Equality Mainstreaming and Outcomes Report (Incorporating Education) 2025 - Appendix 1

Welcome

Fairness and tackling inequality sit at the heart of our Council Plan 2023 to 2028. Our vision is “A North Ayrshire that is ‘Fair for All’”.

This mainstreaming report highlights the key strategies and areas of work that are helping to embed equality and diversity within our services.

It shows how we are meeting the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and subsequent amendments to this legislation. Since 2013, all public bodies have been required to produce a report every two years covering a number of Equality related activities, which are referred to under the Public Sector Equality Duty. This report is our Equality Mainstreaming Report and Equality Outcomes for the period 2021 to 2025 and covers calendar years 2023 to 2024 (our previous mid-term report covers the period 2021 to 2022). This includes:

• Employee statistics relating to protected characteristics.
• The Education Mainstreaming Report.
• Link to the Licensing Board Equality Mainstreaming Report.
• A report on the implementation of the Ayrshire Shared North Ayrshire Equality Outcomes and actions.

The Public Sector Equality Duty ‘specific duties’ stipulate the requirements of reporting. The key elements are mainstreaming the equality duty, publishing and reporting on equality outcomes and gathering and publishing employee statistics.

It is recognised that people with certain protected characteristics as identified within the Equality Act are more likely to experience inequality. The protected characteristic groups are age, race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion and belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnership. During 2023, North Ayrshire Council took the decision to treat ‘Care-Experienced’ as a protected characteristic.

About North Ayrshire

North Ayrshire is on the southwest coast of Scotland and one of 32 local authority areas in Scotland. It covers 885 square kilometers, encompasses the Islands of Arran and the Cumbraes and has a population of just over 134,000 people (ONS June 2021). Demographically, North Ayrshire continues to be faced with a number of challenges. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) measures relative deprivation across Scotland against several domains which are broken down into small areas or data zones. 52 of North Ayrshire’s 186 data zones are in the 15% most deprived in Scotland. As was the case in 2016, North Ayrshire has the fifth highest deprivation in Scotland (SIMD 2020). The percentage of children living in poverty after housing costs is estimated at 29%.

Accessibility and Further Information

We are constantly striving to make our Council and our reports as accessible as possible. We welcome opportunities to discuss how this can be achieved. This report has been access checked using the ‘Assist’ accessibility checker.

Alternative Formats

If you require this report in an alternative format, please contact the team on the details outlined below. We can provide:

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Corporate Equalities is part of the Corporate Policy, Performance and Democracy Team. For further information or to discuss any aspect of the contents of this report please contact:

The Corporate Policy, Performance and Democracy Team

Telephone: 01294 310000

Email: NorthAyrshirePerforms@north-ayrshire.gov.uk

Mainstreaming Equality and Equality Outcomes

Key Highlights 2023 to 2024

• We developed, in partnership with our British Sign Language (BSL) community, our new BSL plan 2024 to 2029.
• We carried out a council-wide review and update on our Menopause in the Workplace Guidance, with the addition of a new category in our sickness absence reporting procedure.
• We reviewed and updated our Equality and Children’s Rights Impact Assessment process with the addition of the Consumer Duty and treated ‘care-experienced’ as a local protected characteristic.
• Our schools continued to progress the Rights Respecting Schools awards, with Gold accreditations increasing from 10 to 17 schools.
• We continued the successful implementation and delivery of the Equal Supported Employment programme, supporting young people with learning disabilities with work experience in horticultural skills, cycle maintenance and Scottish Qualifications Authority qualifications.
• We successfully developed our North Ayrshire Council website, following extensive engagement around disability related issues, helping to create a more accessible website.
• Our Web Team is actively continuing to ensure our website and all documents contained within it are accessible. This includes significant support to services such as training, one to one support and the creation of 'How To' guides.
• We increased the number of employees completing our Equality and Diversity course from 2,897 in 2023 to 3,119 in 2024.
• 241 of our New Scots adults engaged in learning opportunities during 2024.
• We supported 166 employed individuals to manage their health and stay in employment and 272 unemployed individuals were supported to progress into employment.
• 5,962 children and young people and 814 families have benefitted from Community Mental Health support.

The Equality Act

Under the Equality Act 2010, the Public Sector Equality duty, or ‘general equality duty’, requires public authorities in the exercise of their functions to have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act 2010.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

These elements of the Act are also referred to as the three key needs of the Act. Additional information in relation to equalities issues in North Ayrshire is available on our Council performance page: This includes Equality and Children’s Rights Impact Assessments and the Equality Outcomes for 2025 – 2029.

Key Strategies

Our Council Plan

Our Council Plan for 2023 to 2028 is the main strategic plan for our Council. It is a high level document that has tackling inequality at its core with our vision being “A North Ayrshire that is Fair for All”. All of our plans must align to the Council Plan, meaning tackling the causes of inequality are embedded throughout our services.

Our Priorities:

British Sign Language Plan

Our Ayrshire Shared British Sign Language (BSL) Plan 2024 to 2030, was published in June 2024 and along with our previous 2018 to 2024 plan can be found in our British Sign Language page on the Council’s website. Since the new plan was introduced, the Ayrshire partners have been engaging with the local BSL and deaf community to support the implementation of an operational plan and have established a local implementation group that has representatives from the deaf community. The group will continue to meet to take forward the actions throughout the duration of the plan.

Mainstreaming the Equality Duty

This section focuses on mainstreaming equality within the Council, highlighting information on a range of processes, including equality impact assessments, training, Human Resource policies and procedures as well as our equality groups.

Equality and Children’s Rights Impact Assessments

The Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) process continues to be a key tool that helps our services consider equality and diversity related issues within their service planning and activities. This process helps to raise awareness of and eliminate potential discrimination. It also highlights and advances equality of opportunity by making stronger links between equality groups and issues.

Assessments are completed each year against various strategies, plans, processes and budget proposals, a screening is carried out to determine if a full impact assessment is required.

Our impact assessment process contains several areas:

Protected Characteristics

The impact on any of the nine protected characteristics of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnership. In North Ayrshire we treat care experienced as a protected characteristic.

Children’s Rights and Human Rights

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (Duties of public authorities in relation to the UNCRC) requires public authorities (including all local authorities and health boards) to report on the steps they have taken to secure or further implement the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). As a result, Children’s Rights are included as an integral part of the Equality Impact Assessment process and aligned to the eight indicators from the Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) programme. This has been further strengthened by the implementation of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.

Fairer Scotland Duty

This Duty, introduced in 2018, places a legal requirement on certain public organisations to consider the socio-economic impact of their policies, procedures, and proposals on inequalities of outcome. It is part of the Equality Act.

Island Proofing

Section 8 of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 requires relevant public authorities (which includes local authorities) to carry out impact assessments on island communities when creating a strategy, policy or a service to determine if is significantly different from its effect of other communities (including other island communities).

Consumer Duty

The Consumer Duty was introduced under section 21 of the Consumer Scotland Act 2021 and added to our assessment tool during 2024, it is made up of four statutory requirements:

1. When making decisions of a strategic nature, a relevant public authority must have regard to the impact those decisions have on consumers.
2. When making decisions of a strategic nature, a relevant public authority must have regard to the desirability of reducing harm to consumers.
3. A relevant public authority must publicise information about the steps it has taken to meet the duty.
4. A relevant public authority must have regard to the guidance issued by Consumer Scotland.

For the purposes of the Act, a consumer is an individual or business (no larger than a small business) that purchases, uses or receives goods or services in Scotland, where those goods or services are supplied in the course of business (including where they are supplied by local authorities and other public bodies). The term “consumer” also refers to potential or future consumers.

Care Experienced

North Ayrshire Council made the decision to treat “care experienced” as a protected characteristic in North Ayrshire Council’s Equality Impact Assessment process to ensure all decisions made by Council give specific focus on how the Council could improve the lives of care experienced young people.

A report on treating care-experience as a local protected characteristic was taken to Council on 13 December 2023.

Legal advice was sought from King’s Counsel which confirmed that in principle it would be competent to treat “care experienced” as though it was a protected characteristic for the purpose of the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) part of the process. An Equality and Children’s Rights Impact Assessment (ECRIA), incorporating an EIA was completed to assess the impact of adopting “care experienced” to be treated as a protected characteristic in North Ayrshire Council in future EIAs. The ECRIA concluded that the implications of treating “care experienced” as a protected characteristic in future EIAs are broadly positive.

The definition adopted by the Council is “Anyone who is currently in care or has been for any length of time regardless of their age.” This care may have been provided in many different settings, such as:

• Kinship Care (living with a relative who is not your mum or dad)
• Looked After At Home (with the help of Social Work)
• Residential Care (Living in a residential home or school)
• Foster Care (living with foster carers)
• Secure Care (living in a secure accommodation)
• Adoption (living with adoptive parents).

The final decision can be accessed via the Council minutes of 14 February 2024.

We continue to engage with our communities around impact assessments as well as accessing information on the Scottish Government Equality Evidence Finder. This tool makes it easier for people to locate and access equalities information and provides a wealth of data and other evidence with accompanying commentary, background papers and links to further information. Our Equality and Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are published on our Council Performance page in the Equality Policy and Performance section.

Equality Groups

Corporate Equality Group

Our Corporate Equality Group includes Elected Members from each of the main political parties in our Council as well as representatives from all our services. This group meets quarterly to consider a range of equality and diversity related issues, including Equality Mainstreaming and Equality Outcomes and actions. Our Council is also well represented on the Ayrshire Equality Partnership, which consists of a range of our public sector partners including the NHS, South and East Ayrshire Councils, North, South and East Health and Social Care Partnerships, Ayrshire College, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Ayrshire Valuation Joint Board and Community Justice Ayrshire.

