Audit Scotland
Equalities – update 2013/14

Audit Scotland is a statutory body set up in April 2000 under the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. We help the Auditor General for Scotland and the Accounts Commission check that organisations spending public money use it properly, efficiently and effectively.

Background
1.	Audit Scotland carries out a range of work on behalf of the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission. We aim to embed equalities in all aspects of our audit work, and in how we treat our colleagues by considering our behaviours, actions and decision-making. Our work covers almost every public body in Scotland and many of these organisations provide services directly to members of the public. It is important that they ensure that their services meet the needs of the individuals who make up Scotland's diverse population. 
2.	In April 2013, we published our Equality outcomes and a report on how we are Mainstreaming equalities within Audit Scotland. Both are available on our website, along with a report on Equal pay within our organisation.
3.	This paper provides a summary of:
•	progress with our equalities outcomes
•	2013/14 diversity and equality information about our staff
•	consideration of our 2014 staff survey results for equalities issues.
4.	Our Diversity and Equality Steering group (DESG) presented the information in this update paper to our Board in June 2014. We will publish fuller reports on progress with our equalities outcomes and how we are mainstreaming equalities within Audit Scotland in April 2015, as required by the Equalities Act 2010. We are also due to publish our next report on equal pay at that time. 

Progress with our equality outcomes
5.	We have three equality outcomes:
•	We will recognise the diversity of the Scottish population and raise the profile of equalities by embedding this in all aspects of our audit work on how public money is used.
•	We will have policies and practices that are fair, transparent, meet people's needs and support a culture of diversity.
•	We will understand and support diversity within our workforce.
6.	We have developed 32 measures to underpin each of these outcomes so that we can see how we are performing and identify where more work needs to be done. Our progress is summarised below.
7.	We have a process in place for 15 measures and our progress is therefore ongoing. These measures include reflecting equalities in our audit programmes, ensuring our information is accessible and written in plain language, and conducting a staff survey which enables colleagues to tell us how it feels to work in Audit Scotland.
•	We have started to make progress in ten measures and expect to complete our work in these areas by April 2015. This includes engaging with stakeholders about our audit programme, reviewing our Best Value toolkit on equalities, and refreshing our guidance for staff on how to carry out equality impact assessments.
•	We have still to start work in six areas. Some of these measures relate to engaging with equalities groups about our performance audit programme, which we plan to do over the next few months. Others relate to engagement with colleagues about equality which the DESG will consider as part of its planned review of its role and remit.
•	We are not able to complete one measure. This relates to equalities information that we anticipated would be made available about individual councils.

Review of 2013/14 diversity and equality information about staff
8.	We aim to understand and support diversity within our workforce. Looking at our staffing profile can help us to identify where our policies and practices may be falling short and at risk of acting in a discriminatory way. As a relatively small organisation of 269 staff (at March 2014), we aim to work hard at this and also recognise that our size limits some actions and some levels of data analysis.
9.	Our HR team gathers and analyses information about our staff. Each year, the DESG discusses and reviews this information for any patterns and trends, and will identify areas for further investigation by the HR team. The appendix sets out the information for 2013/14. Where the population size is less than five then we have not disclosed this information due to confidentiality. However, our HR team retains the full information and will monitor any patterns or trends going forward.
10.	The key points arising from the DESG's review of our 2013/14 staffing data are:
•	Our staffing profile is similar to previous years.
•	There continue to be no areas of concern.
More males than females (67 to 33 per cent) were promoted or given acting up opportunities in 2013/14. The majority of these posts were in our Audit Services Group and so may be related to the fact that most of our trainees in recent years have been male. The DESG was assured that our recruitment and selection processes were followed and noted that these processes are designed to be fair, robust and follow best practice principles.

Review of 2014 staff survey results
11.	Our annual staff survey highlights where colleagues think we are doing well and where we can do more. Respondents are invited to provide information about their age and gender upon completing the survey. The DESG reviewed the 2014 results by age and gender, compared these with the results for 2013, and noted that:
•	there were generally no areas of concern, with most categories scoring over 4 by both age and gender
•	the 21-25 age group were more dissatisfied with 'fair deal' than last year. More males were also more dissatisfied with this
•	improving staff wellbeing is a priority for Audit Scotland over the next year.

Conclusion
12.	We continue to make steady progress with our equality outcomes and are confident that our actions will lead to making equalities business as usual in the work that we do and in how we engage with each other.

Appendix
Diversity and equality monitoring 2013/14

A. Staff Profile 
Exhibit 1 
Audit Scotland’s staff profile, March 2014

Equality strand	March 2014
(269 staff)	March 2013
(270 staff)	March 2012
(265 staff)	March 2011
(284 staff)	Scottish Population (2013)	Comments	
Ethnicity	The percentage of ethnic minority group stayed same as previous year at 3.3% of all staff.	The percentage of ethnic minority group employees has increased to 3.3%.	A slight increase in the percentage of minority ethnic group staff to 2.6%.	The representation of ethnic minority staff at Audit Scotland (AS) increased slightly to 2.5% of all staff.	White 96.4% and minority ethnic group 3.6%.	Audit Scotland has a lower representation of ethnic minority staff compared to ONS data. However, the percentage of minority ethnic staff has increased over recent years. 	

