Dear Convener,
Subject: Education (Scotland) Bill
The Equality and Human Rights Commission welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s call for views on the Education (Scotland) Bill (the Bill).
‘Is Scotland Fairer?’ is the Commission’s state of the nation report on equality and human rights in Scotland. Our 2023 report highlighted poorer educational outcomes for many protected characteristic groups.
Additionally, the Scottish Qualifications Authority’s (SQA) Equalities monitoring and analyses of the 2024 outcomes document also shows that outcomes for particular groups have worsened in the latest round of Higher examinations, including those from poorer socio-economic backgrounds.
The Bill’s policy memorandum sets out that the Scottish Government recognises the services and policies the proposed new bodies will be delivering may impact people with protected characteristics differently. However, it also asserts that it will be for those bodies to identify and determine the impact on people with protected characteristics when delivering their functions.
While the role of those bodies is key in addressing inequalities, the Bill – and its associated implementation measures – can also serve to have a significant impact in creating a fairer education system.
Our full set of recommendations for the Bill and its implementation can be found in our response to the Scottish Government’s pre-legislative consultation. We have summarised some of our recommendations below.
Legislative provisions
- The Bill should make provisions for relevant training to be provided for staff of Qualifications Scotland. This should include robust equality training.
- While recognising that Schedule 1, Part 2, sets out a requirement for Scottish Ministers to consider equal opportunities in appointing members of Qualifications Scotland, there should also be a commitment in primary legislation to ensuring that the Strategic Advisory Council reflects the interests of relevant protected characteristic groups.
- The Bill sets out the requirement for the Chief Inspector to lay an inspection plan before parliament which would set out different types of inspection model that may be used and standards against which establishments will be evaluated. The Committee should consider whether there is scope to set out minimum standards for inspection in primary legislation. The Commission considers that there is a role for inspection bodies in assessing if the education system is meeting its equality and non-discrimination obligations. However, we acknowledge that the specifics of this may be more appropriate for implementation guidance.
Implementation
- Any new qualification or inspection bodies should be listed for the PSED and Scottish specific duties, as their current equivalents are.
- We recommend that a future qualifications body takes account of the outcomes of SQA’s work on improving their practices in relation to their public sector equality duty obligations from the Section 23 legal agreement with the Commission. This learning should be used as a model for the new body in meeting its equality obligations.
- In respect of s49 of the draft Bill, we recommend that when drafting guidance on publication of documents the Scottish Government make the legal requirements of the reasonable adjustments duty, s.20 of the Equality Act 2010, clear as well as the requirements of the PSED more widely.
We would be happy to discuss any of these issues with the Committee at any point.
Yours sincerely,
Stephanie Griffin
Scotland Policy Manager