Employee Disability Forum

Established in 2019 to consider employee disability related issues in the organisation, the forum includes employees who have a particular interest in disability issues, whether direct experience of a disability or whose role relates to this area. Representatives attend from Human Resources (HR), Trade Unions, the Equal Supported Employment Team, and the Sensory Impairment Team. Some of the groups’ key successes include:

• Providing a safe space for employees to raise issues relating to disability at work.
• Supporting and providing input into HR related policies and procedures, including workplace disability guide (Disability Confident Employer).
• Influencing ICT related issues and helping to improve accessibility, both physical access and digital access.

Human Resources (HR)

Menopause in the Workplace

Our in-house HR Guide: ‘Menopause in the Workplace’ to support employees and raise awareness about the menopause was reviewed and updated during 2024.

The guide was updated following engagement with the Trade Unions and 1,100 female employees - 20% of our female workforce. Following an employee survey, the Menopause Guidance was updated in October 2024.

In addition to discussions with our trade unions, the survey highlighted that our female manual employees and teaching employees did not have the same awareness or access to the menopause guide and supporting resources as corporate based employees. The revised guidance was issued to all female colleagues to increase awareness. In addition to this, a briefing session was delivered to the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Group within Education to raise awareness on the feedback received from employees and how this could be factored into Health, Safety and Wellbeing Action Plans within the Service.

To continuously review the impact of menopause within the workplace, the Council has recently introduced a specific sickness absence category covering menopause to assist in identifying areas where targeted support may be required or increase awareness of the supports available.

In 2023 we ran two Menopause Awareness Sessions in August and November, with supporting information on Menopause and Hormonal Changes on the body provided on our internal intranet. The intranet’s dedicated page to Menopause provides a range of information to support the above guidance and signposts to relevant internal/external supports.

Employer with Heart Charter

In April 2024, our Council launched the Employer with Heart Charter as a commitment to support our pregnant employees who experience a premature birth. Where a baby is born prematurely before 37 weeks' gestation, the Council will provide additional leave at full pay for the number of days in which the baby was born prior to their original due date. (Employer with Heart is not available for babies born after 37 weeks.)

This support was introduced to provide employees with additional leave to utilise following their period of maternity leave/pay which would commence from the date of the baby's birth. This additional leave with full pay is to support employees in recognition of the significant impact a premature birth can have upon a family, both financially and emotionally, and additional time to care for and support their baby.

We understand that returning to work can be a difficult time for parents of premature babies and that babies born too soon can have ongoing medical needs, requiring regular hospital appointments and check-ups. We will consider formal and informal flexible working patterns and offer additional paid or unpaid leave. In addition, the Council will also provide additional leave to partners using the same principles as above.

Wellbeing Support

Promoting employee wellbeing continues to be a priority with an extensive range of supports and guidance available. These supports include:

• HR Guide: Disability in the Workplace
• Supporting Employees with Cancer
• HR Guide: Mental Health in the Workplace
• Supporting Employees who suffer from Endometriosis
• HR Guide: Pregnancy Loss

The Human Resources Team provides a wide range of information to support diversity within our workforce. By ensuring this information is easily accessible it continues to promote and encourage fair and inclusive practices across the Council.

Equality Related Training

Our Council provides a range of Equality and Diversity related training, most of which is delivered via online platforms. Our Equality and Diversity online course forms part of the mandatory suite of courses as we continue to promote awareness. All employees can now access our iLearn online learning platform.

In addition, we continue to provide a range of training modules, including British Sign Language, Deaf Awareness and Deafblind Awareness.

Number of E-learning Completions 2023

Number of E-learning Completions 2024

The continued promotion of our mandatory Equality and Diversity course has seen an increase of 222 completions during 2024. A full review and update of this training will take place during 2025 and launch in January 2026.

Engagement with our Communities

Our Council continues to engage with our communities using a variety of methods. During our budget consultation process a high level of engagement took place across North Ayrshire with our local communities, this involved the distribution of a survey and face to face engagement around the key budget proposals. The survey received 4,461 responses across six themes and asked demographic information in relation to Equality and Diversity. In addition, 39 groups were engaged with directly around the proposals, many of them representing equality related communities, such as youth and older people forums, disability, the Gypsy/Travelers Community, men and women’s groups, groups representing New Scots such as Syrians, Ukrainian and Afghan communities along with the equality forum, Equal - Heads up.

Responses from the survey highlighted the following responses for people with protected characteristics:

• Female (47%), Male (40%)
• The 55 to 64 age group provided the highest percentage of responses at 28.6%, followed closely by the 65 to 74 age group at 28%.
• Just over 9% of respondents considered themselves to have a disability.
• 6.5% considered themselves to be care-experienced

Our services, including Connected Communities, Housing and Education engage regularly and support a range of groups across North Ayrshire. Other Council services engage and consult as required regarding changes to or new services being put in place.

Developing our new Website

During 2023 our Council’s IT Service embarked on the redesign of our external website. The Council is committed to making its public website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the Equality Act 2010.

Throughout the redesign project, a key driver was to deliver an engaging website, considering accessibility first while meeting the needs of as many residents as possible. Community engagement was actioned from design, delivery and development stages testing throughout all our localities.

Needs were identified from various stakeholders, and testing of the various aspects of the website took place with residents and various groups across North Ayrshire. These included but were not limited to: Discovery groups for over 65’s; Parent and toddler groups; North Ayrshire Employee Disability Forum; Resident volunteers as part of an online testing group; and Arran Repair Café Volunteers.

Engagement through various internal and external communication efforts yielded significant reach and interaction:

• 1,387 responses from surveys, prototype testing, and user testing sessions.
• A social media campaign, with a total of 64 posts, generated 1,034 engagements (likes, comments, shares and link clicks).
• Videos shared throughout the campaign received 3,457 views.

This was an important area of work that supported the Council to create an accessible website and further engagement will continue into the next phase of its development.

Procurement

Our Procurement Strategy has ‘Create an Inclusive North Ayrshire with access to fair jobs’ as one of its key objectives and has seven specific actions to support this including encouraging fair work practices and payment of the real living wage in all relevant contracts, creating employment through community benefit clauses and ensuring the supply chain is paid promptly. Equality is also included in procurement terms and conditions and ‘Fair Work Practices’ are scored or included as pass/fail in all procurements. Tenderers are also asked to agree with the North Ayrshire Council Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Code of Conduct and sign a declaration that states they have taken the relevant measure to make sure their supply chains are slavery proof. Equality considerations are embedded into our Terms and Conditions:

The ‘Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Code of Conduct’ covers several key themes including forced or involuntary labour, humane treatment, workplace equality, contracts of employment and Freedom of movement. More information can be found on our Procurement page.

Case Study

Equality in Procurement – Equality Act Compliant Ramps to Residential Properties

North Ayrshire Council required a contractor to carry out the design, supply, and installation of galvanised steel ramps to residential properties throughout North Ayrshire, as and when required. The work was also inclusive of any associated down takings and preparatory works and any siteworks associated with construction of ramps. The installation of ramps is part of a wider adaptations service offered by our Council; by installing adaptions to residents’ homes who require additional support, our Council can enable residents to live in a community setting who may otherwise have had to stay in a hospital, care home or required more intensive care packages to support them.

It was mandated within the specification that all installations must fully comply with current standards of The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2013, the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 and The Equality Act 2010.

Furthermore, bidders were required to submit two examples of experience and two supporting references to demonstrate capability to deliver the requirement of supply, designing and installing ramps that comply with The Equality Act 2010. It was mandatory that this section of the evaluation was passed in order for their bid to pass to the next stage of the evaluation process. This approach ensured a reputable contractor was appointed that had experience and the skills to deliver the requirements in line with the equality legislation.

Licensing Board Overview

North Ayrshire Council Licensing Board is responsible for making decisions on applications that allow people to sell alcohol from premises or allow gambling. They also deal with complaints regarding licensed premises and those who hold licenses. The Board consists of Elected Members and is supported by a Clerk (solicitor) and other employees of our Council.

Under the Equality Act, Licensing Boards have the same obligations as other public sector organisations to report on Equality Mainstreaming and to develop Equality Outcomes.

Education Authority Report

Overview

North Ayrshire Council seeks to create a society where everyone has the same life chances to grow, prosper and have fulfilling and healthy lives. Education in North Ayrshire recognises and celebrates its role in the delivery of positive outcomes for all children and young people. We undertake positive interventions to support equalities education for the benefit of our children and young people and for our employees across our educational establishments. Our Education Service is responsible for the education of 17,133 pupils across our authority’s primary, secondary, and additional support needs schools. A further 2,044 children attend early learning and childcare settings.

• Over 45% of our children and young people live in postcodes in the most deprived areas of Scotland according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).
• 29% of our children and young people live in poverty (after housing costs), which is the second highest in Scotland.
• Over 5,500 of our children and young people are registered for school footwear and clothing grants.

Education in North Ayrshire is delivered through:

• 48 primary schools.
• Eight secondary schools.
• One through school (Garnock Campus).
• One specialist campus for children and young people with additional support needs.
• 15 centres where early learning and childcare is provided in partnership.
• 41 council managed early learning and childcare settings.

