Equality and Human Rights Mainstreaming Strategy
Strengthening leadership
The aim of this key driver is to support Scottish Government and public sector leaders to:
- motivate, guide and challenge others
- increase their own knowledge and understanding, while supporting others to do the same, to ensure equality and human rights is a fundamental aspect of policy making and operational delivery
- take a leadership role to ensure equality and human rights are fundamental across policy and delivery, directing focus, attention and resources to protect them
- proactively assessing progress in mainstreaming and ultimately advance equality and human rights across the board
This includes leadership at all levels – Political, Scottish Government executive and across public sector.
Expanding on strengthening leadership
Strong leadership is fundamental to achieving mainstreaming equality and human rights. The Strategy will focus on strengthening leadership to develop sound strategic principles and clarity of policy goals which focus on the future of Scotland and further improving the lives of the people of Scotland. Strong leadership is fundamental to the successful achievement of all other mainstreaming drivers, creating the culture change required to motivate and inspire others in equality and human rights. Without strong leaders who are committed to mainstreaming, the other five drivers won’t be achievable.
The Strategy aims to inspire strong leadership in equality and human rights. This means leaders who:
- have the necessary level of understanding to be able to support, guide, lead and challenge others in equality and human rights
- ensure that work to advance equality and human rights is adequately resourced and protected
- are proactive and engaged in assessment of progress to mainstream equality and human rights throughout their area of responsibility
- are proactive and engaged in their areas of responsibility for impact assessments that advance equality and human rights and ensure legal obligations are met
The Strategy aims to support leaders to leverage their existing strengths and the existing tools to build equality and human rights through the other five key drivers identified.
This includes:
Political leadership in Scottish and Local Government based on a deep understanding of the specific issues covered by their portfolio and the ability to work across central and local Government to achieve policy goals. This includes an awareness of the impact of decisions and priorities on marginalised/underrepresented groups. Ministers ensure their portfolios and agencies reflect commitment to equality and human rights through sustainable, long-term policy solutions for the benefit of the people of Scotland.
Executive Team leadership – guiding the culture, behaviours, practices, capability and capacity of Scottish Government towards achieving the goals and objectives laid out in the National Performance Framework. This internal leadership drives organisational change and improvement through making strategic decisions, setting a vision, and inspiring and coordinating teams towards a shared objective.
Public Sector leadership - focussed on supporting and providing equal access to, and delivery of equitable, rights based public services which meet the diverse needs of the people of Scotland efficiently and effectively. This will be achieved through a workforce representative of this diversity and through continuously improving the inclusivity of those services.