Equality mainstreaming report – including equality outcomes (2021–2025) and equal pay statement
Document Type
Corporate documents
Summary
This report describes our work to embed equality into our work programmes in the past four years. It is a requirement of the Equality Act 2010 that we provide this information. The report also sets out our equality-focused priorities for April 2021-25.
Our purpose is to support better health and social care for everyone in Scotland. We need to understand the needs and experiences of the diversity of people coming into contact with health and social care services. Our efforts to mainstream equality are integral in ensuring that we support the highest standards of health and social care. To do this we will continue to work with local health boards and other partner organisations.
In this report, we set out the concrete ways in which we have mainstreamed equality within our work. This includes our internal business activities including:
our cross-organisational Equality and Diversity Working Group, and
our external delivery programmes such as person-centred Virtual Visiting within NHS Scotland hospitals.
We also comment on our progress in delivering the equality outcomes we set for ourselves in 2017.
In this reporting period, we have experienced a global pandemic. This significant public health crisis placed NHS Scotland on an emergency footing. We re-prioritised our activities as part of our emergency response. We changed the way we work and ensured support for the health and wellbeing of our staff.
This period gave us an opportunity to review the emerging picture around inequalities. We considered the future focus of our work. We have set four new outcomes. They are responsive to current inequalities. They will ensure we continue to:
- advance equality
- eliminate discrimination
- foster good relations throughout our work
We are grateful to everyone who contributed to our outcomes development. Our next step will be to draw up an Equality Mainstreaming Action Plan. This plan will support delivery of our new equality outcomes. We look forward to delivering this work and to building upon, and creating new, partnerships as we do that.
Equality Mainstreaming report 2023 update
Our Equality Mainstreaming Report sets out how we have delivered our equality outcomes. It also details how we have applied equality to our work.
Our equality outcomes are goals we have set to:
- address health inequalities
- challenging discrimination
- promote equity
This is an important aspect of our work to:
- improve care
- promote better health outcomes for the diversity of people living in Scotland.
The report also talks about how diverse our workforce is, and how fair our pay is according to:
- gender
- disability
- ethnicity
It also covers what we are doing for staff from marginalised backgrounds. We want to make sure they receive equal access to opportunities.