanbul Convention and other international instruments.’

As an independent body it is for the SHRC to consider and respond to this recommendation.

Expansion of the Mandate of the Scottish Human Rights Commission

Recommendation: ‘We also call for the expansion of the mandate of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, with sufficient resourcing, to allow it to take on cases on behalf of individuals’.

As set out in the Programme for Government 2025-26, we are working collaboratively with stakeholders to refine proposals for a Human Rights Bill, and lay the groundwork for effective implementation. The proposals for a Bill would incorporate four international UN treaties into Scots Law, including the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), within the limits of devolved competence. Proposals for the Human Rights Bill intend to provide an expanded power for SHRC to raise and intervene in civil proceedings relating to the duties in the Human Rights Bill. In relation to resourcing, funding for the SHRC is predominantly a matter for the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB).

The Parliamentary review being undertaken by the SPCB Supported Bodies Landscape Review Committee to review and develop a framework for SPCB supported bodies, such as the SHRC, may have potential implications on plans to expand the SHRC’s powers and mandate, and this will need to be carefully considered.

Public Sector Equality Duty

Recommendation: ‘We call on the Scottish Government as part of the current review of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) regulations in Scotland to place additional specific duties on listed Public Bodies to:

• Gather and use intersectional data, including employment and service-user data, to advance equality between protected groups, including men and women;
• Integrate intersectional gender budget analysis into their budget setting procedures.’

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED, otherwise known as the general duty) is not a duty on listed authorities to achieve any particular results, but a duty to have ‘due regard’ to the need to achieve the three goals of:

• Eliminating discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act 2010;
• Advancing equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
• Fostering good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

The general duty is likely to have a positive impact for women by virtue of listed authorities having due regard to the three goals above. Scottish Ministers are committed to using the powers at their disposal to improve the operation of the PSED in Scotland, with the intention of improving outcomes for women and other protected groups under the Equality Act 2010.

We are working on improving the effectiveness of the PSED regime in Scotland. This phased programme of improvement activity will initially consider specific regulatory changes and the use of our powers under Regulation 11. In the longer term, will consider other elements of the regime and the scope for non-regulatory change.

A review of consultation responses shows a significant proportion of listed authorities lack confidence that their organisation could comply with a requirement to integrate intersectional gender budget analysis into budget-setting procedures at this stage.

Early engagement highlighted concerns around listed authorities’ capacity and capability to improve data collection in the short term. Considerable work and support would be required if these aspects were agreed as priorities for new regulations. We have therefore decided to use the outcome setting process required under the PSED as an alternative vehicle for bolstering the use of equality data and evidence by the Scottish Government. Our new outcomes run from 2025-2029, and a programme of supporting actions has been agreed.

We are exploring the possibility of using the Scottish Specific Duties, specifically the expansion of the gender pay gap reporting duty under Regulation 7 to include disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting, and the use of Regulation 11 powers. Regulation 11 empowers Scottish Ministers to draw listed authorities’ attention to certain matters that they consider will enable better performance of the PSED, and listed authorities would be required to consider these matters when carrying out their Specific Duties.

We are not taking the NACWG recommendations forward in this first phase of improvements. We will engage with the NACWG in relation to action to be taken forward in the next phase. However, NACWG recommendations will also inform Ministers’ thinking in terms of their Regulation 12 proposals, due for publication in December 2025. Regulation 12 means that Scottish Ministers must publish a report on progress in relation to the published proposals for activity to enable the better performance of the PSED by public authorities every four years and report on progress in relation to this activity every two years. We have taken considerable steps to improve the equality outcome setting process across the public sector, and the Scottish Government has taken more of a leadership role on this in recent months.

We have created a dedicated PSED Improvement Team to take this vital work forward.