Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has considered the impact of the actions of the Employment Action Plan on all disabled people, including people with learning disabilities, and noted these in the 2020 and 2021 annual Progress Reports which are published on the Scottish Government website.

On 22 February 2023 the Scottish Government published a statistical summary of the devolved employment services, which includes employability figures for learning disabilities within Fair Start Scotland. There is currently no data published for employment for learning disabilities within No One Left Behind.

We have undertaken a review of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and of Supported Employment to identify areas of improvement and make recommendations on future delivery of these two forms of specialist employability support in Scotland. Findings of the Supported Employment review and Scottish Government’s response were published in September 2022. The Individual Placement and Support review report was published January 2023, alongside the Scottish Government’s response statement.

Recognising that there is still work to do to improve outcomes for disabled people, in December 2022 the Scottish Government published the refreshed Fair Work Action Plan: becoming a leading Fair Work nation by 2025 , setting out actions to promote fair and inclusive workplaces across Scotland. The plan takes forward the current work on the disability employment gap, to support more disabled people, including those with Learning Disabilities, into employment and to sustain fair work.

The Action Plan will be supported by an evidence plan to be published late 2023, along with an accompanying measurement framework. It will monitor the fair work context and progress we are making over time to ensure our actions respond to change and measure the impact of our current actions, including drawing lessons from actions we will deliver as part of this plan.

Estimates for the employment rate for people 16-64 years who reported a severe or specific learning difficulty (lasting 12 months or more) are shown in the following table for each of the last 4 financial years.

The Scottish Government has published analysis relating to the overall Disability Employment Gap in Scotland in Fairer Scotland for disabled people - employment action plan: progress report - year 2 . The most recent data on the Disability Employment Gap for Scotland were published in Scotland's Labour Market: People, Places and Regions – Protected Characteristics . In 2021, the disability employment gap was 31.2 percentages points, down from 37.4 percentage points in 2016.

In 2021, the Scottish Government published key statistics relating to the economic status of disabled people in the labour market in Scotland . This publication contains information from the Annual Population Survey (APS) January to December 2019 on employment rates for disabled people by main condition including those whose main condition was a mental health condition (Table 16).

A similar analysis will be updated and published by the Scottish Government in 2023 showing employment rate gaps by health problem or disability for January to December 2022.

Scottish Government’s recently published Fair Work Action Plan takes forward the next phase of actions to drive forward Fair Work. The plan includes actions aimed at reducing the Disability Employment Gap.

The Fair Work Action Plan will be supported by an evidence plan to be published in late 2023, along with an accompanying measurement framework. It will monitor the fair work context and progress we are making over time to ensure our actions respond to change and measure the impact of our current actions, including drawing lessons from actions we will deliver as part of this plan.

The Scottish Government is using a range of interventions across its policies to advance the Race Equality Framework and human rights for all minority ethnic groups, one of which is the Interim Governance Group (IGG).

The IGG is a short-life working group with a specific remit to provide advice and feedback to Scottish Ministers on establishing long-term anti-racism infrastructure. Its membership includes those with experiences of intersecting marginalisation(s) and the realities of systemic racism and expertise in tackling it. Individuals were also appointed on the basis of having extensive knowledge and/or experience of policy-making processes in Scotland, and design and implementation of policy/systems. More information on the remit and membership of the group is available here: Interim Governance Group to Develop National Anti-Racist Infrastructure

The IGG is supporting the government’s development of improved infrastructure and accountability that has a positive impact on the lives of all racialised minority communities. Racialised outcomes are not experienced uniformly, and effective interventions need to take specific experiences into account. In Scotland, this includes important disparities impacting Black/minority ethnic groups.

Ensuring that communities are engaged with policy development and in long-term oversight and accountability, is of utmost importance, and we use mechanisms and routes to achieve that in the best way possible. Policy areas focussed on anti-racism and race equality actively engage with a range of stakeholders and communities as part of their work. The IGG has commissioned a programme of community engagement, to both disseminate information about forthcoming anti-racism infrastructure and to gather community members' and stakeholders’ perspectives on how it can work best to deliver genuine change-making policy and practice in Scotland.

The Interim Governance Group (IGG) is a short-life working group with a specific remit to provide advice and feedback to Scottish Ministers on establishing long-term anti-racism infrastructure. Its membership includes those with experiences of intersecting marginalisation(s) and the realities of systemic racism, and expertise in tackling it. Individuals were also appointed on the basis of having extensive knowledge and/or experience of policy-making processes in Scotland, and design and implementation of policy/systems. More information on the remit and membership of the group is available here: Interim Governance Group to Develop National Anti-Racist Infrastructure

Members of the IGG were appointed on merit in accordance with the Ministerial Code, taking into account the views of the co-chairs and ensuring membership comprised of people with expertise and lived experience of racism. Membership reflects a gender balance, and includes those with experiences of intersecting marginalisation(s) and the realities of systemic racism and expertise in tackling it. Membership also includes:

- community members and community-led organisations

- young people

- scrutiny and governance expertise

- expertise in gathering and using inequality data

- expertise/leadership from the public, private and third sector

Two national membership organisations were invited to nominate community-led organisations to be involved in the IGG in order to provide grassroots perspectives.

In June 2020, the Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and Ethnicity was established to consider and inform the Scottish Government’s approach in relation to the impacts of COVID-19 on Minority Ethnic (ME) communities. This was in response to reports at a UK-wide and international level that some ME groups may be at risk of experiencing disproportionate effects, both in terms of adverse health outcomes and in a wider context, including economically.

Our current priorities are rooted in the delivery of the recommendations of our Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and Ethnicity (ERG). Specifically, these actions cover the ongoing work to implement the data and systemic recommendations of the Expert Reference Group (ERG) for COVID-19 and Ethnicity, as agreed to by the Scottish Government in November 2020 .

Recommendation 7 from the ERG outlined the need to establish a more effective accountability and governance infrastructure in Scotland, namely an independent Race Observatory. The Scottish Government required specific expertise to help move forward with establishing the Observatory and therefore formed a short-life working group, now known as the IGG, to provide advice and feedback to Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that stakeholders and communities are engaged with on policy developments, including long-term oversight and governance. The Interim Governance Group to Develop Anti-Racist Infrastructure (IGG) has commissioned a programme of community engagement to both disseminate information about the establishment of an independent Race Observatory, and to gather community members' and stakeholders’ perspectives about the Observatory and how it can work best to contribute to genuine change-making policy and practice in Scotland.

Through its community engagement work, the IGG is actively disseminating information, and seeking the views of stakeholders and communities so that they can be incorporated into the development of the forthcoming anti-racism infrastructure.

The IGG is committed to being open and transparent about its work. Documents and minutes of meetings are published on the IGG webpage: Interim Governance Group to Develop National Anti-Racist Infrastructure

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14802 on‎ 27 January 2023 which outlines that the IGG is committed to being open and transparent about its work. Documents and minutes of meetings are published on the IGG webpage: Interim Governance Group to Develop National Anti-Racist Infrastructure

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers