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Setting equality outcomes: guidance for Scottish institutions

© Equality Challenge UnitAugust 2016 Setting equality outcomes: guidance for Scottish institutions 1

IntroductionUnder the Scottish specific duties of the Equality Act 2010, your institution is required to prepare and publish equality outcomes.

Institutions published their first sets of equality outcomes in 2013, and are required to develop and publish a new set by 30 April 2017, and subsequently at intervals of not more than four years.

What are equality outcomes?

Equality outcomes are results that your institution aims to achieve that will further one or more of the parts of the public sector equality duty (eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations – see Equality legislation section).

They are the changes that will result as a consequence of institutional action that will improve equality for individuals, communities or society. For example, improved participation or attainment, and changes in skills, attitudes, behaviours and environmental conditions.

‘By focusing on outcomes rather than objectives, this specific duty aims to bring practical improvements in the life chances of those who experience discrimination and disadvantage. So in practice, you might find it helpful to think of equality outcomes as results intended to achieve specific and identifiable improvements in people’s life chances.’

Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland

Strategic focus

Your institution’s equality outcomes should be strategic and should focus its equality work for the following four years. Their development should therefore be led by senior management.

Linking your outcomes to your institution’s strategic priorities and plans will increase the impetus for delivery and their impact. Linking equality outcomes to your institutional strategy will also help you deliver on that strategy.

Using this briefing

This briefing aims to assist your institution to meet your requirement to set outcomes.

It will be helpful for those responsible for equality outcomes in colleges and universities. It will be of particular interest to senior managers responsible for equality, and equality and diversity staff, as well as staff in charge of strategy and planning, policy, analysis, performance management, human resources and governance.


Background

Equality legislation

The public sector equality duty (PSED) of the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 5 April 2011, replacing the previous separate equality duties for disability, gender and race. The PSED consists of a general duty supported by specific duties which are intended to assist organisations to meet the PSED.

The specific duties for Scotland commenced on 27 May 2012 and included a duty to set equality outcomes. Equality outcomes should help institutions meet the three needs of the PSED by giving due regard to:

= eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010

= advancing equality of opportunity between people from different groups, considering the need to:– remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics

– meet the needs of people with protected characteristics

– encourage people with protected characteristics to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is low

= fostering good relations between people from different groups, tackling prejudice and promoting understanding between people from different groups

The PSED covers the following protected characteristics that are recognised within the Act:

= age

= disability

= gender reassignment

= marriage and civil partnership (only in relation to eliminating unlawful conduct to employees)

= pregnancy and maternity

= race

= religion or belief (including lack of belief)

= sex

= sexual orientation

Duty to prepare and publish equality outcomes

Regulation 4 of the specific duties requires your institution to set equality outcomes. It requires that equality outcomes are based on evidence and involvement of equality groups and are published.

Your institution must:

= prepare and publish a set of equality outcomes that will enable the institution to better perform the PSED by 30 April 2017 and subsequently at intervals of not more than four years

= take reasonable steps to involve people who share relevant protected characteristics, or who represent the interests of those people


= consider relevant evidence relating to people who share a relevant protected characteristic

= publish reasons if the equality outcomes do not cover every relevant protected characteristic

= review and publish a report on progress made towards achieving the set of equality outcomes by 30 April 2019 and subsequently at intervals of not more than two years


Learning from previous equality outcomes

The duty to set equality outcomes is relatively new, and setting equality outcomes has inevitably been a developmental process for institutions. Much can therefore be learned from successes and challenges experienced by institutions in setting and delivering previous equality outcomes.

= It is important not to confuse equality outcomes with outputs. Outputs describe actions, what an organisation produces or delivers. Outcomes, on the other hand, are the changes that result for people as a consequence of the action taken, or outputs produced.

= While there is no set format for how equality outcomes should be presented, they must demonstrate that they will enable better performance of the PSED and include all protected characteristics or explain why they do not, and must be published in an accessible manner.

