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Equal Opportunities

Equality of opportunity features throughout the Equal programme.  The three equality commissions (the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Disability Rights Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality) have been consulted on all aspects of the programme and will be involved throughout the life of the programme as members of Thematic Networking Groups and on the GB Monitoring Committee. In addition, DWP has set up a sub-group of the Monitoring Committee to make sure that equal opportunities good practice from Equal is mainstreamed. More information about equal opportunities mainstreaming can be found on the ESF News website:  www.esf.gov.uk/equal_opportunities/index.asp
 
Equal has been designed to make sure disadvantaged groups can play a full part, both in designing DP work programmes and putting them in place. DPs bring together representatives of different target groups to define and agree a strategy for tackling inequality and discrimination in the labour market, within a chosen theme. 
 
To be successful in their bid for Equal DPs needed to demonstrate that they operate in an ‘equal’ way and clearly show in the application how they include equal opportunities in the designing, developing, managing, monitoring and evaluating their DP activity, and specifically how they tackle issues of race, gender and disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age. Together with the application DPs provided an equal opportunities plan and need to maintain their commitment to equal opportunities as described in their equal opportunities plan throughout the lifetime of the project.

Some Good Practice Examples on Equal Opportunities from 2nd Round Dps are detailed below

 Last update: 04.12.07

The one to one Mentoring Support provided by the projects delivered by the Hi Hopes in the Highlands and Islands DP was both in English and Gaelic when this latter was required. (Hi Hopes in the Highlands and Islands DP)

Courses have been offered in supportive environments at time suitable to the learners. Where appropriate, translation into a number of different languages has been undertaken to ensure that the messages reached specific client groups. (Hi Hopes in the Highlands and Islands DP)

More Family Friendly policies and practices have been implemented at Adam Smith College as part of their Equal pilot project. The new policies and practices improve the experience of student parents, predominantly female, undertaking further study. The outcomes are now being promoted to the wider HE community. (Genderwise Scotland DP)

Policy and practice in relation to women with care responsibilities, maternity leave and paternity leave have been improved at the University of Glasgow. This has included setting up a women’s network and mentoring project which has recently been funded to continue indefinitely with core university funding. (Genderwise Scotland DP)

Engender have brought in female gypsy travellers which are disengaged in the policy making process, giving them opportunities to learn how local government structures work and how they can influence them. (Genderwise Scotland DP)

Beneficiaries of the EDIT Equality course were allowed to feed back ideas on the course during the consolidation days held at the Forth Valley College. Beneficiaries’’ feedback will be used to update the existing EDIT modules. (COOL DP)

Professional translators have been used throughout the production process of the ‘Trouble Sleeping’ shows at the Theatre Workshop Edinburgh and scripts have been translated into Arabic and recorded on CD for beneficiary participants who require this format. (COOL DP)

 Last update: 13/08/07

The Gender Action Project piloted by the Glasgow University has redesigned the policies ruling the maternity leave to be less female specific and more open to men. (Genderwise Scotland DP)

A follow up of the initial meeting with gypsy traveller women is currently being developed by the South Lanarkshire Council Regeneration Project to implement training for gypsy women. Gypsy traveller women are also being engaged in the policy making process, by giving them the opportunity to learn how local government structures work and how they can influence them. (Genderwise Scotland DP)

Dundee Design and Development activity is being delivered to young in-patients with serious chronic mental health problems allowing them to continue with their education. A further programme has been developed to allow music and sound recording to be delivered at the Liff Hospital, a long term psychiatric rehabilitation unit. (COOL DP)

Negotiations have been carried out between CALS Project piloted by Strathclyde University and Jobcentre plus to ensure refugees with appropriate language skills can have these recognised within the CALS framework as a means of enhancing their employability. (COOL DP)

 Last update: 27.04.07

The post graduate module entitled ‘Professional Practice in Race Equality’ at the University of Paisley has been made available online to all project staff within the Equal Employability DP. The online mode also allow easy access to all participants

Beneficiaries of the Business Enterprise Scotland pilots attended the Disability Rights Commission Leadership Course (Equal Enterprise Scotland DP)

Local Disability forums in West Dunbartonshire such as Alternatives and DACA have been involved by The Lennox Partnership to ensure that their outreach services are inclusive. As a consequence of this contact the Lennox Partnership adapted their services and arranged workshops for their project targeting lone parents and other with care responsibilities. (Equal Employability DP)

Beneficiaries of the Forth Valley College pilot who are not able to attend the full main ‘Diversity Training for Trainers’ courses (EDIT) can now benefit of the BASICS course an innovative shorter ‘Diversity Training for Trainers’ course developed with modules from the EDIT course (COOL DP)

 Last update: 15.02.07

• Core skills and abilities of beneficiaries are taken into account in the delivering of the project piloted by Adam Smith College within the Equal Employability DP
• The Prince's Trust Project actively recruited beneficiaries using different method including street and face to face meetings in order to ensure full coverage of the target group from the Govanhill area in Glasgow (Equal Employability DP)
• The Opportunities Working Group of the Hi Hopes in the H&I DP are developing two key dissemination documents which will highlight the activity of the DP in addressing the needs of learners throughout the Highlands & Islands; the publications are: Best Practice pack Inclusive Learning in Action' which The pack highlights best practice in overcoming barriers and distance travelled and the Learning Principles Paper' focusing on equal opportunities for disadvantaged learners.

Last update: 04.12.06

•  The Integration through Business Project advertises its services through all channels created and used by minority ethnic groups in Glasgow. The beneficiary recruitment process ensures that "new citizens" have unrestricted access to their services. (Icons DP)
• The Family Friendly College Project piloted by Genderwise Scotland DP are using the Equalities Forward Unit launches as platform for taking Equal Opportunities forward in the FE sector.
• The Tailored Marketing Project piloted by BES within the Equal Enterprise Scotland DP offers locally based workshops to overcome participant's reluctance to travel to other areas of Glasgow.
• An information day is taking place in October for women gypsy travellers and it is hoped that sufficient women will be recruited for a cohort to be trained . (Genderwise Scotland DP)
• Business Gateway has extended the Integration through Business project, originally planned for refugees, to new migrants from Eastern Europe countries. (Icons DP)
• As a result of the GAP project findings, the University of Glasgow website area covering maternity leave has been redesigned the to be less female specific and more open to men. (Genderwise Scotland DP)

Last update: 25.08.06
 

• Unemployed beneficiaries of the pilot run by Drumchapel Opportunities within the Re: Focus DP have been recruited onto focus groups via new referral processes set up between this project and 3 other projects. Systems are in place to monitor the recruitment of employed beneficiaries.

• Initial training materials developed by SFEU within the Mentoring Project for both key staff and to prospective mentors include awareness raising on issues of diversity.

• Beneficiaries of the projects run by the Equal Enterprise DP who are visually impaired or are affected by dyslexia can now access material in alternative format specifically designed to meet their needs.

• The Gender Equal Action Project is taking positive action to recruit BME and Disabled women to the "expert advisers" group. (Genderwise Scotland DP)

• The Equal Team of the Glasgow University working in the Gender Equal Action Project has altered the information on the university website on maternity leave to make it more open to use by men. (Genderwise Scotland DP)

• Hi Hopes DP staff are attending awareness training in Equal Opportunities and further training has been arranged through attendance at the Highlands & Islands Equality forum information sessions

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