Equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy

Framework for Action: Six Drivers of Change

1. Strengthening Leadership

2. Developing Accountability and Transparency

3. Ensuring Effective Regulatory and Policy Environment

4. Utilising Evidence and Experience

5. Enhancing Capability and Culture

6. Improving Capacity

1. Strengthening Leadership

Summary of aim. To help support leaders across the Scottish Government and wider public sector to prioritise, embed, and advance equality and human rights by considering:

motivating, guiding and challenging others to prioritise equality and human rights into their work

learning more about equality and human rights themselves, while helping others to do the same, so that equality and human rights become a basic part of making policies and delivering services

taking the lead in ensuring equality and human rights are central to all policies and services, putting focus, and directing attention, resources, and effort towards protecting and advancing them

regularly monitoring how well mainstreaming is progressing and working to improve equality and human rights across all areas of responsibility

recognising collective leadership is not exclusive to formal roles and can include leaders across the Scottish Government, wider public sector, as well as third sector, civic and community leaders

Aim in depth

Leadership is fundamental to mainstreaming equality and human rights. It enables the development of clear strategies and goals that focus on Scotland’s future and helps improve outcomes for everyone who lives here. Committed leadership is central to the successful achievement of all other mainstreaming drivers, creating the culture change required to motivate and inspire others to advance equality and human rights.

Effective leadership in equality and human rights could mean leaders who:

• understand equality and human rights and apply this knowledge in practice
• apply this understanding with strong leadership skills to be able to adopt a situational approach that is flexible and adaptable, recognising that one size does not fit all
• ensure that work to advance equality and human rights is adequately resourced and protected
• engage with and reflect diverse lived experiences to better understand and to inform decisions
• set clear direction and are proactive and engaged in assessment of progress to mainstream equality and human rights throughout their area of responsibility
• take an active approach to ensuring legal obligations are met including responsibility for impact assessments that advance equality and human rights

Our commitment is to continue to support and improve Scottish Government and wider public sector leadership at all levels to motivate and inspire others to embed equality and human rights into their work. We will support Scottish Government, public sector and community leaders to leverage their existing strengths and the existing tools to build equality and human rights through the other five key drivers identified.

Leadership is the foundation that enables the success of all other drivers of mainstreaming equality and human rights. Without committed and inclusive leadership, these drivers cannot be effectively implemented or sustained.

• Leaders set the tone for accountability and transparency by modelling openness and ensuring systems are in place to monitor progress.
• They shape an effective regulatory and policy environment by embedding equality and human rights into legislation, policy development, and implementation.
• Leadership also drives the use of evidence and lived experience, by championing inclusive data practices and co-producing solutions with communities.
• Leaders foster capability and culture by investing in staff development, modelling inclusive behaviours, and creating environments where equality is valued.
• Leadership is essential to improving capacity, as leaders allocate resources, prioritise equality and human rights in budgeting, and build sustainable systems for change.

To understand how this leadership operates in practice it is important to examine it at all levels.

Collective Leadership:

‘Leadership’ in this Strategy refers to the ability to guide, support, and inspire others to embed equality, inclusion, and human rights into everyday decisions and actions. This also recognises collective leadership is not exclusive to formal roles, it can include leaders across the Scottish Government, the wider public sector, as well as third sector, civic and community leaders. Effective leadership is participatory and collaborative. It involves working across sectors and with communities to co-design and co-deliver solutions. This includes creating space for lived experience to shape decisions and ensuring leadership is inclusive and representative.

Political Leadership:

Ministers and local government officials can play a critical role in embedding equality and human rights within their portfolios and work across government and with external partners.

By demonstrating a clear commitment through policies, operational delivery and legislative work, equality and human rights may be more successfully realised.

Executive Leadership:

Leaders should aim to guide the culture, behaviours, practices, capability, and capacity of the Scottish Government and other public bodies towards achieving the goals laid out in the National Performance Framework (NPF). This includes making strategic decisions, setting a clear vision, and motivating teams to work together. Succession planning is essential to ensure continuity and sustainability. Leadership is strengthened through anti-discrimination, diversity, and pay equity policies, with mandatory reporting on diversity and inclusion metrics.

Public Sector Leadership:

Public sector leaders manage agencies to deliver fair, accessible, and rights-based services that meet the diverse needs of the people of Scotland. Decisions should aim to be centred on the needs of the people, and leaders should be empowered through inclusive leadership practice. Leaders should aim to foster environments where guidance and resources are available, while simultaneously being transparent and answerable for decisions and outcomes. A key tool for public sector leaders to demonstrate transparency and accountability is the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).