= ECU found that many institutions could do more to ensure reports are easily accessible to staff, students and the public. This includes:

– clear positioning of reports on websites

– clarity of titles of reports, including which duties they contain (such as equality outcomes and mainstreaming) and publication dates

– providing summary versions of longer reports

= Measures of success should be established for each equality outcome. This ensures outcomes are measurable and enables more effective review and reporting on progress, as is required by the duty.

= Many institutions have reflected that they set outcomes that were too broad and occasionally unrealistic. (Outcomes should be specific to the priority equality issues for the institution, achievable and realistic.)

Extend your knowledge

ECU (2012) The public sector equality duty: specific duties for Scotland. www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/the-public-sector-equality-duty-specific-duties-for-scotland

EHRC Series of guides for public authorities in Scotland on how to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/devolved-authorities/commission-scotland/public-sector-equality-duty-scotland/non-statutory-guidance-scottish-public-authorities

EHRC (2015) Equality outcomes self-assessment toolkit. www.equalityhumanrights.com/publication/equality-outcomes-self-assessment-tool-public-authorities-scotland

ECU (2015) Performance of the specific duties in Scotland 2015. www.ecu.ac.uk/guidance-resources/equality-legislation/performance-specific-duties-scotland-2015

EHRC (2013 and 2015) Measuring up? Monitoring the public sector equality duty in Scotland. www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/public-sector-equality-duty-scotland/scotland-public-sector-equality-duty-projects/measuring


The process of setting equality outcomes

While every institution will take a slightly different approach to developing equality outcomes, the following three stage process, which is broken into nine steps, can act as a guide for the key activities and considerations typically involved in developing new outcomes.

Three stage process

Steps Examples of activity

1. In

vesti

gate

equ

ality

issu

es

1 Review previous outcomes

= Using evidence, review progress against your institution’s previous set of equality outcomes

= Identify where previous outcomes have not been fully achieved and could be continued as part of the new outcomes

= Identify where good progress has been made that could be built upon in the new outcomes

2 Involve people = Consult and involve staff, students and others to gain further evidence of equality challenges

= Take steps to involve people or organisations representing protected characteristics to find out what would make the most difference to them

3 Gather and consider evidence

= Consider institutional equality data and information on staff and students from a range of sources

= Consider evidence of national and sectoral equality and diversity challenges and priorities

= Consider your institutional priorities and how they relate to equality and diversity

= Identify gaps in evidence, including gaps identified at the involvement stage and take steps to fill these to have the fullest possible range of information


Three stage process

Steps Examples of activity2.

Iden

tify

equa

lity

outc

omes

4 Prioritise = Consider all information gathered in stage 1 and identify the inequalities that are the priorities for your institution to address

= Consider the scale and severity of the inequalities, and the potential for impact to be achieved through addressing them

= Ensure all of the protected characteristics are explicitly covered within these areas, or that there is a rationale if they are not, and that they will support one or more needs of the PSED

= Consider how addressing these inequalities will align with and support achievement of institutional priorities and strategies

5 Formulate = Formulate a set of potential equality outcomes that describe the measurable changes that will be achieved to address the priority inequalities identified

= Specify a measure or set of measures for each equality outcome from which to measure progress

6 Assign = Agree timescales and staff responsible for monitoring progress against each outcome

= Ensure senior commitment and mechanisms are in place for delivery and reporting

7 Gain approval = Consult on the potential set of outcomes internally and externally as appropriate and use feedback to refine and finalise

= Gain final approval by an equality committee or equivalent and the governing body prior to publication

3. D

issem

inat

e eq

ualit

y ou

tcom

es

8 Publish = Publish both the new set of equality outcomes and information on progress of the previous outcomes, either separately or in one report

= Provide an accompanying rationale for the new outcomes to help stakeholders understand how the outcomes were reached.

= Make sure that this information is easily accessible to the public in terms of location, format and content

9 Promote = Consider methods to engage staff and students with the new outcomes, including in delivering them

Timeline

Equality outcomes must be published by 30 April 2017. The process of setting equality outcomes should fit within your institution’s own planning cycle.

