NHSScotland gender-based violence: equality impact assessment results

4. Key Findings

The EQIA has highlighted areas with potential impacts on different groups and opportunities for promoting equality.

NHSScotland GBV Policy has a positive impact in eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation across all protected characteristics. This may be particularly evident in respect of age and disability, and gender. The NHSScotland GBV Policy:

• has been written to meet legislative requirements, meeting statutory responsibility.
• outlines that online harassment, and abuse is more likely to involve younger victim-survivors and younger perpetrators.
• sets out that older women are less likely to report their experiences of domestic abuse
• outlines that disabled women are twice as likely to experience domestic abuse and sexual violence than non-disabled women
• sets out that women with learning disabilities may be 10 to 12 times more likely to experience sexual assault than non-disabled women.
• recognises that whilst women and girls suffer disproportionately from GBV, men and boys can also be targeted.
• includes a standard sentence in scope section of policy reinforcing compliance with equality act and linked to appropriate standard section.
• recognises that racism and discrimination create significant barriers for racially minoritised women to report their experience or access support
• racially-minoritised women worry that reporting GBV to their employer could damage their relationships with colleagues, with 1 in 6 women thinking it could make the situation worse.

NHSScotland GBV Policy has a positive impact in advancing equality of opportunity across all protected characteristics. The NHSScotland GBV Policy:

• aims to provide a framework to assist and support employees with current or previous experience of gender-based violence and ensure an appropriate response to any employee accused of GBV
• is accessible through a purpose built NHSScotland Workforce Policies website. The website scores high on the System Usability Scale (universal usability scoring system). This may particularly support older staff or staff with certain disabilities, advancing equality of opportunity through accessibility. It was developed with insights from multiple usability studies to improve the experience for all staff. The following may particularly support older staff or staff with certain disabilities, advancing equality of opportunity through accessibility:
  • screen can be zoomed beyond 300%
  • used an 18px font size as standard, making the starting size for fonts more readable.
  • alternative formats page where users can request content in a format that suits their needs.
  • a site map, that can help some people find content more easily.
  • supporting documents have an HTML version that makes the content more accessible than they would be in PDF or other file formats.
  • links all use meaningful text which can be read and understood out of context by screen reader users.
  • headings follow a sematic structure allowing screen reader users to easily scan and understand the content structure.
  • colour contrast of all text is compliant to WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards.
  • meaningful text alternative created for the visual flowcharts. This is linked to before the visual flowcharts to support screen reader users.
  • development of a style guide for policy writing which focuses on improving readability for a range of users. For example, by reducing sentence length, best use of grammar and providing meaningful website links to advance equality of opportunity through accessibility.
• a person-centred approach is promoted in the application of all NHSScotland Workforce policies. This is demonstrated across the policy and supporting documents.

The NHSScotland GBV Policy has a positive impact in promoting good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. The GBV Policy:

• aims to provide a framework to assist and support employees with current or previous experience of gender-based violence
• ensures an appropriate response to any employee accused of GBV
• recognises that the impact of GBV can have a wide impact on staff morale and affects people who are in the victim-survivor’s life extending to work colleagues and the wider organisation
• advises that recognising this wider impact on employees and the organisation can offer greater awareness and understanding of the critical role of the manager in supporting employees experiencing GBV.

The website was developed through extensive user testing and is compliant to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA standard. However, in terms of access to the policy, it was identified that some staff may struggle with technology or do not have access or experience of using IT equipment and could be disadvantaged. This may be more likely in older age groups.

The following actions have been taken to minimise any negative impact:

• policies and supporting documents have been created as downloadable documents which can be printed and shared in hard copy.
• upon initiating a workforce policy, managers are required to formally write to the employee informing them of this. Within this, managers are asked to include a hard copy of the policy, flowchart and any other relevant supporting documents.
• downloadable copies of the policy and supporting documents include a references section. This details in full any hyperlinks contained within the document to support those accessing hard copies and provide signposting.

Scottish Government will continue to monitor and review this EQIA to ensure ongoing assessment of potential impacts on people with protected characteristics.