Community Leadership:

We recognise community leaders play a key role in connecting people, building trust, and ensuring all voices are heard, especially those often overlooked. The Scottish Government supports community leaders through training in equality, inclusion, and human rights, collaboration with public services and local organisations. Engagement through working groups and consultations ensures lived experience is incorporated into decision-making.

What we need to do

To see a detailed list of actions that the Scottish Government is taking forward please refer to the Action Plan.

There are many levers that senior leaders within Scottish Government can use to demonstrate visible, accountable and inclusive leadership in equality, inclusion and human rights. We are committed to continuing to improve them and developing new ones to support sustained progress.

• The National Performance Framework (NPF), sets the vision for the kind of Scotland we all want to live in, and the vision outlined in this Strategy. Leaders should look to the NPF, alongside the statutory equality outcomes required from listed public bodies, to set a clear direction for their organisation.
• We will continue with our reverse mentoring programmes and are currently investing in leadership development through Equality and Human Rights training, such as our recent Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights Academy programme and future leadership offers.
• For public sector leaders, including those who do not have access to internal Scottish Government development, we have produced a toolkit alongside this Strategy, to ensure they have practical resources to help integrate equality, inclusion and human rights into their respective organisations. This toolkit will be continually developed and regularly updated to reflect the latest best practice.
• Internally we will continue to build on our Equality and Human Rights Senior Leadership Group (EHRSLG). The EHRSLG’s core purpose has been to contribute to, and drive, system change across the Scottish Government in advancing equality and human rights. This is achieved through collective, transformative leadership and changes to systems and practices.
• We will continue to build on opportunities to maximise our engagement and accountability at the highest levels of Scottish Government and raise awareness of the tools to mainstream equality and human rights.
• We will work to update and develop the professional development programme for the Scottish Government’s policy profession. That aims at integrating equality, inclusion and human rights considerations into the professional standards for all policy leads at the most fundamental level. We will extend this to support development for Ministers and senior officials.
• Mentoring is an important part of our Learning and Development offer. We use mutual and reverse mentoring to support growth, share knowledge, and build connections across all levels of the organisation.

2. Developing Accountability and Transparency

Summary of aim. Accountability and transparency are critical for ensuring good governance and essential for building and maintaining public trust in Government and the wider public sector. Scrutiny is a key part of this.

Everyone in Scotland has the right to relevant information about policies that affect them in an easily accessible format and structure. Clear communication is key to accountability and transparency as well as being critical to wider mainstreaming.

This includes legislative process, policymaking, policy enforcement and performance, administrative budget, and public spending. Scottish Government, and the wider public sector, must be accountable to the public, as well as stakeholders, for how they carry out their work. Accountability could typically include regular reporting allowing scrutiny of performance on realising and protecting equality and human rights.

Aim in depth

Accountability and transparency are central to good governance and to the effective mainstreaming of equality and human rights. They are inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing. Transparency enables scrutiny and scrutiny drives accountability. A key part of transparency is ensuring that information flows freely and is available in accessible formats. This includes being clear about how decisions are made and how equality and human rights considerations have shaped those decisions.

Scrutiny is equally integral to accountability in assessing the impacts of policies and practices on equality and human rights. Effective scrutiny empowers diverse stakeholders to raise issues, ask questions, and push for transparency, leading to increased understanding of how well accountability mechanisms are realising meaningful progress in mainstreaming.

The Scottish Government, and the wider public sector, are accountable to the public for how they carry out their responsibilities. To support the effective mainstreaming accountability processes must be transparent and easy to understand, without requiring specialist knowledge. This driver for change focuses on improving how information is shared, so that everyone in Scotland can access clear, relevant details about decisions and actions that affect their lives. This includes legislation and legislative activities, policy development, enforcement, budgeting, and public spending.

Scottish Government civil servants are accountable to Ministers, who in turn are held accountable by the Scottish Parliament and ultimately to the Scottish people, for policies and services delivered.

Within the Scottish Government, external accountability is supported by key stakeholder bodies that examine policy intentions and provide independent recommendations. This includes the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Scottish Human Rights Commission.

Both have statutory roles in promoting and protecting human rights and equality. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is responsible for enforcing the PSED in Scotland, which requires public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between people with protected characteristics and those without. The Commission monitors compliance, investigates breaches, and provides guidance to support public bodies in meeting their legal obligations. The Scottish Human Rights Commission also plays a key role in holding public bodies to account, including through inquiries, legal interventions, and reporting to Parliament and international human rights mechanisms.