The Education Service has a significant role in delivering the Council Plan 2023 to 2028 vision to create a North Ayrshire that is fair for all and our mission “To work together to improve the lives of our people in North Ayrshire”.

At a national level, the vision for education in Scotland set out in the National Improvement Framework is for Scottish education to be ambitious, inclusive, and supportive in order to deliver:

• Excellence through raising achievement and improving outcomes: ensuring that every child and young person achieves the highest standards they can.
• Achieving equity: ensuring every child and young person has the same opportunity to succeed.

Key priorities of the National Improvement Framework are:

1. Placing the human rights and needs of every child and young person at the centre of education.
2. Improvement in children and young people’s health and wellbeing.
3. Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children and young people.
4. Improvement in skills and sustained, positive school-leaver destinations for all young people; and
5. Improvement in achievement, particularly in literacy and numeracy.

Our Education Service Improvement Plan 2023 to 2026 is a three-year plan which was approved in 2023. The priorities in the plan mirror the National Improvement Framework priorities with a strong focus on realising our Council Plan priorities.

Our schools use the Curriculum for Excellence framework to create, devise and deliver education suited to the local context for all learners in their communities. Effective planning, tracking, monitoring, and moderation of assessments are essential to ensure the progress of all learners. The framework provides a coherent, flexible, and enriched curriculum for all children and young people from 3 to 18 years. Children and young people are at the centre of learning provision to become:

• Successful Learners
• Confident Individuals
• Responsible Citizens
• Effective Contributors

Specific Education Service actions related to the mainstreaming of the Public Sector Equality Duty, under the Equality Act 2010, have been grouped under the three key duties in the sections below. However, it should be noted that whilst key activities below are provided under one of the three key duties these are frequently interconnected with an activity listed under one key duty also impacting positively on other key duties.

Eliminate discrimination, harassment, and victimisation.

Embedding United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 came into effect in July 2024. The Act provides protection for the human rights of children and young people in Scotland. The articles contained within include a focus on eliminating discrimination and protecting all children from harm. The Act places a legal duty on public authorities not to act incompatibly with the UNCRC articles included in the Act.

Prior to implementation of the Act, a proactive approach was taken across the Council to embed children’s rights through the rights respecting schools programme, as outlined in the next section, and the work led by North Ayrshire Council’s Youth Services in this area.

In response to the Act, the Education Service is leading a cross-service working group that will seek to further enhance and strengthen local practices to embed children’s rights. Key areas of focus identified include:

1. Further enhancing mechanisms to enable the views of children and young people to be heard and considered when decisions are made that affect them.
2. Strengthening approaches to child friendly reporting across Council services.
3. Establishing a local process for children to report any potential breaches of their rights before these are escalated to the Children’s Commissioner.
4. Raise awareness of UNCRC duties across our Council’s workforce and communities through training and promotional materials.
5. Building on current approaches to educating children and young people on their rights.

Rights Respecting Schools

A key initiative embedded across North Ayrshire’s education establishments is the Rights Respecting Schools programme, which embeds children’s rights and UNCRC more broadly. This relates directly to eliminating discrimination and protecting children and young people from harm, which could include harassment and victimisation. The Rights Respecting Schools programme provides establishments with a framework for educating children and young people about their rights and ensuring these are put into practice each day. As Duty Bearers, adults have clear responsibilities in ensuring children’s rights are upheld and children are educated on their rights.

As of November 2024, 17 Schools across North Ayrshire have their gold award, three of these, Beith Primary and Early Years Class, Dykesmains Primary, and Dalry Primary and Early Years Class are reaccreditations in recognition of the ongoing commitment to embedding Children’s Rights across the whole community. 30 schools have been awarded the silver award, and 11 schools have the bronze award. We also have six schools and Early Years Centres who have registered with UNICEF and are working towards the bronze award.

Young Leaders of Learning pilot programme

Within the 2024-2025 academic year, there is an on-going pilot of Education Scotland’s Young Leaders of Learning programme across eight secondary schools, 10 primaries within a single cluster and an early years establishment. This programme seeks to strengthen learner participation and support improvement through pupil led improvement activities, which ensures pupil voices are heard and views are respected. While the focus of the programme varies, initial engagement suggests this may have a focus on tackling this area of the equality duty in some establishments through an emphasised focus on protecting children’s rights.

Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP)

Mentors in Violence Prevention is delivered as part of the Scottish Government’s Equally Safe strategy and supports early prevention of gender-based violence. In North Ayrshire, all nine secondary schools take part in the programme and have teams of staff trained to lead and support senior school mentors. Lessons are being delivered by peer mentors to S1 and S2 classes in our schools. We have a local authority lead and three in-house staff trainers, annual employee training takes place in May.

There are regular communications and network meetings with school leads to ensure national messages and updates are shared and provide an opportunity to share good practice. Governance of the programme is provided by North Ayrshire’s Violence Against Women Partnership (VAWP) with quarterly reporting.

Partners in youth services, and active schools have been trained in the MVP programme to support schools. In our secondaries MVP mentors have been leading 16 days of activism, working alongside partners from Women’s Aid and Police Scotland. Staff in three of our Primary schools have taken part in the Education Scotland Pilot programme Gender Based Violence – Early Intervention. Our local authority lead is trained to further roll out and deliver this programme to staff across our primary schools to upskill staff and promote the ‘Everyone's Included’ learning resource within our primary schools.

Tackling incidents of violence and aggression

The Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (2023) and the publication of the subsequent Scottish Government Action Plan (November 2024) informed a review of the Corporate Violence and Aggression Policy as it applies within educational settings. This work was undertaken collaboratively with colleagues from Corporate Health and Safety as well as trade unions and includes specific instruction around prevention, reporting and support for employees.

Linked to this work, the policy on Promoting Positive Relationships is being updated to ensure specific guidance is given around behaviour and consequences including the creation of Positive Behaviour Plans that include an assessment of risk.

Anti-bullying in North Ayrshire education establishments

North Ayrshire’s anti-bullying policy aims to prevent and deal with bullying by improving resilience and skills in children and young people and adults who play a role in young lives. This policy utilises nurture and restorative practices to respond to those who are bullied and perpetrating bullying. The policy seeks to make it difficult for bullying behaviours to emerge, or be tolerated, by promoting a culture that values opinions; celebrates difference and promotes positive relationships.

Work undertaken in relation to this policy continues to raise awareness of bullying behaviour; creates and supports a culture of respect, care, and consideration of others; ensures staff, pupils, parents and carers are aware of how to deal with bullying; and monitors and evaluates procedures.

Update of North Ayrshire Child Protection Procedures

As noted in equality legislation, age is a protected characteristic and consequently recent activity to improve Child Protection procedures are relevant to this aspect of equality mainstreaming duty. Child protection procedures have been updated this academic session to ensure more streamlined processes are in place for all establishments. The updated policy has been launched with all staff and has been received positively. New monthly monitoring within the service allows for patterns and trends to be easily identified and professional learning targeted at establishments, clusters, or localities. We have also introduced a monthly check-in with Service Access colleagues in the HSCP, where concerns can be shared, discussed and resolved.

Specialist Additional Support Needs provisions

North Ayrshire Council’s Education Service offers a range of supports and provisions for learners with additional support needs (ASN) who can be identified within the disability protected characteristic represented in the Equality Duty. The provisions listed below provide specialist support for ASN learners with a key focus on advancing equality of opportunity for this group through an enhanced offer from mainstream education establishments that is more tailored to learner needs.

Significant investment is also undertaken on an annual basis to provide increased capacity within mainstream establishments to support ASN learners. This aligns with the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and the Presumption to Provide Education in a Mainstream Setting: Guidance (2019) that emphasises presumption of mainstreaming through inclusive practices. Recent activity in this area, which is led by the Education Service’s supporting needs team, has included training and upskilling of the education workforce.

Review of education inclusion group and staged intervention processes

Work to review the Service’s approach to Staged Intervention and the placement process to support inclusion has been completed with a focus on ensuring the views of children, young people and families are sought, captured, and used to inform decision making. These processes directly impact ASN learners, who require enhanced support from the provisions outlined in the table above.

Our revised processes ensure a proactive collaboration on assessment, information, and referrals. It is also a requirement that final copies of referrals are shared with parents and carers. The proactive and supportive approach adopted by North Ayrshire Council in working with parents and carers to support needs has been nationally recognised with a recent mention in Scottish Parliament, where our approach to supporting diets of neurodivergent learners in schools was highlighted as an example of positive collaborative practice.

Young Inclusion Ambassadors

Work has progressed to establish a Young Inclusion Ambassadors Network which will bring young people with Additional Support Needs together to share their views and experiences of education. We hope that through activities, our young people can identify how well they feel their schools and the local authority are doing in our provision of inclusive education and where improvements can be made. Our pilot group of Young Inclusion Ambassadors are in Lockhart Campus and Ardrossan Academy and planning is underway to expand this programme to all establishments in the next academic session.

Mental health supports in schools

As outlined in the Equality Duty, a long-term mental health condition can be considered a disability and as a result a relevant protected characteristic linked to the Equality Duty. As reported in the Education Service Annual Standards and Quality Report for 2023-2024 academic year, our school counsellors continue to provide support to those children (aged 10 and over) who require support. The total number of children and young people accessing counsellors in session 2023-2024 was 379. S1 pupils used the service most frequently, followed by S3 pupils. The most common reasons for counselling referrals included anxiety and depression/low mood.

