Fair Work Action Plan: impact report 2025

4. Public sector and the role of leadership

4.1 Aims

We will lead by example on the Fair Work agenda, including sharing and learning of practice, by 2025. We will continue to embed Fair Work in all public sector organisations, setting out clear priorities in the roles and responsibilities of public bodies.

4.2 Delivery overview

Action

1.1: Undertake an equal pay audit and act on findings

Status

In progress

Action

1.2: Hold engagements with the public sector to address recommendations of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee’s inquiry into race equality, employment, and skills

Status

Complete

Action

1.3: Implement National Equality Outcomes across protected characteristics

Status

In progress

Action

1.4: Senior leadership networks to address racial inequality in the workplace

Status

In progress

Action

1.5: Official statistic dissemination sessions

Status

In progress

4.2.1 Delivered to date

• The Scottish Government carried out an equal pay audit of its own staff in January 2024 to examine pay gaps by gender, disability, ethnicity and age. No concerns were identified although it was shown that there was a lack of diversity in roles that receive professional pay supplements. The findings are informing implementation of the Scottish Government Diversity and Inclusion Employer Strategy, which was published in July 2024.
• A session on anti-racism learning and development was delivered in November 2024 in partnership with the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO). Feedback from the session noted that all 40 participants agreed the event provided them with a deeper understanding of implementing anti-racism training and learning, which they would take into their own organisation.
• The Scottish Funding Council’s latest Mainstreaming and Equality Outcome Report highlights progress related to the development of an internal data dashboard and an increase of staffing resource at the Scottish Funding Council. This has resulted in enhanced data analysis and evidence; the organisation and delivery of a programme of thematic reviews; and development and publication of National Equality Outcomes Data and Reporting Guidance. The aim of the guidance is to improve student success, retention rates and access to support among those who share protected characteristics.

4.3 Related actions across the Scottish Government

• In line with a 2024-25 Programme for Government commitment, the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill was introduced in March 2025. The provisions in the Bill seek to ensure consistent implementation of the Community Wealth Building (CWB) model of economic development across Scotland and address economic and wealth inequality by supporting the generation, circulation and retention of more wealth in local and regional economies. Increasing Fair Work is one of the elements in the Workforce pillar of the CWB model. The Bill will be progressed alongside continued investment in a CWB practitioners’ network.
• The Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning worked with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools to publish the Behaviour in Schools Action Plan. The Taskforce sought input from equality and human rights stakeholders to ensure the action plan reflected intersectional experience. These stakeholders included Time for Inclusive Education, Intercultural Youth Scotland, Youthlink, and Inclusion Scotland, among others.
• Work is underway with Education Scotland and the Education Reform process around embedding gender equality into the current Curriculum Improvement Cycle and accompanying professional learning. The Taskforce is also engaging with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) on the role of the inspectorate in ensuring gender equality in schools.
• As part of the Environment Strategy for Scotland Fair Work practices have been embedded across public bodies including the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. NatureScot has hosted placements to encourage workforce diversity with the aim of removing barriers to recruitment to nature-based roles. Cairngorms National Park Authority has been awarded the accolade of a Top 10 Flexible Working employer in Scotland by Flexibility Works.
• NHS Scotland has published a Menopause and Menstrual Health Policy as part of the Scottish Government Women’s Health Plan. This resource is publicly available alongside supporting guides for any organisation to adapt, use and implement. The policy aims to educate staff on menopause and menstrual health, provide a supportive environment, and enable conversations between staff, managers and fellow colleagues. Women working in the NHS are now supported to access the adjustments they may need to perform their best.
• The refreshed Equally Safe Strategy was published in December 2023 with an accompanying Equally Safe Delivery Plan published in August 2024. Both the strategy and the delivery plan show clear links between Equally Safe and Fair Work. Actions include a commitment to support and promote initiatives that exemplify and promote workplace policies and practices that take a gendered analysis of Violence Against Women and Girls and embed the principles of Equally Safe, particularly in the public and third sectors.

4.4 Progress indicators – overview

• The Scottish Government continues to provide significant employment opportunities for women, with the proportion of women at senior levels increasing over time and accounting for a larger proportion of Senior Civil Servants in 2024.
• There has been some positive change in the proportional makeup of Scottish Government workforce, both for disabled people and people from racialised minorities.
• Median pay gaps for disabled people and people from minority ethnic groups employed by the Scottish Government persist and have widened between 2022 and 2024, though the mean pay gap for both groups has reduced. The mean gender pay gap reduced between 2022 and 2024 while the median gender pay gap remained flat.
• Universities and colleges continue to provide significant employment opportunities for women. Data suggest positive improvements in employment opportunities for both disabled people and people from minority ethnic groups.
• Women currently make up a large proportion of public sector employment. However, the composition across different public sector bodies varies depending on the organisation and role.