Accountability is also achieved through:

• the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
• scrutiny bodies such as the Care Inspectorate, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the Scottish Housing Regulator, Audit Scotland and inspectorate bodies
• the Scottish Fiscal Commission
• reporting on equality and human rights progress as requested by the United Nations, through mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review, examination of state progress on individual human rights treaties and investigations of UN Special Rapporteurs with specialist expertise

Internally, Scottish Government has established various mechanisms to ensure accountability, monitoring and transparency around equality and human rights. These include:

• the role of Accountable Officers, who have personal responsibility to monitor proper management of public funds and compliance with regulations, which includes equality and human rights
• publishing equality impact assessments (EQIAs), child rights and wellbeing impact assessments, and Fairer Scotland Duty assessments
• budget monitoring through the various mechanisms above, as well as the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement

In addition, proposals for a new Human Rights Bill seek to expand the remit of relevant complaints and scrutiny bodies to support public authorities in fulfilling their core duties in the Bill. This approach is intended to strengthen external accountability and embed a human rights culture across the public sector through a multi-institutional model.

What we need to do

To see a detailed list of actions that the Scottish Government is taking forward please refer to the Action Plan.

• The Scottish Government is committed to advancing inclusive communications providing practical support through guidance, training and better resourcing. An inclusive communications toolkit has been commissioned which will aim to make improvements for those with different communication needs in Scotland.
• The inclusive communications toolkit will sit alongside the Scottish Government’s other work to embed inclusive communication across the public sector, such as developing national standards, best practice, and monitoring systems.
• In the Mainstreaming Action Plan, published alongside this Strategy, there is a specific action included for Government to develop and publish a robust internal governance and accountability framework by Summer 2026 to monitor and report on its commitments. Effective reporting and monitoring will be central to the success of the Action Plan, whilst building transparency and accountability into the delivery of its actions critical to ensuring meaningful progress on outcomes is achieved.

The framework will be designed to:

• provide clear and transparent oversight of progress against the Plan’s actions
• ensure accountability within Government, particularly at senior levels
• support alignment across directorates and promote cross-government collaboration
• encourage transparency and the sharing of good practice
• ensure the actions contribute to the three needs of the PSED
• The Scottish Government has taken a range of actions to increase the use and effectiveness of equality and human rights budgeting. This includes establishing the Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group (EHRBAG), and the publication of the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement.
• EHRBAG is a non-statutory advisory group responsible for providing strategic advice to the Scottish Government on equality budgeting processes. It advises, shapes and informs the Scottish Government’s approach both to the governance and structures of the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement, and to equality and human rights budgeting more widely. Working with EHRBAG, the Government will continue to improve processes to increase understanding and articulation of the impact of spending decision on equality and human rights.
• The Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement is an integral part of the Scottish Government’s budget process and responds to our legal duties to assess the Equality and Fairer Scotland impacts of our tax and spending decisions. It provides an update on the work underway to assess the equality and fairness impacts of the proposals set out in the Resource Spending Review. This includes work aimed at improving efficiency, such as shared services, and the main platforms for reform such as public services. The next steps are to review, refine and broaden the Statement ensuring that it provides clearer analysis of human rights impacts across government.
• Scottish Government is leading work to strengthen the quality and consistency of Impact Assessments. This includes enhancing organisational capacity to improve EQIAs with updated guidance, tools and training.

Compliance/Oversight and Reporting:

Responsibility for oversight of Scottish Government compliance with the Equality Act 2010 rests with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which has issued guidance on how the PSED should be applied in practice in Scotland. The Scottish Government expects all relevant public sector organisations to comply with the requirements of the 2010 Act and with the relevant codes of practice and other guidance published by the EHRC.

The EHRC is independent, and as a reserved public body, its powers cannot be changed by the Scottish Parliament. To support transparency and accountability, the Scottish Government publishes a Mainstreaming Equality and Human Rights report every two years. This report outlines progress in embedding equality and human rights across government, enabling public scrutiny and demonstrating how PSED duties are being met.

The Strategy itself will be formally reviewed in 2029 to assess its impact and identify opportunities for improvement. The Action Plan will be reported on and updated annually, aligning wherever possible with statutory reporting duties, including the requirement to publish a Mainstreaming Report every two years.