Equality strand	March 2014
(269 staff)	March 2013
(270 staff)	March 2012
(265 staff)	March 2011
(284 staff)	Scottish population (2013)	Comments	
Gender	49.4% of staff are male and 50.6% are female.
	50% of staff are male and 50% are female.	Males 49.8% and females 50.2%	The representation of males and females at AS remained the same as the previous year at 49% and 51% respectively.	50.9% female and 49.1% male. 	Audit Scotland’s overall gender profile is very similar to that of the Scottish population figures. 	
Age	The age profile is:
16-24 (4.1%)
25-34 (23.8%)
35-49 (45.7%)
50+ (26.4%)	Audit Scotland’s staff age profile is:
16-24 (4.8%)
25-34 (21.5%)
35-49 (46.7%)
50+ (27%)	The age profile is:
16-24 (2.3%)
25-34 (24.2%)
35-49 (45.7%)
50+ (27.9%)	Similar to previous years, the largest percentage of staff were in the 35-49 age range (44.5%). The smallest percentage were within the 16-24 bracket (2.8%). 27.2% of staff were 50+.
	20.6% are aged 16-31.3% are 25-34, 30.7% are 35-49 and 17.5% are 50-64.	Compared to ONS data, we have less staff in the 16-24 and 25-34 brackets. We have more staff in the 35-49 and 50+ brackets.	
Disability	The percentage of staff who have declared a disability remains the same at 3%.	The percentage of staff who have declared a disability remains at 3%.	The percentage of staff who have declared themselves as having a disability is 3%.	The percentage of staff with a declared disability increased to 5%.	22.9% of the population (aged 16-64) are disabled. Of those, 46.3% are in employment. 10.6% of those aged 16-64 are disabled and in employment.	Compared to ONS data, we have less staff who have declared themselves as having a disability.	
Flexible working	17.5% of staff have a flexible working arrangement; a slight increase on the previous year.	The percentage of staff with a flexible working arrangement has reduced to 16.3%.	20.4% of staff have a flexible working arrangement, showing an increase on previous years.	The percentage of staff with flexible working arrangements has increased slightly on previous years to 17.6% of staff.	No ONS data available.		

Sexual orientation	69.1% of staff have declared themselves as heterosexual/ straight; 2.6% are either gay or bisexual. 2.2% have preferred not to say and 26% have not responded. 	67.8% of staff have declared themselves as heterosexual/ straight. 2.6% of staff are either gay or bisexual. 2.2% have said they would prefer not to say and 27.4 have not responded. 	60.8% of staff have declared themselves as heterosexual/ straight. 1.9% have said they would prefer not to say and 35.5% have not responded. The remaining 1.9% are either gay or bisexual.	58.8% of staff are heterosexual/straight; 2.1% did not want to disclose this information; 37.7% have not responded to confirm; and the remainder are either a gay man, gay woman or bisexual.	No ONS data available. 		
Religion or belief	32% of staff have not disclosed any religion. 31.2% of staff have no religion or stated not applicable; 17.5% are Church of Scotland; 7.8% Roman Catholic; 5.2% prefer not to say; 3.3% other Christian and 3% are another religion.	33.7% of staff have not disclosed any religion. 30.7% of staff have no religion or stated n/a; 16.7% are Church of Scotland; 8.9% Roman Catholic; 4.4% prefer not to say; 3% other Christian and 2.6% are another religion.	39.6% of staff have not disclosed any religion. 26% of staff have no religion or stated n/a; 15.1% are Church of Scotland; 9.8 Roman Catholic; 4.2% prefer not to say; 3.4% other Christian and 1.9% are another religion. 	14.1% of staff are Church of Scotland; 10.2% are Roman Catholic; 3.5% Other Christian; 3.9% prefer not to say; 25.4% said not applicable/no religion; and 41.2% have not responded to confirm.	No ONS data available.		
Marital status	56.1% of staff are married/have a civil partnership, 25.7% are single, 3.7% are co-habiting, 4.8% are divorced or separated, 7.4% are in an unmarried partnership and 2.2% have stated other or not provided information.	57.8% of staff are married/have a civil partnership, 23% are single, 4.1% are co-habiting, 4.8% are divorced or separated, 8.5% are in an unmarried partnership and 1.9% have stated other or not provided information.		

B. Recruitment and selection
Exhibit 2 outlines our position in terms of ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religion/belief and sexual orientation in relation to internally and externally advertised vacancies during the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014. These results should be interpreted carefully as there are a percentage of applications where no information has been provided.

