An Investigation of the Advancements in Race Equality in Scottish Local Authorities

The overarching aim of this study is to examine the progress made in regard to advancing race equality in Scottish local authority employment, given the role that local authorities play in Scotland’s communities, including eliminating discrimination, fostering good relations and providing opportunities for all (Equality Act 2010). Further, local authorities have an immense impact on the labour market since approximately 10% (Office for National Statistics, 2018a) of the working population in Scotland are currently employed by local authorities. It is therefore crucial to explore what these organisation do in order to meet such responsibilities. In investigating this, this study is based on methodological triangulation (Cameron and Price, 2009), utilising a mixed-method approach of surveys and semi-structured interviews, involving four local authorities and four external equality stakeholders in the interviews. The findings are presented and analysed using narratives and content analysis (Collis and Hussey, 2009; Easterby-Smith, 2015).
The findings suggest, on the one hand, that the participating councils continue facing significant challenges in regard to equality monitoring, the application of positive action into practice, being better representative of the community they serve as well as their approaches to equality awareness training (EqAT) and staff development. On the other hand, it appears that progress has been made in relation to community engage- ment, to equality awareness within the organisation and in regard to Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) to a certain degree. However, from the various themes explored throughout this study, it is apparent that Scottish local authorities still have a long way to go in advancing race equality in employment. On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that the SLAs develop more sufficient approaches to equality monitoring, positive action through centralised recruitment and the implementation of more meaningful awareness training initiatives.