Throughout this period, the Scottish Government will continue to engage with stakeholders, including people with lived experience, to ensure that both the Strategy and Action Plan remain relevant, inclusive, and effective.

3. Ensuring Effective Regulatory and Policy Environment

Summary of aim. To promote laws, regulations and policies shaping the actions of the Scottish Government that aim to collectively support stronger performance of the PSED and the further realisation of fundamental human rights for all the people of Scotland. This includes aiming to have the most effective equality and human rights legislation possible within devolved competence and promoting legislation and policies that properly consider equality and human rights requirements. This should help create a cohesive legislative and policy framework that both reflects Scotland’s commitment to equality and human rights and supports continuous improvement across the public sector which will make Scotland fairer for all.

Aim in depth

Ensuring an effective regulatory and policy environment is critical to achieving systemic change and reducing inequality. Regulation and policy development is a core function of government. The Scottish Government, taking into account the views of the wider public sector, propose new and revised regulations and policies to respond to challenges and aim to make positive change in the real world.

Therefore, making better regulation and policy is a principal ambition of mainstreaming, because it aims to produce regulations and policies that consider equality and human rights as core parts of the process. The end results would aim to be regulations and policies that are fairer, advance equality of opportunity, and further realise fundamental human rights for all the people of Scotland. This could require the following;

• Specific legislation and policies that directly support equality and human rights, to the extent possible under the current devolution arrangements. Scotland’s proposed Human Rights Bill will aim to embed international human rights, including economic, social, cultural and environmental standards, and protections for marginalised groups into domestic law. Following consultation and a 2025 Discussion Paper, it is proposed that the Bill be introduced in the 2026-31 Parliamentary session, subject to the outcome of the Parliamentary elections.
• Formal processes to ensure equality and human rights are properly considered in all legislation and policy development, including through compliance with the PSED and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (‘Scottish Specific Duties’), which set out detailed requirements for listed authorities.
• Cohesive delivery of regulation and policy to ensure consistent, positive outcomes across sectors.

The PSED, established under the Equality Act 2010, places a legal obligation on public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between people who share particular protected characteristics and people who do not. In Scotland, the Scottish Specific Duties provide a framework to support better performance of the PSED. Strengthening how the PSED operates in practice is central to creating a regulatory and policy environment that delivers for all communities and ensures equality and human rights are embedded in every stage of decision making.

Those working in the legal or policy sphere, including civil servants, must ensure they produce regulations and policies that will make Scotland fairer, advance equality of opportunity and realise fundamental human rights for all the people of Scotland. Collaboration across government and the public sector is essential to ensure policies respond to challenges and make positive change in the real world.

Good policy making must also be underpinned by:

• strong leadership to provide clarity on policy and regulatory goals
• organisational capability and capacity
• effective resource allocation
• rigorous policy design based on data and evidence
• responsive stakeholder engagement, including with people with lived experience of difference protected characteristics
• robust impact assessments
• transparency and accountability mechanisms

This work is aligned with the NPF, which sets out Scotland’s wellbeing vision and includes outcomes on human rights, non-discrimination, poverty reduction, and inclusive communities. The NPF is currently undergoing a statutory review which will be launched at the start of the new parliamentary session. This update will help ensure the NPF continues to support inclusive policy development and delivery across government and public services.

EQIAs are fundamental to ensuring equality and human rights are properly considered in order to establish a cohesive approach to policy and legislative development. The Scottish Government adopts a continuous improvement approach to the EQIA process, with new training courses and guidance materials being created and piloted, and a dedicated team providing support.

What we need to do

To see a detailed list of actions that the Scottish Government is taking forward please refer to the Action Plan.

In response to consultation feedback and ongoing engagement, we will take forward the following actions to improve the effectiveness, transparency and inclusiveness of Scotland’s regulatory and policy environment