The following considerations may prove helpful when determining a timeline for setting new outcomes:

= Time required for involvement activity, such as surveys or events with different groups


= Dates of equality committee/equivalent group meetings to ensure that they are involved in the process and can approve the outcomes prior to publication date

= Dates of governing body/board meetings to ensure they can approve the outcomes prior to publication date

= Time needed for publication of the outcomes, such as time for proof reading, typesetting, and uploading on to the website


Stage 1 Investigate equality issues

Review previous outcomes

As well as developing and publishing new equality outcomes, your institution is required by the duties to report on its progress in delivering its previous set of equality outcomes. This requires a review of progress against these outcomes, which forms an important part of the process of setting the new equality outcomes. Your institution’s experience of delivering its previous outcomes should inform the types of outcomes it sets for the next period, and the ways in which it delivers them.

Steps for reviewing outcomes

1 Review key evidence for each outcome. It is helpful to use sources of evidence that are the same, or similar, to those that were used as evidence when setting the outcomes. For example, if qualitative evidence from a staff survey was used, you should repeat the survey, asking similar questions.

2 Compare the evidence against the baseline and success indicators for each outcome and identify where change has occurred, be it improvements, no change or a worsening of an equality issue.

3 Reach a conclusion as to whether the intended outcomes have been fully achieved, partially achieved, or not achieved.

4 Consider what factors affected the success of the outcomes, such as activities not being as successful as hoped, or an outcome being unrealistic within the timeframe.

5 Use this information to inform the development of the new outcomes and to report on the progress of the previous outcomes.

= Identify any areas for continuation in new outcomes, for example, where previous outcomes have not been fully achieved or where good progress has been made that could be built upon.

= Identify ways in which development of the new outcomes will be improved.

= Also use this information to report on progress with the previous outcomes, including impact, achievements and challenges.


Identifying levels of impact

The extent of progress and success achieved for each outcome can be identified as a level of impact. ECU uses the following model.

Inputs Outputs Outcomes

Input: the initial resources (time, staff, costs) required to produce outputs

Foundation: the activity or output produced as a result

Reaction: the response to the activity or output

Learning: the initial impact of the activity or output – such as growth in knowledge and skills

Behaviour: any change in behaviour that follows

Outcomes: how the changes have resulted in the institutions’ equality outcomes

Impact levels

Extend you knowledge

ECU (2014) Measuring progress using qualitative evidence. www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/measuring-progress-qualitative-evidence

Involve people

The specific duty requires that while developing equality outcomes, reasonable steps be taken by your institution to involve people who share a relevant protected characteristic and their representatives. By involving staff, students, equality groups and communities your institution can gain vital information about where action is most needed. This is especially important where there are evidence gaps.

Tips for involvement

= Undertake both targeted and open involvement, for example meetings with groups that represent those with protected characteristics as well as open surveys for all staff and students.

= Use a range of involvement methods for different groups; for example, what works for a staff network may not work as well for students.

= Ensure the involvement exercises are accessible and open to all parties targeted.

= Aim as far as possible to identify individuals or representatives from each protected group who can participate, and take steps to address any gaps in participation.

= Involve leaders at all levels and ensure their public commitment to the process.

= Clearly communicate the purpose, process and plans for the involvement activity, so that they are transparent from the outset, and ensure consistent messages are reaching staff and students across the institution.

= Make and keep commitments that people’s views and experiences will inform the institution’s equality outcomes, and provide feedback to the people who participated in the activity.

= Design clear questions for the activity to ensure information gathered is relevant and focused.


Groups to include

When taking steps to involve people in your institution there are different groups to include.

= people with all protected characteristics, and/or their representatives

= trade union representatives

= students’ association and other student representatives

= staff and student support functions, such as disability service and human resources

= equality groups/networks within the institution, for example LGBT, race or women’s networks

= wider staff and students, including contract staff

= regional equality groups and networks

Examples of involvement activity

The following are examples of involvement activities:

= all staff events

= online surveys open to all staff and students

= events with the students’ association

= workshops with the governing body/board

= presentations at equality group/network meetings

= sharing draft outcomes with regional equality organisations and groups

Extend your knowledge

EHRC Scotland (2014) Involvement and the public sector equality duty: a guide for public authorities (Scotland). www.equalityhumanrights.com/publication/involvement-and-public-sector-equality-duty-guide-public-authorities-scotland

ECU (2011) Effective equality surveys. www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/effective-equality-surveys

Gather and consider evidence

While review of previous outcomes will involve gathering and consideration of evidence, additional relevant evidence should also be reviewed to ensure that the most pressing equality challenges are identified for your institution’s new equality outcomes. It will also ensure that the equality outcomes are informed by and will support achievement of your institution’s wider priorities.

