Briefing Paper
Developing equality outcomes
within Glasgow City Council
May 2012
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
Project summary
The Improvement Service, the Equality and Human Rights Commission
and Scottish Government worked in partnership to deliver the action
research project, Improving Local Equality Data (ILED), over twelve
months from February 2011.
The project provided hands-on, tailored support to four local authorities/
Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) to develop and use the equality
evidence base to measure progress towards equality within the outcomes
approach.
Each local project team selected areas for support based on their unique
priorities and circumstances.
Glasgow City Council and the ILED project team jointly designed and
delivered an interactive workshop intended to develop a set of equality
outcomes for the council and the wider council family.1 The workshop
brought together over 50 senior and operational members of staff from
across a range of services. Involving a range of staff in the process of
using evidence to prioritise themes and develop equality outcomes was
intended to encourage wider ownership of the outcomes across services.
This paper captures the council’s approach to organising and holding
their equality outcome-setting workshop. A key part of this was the
development and use of the council’s Equality Evidence Review. The
Review was produced in-house, and presents a range of equality
evidence at the national and local level to provide a picture of life in
Glasgow.
There are further stages to go through to complete the outcomes
development process. Following the workshop, the council will work
with key stakeholders including Community Planning Partners and
arm’s length organisations to refine and agree the equality outcomes.
Community equality groups will be involved and consulted during the
process as well.
1 The wider council family is the Council and its arm’s length organisations
(ALEOs). For example, ALEOs include Glasgow Community Safety Services
and Glasgow Life.
2
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
Strengths of the approach
The project is midway through its development. The main strengths of the
project to date are detailed below:
•
The involvement of a range of officers from across the organisation.
This enabled discussion at the workshop to be particularly productive,
and ensured it was based on both experience and policy knowledge.
•
Bringing together officers who had not had previous involvement in
the policy development of the equality agenda at the council. This
encouraged a wider sense of ownership of the outcomes being
developed, and helped to emphasise that equality should be a focus
of everybody’s work, as opposed to only being within the remit of a
limited number of people.
•
The development and use of the Equality Evidence Review was
essential in supporting and informing council officers’ knowledge
about equality issues in Glasgow, as well as stimulating evidenced
based discussion to identify priorities for potential equality outcomes.
Throughout the evidence development process, council staff ensured
that there was continual participation, consultation and requests for
feedback from equality representative groups across the city, to help
inform the development of the Equality Evidence Review.
3
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
What we did – key themes and approach
Glasgow City Council intends to develop and then agree a set of equality
outcomes, with supporting action plans, to meet the specific duties within
the Public Sector Equality Duty, which are expected to come into force in
May 2012. The key themes for the outcomes, and the approach taken to
set the outcomes, are detailed below.
Equality Evidence Review and key themes
The council has selected five themes within which to develop its equality
outcomes. These are:
1. socio-economic inequality;
2. targeted violence and discrimination;
3. integration and social cohesion;
4. health and learning inequalities;
5. Glasgow City Council as an employer.
These broad themes were identified by using the evidence collated within
the Equality Evidence Review.2 Initially, four themes were proposed to
the Corporate Management Team, who provided feedback to the lead
officers. The themes were discussed with the ILED project team and other
council colleagues before the final five were selected. The lead officers
felt that it was important to ensure the themes were broad enough to take
into account all of the evidence, but also that they were targeted enough
to allow focussed discussion.
The Evidence Review presents equality evidence from a range of
local and national sources across each of these themes, as well as a
demographic profile of Glasgow, in order to provide a baseline of equality
evidence, highlight areas where work is already being progressed, and
identify evidence gaps. The Evidence Review can therefore be used not
only to help set equality outcomes, but also as a rationale to explain why
other potential equality outcomes were not selected.
The Evidence Review was disseminated to representative groups and
key stakeholders around the city for consultation and comment before
being used within the workshop. For example, the council shared the
2 The Equality Evidence Review is available at www.improvementservice.org.
uk/improving-local-equality-data-glasgow/
4
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
Review with the Equality Networks Forum, which includes representatives
from the Glasgow Disability Alliance, West of Scotland LGBT, Glasgow
Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, and many others. These groups
fed back with positive comments and agreed that the Evidence Review
was a solid starting point for the outcomes development process.
The Evidence Review is continually updated and has been distributed
widely across the council. It is hoped that this will encourage a shared
understanding of equality issues in Glasgow. Council staff will be able
to use the Evidence Review within any work on developing outcomes or
impact assessment.
The workshop
The council planned to develop its equality outcomes during an interactive
half-day workshop, hosted corporately with delegates from across the
council and the wider council family. The workshop consisted of two main
parts: a session to introduce delegates to, and improve their knowledge
of, the components of an outcomes approach and practice; followed by a
session where delegates considered the evidence, identified priorities and
developed a number of potential equality outcomes.
In order to focus discussion, and to draw on delegates’ knowledge and
expertise, delegates were divided into groups based on the five key
themes identified within the Evidence Review.
Delegates were provided with a summary of the Evidence Review prior to
the workshop, to prepare and support them within the discussions at the
workshop. Organisers were keen to give enough information to delegates
without overwhelming them. Using this as a starting point, each thematic
group discussed current work and identified a number of priority areas
and issues that were within the remit of the council’s work and were
the responsibility of the council to address. Each group was lead by an
independent facilitator with the support of an aide/note-taker. They were
then asked to develop no more than four proposed outcomes for their
theme and present these back to the other thematic groups.