Established tracking and evaluation tools demonstrate that school counselling continues to have a positive impact on the wellbeing of children and young people in North Ayrshire. The counselling team has established practices that have allowed them to work more closely with children and young people for whom one-to-one talking can be a barrier, including developing approaches such as psychodrama, sand trays and the use of Lego therapy.

There has also been a focus on internal trauma training to promote more systemic trauma informed practice. We also continue to provide access to Crisis Counselling as a support for children and young people who do not fall under the remit of the school counselling team, with 20 Primary School children accessing this support in the last year.

Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Supports continue to have a significant impact on children and young people’s wellbeing, with initiatives supporting early intervention and promoting positive mental health and wellbeing. Overall, 5,962 children and young people have accessed these supports with an additional 814 families benefiting. Managing anxiety is a key area of focus, with 806 children and young people receiving support for this concern. Our education professional learning programme has ensured employees have the skills and knowledge to deliver interventions, for example an additional 35 staff members have been trained this year to deliver Let’s Introduce Anxiety Management (LIAM), with 148 young people benefitting in 2023-2024. Impacts included improved attendance at school and some young people being able to engage in community activities. Other interventions have played a key role in supporting our children and young people, for example:

• 93 learners have accessed play therapy for care experienced children, a support for learners who have experienced significant trauma. North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) has now invested in a full-time permanent play therapist due to the positive impact of this programme.
• 147 children have accessed the Family Centred Wellbeing Support Service, with many referrals being made for our children and young people where there is a neurodevelopmental diagnosis or concern. This service too has been expanded in 2024-2025 academic session.
• Our two mental health and wellbeing project delivery officers continue to have a positive impact in their communities, and in particular among the 16 to 24 age bracket. Access is through self-referral and referral reasons include loneliness, social isolation and self-esteem or confidence issues. As well as creating a young parents’ group, the project delivery officers have delivered the ‘Bounce Back’ programme in Primary schools and ‘Your Resilience’ in Secondary schools. Our young people involved in this programme identified Suicide Prevention as an area they wished to investigate and have created kindness murals in public places with the aim of supporting positive messaging. These have been created in Kilwinning and the Garnock valley.
• Our Area Inclusion Workers have a key role in supporting our children and young people with a range of themes, including: Managing anxiety; supporting attendance; supporting with change and loss; visiting the family home; and providing social and emotional support.

Getting it Right for Every Child

Our understanding of Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) continues to be a focus within all aspects for our practice and professional learning. The principles underpin all the processes within our Council in support of our children and young people. This includes a focus on ensuring effective relationships between children and young people.

Through GIRFEC, we can determine proportionate, timely and appropriate help for young people, improving each child’s situation and reducing risk. The approach supports the achievement and attainment of best outcomes for all our young people, demonstrated through the review and impact of personalised targets in Children’s Plans. All our young people have the entitlement to support which is appropriately developed through our Staged Intervention Programme, which is aligned to Additional Supports Needs legislation and monitored and evaluated using the National GIRFEC Practice Model.

LGBT+ Education

LGBT+ education forms part of the learning (primary and secondary schools) focusing on social and emotional resilience, including mental health in relationships, sexuality and sexual behaviour. The use of curriculum benchmarks ensures that progress of young people is measured throughout this key area of education.

Partnership working with Youth Work has continued with equalities groups now set up in a number of secondary schools. The following resources were utilised to support this approach:

• Relationships Sexual Health and Parenthood resource is utilised in most of our establishments, with Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual equality lessons being introduced at Level 3 and 4.
• ‘See Me, See Change’, - Scotland’s programme with the goal to end all stigma and discrimination around mental health.
• Equalities and Children’s Rights Impact Assessment.

North Ayrshire Council’s Equalities and Children’s Rights Impact Assessment (ECRIA) has provided a useful tool during this reporting period in relation to this aspect of the Equality Duty. More specifically, the requirement to consider the impact on fostering good relationships with those with protected characteristics and those who do not informed a recent policy development taken to full council in March 2025. This recent example was an ECRIA undertaken by the education service to explore a potential change in the school exclusion policy to provide an exemption for care experienced children and young people. The focus on this aspect of the equality duty highlighted both positive and negative impacts related to the policy change and ultimately informed the Council’s decision on this matter.

The Promise

Within the Education Service, establishments are encouraged to engage with the Education Scotland, “Keeping the Promise Award”. To date two secondary schools have taken part and raised awareness of our duties to Care Experienced Learners. Participation in this award programme helps to address one of the key priorities of The Promise - to reduce the stigma that many care experienced people feel by promoting consistency of messaging around The Promise and the use of non-stigmatising language. Providing support to undertake the award will be a key focus in Term Four this session. Each establishment has an identified Keeping the Promise champion who attends networking events to share good practice and hear latest updates in this area of work.

Employee Statistics Overview

The Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010 requires local authorities to gather and publish employee statistics by protected characteristic. This section of the report includes an overview of employee information by disability, ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation and religion or belief (including no belief). It also includes the Employee Pay Gap information by sex, disability, and ethnicity. Full information on our employee statistics can be accessed by emailing Equalities@north-ayrshire.gov.uk.

It is recommended we publish information in some key areas including:

• Employee Headcount by protected characteristic.
• Recruitment by protected characteristic.
• Employee Turnover by protected characteristic.
• Employee Training by protected characteristic.

The table below contains the total headcount of North Ayrshire Council employees as at December each year:

The analysis of our employees encompasses not only our current staff but also those who have left the organisation during the year, ensuring we maintain a comprehensive and accurate understanding of our workforce.

Key Points arising from the statistics overview

There are a few key areas arising from the statistics overview, these include:

• The percentage of employees declaring a disability has improved, however the rate of not disclosed is still high at 20.6% (this is similar for Education) and requires further investigation.
• Turnover for employees with a disability is higher and this requires further investigation.
• Our Ethnic Minority population is relatively small at 2.1% and this is reflected in our workforce (1.21%), our disclosure rates for ethnicity are low and this requires further work to improve these figures. Our figures also indicate a higher percentage turnover for our ethnic minority workforce, and this also requires further investigation.
• We continue to have an ageing workforce, and employee turnover is higher in both younger and older age groups.
• There continues to be a higher percentage of males in senior roles (Grades 11 to 17) than females - despite females making up 75% of the workforce - and further work is required to consider this in more detail.
• Over 48% of employees have not disclosed their sexual orientation; figures indicate a higher employee turnover for our LGBT employees and this requires further investigation.
• Over 49% of employees have not disclosed their religion, there is a higher percentage of employee turnover from some of the minority religion and beliefs, however the number of employees is low and there is not thought to be any employment related issues for people with the protected characteristic.

The issues identified in our statistical overview will be reviewed in more depth and actions established as appropriate to improve these figures. This includes regular encouragement for our employees to update their records.

Disability

In 2024:

• 4.25% (358) of our employees had a declared disability and 20.56% (1,730) did not disclose this information. The percentage of employees declaring a disability had steadily increased year on year since 2021.
• 45.53% of employees with a disability work in Grades 4 to 7, and 12.85% are in teaching posts. Similarly, 46.90% of employees with No Disability work in Grades 4 to 7, and 18.41% are in teaching posts.

• The chart above shows turnover for people with a disability was higher (15.43%) than those without a disability (9.66%).
• A slightly higher percentage of people with no disability received or attended training (57.99%) compared with those who disclosed they have a disability (55.14%). Since 2021, these figures have remained relatively stable however 2023 and 2024 showed a slightly higher percentage of those with a disability attending training.
• Within Education, 3.40% of employees declared a disability and 19.33% did not disclose this information.

Ethnicity

Scotland’s Census 2011 showed North Ayrshire to have a small Black and minority ethnic population at 1.1% of our population - this increased slightly to 2.08% in Scotland’s Census 2022. The relatively low percentage of people from a Black or minority ethnic background living in North Ayrshire is reflected in our employee statistics with 1.21% of employees declaring an ethnicity other than White, and 19.4% not disclosing their ethnicity in 2024. Our 2022 statistics showed 1.13% from people with an ethnicity other than White, and 16.23% not disclosed.

The chart above shows the Total Employee Turnover (permanent and temporary employees) from 2021 through to 2024. The percentage of people from Other Ethnicity leaving our Council was significantly higher than White or those not disclosing ethnicity in 2023 (12.63%) however has reduced in 2024 to 9.89% (9.80% White leavers 2024) – this figure could be impacted by the lower number of people employed who define their ethnicity as Other.

Within Education in 2024, 43 employees (1.07%) stated they were of an Other Ethnicity including 17 teachers and two promoted teachers. Turnover in Education was slightly higher for White employees at 9.68% compared to 2.33% for Other Ethnicity, and 7.15% for Not Disclosed.

Age

In 2024:

• The ageing workforce trend has continued with 41.54% of employees aged 50 and over, and 53.20% of employees aged 45 and over. Similarly, Scotland’s Census 2022 for North Ayrshire shows 47.31% of people are aged 50 and over, and 53.33% are 45 and over. The 2022 Census also shows that there are more people aged 65 and over (20.73%) than under 15 years (15.93%).

• Employee turnover is highest in the 65 to 69 age category at 44.49%, with 16.25% in the 60-64 age category, and 26.00% in the 70 and over age category.
• For those employees Grades 4 to 7 or below (National Minimum Wage and Living Wage), 44.96% are aged 50 and over, therefore 55.04% are under 50 years of age.
• Within Education, 26.33% of Teaching employees (Teachers and Promoted Teachers) are aged 50 and over, therefore 73.67% are under 50 years of age.