This evidence should relate to discrimination and other prohibited conduct, equality of opportunity and good relations, for all protected characteristics. Both internal and external evidence should be considered, including the evidence your institution already holds across its functions, as well as relevant national, sectoral and regional evidence, and your institution’s own strategic priorities. It can be helpful to involve policy and analytical staff in gathering and analysing this evidence.


Overview of evidence sources

Institutional evidence External evidence

= HR data on staff profile by protected characteristic across the staff journey (recruitment, retention, leavers)

= student data on representation and participation (admissions, retention, attainment and completion, progression to employment or further study)

= student and/or staff experience surveys

= Athena SWAN Charter and Race Equality Charter submissions

= self-evaluation findings

= quality review process findings

= complaints and grievances

= equality impact assessment findings

= involvement activity with protected groups

= institutional priorities in strategic plans and/or outcome agreements

= information collected on an ongoing basis

= ECU’s statistical reports

= Scottish Government equality evidence finder

= evidence from Scottish and UK equality organisations

= academic research on protected characteristics

= national equality challenges and priorities in Scottish Government and EHRC reports

= sector equality challenges and priorities in SFC outcome agreement guidance and reports by sector bodies

Institutional evidence

Alongside its new outcomes in 2017 your institution is also required to publish information on the protected characteristics of its employees, equal pay and occupational segregation. The work to collate and analyse this information should inform the equality outcomes, rather than being a separate process. For example, if a pay audit identifies a significant pay gap between men and women this could provide a focus for an equality outcome.

Likewise, your institution will be collecting information to inform its next mainstreaming report for 2017, which may also prove to be helpful evidence for its outcomes, both for reporting on progress and identifying new outcomes.

Using sector equality evidence

When used alongside your institution’s own evidence base, evidence of equality challenges and priorities that are common across the college and/or university sector can:

= guide your institution’s evidence gathering in its own context;

= provide benchmarking information to help your institution ascertain its own position in comparison to the sector as a whole;

= fill evidence gaps for areas where your institution has less evidence;

= enable your institution to align its equality outcomes with regional or national outcomes.


Sector benchmarking data

ECU statistics reports for colleges and HEIs. www.ecu.ac.uk/guidance-resources/using-data-and-evidence/statistics-report

SFC (2015) Learning for all. www.sfc.ac.uk/learningforall


Using national equality evidence

The Scottish Government sets national equality priorities through its own equality outcomes, strategies and policies. It also provides a range of evidence sources through its equality evidence finder website.

Scottish Government resources

Scottish Government equality webpages. www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality

Scottish Government evidence finder (online resource). www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid

The EHRC produces research that illuminates current equality challenges in Scotland. These sources set the national scene in relation to equality, and highlight challenges that all public authorities, including colleges and universities should be working to address.

Is Scotland fairer? National challenges

EHRC Scotland published Is Scotland fairer? in 2015. This outlined key equality issues for Scotland, including in education and learning, work, income and economy, health and care, justice security and the right to life, and the individual and society. Some of the key findings that may be of relevance to colleges and universities include the following:

= Destinations of school leavers varied by protected characteristic.

= Bullying is a particular issue for some young people who share particular protected characteristics.

= Women and disabled people remained more likely to have no qualifications.

= There is a gap in the proportion of ethnic minority people and white people holding a degree.

= Disabled people are less likely to have a degree than non-disabled people.

= Unemployment rates increased more for disabled people than for non-disabled people.

= Young people are less likely to be in work and saw the greatest increase in unemployment.