• We will continue to strengthen EQIAs as a core tool for embedding equality and human rights in policy and legislative development. This includes enhancing organisational capacity through updated guidance, training and support, and progressing work to develop and pilot a Human Rights Impact Assessment framework to complement EQIAs and ensure rights are considered from the outset.
• The Scottish Government remains committed to taking a phased approach to supporting better performance and improving the effectiveness of the operation of the PSED in Scotland. Alongside this Mainstreaming Strategy, we have published our report setting out the Scottish Government’s new proposals for PSED improvement activity for the 2025-29 phase, in line with Scottish Ministers’ duty under Regulation 12 of the Scottish Specific Duties. The report outlines the considerations that have shaped these proposals, including feedback from the PSED Improvement Stakeholder Reference Group, data and evidence, lessons learned from the current phase of PSED improvement, and recommendations from previous reporting. This will help us to plan our roadmap for future improvement activity by outlining our next steps for the 2025-29 phase.
• Over the longer term, action will be taken to create a more cohesive framework which is easier for everyone working in policy, at all levels, to understand and to adhere to. Scottish Government officials will seek to ensure that any reporting requirements under the PSED framework will minimise duplication and align with any new reporting requirements where that reduces reporting complexity for public bodies and adds value to the process. The primary aim will be to ensure that actions taken in relation to PSED and the Scottish Specific Duties make a real difference and drive meaningful actions, not simply processes or reports for their own sake.
• We will build organisational capability through Centres of Expertise, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) resources, the capability-related actions set out in the Action Plan, and the Mainstreaming Toolkit. These resources will aim to support staff across the public sector to embed equality and human rights in their work.
• We recognise that regulatory frameworks must evolve to meet environmental commitments, respond to digitisation, and take on functions previously held at EU level. We will aim to ensure equality and human rights are embedded in these changes.
• All actions will be aligned with Scotland’s NPF, which includes outcomes on human rights, non-discrimination, poverty reduction and inclusive communities.
• Programme for Government, National Performance Framework (NPF), and the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement (EFSBS), are all underpinned by the consideration of equality and by Fairer Scotland Duty and Human Rights considerations. We are moving towards consideration at an earlier stage in these cross-government processes in order to embed equality and human rights into development earlier and more strongly.

4. Utilising Evidence and Experience

Summary of aim. To use robust evidence and experience to help improve policy development, supporting innovation and adaptation, at individual, organisational and service levels. This could include addressing any resource or capability gaps that prevent the effective collection, analysis, and use of equality and human rights data. It could also mean actively and meaningfully involving those with lived experience and those directly impacted in the design and implementation of policy. Good equality evidence can allow for analysis and understanding of whether differential impacts (e.g., in terms of access, satisfaction and outcomes) are being experienced by those sharing certain characteristics.

Aim in depth

Robust and comprehensive equality evidence is vital for the design and delivery of inclusive policies and services. The regulatory and policy environment is a critical aspect of achieving system change. Therefore, building skills to effectively analyse and apply evidence is crucial throughout the policy cycle. We want to aim to use evidence to: understand issues; to design new policies or changes to policies; to guide decision making; and to monitor and evaluate.

There are a number of complexities involved in collecting and analysing equality data (as set out in the Equality Evidence Strategy), which requires the development of specialist skills and advice to ensure best practice and that it is in accordance with data protection legislation.

Comprehensive equality evidence involves the integration of official statistics, quantitative and qualitative research evidence, policy-maker expertise, and critically, insights from people directly impacted by the policy. A mixed methods approach supports inclusivity by recognising that knowledge is personal, intersectional, shaped by context, and constantly evolving. High-quality equality evidence offers crucial insights into how policies affect different groups, while the ability to interpret and apply this evidence empowers policymakers to design solutions that are both meaningful and equitable.

This approach allows for analysis and understanding of whether differential impacts (e.g. in terms of access, satisfaction and outcomes) are being experienced by those sharing certain characteristics.

While progress has been made, Scotland’s equality evidence base continues to show gaps including in relation to intersectional data. However, rather than focusing solely on expanding the evidence base, we could adopt a more strategic approach to identifying areas where better evidence would make the biggest difference.

The Scottish Government’s Equality Outcomes 2025-29 highlight the importance of building the capability of policy professionals to embed equality, inclusion, and human rights into policy work. This supports a mainstreaming approach by investing in analytical skills, fostering evidence-informed decision-making, and creating the conditions for sustained, system-wide change.

The aim should be to use this approach to utilising evidence and lived experience to develop policy. This will support the creation of innovative and informed policies, based on individual, organisational and service level evidence. It should also help to reduce bias.

Drawing on lived experience means using insights from people who have direct, first-hand knowledge of how policies and services affect their lives. This needs to be done with care, sensitivity and respect. One of the Scottish Government’s key approaches to gathering this type of evidence is through lived experience panels. A leading example is the Social Security Experience Panels, which involve over 2,000 people with experience of the benefits system. Their input has helped shape the design and delivery of Scotland’s social security services, ensuring they are more responsive, inclusive, and rights-based.

