First Minister's National Advisory Council on Women and Girls First Phase Two Report: Scottish Government Response

Local Services

Calls to Action: Prioritising marginalised women in planning and partnership working

10. Scottish Government and local authorities should ensure that the Verity House Agreement assurance framework integrates gender and that planning and partnership working prioritises the needs of marginalised women.

The Scottish Government accepts the ambition of this Call to Action, as we acknowledge the importance of working with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and local authorities to address gender inequality across Scotland, at all levels of governance.

The Verity House Agreement (VHA) is our partnership agreement with local authorities to deliver our shared priorities for the people of Scotland. The priorities outlined in the VHA mirror the current priorities outlined in the Programme for Government, including ensuring high quality, sustainable and person-centred public services and tackling child poverty.

Our joint approach to delivering these shared priorities is guided by the drive to ensure human rights are realised by all people living in Scotland, and we understand that gender inequality is a systemic issue that must be tackled at all levels of government.

We will therefore, in keeping with the collaborative approach outlined in the VHA, commit to writing a joint letter from the Scottish Government and COSLA to the Co-Chairs of the NACWG to confirm our joint commitment to and prioritisation of gender across the Scottish Government and Local Government shared priorities.

This letter will act as an outline for a strategic approach between Scottish Government and COSLA to tackling women’s and girls’ inequality, the details of which can be found in the response to Call to Action 13.

Calls to Action: Public Sector Equality Duty performance

11. Within this context senior leaders in local government should redouble efforts to improve its performance of the public sector equality duty to ensure that the needs of women and girls are central to decision making service design and delivery, anti-poverty work, and employment.

The Scottish Government supports this Call to Action.

While we support this Call to Action, it is for COSLA to take forward any actions to make progress in delivering it. We have discussed with COSLA about potential approaches they may wish to take to deliver the Call to Action, and COSLA, on behalf of their member councils, will be in touch with the NACWG and the EWP about their proposed actions in due course.

While senior leaders in local government consider how to take this Call to Action forward, the Scottish Government will continue to raise the profile of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) framework, including the Scottish Specific Duties.

One means by which we are doing this is through a structured programme of bilateral meetings between the Minister for Equalities and her Ministerial colleagues, which provide a forum to reinforce and support Ministers and their officials in fulfilling their established responsibilities to assess the equality and human rights impacts of proposed policies.

COSLA is also actively engaging with the Minister including through regular bilateral discussions with our Community Wellbeing Spokesperson and the Scottish Councils’ Equality Network.

Call to Action: Gender budgeting in local authorities

12. COSLA, as joint owner of Equally Safe and local authorities as key delivery partners of the strategy, have a key role in preventing VAWG. With support from COSLA, local authorities should embed gender and participatory budgeting methods to identify and take mitigating action to address negative gendered impacts that contribute to women’s and girl’s poverty. This should include building the necessary capacity on gender budgeting in key people including elected members, service area decision-makers and budget holders, and equality leads.

The Scottish Government supports this Call to Action.

While we support the Call to Action, it is for COSLA to take forward any actions to make progress in delivering it. We have discussed with COSLA about potential approaches they may wish to take to deliver this Call To Action, and COSLA, on behalf of their member councils, will be in touch with the NACWG and the EWP about their proposed actions in due course.

Recognising that this is an action for COSLA rather than the Scottish Government, the Equally Safe Delivery Plan (ESDP), published in summer 2024, provides a framework within which this work can take place. Equally Safe emphasises the importance of a primary prevention approach to tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).

In order to provide clarity around the practical application of primary prevention, the ESDP commits to developing a primary prevention framework to VAWG to embed a gender competent approach within policy and planning across sectors. To support this a collaborative programme to support local and national partners has been established.

Partners involved in this work include Scottish Women’s Aid, Zero Tolerance, Engender, the Improvement Service, Public Health Scotland and Dundee City Council.

The ESDP also includes a commitment for the Scottish Government and COSLA to work together, with other key VAWG stakeholders, to develop a sustainable funding model for VAWG services.

Call to Action: Strategic work between Scottish Government and COSLA

13. The Scottish Government and COSLA should convene an ongoing strategic space for senior leaders from both local and national government to develop a coherent and collaborative approach to tackling women’s and girls’ inequality. The purpose of this would be to ensure that marginalised women and girls are central in policymaking and that effective implementation of policy takes place to tangibly improve women’s and girls’ lives.

The Scottish Government accepts this Call to Action.

Building on the joint letter from the First Minister and the COSLA President to the Co-Chairs of the Advisory Council, as outlined in our response to Call To Action 10, we will ensure tackling women’s and girls’ inequality is a key area of focus in the strategic engagement programme of meetings set out in the VHA that include regular relationship meetings between the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, the Minister for Public Finance and the COSLA Presidential Team. This will also include discussion between the First Minister and the President of COSLA at their the bi-annual relationship meeting.

We will work with COSLA to consider what wider senior leadership spaces, such as the Scottish Leaders’ Forum and the Public Service Reform Advisory Board, can be used to ensure a strategic approach to embedding gender equality into decision making is taken.