Equality duty: mainstreaming report 2023-2025

Equality Outcomes

The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public authorities, including the Scottish Government, to publish equality outcomes which it will work to achieve. In 2021, the Scottish Government set a suite of equality outcomes to cover the period up to 2025.

We are required to report every two years on the progress made to achieve our equality outcomes. In our 2021-2025 equality outcomes, we focused on six policy outcomes and two employer outcomes to advance equality and inclusion within the Scottish Government. The policy outcomes aimed to address key areas: lived experience, inclusive communications, health, employment, equality evidence, and transport. The employer outcomes sought to improve diversity within our workforce and foster an inclusive organisational culture.

An update to these outcomes was published in 2023.

These outcomes were designed to tackle portfolio-specific equality issues across the Scottish Government, enabling a targeted approach to promoting fairness and addressing inequality in distinct policy and operational areas. However, an internal review of the 2021-25 outcomes identified that their broad scope presented significant challenges in effectively tracking progress. We held a series of review sessions with policy leads who established the 2021-25 outcomes, to reflect on progress made and potential areas of improvement.

Policy Outcomes

Equality Evidence

Si gnificant progress has been made in strengthening our approach to equality evidence, with ongoing efforts to enhance data collection and address evidence gaps. Our experience has highlighted the importance of aligning data initiatives with existing strategies, such as the Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025 which promotes the use, collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data across Scottish Government. As reported in Evidence Strategy’s Interim Review at the end of 2024, of the 45 actions in the Strategy, 14 were ‘complete’ and 23 were ‘on course’, demonstrating strong commitment to advancing equality evidence across many policy areas. While the previous mainstreaming equality outcome was broad, it has driven valuable work, laying a strong foundation for more targeted improvements. Moving forward, we are refining our focus to improve the collection of disaggregated data, explore intersectionality, and ensure our evidence base directly informs policy and service delivery. This reflection has shaped our new outcomes, ensuring they are clear, measurable, and impactful.

Lived Experience

We have made progress in embedding lived experience into policy-making, and efforts to improve resources, training, and learning opportunities are ongoing. For example, we are establishing a procurement framework for participation work with adults (complementing an existing procurement framework for participation work with children and young people), have published guidance on paying participants expenses and compensating their time, and are in the process of establishing a network of trained participation representatives across the organisation who can provide advice and assist in co-ordination. Challenges remain in achieving the level of embeddedness required and measuring progress through organisation-wide information and co-ordination. Work on the development of quality improvement plans and ongoing discussions about the provision of resources demonstrate our commitment to deepening public participation. Collaboration across teams has reinforced the importance of openness and ensuring people can meaningfully influence the decisions that affect them. Moving forward, we will continue to strengthen our approach, exploring new ways to capture impact while building a more inclusive and participatory policy-making process.

Inclusive Communications

Positive progress has been made in embedding inclusive communication across public bodies, ensuring services better meet people’s needs. We are focusing on developing new guidance, materials and training on inclusive communication for listed authorities to consider, which will aim to make improvements for those with different communication needs. We move forward in building our capability in inclusive communications and are committed to embedding this across public services. We are currently exploring possibilities of external expertise to help accelerate our ambitions. Guidance has also been developed for Scottish Government staff, supporting consistency and accessibility. A fresh approach, championed by the Minister, has reinforced our commitment to making communication more inclusive. Reflecting on this progress, we recognise the importance of clear structures and sustained focus.

Health

In September 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care made a clear commitment to applying an anti-racism lens to improving services. In his anti-racism statement Mr Gray identified racism as a key driver of racialised health inequalities, and a significant public health challenge and called on everyone in the NHS in Scotland and in social care to become leading anti-racism organisations. We asked all 22 NHS Health Boards to develop and deliver against anti-racism plans, covering workforce and service delivery. Anti-racism planning guidance has been developed in collaboration with stakeholders including the NHS Ethnic Minority Forum (EMF) to support this work. Some boards have already made good progress on anti-racism, and some of the improvement we expect to see will come from sharing good practice. The 2023 report references the Community of Practice on Racialised Inequalities in Health & Social Care. The community continues to grow from strength to strength, membership continues to expand. We have received positive feedback that the sessions are thought provoking and useful in helping embed anti-racism approaches with a focus on equity in service delivery and policy making.