Sex

In 2024:

• 24.37% of our Council employees were male and 75.63% female.
• 3.90% (248) of our female employees are in senior posts of Grade 11 to 17 compared to 6.78% (139) of our male employees. This indicates that, relative to the overall workforce, there is a slightly higher proportion of males in promoted posts. In the most senior promoted posts, 11 of our 21 Chief Officers are female.
• The majority of employees are Grades 4 to 7, with 49.60% (3,157) female and 45.73% (938) of male employees working at this level.
• 12.58% more females received training than males:

• There was a higher percentage of staff turnover for males (10.34%) compared to females (9.17%). In 2023, our Council launched its Voluntary Early Release (VER) Programme to achieve savings aligned with the financial landscape. The programme enabled employees to apply for Voluntary Early Release to leave the Council on 31st March 2024 and applications were considered on the basis of cost and business impact. 84 employees were granted early release and, as we analyse the data per calendar year, these figures were recorded in our 2024 data.
• Within Education, 86.31% of employees are female. Of female teaching employees, 21.09% (282) are in a promoted role, compared with 27.59% (88) of males in a promoted post.

Sexual Orientation

In 2024:

• 48.27% (4,062) of employees did not disclose their sexual orientation.
• 103 employees identified as Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual (LGB) – this is 1.22% of the workforce (a small increase on 2023 (1.12%) and 2022 (1.08%) compared to 0.79% in 2021.
• 50.45% of employees identified as Heterosexual, and 48.27% of employees did not disclose their sexual orientation - in 2021, 53.95% of employees did not disclose their sexual orientation.

• 10 employees identifying as LGB left our Council or 10.10% of all our employees identifying as LGB. For those employees identifying as Heterosexual, this figure was 8.53%.
• 52 (1.30%) education employees identified as Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual (45 (1.12%) in 2022).
• A higher percentage of employees identifying as Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual left our Education Service compared to Heterosexual employees (11.54% versus 7.97%)

Religion or Belief (including no belief)

In 2024, 50.40% of employees disclosed their religion or belief which is a slight increase on 2022 where 47.50% of employees disclosed this information. Within this protected characteristic, Not Disclosed is the option selected by most employees.

Other than those employees selecting Not Disclosed, the next highest group is employees who have selected None at 29.09% of employees – this is an increase of 3.23% on the 2022 figure. This is then followed by Church of Scotland (11.62%, a 0.22% decrease on the 2022 figure), Roman Catholic (6.61%, a 0.20% increase on the 2022 figure), and Other Christian (2.15%, a 0.25% decrease on the 2022 figure).

In relation to employee turnover in 2024, the highest percentage of leavers was for Hindu (33.33%), Humanist (23.08%), Muslim (20.00%), Buddhist (18.18%) and ‘Not Disclosed’ (10.35%). It should be noted that due to the small numbers of employees in some of these groups, any leavers will show a proportionally higher percentage of turnover for that group.

Within Education, 46.72% of employees did not disclose their religion or belief (a decrease of 4.99% since 2022).

Employee Pay Gap Information

Under legislation, we are required to publish our pay gap information for Gender, Disability and Ethnicity.

Gender Pay Gap

Our Gender Pay Gap for 2024 is 0.44%. This has increased from 0.22% in 2022, and 0.00% in 2023 when no pay gap existed.

The table below displays the mean pay difference of the basic hourly rate for males and females across our Council from 2021 to 2024:

Disability Pay Gap

Our Disability Pay Gap for 2024 is 10.44%, which is an increase of 3.00% from 2022 and 6.32% in 2021. There are potentially a number of reasons for this, including the relatively low percentage of employees declaring a disability, meaning minor changes to the workforce may have a significant impact on the percentages. Our Council has implemented a number of activities to both support employees with a disability and to support potential candidates into employment; these include an internal employee disability forum, the Equal Supported Employment programme and the See Me CV programme for people with a disability applying for a Modern Apprenticeship.

The table below displays the mean pay difference of the basic hourly rate for those with a disability and those without a disability across our Council:

Ethnicity Pay Gap

Our ethnicity pay gap was 2.44% in 2024 which is the highest since 2021. In 2021 there was a positive pay gap in favour of Other Ethnicity. In 2022 and 2023, although the pay gap is more in favour of employees of White ethnicity, there is less than a 1% variance.

The table below displays the mean pay difference of the basic hourly rate of ‘other ethnicity’ and White across our Council:

Occupational Segregation Information

Occupational Segregation is one of the key factors influencing the gender pay gap. It concerns aspects of employment that see men and women being clustered into different occupations. There are several influences on occupational segregation, and these include gender norms and stereotyping.

There are two main types of occupation segregation – Horizontal and Vertical:

Horizontal Segregation

People with certain protected characteristics being clustered into certain job types. For women this could be occupations that are associated with low pay and fewer opportunities for progression, such as care, cleaning, catering and administration work. In comparison, men may be more often found in occupations that pay higher wages, including skilled trades, engineering, or technical work.

Vertical Segregation

Those with particular protected characteristics may be more likely to be clustered into certain positions and less likely to work in senior management and executive positions.

Gender (Sex)

Looking at gender within our Council in 2024, 75.6% of employees are female and 24.4% are male. The highest percentage of ‘female to male’ employees work in Grades 4 to 7 (77.1% female) and in teaching (82.0% female). The greatest number of females work in Grades 4 to 7 (3,157) or 37.5% of the total workforce and 49.6% of the total female workforce.

Within the management and senior management Grades (11 to 17):

• 3.9% of female employees are in this category.
• 6.8% of male employees are in this category.

11 of our Chief Officers are female (52.4%), and 10 are male (47.6%). The table below provides an average hourly rate by gender (sex) for 2024 and 2022 for comparison:

The Grades with the biggest pay gap percentage in 2024 are:

• Chief Officer – 8.80%; (this is higher than in 2022)
• Promoted Teacher – 1.71% (this has improved slightly from 2.02% in 2022)
• Grades 4 to 7 – 1.27% (this has improved from 6.06% in 2022)

Grades 4 to 7 continue to be where the highest number of female employees are employed and from a ‘horizontal segregation’ perspective will be where some ‘traditionally’ female oriented roles such as caring and catering roles are based. Grades where the pay gap favours females include Other (Psychologists, Music Instructors, Apprentice Plumbers, Joiners, and Electricians -80.36%), Teacher (-0.42%), and National Minimum Wage.

Disability

As mentioned under our Employee Statistics Overview section of this report, 4.25% of our employees have declared they have a disability with 20.56% not disclosing whether they have a disability or not in 2024.

Within the gradings, when comparing the number of disabled employees within each of the categories against the total number of disabled employees, and non-disabled employees against total non-disabled employees, there are no significant differences.

Key points in 2024:

• 45.53% of employees with a disability and 46.90% of employees without a disability are employed within Grades 4 to 7.
• 17.6% of employees with a disability are within Grades 8 to 10, compared to 16.5% of those without a disability.
• 2.8% of employees with a disability, and 5.6% of those without a disability are in Grade 11 to 17 positions.

Ethnicity

In relation to Occupational Segregation, it continues to be difficult to discern any trends for ethnicities other than White due to the continued small numbers of employees who are within the Other Ethnicity category in 2024:

• 40.20% of those employees who have declared they are from an ethnicity other than White, and 46.60% of those who have declared they are White, are within Grades 4 to 7.
• For Grades 8 to 10, 20.59% of employees are Other Ethnicity compared to 16.63% White
• Within Grades 11 to 17, 1.96% of employees are Other Ethnicity compared to 5.50% White
• There are no minority ethnic employees at Chief Officer level however the figures do not indicate any particular trends as the spread of minority ethnic employees is across the Grades within our Council.

Employee Statistics - Next Steps

Gathering this data on our workforce enables us to tailor our approaches so that we can address any disadvantages faced by those with protected characteristics. Our Council aims to reduce and ultimately remove adverse circumstances for those with protected characteristics.

We will continue to regularly encourage employees to update their records so we can gain further insight into the protected characteristics across our Council, ensuring we capture data from new employees and improve the data we have for the remainder of our workforce. This will help us shape our approaches. We will consider in-depth the points arising from our employee data, including pay gap data. However, as this information is optional for employees to provide, it is likely that ‘Not Disclosed’ will remain a feature within our statistics.

Equality Outcomes

All public sector organisations are required to set Equality Outcomes every four years. This report covers the final year of the four-yearly Equality Outcome 2021 to 2025 reporting period.

National guidance on setting equality outcomes states that they should be proportionate and relevant to the functions and strategic priorities of the organisations setting them and that they may include both short and long-term benefits for people with protected characteristics.

Our Equality Outcomes are short to medium term (one to four years) and link with both our Council Plan and national outcomes. In addition, we have adopted sub-outcomes and actions to support the main overarching outcomes. A number of these equality outcomes link with existing policies and strategies. This is to help embed the outcomes in our activities and drive a more focused effort to improve equality and reduce inequalities.

Ayrshire Shared Equality Outcomes

The public sector partners of the Ayrshire Equality Partnership agreed to consult on and develop shared outcomes and actions across Ayrshire. Alongside our Council, partners include East and South Ayrshire Councils, North, East and South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnerships, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Ayrshire College, Ayrshire Joint Evaluation Board and the South West Community Justice Authority. This coordinated approach to consulting with our interest groups helps us take a more coordinated approach to delivery and avoid consultation fatigue.

