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Annex A: Scottish Budget Equality Statement

Introduction

The Scottish Executive is determined to tackle poverty, injustice and inequality. It wants to see real improvements in people's lives and daily experiences. If these changes are to happen then the needs of different communities and interests need to be better reflected across the range of Executive responsibilities. The Executive is committed to mainstreaming equality in all its functions and made a public commitment in the Equality Strategy to achieving this.

The extent to which equality considerations are made in the decisions about Executive spend is an important part of the process. So the Executive undertook in the summer of 2000 to look seriously at how it could 'equality proof the budget'.

It undertook this work following meetings with the Engender Women's Budget Group, (now the Scottish Women's Budget Group). A feature of the work to date is that it has been a collaborative process between the Executive's finance department and Equality Unit and external interests and experts. International experience indicates that this is the most effective way to proceed. The Equality Proofing Budget Advisory Group was established in October 2000 to advise the Executive on mainstreaming equality into the budget process. It has helped to raise awareness and understanding, has undertaken research and has helped to deliver some significant changes in the Executive budget process and presentation.

We are at the beginning of the process and there is some way yet to travel. This Equality Statement seeks to provide an account of what has happened to date and to flag how we might proceed in the future. We intend to report progress in our Annual Report on the Equality Strategy.

Equality Proofing the Budget

Equality proofing the budget is an essential component of our work on mainstreaming equality. Ensuring that equality considerations are taken into account in developing policies is essential ground work for equality proofing the budget. This work is being taken forward in parallel and as mainstreaming develops, we will expect to see this reflected in the budget process.

The term 'equality proofing' has a specific meaning in Scotland. To provide clarity for policy makers and external interests agreement has been reached on the following definition.

In moving towards equality proofing the budget, the Executive decided initially to focus on gender, as it is in this area that there have been most developments in other countries from which lessons can be learned. Data are more readily available for gender than other equality areas. Experience from other countries in producing a gender-proofed budget indicates that it is a process that will take a number of years. Nevertheless we are seeking to ensure steady progress year on year. We are also, where possible, trying to ensure that we address other equality areas, because of our commitment to equality more broadly.

This challenging work is being taken forward in partnership with the statutory equality bodies and other external agencies through the Equality Proofing Budget Advisory Group.

Equality Proofing Budgets Advisory Group

The Equality Proofing Budgets Advisory Group was established in October 2000. The Group has representatives from the Equal Opportunities Commission, Disability Rights Commission, Commission for Racial Equality, Equality Network and Scottish Women's Budget Group along with officials from the Finance Department and the Equality Unit. The advisor to the Finance Committee of the Parliament is an observer on the Group.

The Group has been instrumental in raising awareness and in developing understanding both within and outwith the Executive. It commissioned research to explore the role of gender impact assessment in the Scottish budget process and develop tools to aid mainstreaming equality into the budget process. The research which was independent of the Executive is now publicly available on the Executive website ( www.scotland.gov.uk ). The research raises a number of recommendations and the Executive is considering these. One of the recommendations is to produce an equality statement to the budget.

Building Links

The Executive has drawn on the experiences of other countries in examining what to do in the Scottish context.

Ministers and officials have established contacts with the Government of Canada and specifically Status of Women Canada, a Department located within the Privy Council Office. Canada is widely acknowledged to be at the forefront of mainstreaming gender issues into the policy-making process. Officials are also liaising with officials in the UK Treasury, the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland and the National Assembly of Wales to see what lessons can be learned from their work.

The expert seminar held in October 2001 heard presentations from Sue Hemmilweit, from the Open University, and Diane Elson, from the University of Essex, who are two of the leading authorities on the issue of gender budgeting. Their input to and observations on the Scottish experience were extremely helpful in steering the work of the Equality Proofing Budget Advisory Group in the last year.

There has been interest in the Scottish experience from elsewhere in Europe. In December 2002 the Scottish Executive presented a case study on Scotland's work on equality and the budget at an international seminar on gender budgeting organised by the Basque Institute on Gender Studies.

The Executive is also keen to ensure that there is shared understanding with the Equal Opportunities Committee of the Parliament on the equality proofing budget activity. To this end the Executive held a seminar with the Committee in October 2002. This was attended by the Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services.