What we need to do

To see a detailed list of actions that the Scottish Government is taking forward please refer to the Action Plan.

• To help to mainstream equality effectively, the Scottish Government and public sector should continue to strengthen collaboration with diverse stakeholders, including through robust impact assessment processes. This enables learning from lived experiences and supports policies that improve outcomes for all communities in Scotland and all those intersected characteristics that live within them.
• Our ambition is to make quantitative, qualitative and lived experience equality and human rights evidence an integral part of policy development. This means not only improving how we collect and analyse data, but also how we use it. We will continue to strengthen our focus on making better use of the evidence we already have, ensuring it informs decision-making, and drives change across professions.
• The Scottish Government has a range of tools and publications to support evidence gathering for policy development including, The Scottish Approach to Service Design and The Participation Framework. Scottish Government and its agencies also collect, analyse and publish equality evidence and analysis across a wide range of policy areas. Much of the quantitative equality evidence published by Scottish Government and some of its agencies is presented across key policy areas for policy makers and other users on the Scottish Government’s Equality Evidence Finder.
• The impact assessment process is a significant tool for embedding evidence and lived experience into policy. Scottish Government is working to improve how policy impact assessments are carried out, including Equality Impact Assessments.
• There are costs and challenges to collecting and analysing equality and intersectional data; but a stronger and more complete evidence base, used effectively, will support the collective effort to meet the requirements of the PSED. This includes not only being strategic about gathering new data but making better use of the evidence we already have to influence policy across professions and sectors.
• In April 2021, Scottish Government launched the first phase of an Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) to make equality evidence more wide-ranging and robust, enabling policy makers to develop sound, inclusive policy. Through the EDIP, an audit of datasets used by the Scottish Government and National Records of Scotland assessed the extent to which data on the nine protected characteristics and intersections between them, is collected and published. This audit information was used to produce improvement plans for each analytical area, which include immediate and longer-term improvements to fill priority evidence gaps. These plans formed the basis of Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025, which was published in March 2023. An interim review was published in December 2024 and a fuller evaluation of the Strategy will be published in early 2026 ahead of the development of the next Equality Evidence Strategy.
• Forty-five EDIP actions have been taken forward, each of which aim to improve processes, data collection, data analysis or data publication. This includes:
• a range of new equalities data being analysed and published across Scottish Government
• the publication of refreshed guidance for the collection of data on age, disability, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation
• the publication of a report outlining what is meant by the concept ‘intersectionality’ and how it can be applied
• the publication of six case studies highlighting how different public sector organisations have approached collecting and using equality data to provide better services and outcomes for their ‘customers’
• a series of workshops to share learning and good practice among Scottish Government analysts
• In April 2025 the Equality Outcomes 2025-2029 report was published with two areas of focus. The next phase of this work will build on that foundation by continuing to balance strategic evidence development with system-wide capability building. The aim is to ensure that equality evidence is not only collected, but actively used to shape fairer, more inclusive policies and decision-making across Government.

5. Enhancing Capability and Culture

Summary of aim. To enhance the capability and culture of the Scottish Government and other public bodies to make consideration of equality and human rights part of day to day thinking and behaviour. This could include ensuring all staff have the required level of knowledge and skills, and that there are highly competent specialist staff to support as required. Having enough time and resources to develop the necessary skills and knowledge is essential.

Aim in depth

Capability and Culture

Capability and culture are mutually reinforcing, both very closely linked and essential to embedding equality and human rights meaningfully across public sector practice. Capability provides the tools, knowledge, and frameworks that enable staff to act with confidence and competence, while culture shapes the environment in which those capabilities are applied, sustained, and evolved. A culture that values inclusion, integrity, and collaboration creates the conditions for capability to thrive, ensuring that learning is not only accessible but also relevant and impactful. Conversely, investing in capability, through training, development, and specialist support, helps to shift organisational norms and behaviours, embedding equality and human rights into everyday decision making.

Capability

Meeting this aim requires investment to ensure all staff have a suitable base level of knowledge and skills in equality and human rights. It also means developing more in-depth skills for specific and specialist roles. All public sector staff should have access to the right development opportunities, guidance, and tools when they need it, with clear frameworks outlining the depth of knowledge required. For example, within Scottish Government, we have recently re-launched our training plan and resources for officials in the policy profession. Throughout this revised approach, there are built in materials and modules on understanding equality and human rights, and how to use that understanding, and impact assessments, to build policies that are as inclusive as possible and contribute to a fairer and better society for all Scottish communities.

