Question reference: S5W-09674
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 14 June 2017
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Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 26 June 2017
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that it collects sufficient data on the (a) accessibility and (b) quality of (i) schools and other educational institutions, (ii) medical institutions and (iii) public transport, particularly in urban areas where ethnic minorities represent a higher percentage of the population.
Answer
Scotland has an impressive set of high quality public sector data and internationally significant informatics research. Collective data agreements, use of questions in core surveys, and combined data sets are helping to provide a broader range of data for ethnic groups. In addition, the Scottish Government has recently engaged with stakeholders on a new Equality Evidence Strategy, which sets out equality evidence gaps, including on ethnicity. This strategy will be published in Summer 2017 and the Scottish Government will work with partner organisations to further develop the equality evidence base over the next four years.
This suite of data and research is used to inform Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) which consider the impact of new or revised policies, practices or services against the requirements of the public sector equality duty. The duty requires all Scottish public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations. It covers people in respect of all aspects of equality (age, disability, sex, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment and pregnancy and maternity). Good quality evidence helps to ensure the needs of all people are taken into account during the development and implementation of a new policy or service, or when a change is made to a current policy or service.
More specifically, the Scottish Government ensures it collects sufficient data on accessibility and quality of Schools and Other Educational Institutions, Medical Institutions and Public Transport, and more detail on these areas are as follows:
Schools and Other Educational Institutions
Data on the quality and accessibility of schools and educational institutions is gathered through a number of data sources and much of this analysis can be provided for both urban areas and ethnic groups:
Information on the condition and suitability of (local authority funded) school buildings is collected in the school estates core facts survey which has been carried out annually since 2007;
The number of pupils who have been assessed as having an adaptation requirement and the nature of the adaptation required is collected in the annual pupil census;
Education Scotland inspect and report on the quality of education in a sample of early learning and childcare settings, primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, community learning and development services, colleges, and residential educational provision. These inspections include evaluations of the quality indicator ‘Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion’. Education Scotland also inspect the education functions of local authorities;
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) collect a wide range of data on accessibility and quality covering Universities and Colleges in Scotland. Information is collected and published to meet a range of stakeholder needs;
Medical Institutions
Information Services Division of NHS (ISD) publishes a six-monthly update on recording of ethnic group in hospital admission and hospital outpatient data.
Public Transport
Data on the quality of public transport is gathered from the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) which asks users about their views on buses and trains on a number of dimensions. The SHS also collects information on the accessibility to several public services, including public transport. This data is collected for minority ethnic groups and is available split by urban /rural geography. Other sources of information on the quality of public transport are user satisfaction surveys that are run regularly.