Progress to date

i) Scottish Budget Documents

The Executive publishes details of the Scottish Budget as part of the annual budget cycle. The Scottish Budget documents set out the detailed spending intentions of the Executive. The annual budget cycle starts in April with the publication of the Annual Expenditure Report, this is followed with the publication of the Draft Budget in September. The final stage is the Budget Bill where the Executive lays the Bill in Parliament by mid January seeking Parliamentary authority for the budget for the following financial year. By 20 January 2003 the Executive will lay the Budget Bill for 2003-04. This three-stage process is designed so that Parliament, other interested parties and the Scottish people can play a full part in the budget process through consultation and discussion.

Consultation on the budget documents has been a key focus of our work with the Equality Proofing Budgets Advisory Group. The budget documents are the Executive's key output on the allocation of the Scottish budget and these documents link resources to delivery, with targets set to monitor our progress. Working closely with the Group we have taken forward a number of positive changes in the budget documents. These changes are set out in the sections below.

ii) Guidance

We are working with departments across the Executive to ensure equality considerations are taken into account in the development of new policies. We are working with our analytical services teams to improve the information we hold on equality areas, and more generally encouraging departments to focus targets on the outcomes and outputs they will deliver.

To complement this ongoing work we issued stage one guidance to departments to assist them in preparing their submissions for the Annual Expenditure Report published in 2002. The guidance asked all departments to comment on how they are progressing the equality agenda set out in the Executive's Equality Strategy.

We are keen to see work on equality proofing the budget develop in each year's budget documents. This guidance is the first stage of a process, along with our work on mainstreaming more generally, which will be refined and developed for future years. The section below on the Scottish Budget 2003-06 highlights some of the current and planned activities aimed at tackling inequalities.

iii) Mainstreaming and link to budget

Mainstreaming in our policy feeds through into the budget and how we allocate our resources - the two aspects of work should be seen in tandem. This link is highlighted in our budget documents with the inclusion of sections on the achievements we have made in housing and education. We have also included examples of new policies where mainstreaming is evident, action and funding directed at tackling inequalities and other work taking forward the Executive's Equality Strategy.

iii) Scottish Budget 2003-2006

Andy Kerr, Minister for Finance and Public Services, announced the results of the Scottish Spending Review - a budget for securing long-term economic growth and increasing opportunities for all - on 12 September 2002. This sets out our Spending Plans for the three years from 2003-04 to 2005-06. The outcome of the budget is detailed in "Building a Better Scotland Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys".

At the start of the Spending Review process, Andy Kerr, Minister for Finance and Public Services, set out guiding principles to underpin all our decision making: linking resources to the outputs/outcomes they will deliver, assessing the benefits they deliver, and setting clear targets against which we can monitor progress. This with the Executive's five priorities - health, education, crime, transport and jobs - and two cross-cutting priorities - closing the opportunity gap and sustainable development - set the focus of the Spending Review.

To analyse the equality impact of our spending decisions it is important that we can link the resources we spend to the results they deliver. The process we have developed for the Spending Review will help to aid the work on equality proofing and mainstreaming. This process has been welcomed by the Equality Proofing Budget Advisory Group.

The Spending Review process asked each portfolio for a statement on the contribution their proposals will make towards the 'closing the opportunity gap' objective with equality forming a key element of this. All departments were required to articulate how far they are addressing inequalities. This is a key element of equality proofing - first identifying and then addressing equality issues. This process allowed us to scrutinise proposals for impact on equality issues. As part of the Spending Review the Executive published Closing the Opportunity Gap: Scottish Budget for 2003-2006 to complement the budget documents. This document sets out in more detail how, through the Spending Review, we will tackle poverty, build strong and safe communities and create a fair, equal Scotland where rights for all is our byword. In this equality statement we highlight some of the activity being undertaken to advance equality.

Closing the Opportunity Gap in Scotland: Equality

The 2002 Spending Review has enabled us to make major commitments in reducing inequalities. Some of the things we are doing or plan to do are:

Justice

We are

• piloting new ways of delivering quality legal information and advice to asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups.