Clear frameworks of knowledge, skills and behavioural requirements also allow equality and human rights to be built into all aspects of people management including recruitment and promotion, performance management (for example the use of diversity objectives) and development and talent management.

Training and development should recognise the unique needs and circumstances of different groups e.g. the specific need for disability and gender competence. It should also recognise the importance of intersectionality and the role it plays. To this end Scottish Government have published two documents to help define what is meant by intersectionality and how to apply it to policy work:

• using intersectionality to understand structural inequality in Scotland: evidence synthesis
• using intersectionality in policymaking and analysis: summary findings

There is also a need to ensure this understanding of equality and human rights is specific to the relevant working area. To that end, the Scottish Government is aiming to establish Centres of Expertise within the different Government portfolios in order to develop and improve officials’ understanding of equality and human rights within the context of different policy areas.

To fully realise the increased capability, all initiatives undertaken should be evaluated and continuously improved, with feedback loops and monitoring mechanisms to ensure accountability and learning.

Culture

An organisation’s culture is founded on the beliefs, values and communications that create its operating environment, both internally and externally. This means that the Scottish Government’s (or any other public body’s) culture shapes the policies that are developed to improve the lives of people in Scotland.

Developing organisational culture means expanding the skills and knowledge of employees so that they understand not only their responsibilities, but also the benefits of considering equality and human rights.

This Strategy aims to influence the culture of both Scottish Government and public bodies to embrace and centralise equality and human rights in their decision making prioritisation, strategic thinking, and policy development. Changing process or legislation alone with no aligned cultural enhancement may not lead to mainstreaming equality and human rights. A key enabler of an enhanced culture is equipping public sector staff, at all levels, with the skills and knowledge needed.

This Strategy aims to support the ambition for a transformed culture in government and the public sector where equality and human rights are central pillars guiding all internal and external processes. This means development to help ensure:

• policies are consistently considered from an equality and human rights perspective from the outset
• ability to manage relevant tools and approaches such as Impact Assessment
• diverse voices and experiences are engaged in shaping decisions at all levels
• staff are confident in applying equality analysis and able to recognise exclusionary practices

An organisation that is inclusive and shows respect for all its staff should more naturally deliver policies and practices with human rights at its heart. A workplace where everyone can thrive and reach their full potential and a more diverse workforce further supports cultural change. The recently published ‘Diversity and Inclusion employer strategy for Scottish Government’ shows the continued commitment to building a diverse and inclusive workforce within government. Cultural transformation supports Scotland to become a leader on equality and human rights, fundamentally improving outcomes for all those who live here.

What we need to do

To see a detailed list of actions that the Scottish Government is taking forward please refer to the Action Plan.

• Key to shaping Scottish Government culture are the values that represent who Scottish Government are, who they aspire to be, and what they believe in. They build on the foundations of the Civil Service Code and National Performance Framework (NPF) values. They guide how Scottish Government officials act, the decisions we take and how we work together, across all parts of Government, to improve the lives of the people of Scotland. These values are: we act with integrity; we are inclusive; we are collaborative; we are innovative; we are kind.
• As part of this Strategy, we have developed a Toolkit to help improve capability and culture. This online platform contains training, Continuing Professional Development materials, checklists and best practice examples to support Scottish Government Directorates and the wider Scottish public sector, evaluate their mainstreaming equality and human rights priorities and consider taking appropriate actions. The toolkit will continue to be developed and updated after the publication of this Strategy and will continue to give the latest best practice examples available.
• To further improve capability and culture within Scottish Government, multiple learning and development opportunities exist and continue to be improved upon. These include, among others, EQIA guidance, Impact Assessment Surgeries/Drop-In Clinics, training modules and bespoke sessions.
• In February 2025 the Equality, Inclusion, and Human Rights Directorate hosted a transformative Development Academy Week for over 1,000 Scottish Government staff. The Programme was designed to empower the organisation with the knowledge and tools to make a real difference in the workplace. Scottish Government are eager to build on the initial progress of this work and to understand how to use the feedback collected to feed into longer-term strategic thinking and direction of work.
• In the Scottish Government we are developing a programme of work to establish Centres of Expertise within the different Government portfolios in order to develop and improve officials’ understanding of equality and human rights within the context of different policy areas.
• The Scottish Government has committed to strengthening the implementation of human rights, both now, and to lay the groundwork for potential duties under a future Human Rights Bill. This includes working with partners to further build the human rights capability of the public sector to increasingly embed rights in all we do. This year we are funding the Improvement Service and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to strengthen public sector knowledge and understanding of the rights proposed for incorporation through a future Human Rights Bill, building on learning from UNCRC incorporation. The Scottish Government is also engaging with organisations funded through the Equality and Human Rights Fund to facilitate knowledge exchange on the rights proposed for incorporation.

