This guidance, funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), was developed by Advance HE in collaboration with Scottish college and university partners.
Map of Equality Impact Assessment content
Strategic Equality Impact Assessment
Equality Impact Assessment in Scotland
Practical guidance for Scottish colleges and universities
How to use the guidance
Key information for leaders and other specific staff groups
A model process for undertaking strategic EIA
Summary of conclusions and key recommendations
Practical tools and information
Practical Tools to support implementation of this EIA model
Process Map for Conducting Strategic Equality Impact Assessment
A process map providing an overview of the suggested model for strategic Equality Impact Assessment.
Checklist of key principles for good practice in strategic EIA
A checklist of good practice principles.
EIA optional template to support a strategic EIA process
A template to support the use of this guidance.
EIA university based exemplar with sample prompts
An example of how the sample template can be used.
Advance HE reflective questions for institutions on embedding equality and developing inclusive strategy and policy
A set of reflective question for institutions on broad considerations for cross institutional embedding of equality.
FAQ’s: Addressing key questions on effectively managing strategic EIAs
Some common questions and challenges raised in relation to inclusive strategy, institutional equality priorities and EIA.
Case studies and examplars
Illustrative case study on using the strategic model for EIA of SFC Outcome Agreements
This case study uses the proposed approach to EIA to illustrate relevant practical considerations at each stage of the EIA model.
Illustrative example of an effective organisational approach to strategic EIA: Creative Scotland EIA of strategic funding policy
Creative Scotland’s impact assessment of their funding policy for organisations for which they provide regular, ongoing funding has some key principles relating to the benefits of a strategic EIA approach.
Welsh Local Government Association and NHS Centre for Equality & Human Rights approach to supporting greater transgender equality through review of the use of EIA in the public sector
Relevant case study information on Page 29 includes details of how the use of EIA to support greater transgender equality resulted in cost savings as well as improved practice.
EHRC exemplar on the Open University and positive equality practice for minority ethnic staff based on data and evidence
Identification of equality issues through data, evidence and research and taking mitigating action. Raising ethnic minority staff aspirations through mentoring and professional development. Case study 4 at the following link:
Scottish Government Fairer Scotland Duty Interim guidance for Public Bodies
The Fairer Scotland Duty guidance includes a focus on EIA which incorporates key question prompts. There are also some useful definitions and case study examples in the resource section.
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland approach to consultation and ownership and embedding of OA
The RCS OA (pages 3 and 4) details the institution’s approach to ownership and consultation for their OA. This involves an OA working group, including staff and student representation, governors and members of Academic Board and the equality and diversity lead; the OA is also approved by the working group. It positions the OA aims as a ‘subset’ of the RCS strategic plan.
University of Strathclyde’s approach to providing equality prompts to support EIA
Supporting the EIA process through providing prompts on typical equality considerations for each protected characteristic and possible mitigation. Pages 8 – 11 in the following link:
West College Scotland approach to responding to the requirements of the general duty in EIA
West College Scotland’s EIA for the college regional OA provides an overview of protected characteristic issues for the college and individually addresses the three requirements of the general equality duty for each of the main SFC outcome areas.
Illustrative example: Civil servant policy making forum quote on ‘unintended consequences’
Illustrative examples of unintended consequences (non-educational) from the civil servant policy making forum.
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) view: EHRC quote on EIA and mitigating action
Following EHRC research which assessed that the quality of the content of a large proportion of EIAs was poor, they highlighted the key areas requiring improvement.
Other useful resources
We have collated a number of useful resources which help to contextualise EIA.
We would welcome your feedback on the Equality Impact Assessment Guidance
We are interested in ensuring this guidance meets your needs and provides sufficient information that supports your institution to consider and undertake EIA in a strategic context. Our future aim is to further develop and update the guidance with additional tools and examples to make this as relevant and accessible as possible.