= Women are less likely to be in work than men, and those women in work are less likely to be in senior positions and more likely to be in part-time work.

= There are gaps in evidence in relation to certain protected characteristics.

= Attitudes had not improved in relation to mental health, Gypsy/Travellers and Roma people.

= Lesbian, gay and bisexual people and ethnic minorities experience harassment.

Is Scotland fairer? www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/devolved-authorities/commission-scotland/about-commission-scotland/scotland-fairer/scotland-fairer-report

EHRC research publications. www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/devolved-authorities/commission-scotland/research-scotland


Using sector, institutional and regional priorities as evidence

Outcome agreements and quality frameworks

Scottish Funding Council (SFC) outcome agreements and the quality review processes for the college and university sectors require institutions to make progress on specific areas of equality and diversity, such as participation and success of protected characteristic groups. These sector priorities have been informed by common equality challenges for the sector as a whole. Therefore, these represent important evidence sources that can inform institutional equality outcomes.

By taking these frameworks and institutional responses into consideration while developing your equality outcomes, your institution can align your equality outcomes with SFC outcome agreements and quality improvement activity, and subsequently develop activity that delivers progress on both fronts. This will maximise use of resources and minimise duplication of effort, achieve impact more quickly and demonstrate mainstreaming of equality.

In 2016, Scottish institutions are required to develop new three year outcome agreements with the SFC. This provides opportunity for new equality and SFC outcome agreements to be aligned.

Further reading

SFC Outcome agreement information. www.sfc.ac.uk/funding/OutcomeAgreements/OutcomeAgreementsOverview.aspx

Education Scotland publications. www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/hmiepublications/index.asp

Education Scotland quality framework.

www.educationscotland.gov.uk/inspectionandreview/about/collegereviews/index.asp

QAA quality codes. www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code

Regional equality priorities

As of July 2015, the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act provides a legal framework that promotes and encourages community empowerment and participation. Once commenced, it will require community planning partnerships, in which colleges and HEIs often participate, to prepare and publish local outcome improvement plans which set out local outcomes that will be achieved, as well as locality plans to improve outcomes for specific communities.

The outcomes set in these plans will be evidence based, and may encompass equality and diversity. Therefore, they may provide evidence of regional and local equality priorities to inform institutional equality outcomes. Similarly, the Act could further facilitate delivery of regional multi-partner equality outcomes, which would support mainstreaming.


Additional evidence sources

NUS Scotland. www.nus.org.uk/en/nus-scotland

Higher Education Academy Scotland Embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum research. www.heacademy.ac.uk/embedding-equality-and-diversity-curriculum

Colleges Scotland. www.collegesscotland.ac.uk/briefings.html

Universities Scotland. www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/publications

Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity. www.ed.ac.uk/education/rke/centres-groups/creid/publications

Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland. www.ceres.education.ed.ac.uk/publications/ceres-briefings

Women in Scotland's Economy (WiSE) Research Centre.www.gcu.ac.uk/wise/resources

Close the Gap. www.closethegap.org.uk/content/resources/?cat=2

Engender. www.engender.org.uk/content/publications

Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights. www.crer.org.uk/publications

Higher Education Academy 2016 report on the link between demographic characteristics and student engagement. www.heacademy.ac.uk/about/news/new-hea-report-analysis-identifies-strong-link-between-demographic-characteristics-and

BEMIS. bemis.org.uk/publications

Scottish Transgender Alliance. www.scottishtrans.org/resources/research-evidence

Stonewall Scotland. www.stonewallscotland.org.uk/our-work/stonewall-scotland-research

Community empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2015/6/contents/enacted


Stage 2 Identify equality outcomes

Prioritise areas for outcomes

Strategic ownership of your new equality outcomes should be ensured in a number of ways. It is advisable that a team or group with appropriate senior membership undertakes the process of identifying equality outcomes. The process should be a formal one and accountability for the new outcomes will need to be assigned to individuals or departments across the institution.

Use the information gained during stage 1 to prioritise the equality issues that your institution should address through your new equality outcomes. Consider the principles of proportionality and relevance; your decisions should be based on the severity of the equality issues in your institution and where the most impact can be made within your functions and resources.