6. Improving Capacity

Summary of aim. To support the Scottish Government and the wider public sector to have the resources and budget necessary to fully integrate equality and human rights considerations into everything they do.

To support this, equality and human rights considerations must directly inform decisions about resource allocation and budgets. This includes the application of equality and human rights budgeting principles, along with the availability of potential funding for third-sector organisations to help create external capacity.

Aim in depth

Our ambition is to ensure that the Scottish Government and wider public sector have the time, structure and resources needed to fully integrate equality and human rights considerations into everything they do. To achieve this ambition organisations will need to aim to utilise their staff, finances and other assets to support positive change for the communities they serve.

Improving capacity will mean enabling organisations to use their people, systems and assets to drive positive change. It is about creating the conditions to allow equality and human rights to be considered meaningfully when making resource allocation decisions during decision making, policy development and service delivery.

This strategy separates capability and culture (the skills, knowledge and motivation), from capacity (people, time and resource). While capacity and capability are connected, it is helpful to address them separately. For example, more training will not help if staff do not have the time to consider these issues when making decisions.

Capacity can be thought of both as the ‘amount’ of something that is available e.g. financial resources and the ‘bandwidth’ to do something. The capacity to do something within an organisation can be impacted by:

• organisation capacity—having appropriate staffing and structures in place, including sufficient numbers of specialist staff with in-depth knowledge
• sectoral capacity—enabling collaboration and shared practice across public bodies and the third sector to strengthen delivery
• individual capacity—ensuring staff have the time, workloads and support required. Individuals need to be both directed and actively supported to prioritise allocating sufficient time to consider equality and human rights issues. Without sufficient capacity, even capable staff cannot deliver change

Alongside this, we must also ensure that capacity and resource allocation is in line with International Human Rights requirements.

Equality and human rights budgeting approaches link financial decision making with the advancement of rights. By aligning public spending and revenue raising with equality and human rights objectives, these approaches help ensure that resources are used in ways that reduce inequality and support the fulfilment of rights.

Improved capacity will be visible through sufficient staffing, budget and time to conduct comprehensive intersectional analysis and impact assessments (including engagement from the outset). Adequate resources will also enable the incorporation of diverse expertise and lived experience through staffing, advisory groups, and ongoing stakeholder engagement.

What we need to do

To see a detailed list of actions that the Scottish Government is taking forward please refer to the Action Plan.

• To strengthen capacity across government, the Scottish Government established an Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights Directorate. This Directorate both delivers specific outcomes as well as supporting all aspects of the Scottish Government’s public policy development.
• A key part of increasing capacity in the Scottish Government focuses on improving how equality and human rights are considered in budget decision-making. The Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group (EHRBAG) plays a central role in shaping this approach. Convened by the Scottish Government, EHRBAG provides strategic advice on embedding equality and human rights throughout the budget process. Our response to EHRBAG’s recommendations have helped strengthen governance, improve internal and external communications, and build organisational competence.
• We recognise the essential role played by the third sector. The third sector needs support, stability and the resources to enable longer term planning and development. We are continuing to deliver against our commitment to develop a Fairer Funding approach by providing more multi-year funding to third sector organisations, including those delivering frontline services and tackling child poverty.
• As part of the 2025-26 Programme for Government, we committed to delivering a Fairer Funding pilot that provides multi-year funding to third sector organisations, prioritising those that deliver frontline services and tackle child poverty. The Pilot consists of government grants to third sector organisations totalling over £130 million over 2025-26 and 2026-27. This will support projects in areas including health, education, justice, poverty and culture. This Pilot is the first step towards mainstreaming multi-year funding agreements across the third sector, and helps balance our mainstreaming ambitions with the challenging financial situation.
• We will be undertaking a robust evaluation of the Pilot, alongside delivering an interim assessment by May 2026. This work will help us to identify impacts, and helps to build the case for further multi-year funding arrangements.
• Reflecting consultation feedback, we will prioritise supporting cross sector collaboration and the development of shared resources, including the Mainstreaming Toolkit, to promote knowledge exchange, share examples of best practice and embed equality and human rights across public service delivery.