Outcomes Based Approach to Equality in East Renfrewshire
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.
A key part of the project was also to share learning from the practical work
with the four local authorities / CPPs with the wider Scottish public sector.
East Renfrewshire Council approached the ILED project team to ask for
support in the early stages of their process of moving to an outcome-based
approach to equality.
East Renfrewshire Council is preparing for the Public Sector Equality Duty
(the Duty). The Duty consists of a general equality duty in the Equality Act
2010, and specific duties designed to enable the better performance of the
general duty. New specific duties are expected to come into force in Scotland
in May 2012. One of these duties will require public authorities to publish a set
of equality outcomes by April 2013 and report on progress towards these
outcomes at least every two years.
The Corporate Equality Unit in the Council, with support from the ILED project
team and City of Edinburgh Council, worked jointly to design and deliver a
half-day workshop with 19 Heads of Service and senior managers within the
Council.
East Renfrewshire Council outlined a series of aims that they hoped the
workshop would support:




Improving their ability to adopt evidence-based approaches to equality
Better understanding how the Equality Measurement Framework could
be used in a practical way at the local level
Improving how data could be used for the purpose of carrying out
Equality Impact Assessments
Integrating equality into the Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) and
Outcome Delivery Plans (ODP)
1

Build capacity for a more evidenced-based approach to performance
reporting on corporate and partnership approaches to equality in East
Renfrewshire, using the “How Good Is Our Service” approach
Strengths of the Approach
The project is midway through its development. The main strengths of the
project to date are detailed below.



Collaboration with other local authorities to adopt a peer learning
approach. The City of Edinburgh Council has made some important
steps in terms of their strategic approach to equality. Of particular
interest for East Renfrewshire Council was the City of Edinburgh’s work
on equality impact assessments, and their steps towards an outcome
based approach to equality. By inviting a colleague from the City of
Edinburgh Council, senior managers in East Renfrewshire Council had
the opportunity to hear about a successful approach, taken by another
local authority, which meant they could be inspired to recreate the
process and be equipped with knowledge on what has worked and
what has been challenging.
Seeking advice and input from other organisations / projects with
similar aims and purpose at the outset of a new process or way of
working.
Bringing senior management together. Strong leadership is required to
thoroughly embed the equality agenda.
What We Did
Ahead of the workshop, delegates were asked to familiarise themselves with
the EMF briefing note, and consider how the domains and outcomes within
the EMF might resonate with their own service plans.1
There were two main parts to the workshop.
The ILED project team opened with an overview of the project, focussing on
the experience of the four local authorities / CPPs within ILED using the EMF.
Delegates then participated in a discussion-based activity, which was
designed to:



1
Support delegates to reflect on their own experience of how equality
features in local outcomes;
Capture delegates aspirations of how equality could integrate better to
improve local outcomes;
Encourage delegates to identify potential solutions to realising their
aspirations, including thinking about the practical use of the Equality
Measurement Framework at the local level.
For more information about the EMF, please see the EMF briefing paper.
2
The activity was facilitated by the ILED project team and asked delegates to
discuss and answer the following questions:
Discovery
1. What is currently working well in terms of how equality data is being
used to improve local outcomes?
2. What factors have contributed to success in ensuring equality is
reflected in local outcomes?
Dare to Dream
3. What is your dream of how things might look in the future?
4. How can we build on existing strengths?
Down to Earth
5. What practicalities are needed to support your wishes/dreams?
6. Locally, how would using the Equality Measurement Framework help
you to realise your wishes or dreams?
Delegates identified that the council collects a lot of useful equality
information. In particular, there is a lot of educational attainment information
available that can be broken down by protected characteristics. Evidence is
also regularly used in equality impact assessments. Delegates pointed out
that there is room for improvement too however, as often equality information
is collected but not used as effectively as it could be within the outcomes
approach.
Some key internal developments that delegates believed would be most
significant in terms of improving local equality data within the outcomes
approach were: use of consistent questions; a central storage system for
equality data; sufficient evidence to have a baseline of equality issues;
improved sharing of equality information and sharing of knowledge about work
on using equality data; and a recognition that equality should be a core part of
day to day business.
In order to make some of the above goals possible, delegates suggested
practical solutions including guidance and staff training on mainstreaming
equality, and improved internal guidance on sharing data. Furthermore, using
standardised questions was identified as a step towards being able to obtain a
reliable baseline of equality information. It would also increase potential to
facilitate benchmarking, which delegates also saw as useful.
This session was followed by a presentation and discussion from the senior
equality manager from the City of Edinburgh Council. This session presented
the Council’s experience of developing and implementing their equality impact
assessment tool, and their approach and experience of integrating equality
within their outcomes approach.
3
Both sessions were practical and interactive, and provided delegates with the
chance to hear about the experiences of other local authorities and other staff
within East Renfrewshire Council in terms of using the local equality evidence
base within the outcomes approach.
Impact
It is hoped that the workshop will support the council to mainstream equality
and develop well-evidenced equality outcomes. The process for this will
become clearer if the specific duties come into force in May 2012.
The Equality Officers Working Group within the Council are currently
developing an outcome delivery plan, which will incorporate lessons learned
from the workshop session. The Equality Officers are also improving their
approach to equality impact assessments.
Finally, the session has contributed to a new sense of eagerness to include
equality outcomes within the Council’s Outcome Delivery Plan.
Issues or Challenges


Communicating the purpose and value of the Equality Measurement
Framework as a practical tool to Council staff both prior to and at the
workshop was challenging.2 It was hard to establish how it would work
on a practical level in the local authority context – particularly due to
the abstract language used in the framework and the fact that as yet
there is not data in the framework to demonstrate its potential.
Implementing change in the absence of specific duties. At the time of
this workshop, there was also a lack of clarity on the next round of
SOAs. Both of these factors made it difficult to be able to be clear
about what work needed to be done, how to do the work, and how to
situate it.
Lessons Learned
The workshop provided an opportunity for senior officers in the Council to
become more familiarised with the EMF and how it could be used in their
area. The workshop also allowed the officers to benefit from a peer learning
approach. Below are some key points in these respects:

The EMF offers an opportunity to widen the ownership of the
equality agenda and support understanding of how equality can be
seen as a core part of everybody’s business. Because the EMF
gives a comprehensive view of equality – covering equality of
opportunity, equality of process and equality of outcome across ten
important areas of life – it means that everybody should be able to
2
For further information on the practical experience of using the EMF at the local level within
the ILED project see the learning paper, ‘Exploring the Use of the Equality Measurement
Framework‘.
4


see the relevance of equality to them and their business.
The EMF offers opportunities for integrating equality into the SOA
and ODPs. The EMF can be seen as a tool to help conceptualise
equality and organise equality evidence, meaning it can be used in
a practical way to support the development of the SOA and ODPs.
Some of the indicators within the EMF also resonate with those in
East Renfrewshire’s current SOA. Again this highlights an
opportunity for being able to better integrate equality into the SOA.
Peer learning is a helpful way to enhance and improve approaches
to local level work. Hearing about the approach taken by another
local authority, particularly if it highlights issues and challenges and
how to overcome these, as well as the overall benefits to
undertaking the work, is not only useful but can be motivating and
inspiring.
Further Information

Kofi Tordzro: [email protected]
5