Fairer Scotland Duty
The Fairer Scotland Duty, came into force in April 2018.
Local authorities must:
- actively consider how we can reduce inequalities of outcome in any major strategic decision we make
- publish a written assessment, showing how we have done this
Scottish Government recognises that the public sector is key to delivering a fairer Scotland and this duty is intended to help make sure that the sector takes full account of socio economic disadvantage when key decisions are being made.
Key areas of focus in a fairer Scotland
Socio, economic disadvantage is focused on:
- low income - cannot afford to maintain regular payments such as bills, food clothing
- low wealth/no wealth - enough money to meet basic living costs and pay bills but have no savings to deal with unexpected expenditure on provision for the future
- material deprivation - being unable to access basic goods and services such as financial products like life assurance, repair/replace broken electrical goods, warm home, leisure and hobbies
- area deprivation (including communities of interest and communities of place) - where you live, where you work, visit or spend a continuous amount of time can have an impact such as rural areas, accessibility of transport, education and employment, people who have experienced homelessness and/or the asylum system, those who share an identity and/or a protected characteristic
- Socio-economic background - disadvantage that can arise from parents’ education, employment and income, social class in other words
Our approach to meeting the duty:
- Our process is a three stage procedure which enables the development or review of projects, policies, strategies, functions and services that meet the demands of Equality legislation and do not discriminate stage procedure which enables the development or review of projects, policies, strategies, functions and services that meet the demands of Equality legislation and do not discriminate
- An Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) considers the Public Sector Equality Duty and, where appropriate, the Fairer Scotland Duty
- IIA’s are published on our website as well as being included within the appendices of a committee report, and where appropriate will include detail on how the Fairer Scotland Duty has been met.