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

The Scottish Executive’s review of Race Equality in Scotland (2005) recognised that there had been a lack of
development of the Minority Ethnic voluntary sector and that there was need for capacity building. They also
recognised that the Minority Ethnic voluntary sector served a dual purpose: often it was the provider of services
to its own community and it also had a major role in challenging racism and ensuring that race equality was
embedded into mainstream service provision.
SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations), the umbrella body for the Scottish voluntary sector,
secured European funding through the European Social Fund (Objective 3) for a project to deliver an
integrated programme to promote equality through organisational development, research and information. 155
The organisational development project was targeted at 18 of the largest voluntary sector organisations to
ensure maximum impact.
155_www.scvo.org.uk
156_Please refer to
Appendix 2 for a full list of
interviewees.
157_Scottish Executive
(2002), Equality Strategy:
Working Together for
Equality.
Methodology
The methodology for the Scottish chapter of this research into how public authorities provide services to
minority ethnic groups has been a combination of desk-top research and individual interviews. In addition
a number of organisations submitted written responses and provided relevant documentation that was not
available online. Face to face interviews have been held with a number of Government and Non-Governmental
bodies. 156
This chapter explores the four themes of mainstreaming, targeting, benchmarking and engagement of the BME
community in relation to the delivery of public services. In relation to each of those themes there is a discussion
of the strategic context in which the work takes place and there are examples of practice from the areas of
health, education, employment and policing.
Mainstreaming
Strategies for Service Provision to Black and Minority Ethnic Communities
The Scottish Executive’s Equality Strategy 157 emphasises the importance of mainstreaming equality which is
defined 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.”
The Scottish Executive describe the Equality Strategy as “a long term strategy that aims to make sure that
policy making is fully sensitive to the diverse needs and experiences of people”, and that:
“ - it leads to improved policy making through better information, greater transparency
and openness in the policy process
- it involves groups and individuals who experience inequality and discrimination in
informing policy making through effective consultation mechanisms
- it tackles the under-representation of disadvantaged and excluded groups through
encouraging wider participation