Employment

We have made meaningful progress in enhancing labour market outcomes for women, disabled people, and ethnic minorities. The publication of the evidence plan and the delivery of the Fair Work Action Plan have provided a strong foundation for driving positive change. Reporting has also been strengthened through the inclusion of key statistics, ensuring greater visibility of progress. This work has reinforced the value of aligning employment initiatives with wider strategies, such as the National Performance Framework, and highlighted the importance of strengthening data collection. In addition, our Fair Work First approach seeks to drive high quality and fair work, and workforce diversity, across the labour market in Scotland by applying Fair Work First criteria to grants, other funding and public contracts being awarded by and across the public sector, where it is relevant and proportionate to do so.

On 18 November 2024 we published updated Fair Work First guidance which included updated wording within the Fair Work First criteria and good practice examples to better reflect priority action required to address labour market inequalities faced by women, people from racialised minorities, disabled people and workers aged over 50. Moving forward, we will continue to build on these achievements, ensuring our efforts remain ambitious, evidence-driven, and responsive to emerging challenges.

Transport

Progress has been made in reducing inequalities in transport and advancing equality of opportunity, with ongoing work helping to shape a more inclusive and accessible system. This is set out in detail in the fourth NTS Delivery Plan, which was published on 19 December 2024; some of these achievements are highlighted below.

Over 2.3 million people in Scotland now benefit from free bus travel, with young people making over 190 million free journeys since January 2022. The Scottish Government remains committed to concessionary travel, ensuring continued eligibility while exploring better targeting of public funds. Efforts focus on improving access to free travel for children and promoting responsible usage. A new bus services improvement plan is being developed to enhance service stability. Major rail developments include the reopening of Levenmouth railway, a £116 million investment with two fully accessible stations and improved active travel connections. The ScotRail Peak Fares Removal Pilot led to a year-long season ticket discount and permanent Flexipass changes. Accessibility improvements continue, including step-free access at Carstairs and ongoing feasibility work for other stations. Research into the safety of women and girls has led to plans for expanding ScotRail’s Travel Safe Team.

Work on the Islands Connectivity Plan continues, shaping long-term ferry service improvements. Findings from the 2024 public consultation and initial response to the consultation report have been published. The MV Glen Sannox was deployed in January 2025, with further vessels under construction. Procurement for small new vessels is progressing, and future ferry fares policy will be outlined following consultation. A review of deck space reservations and a pilot for healthcare worker priority access are also underway.

The Scottish Government continues to support the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) in advocating for accessible transport. The National Transport Strategy Monitoring and Evaluation report provides key insights into progress, reinforcing the need to balance ambition with practical delivery to improve accessibility and equality in transport.

Employer Outcomes

Diversity

Positive steps have been taken to improve diversity within the Scottish Government workforce, with a particular focus on increasing representation. Progress has been made, especially in understanding and addressing barriers to getting started in a career in the Scottish Government.

Further efforts are needed to improve the experience in relation to disability, ethnicity and race and religion and belief, and to attract more people who are disabled, over 55 and from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Action over the last decade has seen the number of disabled colleagues working in the Scottish Government double and number of minority ethnic colleagues working in the Scottish Government nearly double but they remain underrepresented.

Reflecting on this, we recognise the importance of targeted initiatives and data-driven approaches to ensure meaningful change. Our focus will remain on embedding inclusive recruitment and retention practices to create a more representative workforce.

Workplace Culture

Significant activity is planned over the next three years to foster an inclusive and supportive workplace culture in government.

This ongoing work underscores our commitment to ensuring that all employees feel valued, heard, and empowered to reach their full potential. Resource constraints may present challenges, but careful planning and prioritisation will help maintain momentum. Positivity around inclusion and fair treatment remains high, and we continue to perform well on this as a measure in comparison to the wider Civil Service. However, inclusion and fair treatment experiences do vary across equality groups and further work is required to address this.

Our reflection on progress so far has reinforced the need for sustained engagement and clear measurement of cultural change. As we move ahead, we will continue to build an environment where diversity is embraced, and inclusivity is at the heart of our organisational culture.