Key considerations for prioritisation:

= Scale. Consider the size of the problem, how many people it affects and the scale of impact that could be achieved.

= Severity. Does the issue lead to substantial inequality even though the number affected by it may be low? Benchmarking can help identify how severe the equality issue is in the institution through making comparisons to the wider sector.

= Concern. Do stakeholders, students or staff see it as a serious issue?

= Impact. Is there potential for action by the institution to make a significant impact?

= Furthering the PSED. An equality outcome must further one or more of the following: eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations.

= Covering all protected characteristics. A set of equality outcomes must cover the full range of protected characteristics. If a particular characteristic is not covered across the entire set of outcomes, you must publish reasons for this.

= Regional context. For colleges in particular, identifying issues that are relevant across several partner institutions may be a consideration in prioritisation.

Aligning with institutional priorities

‘The specific duties are intended to embed equality within public authorities’ existing systems and frameworks. As a result, you should aim to prepare your equality outcomes and business plan in tandem, using your equality outcomes as a way of helping you to meet your strategic business priorities.’

EHRC Scotland

Equality outcomes should align with and support your institutional priorities so that they can be delivered using existing plans and operations. This will enable your institution to meet the mainstreaming duty, as well as the equality outcomes duty.

During prioritisation of the outcomes, it is helpful to plot out how the equality issues you have identified for outcomes will align with and support achievement of institutional priorities and strategies, for example as articulated in strategic plans and/or SFC outcome agreements.


Formulate outcomes

In formulating the set of outcomes, and the specific phrasing used, consider the following:

= Number. The duties do not specify the number of equality outcomes required. The number of outcomes should be manageable and reflect the number of important priorities identified.

= Level and range. Equality outcomes should be strategic in level, while the actions institutions will undertake to achieve their equality outcomes may involve both the strategic and operational level. Sub-outcomes can be set in addition to core equality outcomes if this is helpful in ensuring operational delivery of the outcomes.

= Phrasing. It is vital that the equality outcomes are written as outcomes rather than targets, activities or outputs.

= Timescale. Outcomes must start in the year they are published. Interim progress towards meeting the outcomes must be published by 30 April two years later, and final progress should be reported by 30 April another two years after that.

= Measurement. Outcomes should be measurable, and therefore setting indicators of success is advisable. Indicators of success express what the achievement of the equality outcome will look like, which is a change from the baseline situation.

Indictors of success

In some cases an outcome will lend itself to a quantitative target against which progress can be measured, such as a specific increase in the number of students with a particular characteristic. However, for some areas it may not be appropriate or possible to include a numerical target, but progress could still be measured in a range of ways, for example through indicators of changes in staff or student behaviour.

Indicators can measure change at different stages of delivery:

= short-term – what we deliver: often described in terms of outputs

= medium-term – immediate results of what we deliver: demonstrate response to an activity and growth in knowledge and skills

= longer-term – impact or outcome of what we deliver: show change in behaviour and culture

These stages can be mapped onto the impact model previously described as follows:

Foundation Short-term indicators or results (quantitative)

ReactionMedium-term indicators of success (quantitative)

Learning

Behaviour Long-term indicators of impact (quantitative and qualitative)

Assign outcomes

At this stage, it is important that the outcomes are assigned to relevant individuals, departments or teams so that the responsibility for delivery and reporting is shared across the institution, and is clearly defined. It


can be helpful to have a senior member of staff allocated responsibility for each outcome to ensure senior level commitment.


Gain approval

Final consultation

Once draft outcomes have been composed, it is helpful to share internally, and externally where relevant, to gather feedback that will enable refinement and finalisation of the outcomes. This also enables your institution to again meet the requirement for involvement of people in the development of its equality outcomes.

Approval

As a strategic public-facing document, equality outcomes are typically approved by both an equality committee or equivalent and the governing body/board of your institution. It is therefore important to develop equality outcomes in sufficient time for both groups to receive and approve the draft outcomes at meetings prior to the publication date.


