Chamber and committees

Using the Annual Population Survey (APS), the change in the number of people employed within each of the groups can be estimated. The most recent APS dataset relates to the period July 2009 to June 2010. To determine the change over an 18 month period, estimates from this dataset have been compared to those from the Jan to Dec 2008 dataset. The results are shown in the following table.

Table 1: Proportionate Change in Number of Level of People Employed Over 18 Month Period from January to December 2008 to July 2009 to June 2010, Scotland.

Source: Annual Population Survey, Office for National Statistics.

Notes:

1. Estimates based on population aged 16 and over.

2. Data is not seasonally adjusted. As the data being compared do not cover the same calendar periods, it is possible that some change may be due to seasonal changes in employment patterns.

3. Proportionate change in levels are with reference to the estimates from the Jan-Dec 2008 dataset.

We do however provide centralised on-line publication of equality impact assessments from across the Scottish Government and these can be accessed at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/18507/EQIASearch

The following case studies provide three examples of instances where policies informed by equality impact assessment have led to specific actions.

Patients Rights Bill EQIA:

During consultation on the Bill one of the issues raised was that without the right help and support some groups of people - younger people, older people (especially those with dementia), disabled people (especially those with learning disabilities and mental health problems) - will find it difficult to enforce their rights. After consideration of the impact on the equality groups it was decided to allocate funding to support the provision of advocacy services to ensure that those who need assistance in upholding their rights can access the appropriate support.

In addition, results from the consultation also suggested that disabled people face significant problems in accessing health care, often due to access and communication issues. Provisions in the Patient Rights Bill place NHS bodies under a duty to allow and encourage patients to participate as fully as possible in decisions relating to their health and well being. After consideration of the equality issues (in particular the impact on disabled people, and people whose first language is not English) the Scottish Government decided to provide funding to NHS Health Scotland to support the development of translation, interpreting and communication services (TICS). Investing in the TICS infrastructure will help to ensure that all patients are aware of their rights, are communicated with in an appropriate manner, and are involved in decisions about their care.

Drugs Strategy EQIA:

In developing the EQIA for the national drugs strategy, a lack of evidence about ethnic minority communities'' use of drugs and treatment services was identified. It identified that 99.3% of new patients accessing treatments were not from ethnic minority groups. Anecdotal evidence suggested that drug taking patterns amongst ethnic minority communities were different to those in other communities which, along with the perceived shame associated with drug taking in many ethnic minority communities, meant that people were not accessing services. Officials explored the potential gaps, barriers and needs in service provision for people from ethnic minority communities. It transpired that drug use amongst these communities was as prevalent per head of population as those in other communities. However, of the 227 drugs services operating in Scotland, only one specialised in supporting people from minority ethnic communities. In response, the Drug Policy Unit commenced work to help make services more accessible to ethnic minority communities.

Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers EQIA:

The overarching purpose of the Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers Shared Equity Schemes is to help first time buyers, on low to moderate incomes, achieve their home ownership aspirations. A key finding from the EQIA for this policy was that Muslims can find it difficult to buy a home if they want to ensure their purchase is compliant with their religious law and beliefs. Therefore, in order to make the benefits of our policy more accessible and reach a greater number of people, we started working with the Islamic Finance Council to make it easier for lenders to offer Shariah-compliant home purchase plans to buyers.

Information on accepted offers can be found within the report section of the Scottish Business Grants website at:

http://www.scottishbusinessgrant.gov.uk/rsa/178.html.

The table shows the total number of bed days of patients treated in acute hospitals in NHS Tayside for alcohol related conditions, recorded in any diagnosis position in 2009-10; the most recent year for which information is available.

Total Number of Bed Days Associated with Alcohol Misuse - from General Acute Hospitals in NHS Tayside: 2009-10^P

^PProvisional.

Source: ISD Scotland (SMR01).

Information on the number of registrations in childcare centres is available from the Scottish Government''s Pre-School and Childcare Census 2010.

Table 9 shows the number of registrations, by age, in all childcare centres for the years January 2008, 2009 and 2010, and is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/09/28130623/13.

In Scotland, local authorities take the lead, in conjunction with their local partners, in planning and supporting childcare in their local areas.

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1914.html.

The latest available statistics are for children born in financial year 2009-10. Data is not available for NHS Grampian and NHS Orkney and the constituent CHP areas as these Boards had not implemented the Child Health Pre-School system, from which these statistics are derived, for the time period reported.

The individual NHS board HEAT targets for the percentage of children exclusively breastfed at six to eight weeks are published on the Scotland Performs website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/scotPerforms/partnerstories/NHSScotlandperformance/breastfeeding.