Policy Leads Feedback on Outcomes

Feedback from policy leads across government highlighted several challenges with the 2021–2025 equality outcomes. The broad wording of the outcomes, coupled with the absence of specific underpinning actions, made it difficult to allocate clear responsibilities to individual teams for driving progress. This lack of defined actions created significant barriers to identifying and utilising data to demonstrate progress towards achieving the outcomes. As a result, opportunities to measure impact effectively, identify gaps, and adapt approaches were limited, ultimately reducing the potential for meaningful and sustained progress. We have identified the following lessons from this experience.

Key Lessons from the 2021-25 Outcomes

Focus and Prioritisation: Narrowing the scope of outcomes is essential to ensure measurable progress. By focusing on a smaller number of high-priority, cross-cutting themes, we can allocate resources more effectively and achieve deeper impact. We recognise due to the size of our organisation our outcome wording needs to remain broader, however we can support this with more targeted actions to support the delivery of the wider outcome.

Improved Monitoring and Reporting: Clearly defined success measures are critical for tracking progress. Developing robust frameworks and identifying accountable leads for each outcome can enhance transparency and ensure progress remains on track.

Collaborative Approach: A more coordinated and collaborative approach is needed to align efforts across portfolios and maximise the impact of equality outcomes. Ensuring that teams work together and share knowledge can address silos and improve overall delivery.

These reflections guided our approach to the upcoming 2025–29 equality outcomes, ensuring that lessons from the past period inform a more strategic, focused, and impactful approach.

Our Plan Moving Forward

Our 2025–29 Equality Outcomes are central to our efforts to advance mainstreaming over the next four years. These outcomes set the strategic direction for embedding equality throughout the Scottish Government, ensuring that our work as both a policy-maker and an employer is aligned with our commitments under the PSED.

The Scottish Government continues to strive to establish Scotland as a leader in equality. We continue to take innovative approaches to how we approach our Mainstreaming equality work.

In past years, we have included our new equality outcomes within our Mainstreaming Report. In this cycle we have made the intentional decision to publish the Mainstreaming Report 2023-25 and our new Equality Outcomes for 2025-29 as two individual reports.

By taking this new approach we aim to:

• Provide clarity and a clear purpose
• Enhance transparency, accessibility and reach
• Strengthen strategic alignment.

Next Steps

We will be publishing a Scotland wide Mainstreaming Equality and Human Rights Strategy later in 2025, which will articulate a framework of six key drivers for change to support Scottish Government and the wider public sector in mainstreaming equality and human rights.

To support delivery, the strategy will be accompanied by an action plan, collating a wide range of cross-cutting mainstreaming actions already committed to elsewhere, including responses to the recommendations of the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG). By consolidating and structuring these commitments in one place, we aim to enhance transparency and accountability.

To further support practical implementation, the strategy will be complemented by a web-based toolkit. This toolkit will provide clear guidance, self-diagnostic tools, best practice examples, and training materials to equip organisations with the necessary resources to embed equality and human rights into their daily operations. It will offer practical steps and tools that organisations can use to mainstream equality and human rights effectively. One of the six key drivers identified within the strategy is enhancing capability and culture, which focuses on equipping all public sector staff, at all levels, with the skills, knowledge, and motivation to fully integrate equality and human rights into everything they do. This means embedding these principles into policy-making, service design, and employment practices.

By investing in staff development and ensuring they have the right tools and knowledge, we are laying the foundation for a public sector that integrates mainstreaming into its everyday work. This approach will help us meet our mainstreaming goals and drive meaningful change. Enhancing the skills and knowledge of our staff is critical to delivering on our mainstreaming commitments.

Additionally, our recently published Diversity & Inclusion report outlines the progress we have made in strengthening our evidence base, including improvements in data collection and pay gap reporting. By enhancing our understanding of workforce diversity, we are better equipped to fulfil our requirements under PSED and take informed action to mainstream equality and human rights across our workforce. This evidence-driven approach will support our wider efforts to build a more inclusive public sector, ensuring that equality and human rights are embedded in everyday practices at all levels.