We will

• increase the number of community disposals from 15,000 to 17,000 per year by 2006, with priority for women, young people and drug users.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to make available a further £5/6/9 million for legal aid, to support wider access to justice.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Services

We are

establishing an independent Inspectorate which will review the handling of race crime cases.

We will

• conduct a public survey, to monitor trends in public confidence in the prosecution service, commencing in 2003-04, with improvement targets to be implemented by 31 March 2004.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to provide increased resources for speedier and more effective prosecutions through more frontline lawyers and better IT systems in real-time links to criminal records. This will benefit communities and individuals whose lives are affected by crime.

Education and Young People

We are

• focusing on reducing inequalities in the national Priorities/School Improvement Framework.
• driving forward better integrated services, particularly for the most disadvantaged.
• providing extra support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
• gathering data on ethnicity through the SotXed programme.
• We will
• promote equality, inclusion and diversity and developing values and citizenship in the education system.
• reduce the gap between the average attendance level in schools serving high and low deprivation by 10% by 2006, and by another 10% by 2008.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to provide £2.5/9/10.5 million for care and throughcare of looked after children, and to improve their educational attainment.

Tourism, Culture and Sport

We are

• promoting a key priority of the National Cultural Strategy of widening access, promoting diversity and addressing equality issues.
• providing free access to all Historic Scotland sites for one weekend of the year to encourage visits by those who might otherwise feel excluded.

We will

• as part of the sport strategy for Scotland, Sport 21, increase the number of people with disabilities, women and young girls, people living in areas of economic and social disadvantage, rural communities and people from minority ethnic communities who participate in sport.
• increase the numbers of under-represented groups, especially children and young people, taking part in cultural and sporting activity by 5% by 2006.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to increase support (£0/3.85/6.95 million) for cultural activities, with an objective to widen participation.

Health and Community Care

We are

• promoting equality of access and service delivery; the Patient Focus and Public Involvement Framework explicitly requires NHSScotland to provide services that respond flexibly to an individual's needs in a non-discriminatory way.
• working in partnership with the Commission for Racial Equality in a National Resource Centre for Ethnic Minority Health to support NHSScotland equip its staff to deliver a culturally competent service to individuals and family groups from ethnic minority communities.
• working with disability groups to improve access to health services for people with disabilities and to improve communication.
• working with LGBT groups to ensure that NHSScotland provides care that meets the health needs of individuals from these communities.
• ensuring children and families have equal and easy access to comprehensive and combined health that is integrated with support from other agencies.
• developing an integrated approach to health improvement focusing on the most disadvantaged groups, who are more likely to experience unhealthy lifestyle choices. and on health improvement action - promoting breastfeeding, improving children's diet and levels of activity, and by reducing smoking of parents and pregnant women.
• continuing to promote the development of older people's services, including rapid response, intensive home care and other measures designed to ensure that the most frail and vulnerable older people can be helped to live at home as independently as possible.

We will

• ensure that all social care client groups have access to effective community care services which meet their needs.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to invest at least £50 million to modernise and improve GP and dental facilities, with a particular emphasis on disadvantaged areas.

Enterprise and Lifelong Learning

We are

• widening access to further education - continuing to remove barriers and ensuring that social prejudice plays no part in who benefits from further education, providing childcare for 6,000 students targeting those facing greatest financial hardship, including lone parents and providing additional funding to promote ethnic diversity through non-advanced courses, principally English language, for asylum seekers and others.
• widening access to higher education - creating additional places targeted at those from under-represented groups, funding institutions recruiting from under-represented groups, disabled students and part-time students and financial support for students with dependants, lone parents and disabled students who need specialist equipment.

We will

• increase the proportion of participants in higher education from socially and economically disadvantaged groups by 2006 while maintaining retention rates.
• increase Modern Apprenticeships to over 25,000 in employment and training by 2006, targeting under-represented groups.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to provide extra funding of £3/40/78 million for further education which will enable colleges to expand their activities and continue to support those from disadvantaged groups financially and in other ways.

Social Justice

We are

• investing resources to help lone parents get into further and higher education by providing help with childcare.
• on track to remove the need for people to sleep rough on Scotland's streets.
• implementing our Equality Strategy across all the Executive's portfolios and policy areas. We are working in partnership with the Equal Opportunities Commission, business community, trade unions and advice bodies to reduce the pay gap between men and women.
• promoting race equality through a major public awareness campaign and working in partnership with disability groups to raise public awareness on disability issues .

