Public Sector Equality Duty: enhancing equality in education in Scotland

5 Mar 2020 04:26 PM

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have today, 5 March 2020, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which underlines their shared aspirations to strengthen and reinforce compliance with Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in colleges and universities.

Through this MoU we, along with the SFC, will support Scotland’s colleges and universities to meet the requirements and achieve the aspirations of the Public Sector Equality Duties and take action to tackle the most persistent inequalities in our society.

Colleges and universities are required by the Equality Act 2010 to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation; to advance equality of opportunity; and to foster good relations when they are carrying out their public functions. 

This MoU, with its focus on working in partnership with a sector body to strengthen compliance with PSED to achieve substantive equality, is the first of its kind for us. 

The overarching aim is to improve outcomes for people working or studying at Scotland’s colleges and universities who are experiencing unlawful discrimination and inequality.

This will be done by:

• identifying and developing a shared ownership and understanding of the most significant and persistent inequalities in the sector
• universities and colleges setting SMART national equality outcomes
• building confidence and clarity to identify the action required to achieve these outcomes
• ensuring appropriate scrutiny and measurement of progress
• evaluating actions and sharing lessons learned

The MoU is supported by a Joint Action Plan that sets out the activities to tackle the most pressing inequalities and guidance on how to support the sector in tracking the effectiveness and impact of these efforts.

Click here for the full press release