improving government service delivery to minority ethnic ... - NCCRI

Terminology used
Some terms which are widely used and accepted in one of the jurisdictions included in this research are not
common in the others. In general, the terms used in each jurisdiction and reflected in the research chapters for
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Ireland have been retained here rather than using uniform terminology; meaning
that different language may be used in each chapter. A glossary of terms and list of acronyms is available at the
end of this report.
Service provision framework
For the purposes of this research, a template was developed to be used by the research team in each
jurisdiction. This template comprised of four key elements essential for effective service provision to minority
ethnic groups. These are:
22_Scottish Executive
(2002), Equality Strategy:
Working Together for
Equality:
23_T. Donoghy (2004)
Mainstreaming: Northern
Ireland’s participativedemocratic
approach,
Policy and Politics.
1. Mainstreaming
2. Targeting
3. Benchmarking
4. Engagement
Whilst these are described as separate components, they are by no means mutually exclusive, in fact all are
required and there is considerable overlap and inter-reliance between them. These terms are used in the
National Action Plan Against Racism (NPAR) published in Ireland in 2005, but are familiar in each of the
jurisdictions.
Mainstreaming
Over recent years mainstreaming has become a priority across the equality agenda, both domestically as well
as in the European context, although it has traditionally focused on gender rather than ethnicity.
The Scottish Executive’s Equality Strategy 22 defines mainstreaming as:
“ …the systematic integration of an equality perspective into the everyday work of
government, involving policy makers across all government departments, as well as
equality specialists and external partners.”
As Donoghy has pointed out, mainstreaming moves the focus from the results of discrimination towards its
cause. 23 Mainstreaming seeks to ensure that the needs of minority ethnic groups are included in the planning,
implementation and review of the major activities undertaken at a policy and organisational level and the
proofing of policy and implementation strategies for their impact on minority ethnic groups. Mainstreaming
however does not mean that there is one ‘mainstream’ model of service provision of the ‘one size fits all’ kind,
rather than the awareness of different needs and thus different models of service provision becomes central
to an organisation’s modus operandi. Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act is an example of mainstreaming
identified in this research. The Scottish Executive has identified the benefits of mainstreaming as:
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it improves policy-making and delivery of public services;
it gives greater transparency and openness in the policy process through better information;
it changes the structures, behaviours and attitudes that contribute to or sustain inequality and
discrimination;
it avoids policies being adopted which continue existing inequalities or make them worse;