Stage 3 Disseminate equality outcomes

Publish

Publication

The regulations require your institution’s equality outcomes to be published by 30 April 2017, and then at four-year intervals. Progress reports should be published every two years.

The regulations do not specify the format equality outcomes should be published in. ECU recommends that institutions provide a rationale and commentary for their equality outcomes. This gives an opportunity to demonstrate why specific outcomes have been prioritised. We also recommend that if mainstreaming reporting and equality outcomes are published in the same report, they should be clearly differentiated.

Where to publish

Your institution must publish the required information in a manner that is accessible to the public. This will generally mean on your institution’s website in a section that is easy to navigate to from the homepage.

Resources

ECU (2015) Performance of the specific duties in Scotland 2015. www.ecu.ac.uk/guidance-resources/equality-legislation/performance-specific-duties-scotland-2015

Promote

You may wish to consider a dissemination event to launch the outcomes.

Examples of ways to engage staff, students and stakeholders with equality outcomes include publishing an easy-read version of the outcomes, or a one-page summary version, alongside a longer report.

It is also helpful to design ways to engage with staff and students in the delivery of the equality outcomes.


Equality outcomes pro formaThe following pro forma covers all specific requirements of the equality outcome duty. It could therefore help you ensure you have covered all of these as you develop your outcomes. It may also be a helpful way of planning how you will present your outcomes when you come to publish them.

Equality outcome

Evidence of need (baseline position)

Indicators of success and how progress will be measured, including short, medium and long-term

Which part/s of the PSED is covered?

Which protected characteristics are covered?

How it aligns with institutional priorities (eg outcome agreement and strategic plan)

Summary of planned action and who will lead on each action

Who is responsible for overseeing its delivery?


Extend your knowledge= ECU (2012) The public sector equality duty: specific duties for Scotland.

www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/the-public-sector-equality-duty-specific-duties-for-scotland

= ECU (2012) Equality Act 2010: implications for colleges and HEIs. www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/equality-act-2010-revised

= Updates and guidance on the Equality Act 2010 and implications for higher education institutions and colleges. www.ecu.ac.uk/subjects/equality-act-2010

= EHRC Series of guides for public authorities in Scotland on how to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010. www.equalityhumanrights.com/scotland/public-sectorequality-duty

= Latest information and updates to the Equality Act 2010 from the Scottish government. www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality

= Scottish government equality evidence finder. www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid

= EHRC (2015) Equality outcomes self-assessment toolkit. www.equalityhumanrights.com/publication/equality-outcomes-self-assessment-tool-public-authorities-scotland

= ECU (2015) Performance of the specific duties in Scotland 2015. www.ecu.ac.uk/guidance-resources/equality-legislation/performance-specific-duties-scotland-2015

= EHRC (2013 and 2015) Measuring up? Monitoring the public sector equality duty in Scotland.www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/public-sector-equality-duty-scotland/scotland-public-sector-equality-duty-projects/measuring

= ECU (2014) Measuring progress using qualitative evidence.www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/measuring-progress-qualitative-evidence

= EHRC Scotland (2014) Involvement and the public sector equality duty: a guide for public authorities (Scotland).www.equalityhumanrights.com/publication/involvement-and-public-sector-equality-duty-guide-public-authorities-scotland

= Is Scotland fairer? (2015)www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/devolved-authorities/commission-scotland/about-commission-scotland/scotland-fairer/scotland-fairer-report

= EHRC research publications. www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/devolved-authorities/commission-scotland/research-scotland

= ECU (2015) Performance of the specific duties in Scotland 2015.www.ecu.ac.uk/guidance-resources/equality-legislation/performance-specific-duties-scotland-2015


Equality Challenge UnitEquality Challenge Unit (ECU) supports higher education institutions across the UK and in colleges in Scotland to advance equality and diversity for staff and students

ECU provides research, information and guidance, training, events and Equality Charters that drive forward change and transform organisational culture in teaching, learning, research and knowledge exchange. We have over ten years’ experience of supporting institutions to remove barriers to progression and success for all staff and students.

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