Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) Project Board minutes: July 2025

Attendees and apologies

Scottish Government:

• Alastair McAlpine, Chief Statistician (co-chair)
• Beth Cocker, Principal Researcher – Equality Analysis Team, Communities Analysis Division
• Molly Halligan, Senior Social Researcher – Equality Analysis Team, Communities Analysis Division
• Ashley Ross, Policy Manager - Centre of Expertise in Equality and Human Rights

External:

• Simon Cameron, COSLA
• Ali Hosie, Scottish Human Rights Commission
• Jennifer England Non-Departmental Public Bodies Equality Forum (NDPB)
• Hannah Telling, Equality and Human Rights (EHRC)
• Nick Cassidy, Improvement Service

Apologies:

• Philip Heritage-Vivers Policy Official, Mainstreaming
• Morag Pavich, Policy and Engagement Team Leader, Mainstreaming (presenter)
• Jonathan Wright, Senior Principal Researcher & Head of Equality and Social Justice, CAD
• Amanda Gordon, Head of Strategic Anti Racism and Disability Equality
• Audrey MacDougall, Chief Social Researcher (co-chair)
• Manira Ahmad, Public Health Scotland
• Gill McCrum, Mainstreaming, Scottish Government (Deputising for Rob Priestley)
• Lesley Crozier, Scottish Council's Equality Network (SCEN)

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

AMcA welcomed attendees to the meeting and invited introductions as new Board members were joining for the first time.

AMcA summarised the agenda for the meeting: to provide an update on progress against the actions in the Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025; a presentation on the outcomes of the Equality Evidence Strategy Roadshows; and to share updates from external Project Board members.

MH provided an overview of the Highlight Report.

MH noted she had invited any owners of ‘delayed’ actions to attend this meeting to discuss their challenges and gain feedback from the Board. However none took up this offer. AMcA suggested that we target individual owners of delayed action instead. He suggested starting with Action 44, and invite analysts from NRS to come along to discuss the issues they’re facing at the next meeting. He suggested that EDIP board members think about which delayed actions they would explore more in a future EDIP meeting and the relevant action leads will be invited along.

Attendees had no other comments.

AMcA invited MH to deliver a presentation covering the outcomes of the Equality Evidence Strategy Roadshows/Collaboration sessions.

The presentation began with:

• The background and objectives of the Roadshow sessions
• The poll results that showed engagement with existing and new external organisations to the work of the Equality Evidence Strategy
• The three themes that were developed after the sessions: strengthening data infrastructure, relationships among people using and producing equality evidence, and thoughts on how to improve the next Equality Evidence Strategy.
• Finally, the observations of how well the objectives of the Roadshows had been achieved.

AMcA invited attendees to respond with their reflections on the work.

Attendee said that the sessions sounded helpful and they were encouraged to see that stakeholders were interested in using different types of equality data (qualitative, lived experience and quantitative). Attendee suggested that we cannot just keep collecting more and more quantitative data and that there is a need to expand beyond that to get a fuller understanding. This also includes building policy professionals’ confidence (not just data users and producers) so that they can see the benefits and value in using qualitative data alongside quantitative. Attendee was pleased to see this as a potential focus for the next Strategy.

MH agreed that it was good to see that organisations would like to see this as a focus in the next Strategy, particularly as these organisations hold a lot of that data themselves.

BC added that these organisations expressed a concern in the sessions that their evidence is not always used by SG and that there was a discussion about how government can support external organisations to increase the rigour and quality of data, particularly qualitative evidence, for use in policymaking. Consideration should be given to the valid concerns from external stakeholders about the risk of an over reliance on external evidence, and that reassurances around this would be needed.

AMcA highlighted that policy/ministerial ambition and quantitative data will only provide part of the picture and that qualitative evidence is required as part of this picture too. AMcA emphasised that all three elements are required to have an impact in policymaking and decisions. Each element should be seen as an equal partner.

Attendee was pleased to see the results of the presentation and would like to see a conversations for local services specifically as they were not sure whether Improvement Service was involved in these sessions. They noted that the Improvement Service had also felt a greater push for use of qualitative research in their discussions. Attendee agreed with stakeholders’ feedback that dissemination of guidance and guidelines for standardisation of data collection approaches (e.g. of terminology) would be welcome.

Attendee agreed that there is value and power in lived experience and qualitative evidence. They emphasised the importance of being able to explain and critique methodologies, to be able to demonstrate the rigour of the evidence which is then produced. Attendee shared that their organisation are exploring how they can make their project information, particularly methodologies resulting in both qualitative and quantitative evidence, available to others and will share this with the group at a later date.

Attendee agreed they were pleased to see the importance of lived experience evidence. They see that this would be beneficial to the policy work they are currently involved in and are interested to see we continue to strengthen this in the future.

BC highlighted that the Social Research Group within Scottish Government are beginning to advance open research practices, which is often fairly limited with qualitative research. This would mean making available a wider set of research outputs rather than only publish the final reports - for instance, transcripts and interview topic guides.

AMcA added on the topic of lived experience and qualitative data, they are reminded that members of the ScotStat board have emphasised remembering statistics don’t mean much to people unless you can link it back to lived experience or individual circumstances that people can relate to.

Attendee said that the Roadshow/Collaboration sessions seemed worthwhile and that a lot of work had gone into it. They agreed that early engagement with external stakeholders is appreciated and hoped that this element is continued going forward. They highlighted that they have recently built close relationships with Scottish Government’s Equality team and this has increased their opportunities to engage in other types of meaningful work so would encourage the next Strategy to encourage the same.

Attendee agreed with the previous point made by AMcA on the importance of explaining the data. They noted this links to how we explain to people why we need and should produce this data, particularly to encourage people to confidently contribute to the data. Attendee raised a question about how we bring together engagement activities and emphasise the importance of gathering data to be influential in policymaking. Attendee highlighted that often EQIAs and other reporting are about doing an exercise in knowing what you know at the moment, but the purpose should be more about gathering data on what you don’t know and the impact of policy in those spaces. They said that getting the balance right between all these factors would tackle the misinformation and disinformation around the use and purpose of equalities data.

MH returned to the point on local service conversations and agreed that a follow up conversation would be useful as Improvement Service would have good points.

AMcA acknowledged that there may be multiple ways to take this work forward but that if we can do the next few steps well then the options will be become clearer.

Attendee added that everyone’s got their own systems and so many of them don’t match up depending on where you get them from, but use of shared systems should improve alignment.

AMcA agreed that the increased use of shared systems and the Public Sector reform agenda are an opportunity to advance a harmonised approach across agencies.

The EDIP Board expressed thanks to the Equalities Analysis team for pulling these sessions together and providing this update on the outcomes.

No attendees provided an update.

No other business was raised.

The next meeting will be held in 21st October 2025, 14:00-15:00.

AMcA thanked all for attending and for their input in the meeting.

• MH to invite action leads from action 44 (NRS) to the next EDIP meeting.
• The Equality Analysis team will develop a PID for the evaluation of the current Equality Evidence Strategy and share this with the EDIP Board.
• The Equality Analysis team will continue to consider the results of the Roadshow/Collaboration sessions and how to take forward the valuable contributes made by the attendees.