Equality Impact Assessment for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) system in Tier 4 of Agricultural Reform Programme

Discussion paper for stakeholder organisations

The discussion paper asked about a number of key points for discussion with organisations in the agriculture sector about the proposed CPD system. These focused on what were the impacts of the proposals on the organisations. Specifically, we wanted organisations to start to think about what initiatives they currently provide that could help contribute towards CPD and how and what support they could provide to their members and others in the agriculture sector, and to hear about and understand the potential impacts of the key points on organisations and the wider agriculture sector.

The points covered included ones that had already been made by stakeholders. For individuals and businesses, this included for example, issues of accessibility, fairness of access, flexibility of CPD system and activities and the high levels of dyslexia in the sector. For organisations, there was recognition that CPD could bring opportunities, but also additional administrative burdens. There was a great need to have a communications around CPD, what it was and what it meant for users.

The policy for the CPD system set out in the consultation paper reflects the stakeholder feedback received on all of these consultations and discussions with stakeholders.

As noted, Scottish Ministers have not made any decisions on the CPD system.