The sharing of resources and expertise during the consultation and development process and into the implementation phase, helps to improve the experiences of communities through a more consistent approach across the partner agencies. It allows partner agencies to maintain their organisational accountability for reporting on equality and diversity, while recognising the shared work of the partner agencies.

The Ayrshire Shared Outcomes are as follows:

• Outcome 1 – In Ayrshire, People experience safe and inclusive communities.
• Outcome 2 – In Ayrshire, People have the opportunity to access and shape our public services.
• Outcome 3 – In Ayrshire, people have the opportunity to fulfil their potential throughout life.
• Outcome 4 – In Ayrshire, public bodies will be inclusive and diverse employers.

The actions supporting each of the four equality outcomes and sub-outcomes are outlined below alongside the pan-Ayrshire updates.

Equality Outcome 1

In Ayrshire, people experience safe and inclusive communities.

Sub-Outcome 1A

Through a variety of methods victims, witnesses and partner agencies feel more confident in reporting hate incidents.

Key Actions Supporting this Outcome

• Raise Awareness to better understand Hate Crime.
• Work with partners to raise awareness of Hate Crime with community members through a conference.
• Work with partners to increase awareness of third-party reporting.
• Develop a Hate Crime awareness course.

Progress

In October 2022, the Ayrshire Equality Partnership organised a Hate Crime Awareness Conference, this was reported in our 2023 update and partners continue to promote awareness of Hate Crime through a variety of methods.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland Act) 2021, was implemented on the 1st of April 2024. The Act maintains and consolidates the current protections across the UK for prejudice against disability, race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. In addition, the Act:

• Introduces age as a new characteristic protected under the Act, with focus on both young and older age groups.
• Introduces a new offence of inciting hatred, which criminalises threatening of abusive behaviour and the communication of threatening material.
• Divides the previous definition of transgender identity which included the broad term ‘intersexuality’ into separate groups.

With the introduction of the new law and Police Scotland being a key lead on the implementation of Hate Crime legislation, the Ayrshire partners suspended promotion of aspects of Hate Crime until a clearer picture emerged of the implications for organisations. Police Scotland has now developed a training module and delivered this to partners across Ayrshire in March 2025.

Hate Crime Awareness Training

Police Scotland hosted an online Hate Crime awareness session, via South Ayrshire Council for the Ayrshire Equality Partners. The session covered key themes around the new legislation:

• Aggravation of offences.
• Racially aggravated harassment.
• Inciting hatred.
• Protection of Freedom of Expression.

The session was attended by 48 people and further sessions will be considered as part of our 2025 to 2029 equality outcomes, along with other methods of cascading this information to our communities and our employees.

Black History Month

The Ayrshire Equality partners continue to support the Black History Month (BHM) campaign, which supports elements of reducing Hate Crime. A conference was held at Ayrshire College Kilmarnock on the evening of 29th October 2024. The engagement between various groups at this event helps to meet the Equality Act Duty of Fostering Good Relations between people with different protected characteristics. Four guest speakers who live or work in North Ayrshire attended to talk about either their personal experiences or historic aspects of Black History. The speakers and themes were:

• Dr Trent Kim, University of West of Scotland, who discussed decolonising the curriculum in the UK Higher Education system.
• Pauline Brown, Healthcare Chaplin, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, presented on connections with the Caribbean and the Slave Trade and learning from the past to make the future better.
• Dr Santu Acharya, Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrician and Chair of the NHS Ayrshire and Arran Minority Ethnic Staff Network, presented on the links of Scotland with India during and after the Colonial period.
• Felica Taiwo – Chair of Powerful African Women in Ayrshire (PAWA), discussed her personal experiences of living in Ayrshire, founding PAWA and being a successful business owner.

The event was a great success, with positive feedback and interaction with the speakers, the Ayrshire Equality Partnership and attendees.

Equality Outcome 2

In Ayrshire, people have equal opportunity to access and shape our public services - Ayrshire Shared Actions.

Sub-Outcome 2A

More disabled people, older people and women access public transport safely and in comfort with an integrated service that provides accessible information, appropriate assistance and support from transport employees.

Key Actions supporting this Outcome

• Engagement with disabled people, women, older people and organisations including third sector organisations.
• Meet with transport providers.
• Consultation about changes.
• Program of support and improvements agreed.
• Gather feedback and revise program where necessary.

Progress

The three Ayrshire local authorities held an Ayrshire Equality Transport Summit in September 2024. The hybrid event was held at East Ayrshire Council Headquarters and over 80 members of the community from across Ayrshire, including representatives from the British Sign Language (BSL) Community, took part. A number of transport providers formed the panel and these were:

• Ayrshire Roads Alliance
• Scottish Passenger Transport
• Scotrail
• Network Rail
• Coalfield Community Transport
• Stagecoach
• North Ayrshire Active Travel and Transport Team

The format of the event was a question-and-answer session, with the panel responding to questions from members of the public in attendance and via video call. Transport modes such as trains and buses received the most questions, but there were also questions raised regarding public transport. Invariably most questions related to physical access for people with disabilities, available support from employees, communication (including information in BSL), lack of transport options in some areas and reliability of services. Safety and verbal abuse on public transport was also discussed. The panel provided a range of responses to the various issues raised. These were recorded and later circulated back to everyone in attendance.

Responses from the panel highlighted where improvements have been made but also acknowledged areas which still required attention. Some examples included:

• Network Rail has new announcement boards being piloted at two railway stations. These boards use Artificial Intelligence (AI) BSL signers to relay train information in real time for BSL users using the service. This is significant progress in the use of technology and is welcomed by those present, however it was noted on some trains (especially on longer journeys) the display boards on the trains didn’t activate, though the voice activation did.
• Wheelchair users noted that though calling ahead to notify providers of their journey, a train guard is not always available to put the ramp down from the train, and also the poor quality of the wheelchairs at some stations. Both Scotrail and Network Rail can manage different aspects of rail services and admitted this was not ideal and are looking to improve this situation.
• Questions were raised about the number and locations of raised curbs at bus stops for people with mobility issues. There is generally considered to be a good number of high access curbs across Ayrshire and programmes are in place to upgrade these; services will also review bus stops based on recommendations from the public. A recommendation was also made to create an online inventory of where raised curb bus stops are located to help people plan their journeys and this would be taken forward.

The transport summit provided a useful platform for members of the public to raise their issues and concerns, and it also provided useful feedback to the transport providers. This will enable them to continue to improve and develop their services to meet the needs of all of their customers. The provision of future equality transport summits will be discussed with the various partners moving forward.

Transport Connectivity Across Ayrshire

When: Thursday 5th September, 2.30pm to 4.30pm

Where: East Ayrshire Council Headquarters, London Road, Kilmarnock, KA3 7BU and also via Microsoft Teams.

This event will provide an opportunity for travel providers to inform you of the services they provide and for you to ask questions in relation to transport queries you may have. We want to hear about what matters most to you in relation to transport across Ayrshire.

Sub-Outcome 2B

Improve engagement with our services and enhance access to information for marginalised and under-represented groups.

Key Actions supporting this Outcome

• Work with the Council’s Web Team and Sensory Impairment Team to create a BSL friendly landing page on our website.
• Work with our Web Team and our Connected Communities Teams to create a community language landing page for North Ayrshire residents.
• Explore joint approach for the commissioning of BSL Interpretation.

Progress

The Council has a dedicated sign language page on its external website. The page contains information and BSL videos on:

• Our British Sign Language Plan 2024 to 2029.
• BSL resources.
• Sensory Impairment Team.
• Supporting and Promoting BSL.
• Our Council Plan 2023 to 2028

The page was reviewed and adapted onto the Council’s new external website during 2025 to make it more accessible and we continue to engage with our BSL communities around what information on Council services would be useful to translate into BSL videos. This work will continue throughout our 2024 to 2029 BSL plan.

The proposal to develop a shared procurement framework for BSL Interpretation was not realised due to complexities related to procurement processes and the variation in spend on BSL interpretation services. Each organisation continues to utilise its own processes for accessing BSL interpretation services.

We will consider in-depth, the points arising from our employee data, including pay gap data. The Council’s Web Team is currently working on an accessibility tab that would allow users to change the text on any webpage on the external website into their preferred language. It is intended this will be progressed through our 2025 to 2029 Equality Outcomes if approved by Cabinet.

Equality Outcome 3

In Ayrshire, people have opportunities to fulfil their potential throughout life.

Sub-Outcome 3A

Our young people, disabled people and women have access to training and employment.

Through the Ayrshire Growth Deal

Key actions supporting this Outcome

• Provide support for unemployed residents, in particular people with disabilities and women, to overcome health barriers to economic activity.
• To support residents to retain employment by addressing health barriers.
• Support local businesses to access health related supports to improve retention and productivity of their workforce.

Progress

The Ayrshire Growth Deal (AGD) Working for a Healthy Economy project delivery continues. The service and clinical employees are now embedded within employability services across Ayrshire to deliver health interventions to support people to retain or sustain employment. To date the following number of people have been supported:

• 166 employed individuals supported to manage their health and stay in employment.
• 272 unemployed individuals supported to progress into employment.

Ayrshire Growth Deal Case Study

Overview

Jennifer* was referred to the Working for a Healthy Economy programme in May 2023 through her employability adviser. She presented with a diagnosis of depression and social anxiety. Jennifer had been unemployed for 18 months as a consequence of her poor health and lack of general wellbeing. Whilst undergoing a health assessment with her case manager it was apparent that Jennifer lacked motivation to engage in everyday tasks, had severe difficulties with maintaining sleep, and was experiencing dietary difficulties. Through action planning, Jennifer informed her case manager that she required support to improve her health and adopt a healthier lifestyle in order to increase her ability of entering and sustaining employment.