The workshop attendees were given clear guidelines and definitions when
developing their outcomes. Delegates were asked to bear in mind the
following questions:
•
Are the outcomes SMART (including a timescale of 2–4 years)?
•
Are they risk assessed – would not doing something damage the
council’s reputation or put them at risk of legal action?
5
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
•
Is there a real opportunity that action by the council would bring about
positive change?
•
Does involvement support the council’s role in society?
Following this workshop, the equality outcomes that delegates developed
are being refined and will be presented to a range of key internal and
external stakeholders. Specifically, the lead officers arranged meetings
to formally consult with representative groups in the city on a one-toone basis, specifically to ask if there were any gaps in the outcomes
selected, and if there were any suggestions on how to fill these. The
groups included those who were originally consulted during the evidence
development process, as well as Women’s Voluntary Sector Network
Glasgow, West of Scotland Regional Equality Council, and Age Scotland.
The council aims to publish its set of equality outcomes by April 2012 and
agree a performance framework to deliver these by June 2012.
6
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
What impact the project had
The response to the event has been overwhelmingly positive. Feedback
was captured on the day as well as through a short survey following the
event.
Delegates were positive both about the process of outcomes
development and the end result of the outcome areas that were identified.
Requests have been made to replicate the process in other areas of
policy development, primarily because the workshop organisers believe
the approach encouraged ownership of the twenty potential equality
outcomes that council officers developed and bought into during the
workshop.
It is also contributing towards a shift to a more defined process for
outcomes development and service planning and delivery.
7
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
Issues or challenges
8
•
Ensuring there was adequate representation from key staff across all
areas of service delivery. The organisers invited a range of people,
comprising different levels of seniority and services, by targeting
Directors (who could nominate appropriate staff to attend) as well
as specific staff who they thought should attend. The organisers
wanted to have good representation from senior staff who would have
knowledge of policy and strategy and the wider context of service
delivery and equality issues.
•
It was essential to strike the right balance between giving delegates
enough information to have an informed and productive discussion,
while not overwhelming them with too much information to work with
during the workshop session. Delegates were given a two-page
summary of the evidence for the relevant thematic area to work with
during the event, as well as a one-page summary of the demographic
profile of Glasgow. This worked well, as delegates were able to easily
review this evidence. They were also asked to think about and share
through discussion any other evidence they knew of from within their
service areas that was not captured within the review
•
Ensuring that delegates understood that the workshop was interactive
and they would be expected to contribute to the discussion was
essential.
•
This was a new approach for this area of policy development and the
desired output of an agreed set of equality outcomes was ambitious.
However, good progress was made in the sense that, for most
themes, if outcomes were not explicitly developed then certainly
priority areas in which to develop outcomes were identified. For
example, within the theme of Targeted Violence and Discrimination,
improved support for older people and for disabled people was
identified. But, there is further work to be undertaken to draw out
clearer and more specific outcomes from these priority areas.
•
The theme of Integration and Social Cohesion was particularly
problematic when trying to identify outcomes, as this theme and the
potential outcome areas within it cut across the other four themes.
Generally, the areas of focus were on access to services and data
gaps.
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
Lessons learned
Although the outcomes and outcome areas proposed require some
further refinement, as well as involvement with equality groups as is
required within the PSED, the workshop resulted in a clear set of priorities
for the council to pursue over the next 2–4 years.
Some key learning to keep in mind for future events include:
•
Delegates did not have a shared understanding of the outcomes
approach, and this was more pronounced in terms of equality
outcomes. The event could have further emphasised a general
introduction to the outcomes approach, related terminology, and how
the approach fits into corporate priorities, and service planning and
delivery. Spreading the content of the event over a longer period, or
splitting into two separate half-day sessions could help to address
this. In terms of equality outcomes specifically, an agreed message
or presentation clarifying where Glasgow City Council saw its equality
outcomes fitting with its other priorities would also help.
•
It was important to encourage delegates to move away from thinking
about what they do to thinking about the result of what they do. This
shift in thinking is fundamental to the outcomes approach.
•
Equality outcomes are a new concept for everyone. Within this
workshop, it became clear that a better definition of an equality
outcome, and an indication of where an equality outcome should fit
with the wider council outcomes and corporate priorities generally, will
be beneficial. For example, outcomes on educational attainment and
violence against women are important, however there are outcomes
for these areas elsewhere within the work of the council.
•
Officers leading this piece of work cited early involvement of a range
of staff on a more interactive basis as a key principle of the work.
There were real benefits with this approach in terms of engaging staff
more fully and increasing ownership of the resulting outcomes.
•
The need to improve collaborative work across the council was
recognised by some delegates. Coming together within this workshop
helped delegates to better understand what other work was being
progressed within the council.
•
It is important to ensure that venue space will allow for effective and
creative discussions, particularly if a lot of people are expected to
attend the event. In the venue selected for this workshop, although
9
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
there was plenty of room to sit, the general noise levels in the venue
affected the discussion for some theme tables.
Further information
Liz Oswald, liz.oswald@glasgow.gov.uk
10
Developing equality outcomes within Glasgow City Council
11
Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland
Freepost
RSAB-YJEJ-EXUJ
PO Box 26961
Glasgow
G2 9DU
Tel. 0845 604 5510
Email. scotland@equalityhumanrights.com
Improvement Service
Westerton House
East Mains Industrial Estate
Broxburn
EH52 5AU
Tel. 01506 775558
Email. info@improvementservice.org.uk