Committees and Outreach Group

Group: Committees and Outreach Group

The current practice for the Committees and Outreach group is as follows:

Monitor and report on use of committee services to check for any adverse or disproportionate impact on any protected group or individual and include in annual monitoring report to Leadership Group. (Committee Teams – Lead: All Committee Clerk Team Leaders)
Monitor and report on the number of public petitions by relevant protected characteristic. (Public Petitions Committee Clerking team – Lead: Clerk Team Leader)
Committee clerks to provide support to subject and mandatory committees on how they should take account of equal opportunities and provide a report of action taken in the Committee annual reports. (Committee Teams – Lead: All Committee Clerk Team Leaders)
Committee clerks will continue to support subject and mandatory committees by ensuring that their processes are inclusive and accessible to all and taking steps to remove any barriers to committee engagement and involvement.(Committee Teams – Lead: All Committee Clerk Team Leaders)
Continue to improve engagement opportunities with equality groups through the work of the community partnerships programme. (Education & Community Partnerships – Lead: Community Partnership Manager)
Continue to provide engagement opportunities for Gaelic speakers and learners in line with the SPCB’s Gaelic Language Plan. (Education & Community Partnerships – Lead: Gaelic Development Officer)
Continue to ensure that formal education programmes meet current policy regarding equalities in schools and to improve services to meet best practice. (Education & Community Partnerships – Lead: Head of Education and Community Partnerships)

No.	Aligned Outcome	Equality Objective	Measure of Success	Who is responsible	Target Completion Date
1.	Outcome 1	Enhance current database of equality groups and individuals with specific interests to avoid over consulting with the same groups.	Gathered data on all community/ equality groups at a national, local and grassroots level and breakdown by specific interest (for example health, education etc) and made this available on Sharepoint to clerks and other staff involved in engagement/consultation work.	Committee Office (Lead: Clerk Team Leader Equal Opportunities Committee)	By end December 2011
2.	Outcome 1	Monitor the uptake of the education and outreach programme in line with Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD).	Gather data and address any adverse impact in relation to specific areas and report to Leadership Group.	Education & Community Partnerships (Lead: Head of Education & Community Partnerships)	First report by end March 2012
3.	Outcome 1	Review how feedback is gathered from diverse witnesses (i.e. witnesses who belong to a protected group) to gain a better understanding of their experience when providing evidence to a committee.	Information that is provided to witnesses has improved and better feedback has been gathered to understand the experience of people who are less familiar with the parliamentary process.	Committee Office (Lead: clerk team leader)	April 2014
4.	Outcome 2	Invite an access user group to review the accessibility of the committee web pages and to identify specific areas where information could be improved on inquiries and other committee work.	Improved accessibility of the committee web pages.	Committee Office (Lead: Head of Office)	April 2014