Support provided

After a process of action planning, the case manager agreed to deliver the following support:

• Provision of advice and education regarding Jennifer’s health conditions in order to teach her strategies and skills to enable her to understand, control and ultimately reduce her symptoms.
• Introduce Jennifer to effective stress management techniques with use of self-help materials and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques.
• Encourage Jennifer to set small achievable daily goals to include exercise, and “must do” activities such as everyday tasks, ensuring relaxation time and enjoyable activities as these are part of goal planning.
• Support to remember and rediscover activities that Jennifer used to participate in, that gave her a sense of purpose/enjoyment, discussion on the importance of having a good work / life balance.
• Support to make an appointment with her GP to discuss onwards treatment for mental health.

Outcomes following support

Following support, Jennifer:

• Developed effective coping strategies through self-help and case management support using CBT techniques. There was a significant reduction in her symptoms of anxiety and depression, consistent with an improvement in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the European Quality of Life (EQ5D) clinical assessment scores.
• Was able to improve her physical health and general wellbeing by improving her everyday structure and activity - she started to go to the gym regularly.
• Re-engaged with her GP to ensure she was being prescribed the correct medication for her mood.
• Was able to learn about and put into practice guided sleep meditation and is now sleeping through the night undisturbed.
• Commenced a college course and started working part time. She is thriving in both opportunities.

This is a positive case study and just one story amongst many through the Ayrshire Growth Deal to support people living in our local communities back into employment and positive destinations.

An Employment Advisor in Working for a Healthier Economy stated:

*Name has been changed.

Through the Equal Programme

Key Actions Supporting this Outcome

• To offer candidates the opportunity of paid work experience in the Horticulture industry whilst working alongside several local organisations creating a Community Garden.
• To provide additional practical training via the Royal Horticultural Society awards scheme which should result in solid knowledge and experience for future permanent employment within the Horticulture industry.

Progress

During the period, ongoing paid work experience placements have been offered to our residents taking part in Equal who are interested in Horticulture. Practical work takes place at Eglinton Community Garden alongside organisations such as the Eglinton Country Park Rangers Service, the NHS, and the Ayrshire Community Trust. Trainees have benefitted from gaining practical work experience in growing and harvesting a range of fruit and vegetables which were then donated to the Community Food Larders.

As the success of this project proved invaluable to our residents, it was then extended to offer paid work experience within Cycle Maintenance where residents are engaged in practical work experience whilst receiving training to achieve their Velotech accreditation from the cycle industry. The project includes refurbishment of unused, discarded cycles back to roadworthy standard with the newly refurbished cycles being offered to members of the public who are unable to afford new bicycles

All of the paid work experience placements are now embedded in the service provided by the Equal team.

In our first year, we used the Royal Horticultural Society awards as part of our training provision, but then reviewed the training programme to provide additional accredited training to support this learning. We are now a Scottish Qualifications Authority accredited centre and are providing Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) awards in Horticulture, Customer Service and Responsibilities of Employment and we have achieved very positive outcomes for our residents participating in our work experience / work placement programmes.

Our first training course for Royal Horticultural Society gained a 100% pass rate for our residents, and the change to SQA training within Horticulture has also been extremely successful with 29 residents attending over the period, returning a success rate of 86%. We have supported 14 residents into employment from this project. For Cycle Maintenance we have had similar success with a 100% pass rate for residents undertaking bronze certification. Of the six residents attending, three have progressed into employment.

As the project progressed, we extended our paid work experience programme to include local employers willing to give our residents the opportunity to become part of their teams and gaining invaluable experience. One such placement was a resident who undertook a role within Booth Welsh, a local organisation who were exceptionally keen to extend these opportunities. Below is the testimonial we received from them with regards to their performance.

Jamie* joined Booth Welsh through North Ayrshire Council’s Equal programme. This initiative supports individuals with long-term health conditions, disabilities, or those who are neurodiverse, providing them with opportunities to contribute and grow in the workplace. Jamie, who uses they/them pronouns, has a strong focus on Net Zero and sustainability.

Jamie’s role at Booth Welsh is integral to their sustainability efforts and is involved in a range of tasks that support progress towards Net Zero goals, such as collecting and analysing data to help map the organisations carbon footprint. Jamie also provides support across various teams, including environmental, commercial, and engineering, and has taken on tasks that require work with spreadsheets and data manipulation. Jamie’s enthusiasm and willingness to get involved has already made a positive impact within the organisation.

Jamie is dedicated to promoting and strategising carbon reduction efforts; In Jamie’s own words, “Booth Welsh seemed like a very open and supportive workplace. I am pleased to say that my first impressions were correct. This is a wonderful environment, and I am very comfortable working here. I value employers that value their employees.”

A Council Employment Advisor commented, “As a participant of the Equal programme Jamie has always been an extremely enthusiastic [resident] and their amazing analytical skills provided a solid foundation for career progression. The team at Equal are delighted that Jamie has found an employer who will support them to continue to progress and develop in such a fulfilling role”.

The Compliance Manager at Booth Welsh added, “Our partnership with NAC through the Equal programme has been highly beneficial. It has allowed us to tap into a diverse pool of talent and enhance our sustainability efforts with fresh perspectives. [Jamie’s] analytical skills and commitment have been a great asset to our team.”

*Name has been changed.

Sub-Outcome 3B

To continue to embed UNCRC across schools in North Ayrshire to eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity in our schools and the wider community.

Rights Respecting Schools

The UNICEF UK Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) supports schools across the UK to embed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into their ethos practice and culture. The output from taking this work forward is all schools across North Ayrshire would be registered as a Rights Respecting School. This approach would lead to the embedding of children’s rights across the curriculum and within child protection and additional support needs practices.

Key actions supporting this Outcome.

Support the embedding of children’s rights across the curriculum and within Child Protection and Additional Support Needs practices.

Progress

Young leaders of learning

North Ayrshire Council’s Education Service is currently piloting Education Scotland’s Young Leaders of Learning programme. Eight secondary schools and 10 primaries within a single cluster are engaged in the pilot, along with an Early Years Centre. Training has been delivered to identified staff and learners with four Young Leaders of Learning in each establishment. All the Young Leaders of Learning will visit partner schools to strengthen learner participation and support improvement. The programme has been designed to involve children and young people in improvement activities to ensure their voices are heard and their views respected.

Rights Respecting Schools

Rights Respecting Schools is a key initiative across North Ayrshire Schools and Early Years Centres. It provides establishments with a framework for educating children and young people about their rights and ensuring these are put into practice each day. As Duty Bearers, the adults have clear responsibilities to make sure children’s rights are upheld.

As of November 2024, 17 Schools across North Ayrshire have their Gold Award, three of these, Beith Primary and Early Years Class, Dykesmains Primary, and Dalry Primary and Early Years Class are reaccreditations in recognition of the ongoing commitment to embedding Children’s Rights across the whole community.

30 schools have been awarded the Silver Award, and 11 schools have the Bronze Award. We have also six schools and Early Years Centres who have registered with UNICEF and are working towards Bronze Awards.

Child Protection Policy and Procedures

Our Child Protection Policy and Operating Procedure has been rewritten to ensure adherence to the revised national guidance 2023 and is in line with the Scottish approach to Child Protection based upon the protection of children’s rights and The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.

Our revised written notification of concern paperwork utilises the principles of ‘Signs of Safety’ which embraces the voice of the child as a central focus to risk assessment and planning. Education teams are encouraged to attend Signs of Safety training to build capacity in this area. A strengthened approach to ensuring children and young people’s views are sought, recorded and taken into consideration is fundamental to the revision.

We hold termly child protection coordinators meetings, where new information is shared with employees and reminders about our responsibilities within the Act are set out, particularly in relation to article 12, ‘Respect for Children’s Views’.

Implement the Children and Young People’s voice in Child Protection and Additional Support Needs planning (Article 12)

Review of education inclusion group and staged intervention processes

Work to review the Service’s approach to Staged Intervention and the placement process to support inclusion has been completed with a focus on ensuring the views of children, young people and families are sought, and used to inform decision making. Our revised processes ensure a proactive collaboration on assessment, information and referrals. It is also a requirement that final copies of referrals are shared with parents and carers. The proactive and supportive approach adopted by our Council in working with parents and carers to support needs has been nationally recognised with a recent mention in Scottish Parliament, where our approach to supporting diets of neurodivergent learners in schools was highlighted as an example of positive collaborative practice.

Literature for children and families

Interim information leaflets have been created collaboratively and shared. Final copies will be available once accessibility checks have been completed:

• Inclusion Group Guidance for Parents
• Inclusion Group Appeals Process
• Outreach Support Services
• Starting School with Additional Support Needs

Family Engagement Hub

Planning is underway to develop a Communication Hub/Family Engagement Hub. We have been working with two parent/carer support groups - ASN Support Ayrshire, and ASN Parents & Kids – Irvine & 3 Towns - to agree a format and key themes. It is hoped that the Hub will be a place where families can connect with senior officers who will be able to provide information and raise awareness of policies and practice and develop collaborative work to further improve the service provided for families.

