Susan Deacon

Answer · Andy Kerr · 29 Mar 2007

Employment law is a reserved matter.Material relating to this is distributed by the lead UK Departments.</p><p>Public bodiesare under either a statutory duty or are expected to follow guidance on Best Value,including a requirement to promote equal opportunities in the workplace.</p><p>The Scottish Executivelaunched a Policy and Practice document on Supporting the Work-Life Balance in NHSScotlandin 2005. NHS boards are required to implement the document,which contains a number of a model policies, ranging from flexible working and jobsharing to home working</p><p>The Scottish Executive has a flexible working policy which isavailable to almost all of its own staff, not just those with children.</p>

Answer · Andy Kerr · 27 Mar 2007

The Scottish Centre for Healthy WorkingLives, which was established in April 2005 within NHS Health Scotland, encouragesemployers to adopt workplace practices and policies that support and encourage healthand wellbeing. The centre offers advice to employers on developing workplace policiesthat support a healthy work-life balance.</p><p>As an employer itself the Executive has in place a number ofpolices to enable employees to achieve a healthy work-life balance. These policiesinclude flexible working hours, alternative working patterns and working from home.</p>

Answer · Nicol Stephen · 29 Mar 2007

The Scottish Executive iscommitted to encouraging business to contribute positively to society, in whateverform that might take. A wide range of Scottish Executive policies promote thethree main strands of corporate social responsibility (CSR) – social,environmental and economic.</p><p>The Scottish Executive alsosupports the work of Scottish Business in the Community, a business-ledorganisation which promotes CSR to Scottish business. Examples of our supportinclude representation on the board and project funding for initiatives dealingwith Employer Supported Volunteering, Healthy Working Lives and reducing theproportion of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).</p><p>Other examples of ways inwhich we support CSR include:</p><p>Determined to Succeed,through which we are encouraging businesses to support schools on enterpriseeducation. More than 7,000 school/business partnerships have been established –nearly four times the target set for the end of 2006;</p><p>the Executive’s agreementwith Microsoft, signed in January, and outlining the company’s commitment todevote its entire CSR effort in Scotland to help tackle NEET, and</p><p>£400,000 funding for “KickStart”, through which Scottish Premier League football clubs will double thenumber of vulnerable young people taking part in programmes to increase theirskills.</p>

Answer · Johann Lamont · 23 Mar 2007

We have no current plans toreview this.</p>

Answer · Andy Kerr · 23 Mar 2007

Scottish Executive planning policynow requires all development applications to include transport assessment andimplementation proposals, a requirement which was based on substantial researchcarried out by the Scottish Executive in the period 2001-04, of which the TransportImpacts of Major Healthcare Developments report was a part.</p><p>The Scottish Executive expects each individual hospital to workin partnerships with local authorities and regional transport partnerships to encouragebetter public transport access to hospitals. We have provided health boards witha clear statement on environmental management policy, making it a mandatory requirementfor health boards to promote more sustainable travel choices through theimplementation of travel plans.</p>

Answer · Rhona Brankin · 28 Mar 2007

It is a matter for individual publicauthorities to ensure they comply with the gender equality duty. The Equal OpportunitiesCommission (EOC) is the organisation responsible for providing support and guidanceto the public sector, however, to support the introduction of the duty and assistpublic sector organisations in Scotland the Scottish Executive has:</p><p>commissioned aGender Audit of Statistics, which will be published shortly, providing the mostcomprehensive analysis to date of currently available gender disaggregated statistics,and, where relevant, key research reports and reviews, for Scotland;</p><p>supported FairFor All Gender, a partnership between EOC Scotland and the Executives Health Departmentto help the NHS in Scotland to mainstream gender equality considerations into planningand delivery and ensure the health service meets its obligations under the new publicsector gender equality duty;</p><p>contributed tothe development of the Equal Opportunities Commission’s (EOC) <i>Scottish Code ofPractice for the Gender Equality Duty</i>;</p><p>contributed tothe development of the EOC’s guidance for the public sector on the gender equalityduty, including, Scottish Guidance for Local Government, Scottish Guidance for Preand Post-16 Education, Scottish Guidance for Local Government, Scottish Guidancefor Health, Scottish Guidance for Criminal Justice and guidance on impact assessment,which are available on the EOC Scotland’s website at <ahref="http://www.eoc.org.uk/">www.eoc.org.uk</a>;</p><p>participated inEOC consultation and awareness raising events across Scotland for the Scottish Codeof Practice, and</p><p>provided fundingand support to the EOC to organise the <i>Transgender Rights: OrganisationalResponsibilities, Good Employment Practise and Service Provision</i> conference.</p><p>The Executive is committed to continuing to work with the EOC,relevant employees and public authorities in Scotland to encourage and support theimplementation of the gender duty. As part of this we plan to establish a PublicSector Equality Forum and will use this to promote shared or joint approaches bypublic authorities. This forum will consider issues arising from all three publicequality duties.</p>

Answer · Hugh Henry · 28 Mar 2007

The Executive is constantly promoting equal opportunities inteacher recruitment and promotion. There has been a steady increase in the percentageof women in head teacher posts in secondary schools in recent years. Since devolutionin 1999 this has risen from 11.5%, to 21% in 2005.</p>

Answer · Rhona Brankin · 28 Mar 2007

Local authorities are statutory bodieswith statutory responsibilities, responsible for running their own affairs. Undersection 64 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, they are empowered to appointsuch staff as in necessary for the proper discharge of their functions and on suchterms and conditions as they think fit. The appointment of staff is entirely a matterfor individual local authorities and in doing so it is up to them to ensure theycomply with all employment legislation.</p><p>The gender balance of chief executives in local authorities isa matter for those local authorities and they will need to examine their workingpractices in this regard under the gender equality duty which comes into force inApril 2007. However, the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 introduced a dutyof best value for all local authorities. The duty has 10 characteristics, one ofwhich is equal opportunities. The statutory guidance states that a local authoritywhich secures best value will be able to demonstrate a culture which encouragesboth equal opportunities and the observance of the equal opportunities requirements.This means (amongst other things) that the encouragement of equal opportunitiesand meeting the equal opportunities requirements are reflected in the authority’sobjectives and highlighted in all plans at corporate and service level, and thatemployment policies are fully in line with their commitment to equal opportunitiesand training is in place to support that commitment.</p>