We will

• demonstrate that we are closing the opportunity gap for disadvantaged communities in respect of key outcomes for education, health, justice, transport, housing and jobs.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to help people in deprived areas into work by providing £0/10/10 million to fund childcare as part of a package of intensive employment support. This will help us work towards our long-term target to defeat child poverty, through helping parents into employment and training.

Transport

We are

• using Public Integrated Transport Funds to make the step change improvements so that the services people need for work, health, shopping and recreation are all available to them.
• enhancing existing concessionary fares scheme to allow free local bus travel within existing boundaries for pensioners and disabled people out with the morning peak.
• working through the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland to improve Access to transport for disabled people.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to widen access to good public transport services for the significant proportion of the Scottish population for which public transport is its main or sole mode of transport.

Environment and Rural Development

We are

• cleaning up the environment, for example, measures to improve air quality targeted on certain urban areas will help to reduce asthma and cardiovascular disease, with benefits for children and older people respectively.
• optimising the benefits from forestry for local communities through the Forestry for People Panel.

We will

• deliver better service provision to rural communities through support for around 80 new rural development projects each year, and funding for three-four joint initiatives a year with other Executive departments or agencies, by 2006.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to provide an additional £1.8/4.2/4m to improve flood defences, which will protect communities from damage caused by flooding and thereby assist disadvantaged groups including those without household insurance.

Finance and Public Services

We are

• operating the European Structural Funds, which focuses explicitly on areas where communities experience economic difficulties or on equal opportunities for access to jobs.
• through the Modernising Government Fund, supporting projects aimed at improving delivery of public services and access to them for everyone; and supporting a multi-channel delivery approach to service delivery to ensure that the diverse needs of different groups - in terms of age, gender, disability, income, location - can all be adequately catered for.
• working to increase the diversity of people who apply for public appointments.

We will

• by 2006, have awarded project grants to assist 28,000 socially excluded people into employment by 2009.

As a result of the Building a Better Scotland announcements, we plan

• to increase revenue grant for local authorities to over £8 billion a year by 2005-06, to improve the quality of life in our communities and to modernise and protect services.

Administration

We are

• working to ensure the organisation is open and diverse.

We will

• increase the proportion of women in senior positions, staff from ethnic communities and staff with disabilities in the workforce.

Future Developments

A lot has been achieved over the past few years, but we recognise there is still more to do. Improvements in the budget will flow from the work being progressed on mainstreaming equality in everything we do. Our plans include:

• developing the tools to take forward equality proofing as defined above;
• improving further our budget documents highlighting progress in equality proofing;
• developing the role of the advisory group; and
• building on the links we have with others engaged in equality proofing budget work.

i) Developing the Tools - Equality Proofing

The Executive wants to develop an appropriate toolkit which fits the Scottish approach and which can be used across the Executive and possibly beyond. In this next period the Executive will be undertaking work in health and sport to test out some options for gender proofing. We intend to investigate through these pilots what tools can best be applied to the Scottish situation. Thereafter the Equality Proofing Budget Advisory Group will consider its objectives for the long term and develop its workplan with appropriate milestones.

ii) Budget Documents

We aim, through our budget documents (the Annual Expenditure Report, Draft Budget and Spending Review publications) to demonstrate the continuous improvement that we will make to equality proofing the budget. For example, by developing more outcome based targets.

iii) Equality Proofing Budgets Advisory Group

The Equality Proofing Budget Advisory Group will continue to play an important part in the process of mainstreaming equality within spending plans and the budget process. We intend to shape the composition of the Group to reflect the need to link the budget work effectively with the policy work.

iv) Developing External Links

The Executive recognises that the work on equality proofing the budget is new territory and that much of what we need to do is uncharted. It will be important to maintain links with those that have an interest both within Scotland, the UK and internationally.

We intend to enhance the links with other Government Departments so that progress and experience can be shared. We will work with the Equal Opportunities Committee, as appropriate.

Finally we expect to continue the close-working relationship with the Scottish Women's Budget Group and the equality bodies who to date have assisted and worked with the Executive to enable us to progress our budget work.

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