Young Inclusion Ambassadors

The long-term goal of creating a Young Inclusion Ambassadors Network is to bring young people with ASN together to share their views and experiences of education. We hope that through activities, the young people can identify how well they feel their schools and the local authority are doing in our provision of inclusive education and where improvements can be made. Our pilot group of Young Inclusion Ambassadors are in Lockhart Campus and Ardrossan Academy and we intend to expand this programme to all establishments.

Establish Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) in two secondaries, followed by further secondaries.

MVP is delivered as part of the Scottish Government’s Equally Safe strategy and supports early prevention of gender-based violence. In North Ayrshire all nine Secondary schools take part in the programme and have teams to train and support senior school mentors. Lessons are being delivered by peer mentors to S1 and S2 classes in our schools. We have three in house staff trainers and a local authority lead for this work. There are regular communications and network meetings with school leads to ensure national messages and updates are shared and provide an opportunity to share good practice. Governance of the programme is provided by North Ayrshire’s Violence Against Women Partnership (VAWP) with quarterly reporting. Annual employee training is offered in May each session. Partners in Youth Services, and Active Schools have been trained in the MVP programme to support schools. In our secondaries MVP mentors have been leading 16 days of activism, working alongside partners from Women’s Aid and Police Scotland. Employees in three of our Primary schools have taken part in the Education Scotland Pilot programme Gender Based Violence – Early Intervention. Our local authority lead is trained to further roll out and deliver this programme to staff across our primary schools to upskill staff and promote the Everyone's Included learning resource within in our primary schools.

Sub-Outcome 3C

Our young LGBT people feel supported and have access to improved digital platforms and sources of support.

Key actions supporting this Outcome

• Create digital space for our young people who identify as LGBT with support staff to support LGBT and separate space for trans young people.
• Regular digital support and information sessions with information and guest speakers for both our young people and parents and carers.
• Connected Communities (Youth) have signed up to achieve the LGBT Silver Charter Mark – which includes specific LGBT Awareness and Trans Awareness training for all staff.
• Regular Social Media content that shares support and resources for LGBT+ through all our social media channels – linking into local and national support.

Progress

Connected Communities continue to support and facilitate activities to support our young LGBT community.

We celebrated LGBT History month with a range of events and activities including a Joint Forum LGBT Poetry session, and a Purple Friday Bake Sale at the Garnock Valley LGBT Group.

Our LGBT Groups in the North Coast and Garnock Valley continue to meet weekly and work on their own projects supporting local LGBT communities and allies of young people.

The Equalities Forum, supported by Connected Communities is being reestablished which will have a focus on Equalities, in particular our New Scots, LGBT and Additional Support Needs (ASN) young people, with an event planned to find out more about their needs.

We have continued to roll out LGBT Awareness training to the HSCP with 30 employees trained during 2024. This will help inform teams when supporting LGBT clients.

Arran Pride

North Ayrshire Youth Services team were joined by 40 young people from MSYPs and Exec Members, Garnock Valley Youth Forum, North Coast Youth Forum, Irvine Youth Legacy Hub, Young Carers, and key youth participation representatives from across our six localities, as the team journeyed to Arran to celebrate Arran Pride in May 2024 - one of the largest community events on the island. Boarded by North Ayrshire Youth Services, the Mobile Youth Centre toured the island during the event with Youth Services running mental health and mindfulness workshops on the first day. The Equalities Forum stayed the night before at Arran Outdoor Centre to take part in some cold-water therapy, teambuilding and preparing their banner for the next day.

A Youth Work Modern Apprentice said of Arran Pride:

Sub-Outcome 3D

Support the integration of our refugee population into life in North Ayrshire

Key actions supporting this Outcome

• Create refugee-led groups at a local level.
• Enable collective identification of issues and engagement with services.
• Build knowledge and skills for organisational development such as governance, employing staff, asset transfer and registering as a charity.
• Assess and meet the needs of refugee community members.
• Facilitate the participation of refugees in forums as well as other activities of local authorities and other public bodies.

Progress

During the summer of 2024, we delivered our “Big Class Experiment”, aimed at bringing together English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learners located across North Ayrshire, each with a variety of diverse needs. Recognising the challenge of providing effective language education, we learned from the Glasgow ESOL Forum’s approaches to managing classes with diverse needs.

Our New Scots community recently worked with other creative young people from across North Ayrshire to produce a short film. The film follows the character Stephen (played by a new Scot Ukrainian) as he makes his way to a university open day and demonstrates the various issues that are commonly experienced by New Scots. The project was a collaboration between North Ayrshire Council, The Ayrshire Community Trust and Vertex Visions and was filmed in parts of North Ayrshire and other locations in Scotland. The film was premiered at an event in January. You can view the “Different Ways” short film together with a behind the scenes stye short documentary ‘The Making of Different Ways’.

The Discovery Award, which is delivered in Irvine, Kilwinning, Garnock Valley and Three Towns localities as well as with a New Scots group, has seen almost 60 adults participate in bronze and silver award activities. The Discovery Award is aimed at people over 50 years of age, to help promote an active and healthy lifestyle by offering challenges to both stimulate and motivate.

241 New Scots adults who engaged in learning opportunities supporting their language and resettlement needs over the summer. Some of the activities included language cafes, volunteering opportunities and speaking clubs.

Equality Outcome 4A

In Ayrshire, public bodies will be inclusive and diverse employers.

Sub-Outcome 4A

Our Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME), disabled and LGBT+ employees have safe and supportive work environments to thrive, and we are seen as an employer of choice.

Key Actions Supporting this Outcome

• Explore with colleagues the desire to establish a BAME employee network either locally or with employees from South and East Ayrshire Council.
• Following the successful introduction of an Employee Disability Forum, explore with the workforce the desire to establish an LGBT+ staff network

Progress

The Council recognises the importance of providing a safe and supportive working environment for all employees to thrive to deliver efficient and effective services.

In 2022, the Council introduced a Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employee forum involving colleagues across North, South and East Ayrshire Council. As part of our ongoing commitment to provide all employees a platform for networking, advocacy and support, this will be re-established in 2025 with alternative delivery methods discussed to ensure a sustainable and effective employee forum.

The Council continues to explore the desire to establish a LGBT+ employee network to foster a more inclusive and supportive workplace, benefitting employees and the Council by the ongoing awareness raising and inclusion of gender and sexual minorities at work.

Key Actions Supporting this Outcome

Contact specialist organisations to seek opportunities to advertise our vacancies to a more diverse range of candidates.

Progress

MyJobScotland is the Council’s platform to advertise vacant positions. It is a national shared recruitment portal for all 32 Scottish local authorities, however concerns have been raised nationally and locally at groups such as the Scottish Council Equality Network and the Council’s BAME Employee Forum that some individuals may be unaware of the platform or do not obtain the required skills to progress applications for positions within the Council.

To improve promotion of Council positions, a variety of avenues are utilised to widen our audience as much as possible and provide alternative methods of applying for vacant positions. For example:

• A range of positions are spotlighted on the Council’s Social Media Platforms such as Facebook.
• We are supporting partners within the Department of Work and Pensions (Job Centre) to host job fairs to support individuals into the Council.
• Job Fairs are supported by the Council’s Employability Team to ensure an inclusive approach for all and reduce any barriers for prospective candidates throughout North Ayrshire and across Scotland.

Equality Outcome 4B

Enhanced opportunities for people with communication difficulties to fully express their skills, personality and ability as part of the application process for employment and skills development programmes.

The implementation of the See Me CV supported this outcome and was included in our Mid-Term report of 2023. The See Me CV is an ongoing permanent feature to support applicants into the Council’s Modern Apprenticeship Programme.

The uptake of the See Me CV is relatively small, however through our colleagues in the Equal Supported Employment Team we recognise the importance of this feature remaining available should prospective applicants with disabilities want an alternative method to demonstrate their skills and abilities for the role.

Equality Outcome 4C

Our understanding of race employment issues is improved to ensure we maintain robust employment practices.

Key Actions Supporting this Outcome

• Review of recruitment procedures to adopt an anonymised statement process prior to interview.
• Review the ‘My Connections’ videos for diversity content.
• Encourage North Ayrshire Council employees to update their personal HR records.
• Carry out an organisational assessment of race and racism.
• Review our Equality training around Race in conjunction with Scottish Government Guidelines.

Progress

Current recruitment procedures through MyJobScotland portal mean that interview panels do not get to see any personal demographic information of the applicant, only the information directly on the application form, including the applicants name is visible. COSLA who administer MyJobScotland, were aiming to create a feature within the process that would allow the application to remain completely anonymous.

Whilst the Council is keen to adopt this feature to eliminate discrimination and advance of equality of opportunity, this cannot progress until COSLA introduce this feature.

To encourage people to apply for roles, ‘My Connection’ videos are used, these are short videos of current employees explaining their views on working for our Council. These videos give prospective candidates an insight why our Council is a great place to work and the diversity of our workforce. These videos continued to be available throughout 2024.

An exercise was undertaken by the Human Resources Team to encourage employees who had not updated their personal records to do so on our systems. This was to help improve confidence in our employee statistics and decrease the amount of ‘Not Disclosed’ data. 900 employees were issued with an Equal Opportunities Survey, encouraging them to update their ethnicity and disability status on the HR records system. The survey was positively received with 350 employees updating their records, leading to an improvement in the ‘Not Disclosed’ figure at the time. Our Council is committed to ensuring our employee equal opportunities data is as accurate as possible as it is crucial in understanding our workforce and building inclusive workplace, identifying and addressing inequalities. The Equal Opportunities Survey will continue to encourage employees to update their personal records on a regular basis.