Exhibit 2 
Recruitment and selection diversity data

Equality strand	2013-2014	2012/2013	2011/2012	2010/11	
Ethnicity	Of the applications received (834), 16.2% were from an ethnic minority group. 10.1% of all shortlisted applicants and 6.7% of all appointments were for ethnic minority group individuals. As a % of applications received, 15.6% minority ethnic group applicants were shortlisted and 2.2% appointed (compared to 26.2% and 6.1% of white applicants).

	Of the applications received (773), 15.4% were from an ethnic minority group. 11.7% of all shortlisted applicants and 6.8% of all appointments were for ethnic minority group individuals. As a % of applications received, 20.2% minority ethnic group applicants were shortlisted and 2.5% appointed (compared to 27.9% and 6.3% of white applicants).	Of the applications received (388), 18.3% were from an ethnic minority group. 3.2% of all shortlisted applicants and 2.2% of all appointments were for ethnic minority group individuals. As a % of applications received, 5.6% minority ethnic group applicants were shortlisted and 1.4% appointed (compared to 38.1% and 14.4% of white applicants).	Of the applications received (129), 26.4% were from an ethnic minority. 5.1% of these applicants were taken forward at shortlisting stage. No ethnic minority candidates were appointed. As a % of applications received, 38% white applicants were shortlisted, and 5.9% of minority ethnics were shortlisted.	
Gender	We received more applications from males (51.9%) than females (46.5%). 26% of applications received from females were shortlisted and 5.7% appointed. This compares to 23.3% and 5.3% for males.	We received more applications from males (52.9%) than females (46.3%). 26% of applications received from females were shortlisted and 5.3% appointed. This compares to 27.4% and 6.1% for males.	We received more applications from males (58%) than females (40.7%). 36.1% of applications received from females were shortlisted and 17.1% appointed. This compares to 29.3% and 8.4% for males.	Similar to the previous year, we received more applications from males (62%) versus females (36%). 38.3% of applications received from females were shortlisted and 14.9% were appointed. This compares to 23.8% and 11.3% of applications from males.	
Age	Most applications (34.5%) were received from those within the age range 25-34. 36.1% were received from those aged 35-49, 17.1% for 16-24 and 11.4% for those over 50. The highest % of applications shortlisted from those received were for those aged 16-24, followed by 25-34, 35-49 and 50+. The highest % appointed from those received were for those in the age range 25-34, followed by 16-24, 35-49 and 50+.	Most applications (39.1%) were received from those within the age range 25-34. 30.9% were received from those aged 35-49, 19% for 16-24 and 10.3% for those over 50. The highest % of applications shortlisted from those received were for those aged 16-24, followed by 25-34, 35-49 and 50+. The highest % appointed from those received were for those in the age range 25-34, followed by 16-24, 35-49 and 50+.	Most applications (42%) were received from those within the age range 25-34. 30.9% were received from those aged 35-49, 19.3% for 16-24 and 6.7% for those over 50. The highest % of applications shortlisted and appointed from those received were for those aged 25-34, followed by 50+, 35-49 and 16-24.	The majority of applications received were from candidates aged 16-24 and 25-34. Fewest were 50+ years old. As a percentage of applications received, more candidates aged under 25 were appointed than those aged 50+.	
Disability	2.5% of applications received were from those who declared themselves as having a disability. As a % of applications received, 23.8% of those with a disability were shortlisted and 0% appointed. This compares to 24.6% and 5.6% for those without a disability.	2.5% of applications received were from those who declared themselves as having a disability. As a % of applications received, 31.6% of those with a disability were shortlisted and 10.5% appointed. This compares to 26.6% and 5.6% for those without a disability.	2.1% of applications received were from those who declared themselves as having a disability. As a % of applications received, 25% of those with a disability were shortlisted and 12.5% appointed. This compares to 32.1% and 11.9% for those without a disability.	3.1% of applications were received from people who declared themselves as having a disability. 50% of applications from those with a disability were shortlisted, compared to 28.5% without a disability. No appointments were made to candidates with a disability.	
Religion	Most applications were received from those who stated n/a or no religion (45.2%), followed by Church of Scotland (15.5%) and Roman Catholic (12.6%). Fewest applications were received from those who were Buddhist, Sikh or Jewish. As a % of applications received, the highest % of those shortlisted and appointed were Church of Scotland, followed by Roman Catholic then Other Christian. 
No Buddhist, Hindu, or Sikh applicants were appointed.	Applications were received from every religion/belief category. Most applications were received from those who stated n/a or no religion (44.6%), followed by Church of Scotland (17.3%) and Roman Catholic (14.5%). Fewest applications were received from those who were another religion, Buddhist or Jewish. As a % of applications received, the highest % of those shortlisted were Buddhist, Jewish then Church of Scotland. As a % of those received who were appointed, the highest % was for Church of Scotland, no religion then Roman Catholic. 	Most applications were received from those who stated n/a or no religion (44.3%), followed by Church of Scotland (17.8%) and Roman Catholic (12.9%). Fewest applications were received from those who were Buddhist or Jewish. As a % of applications received, the highest % of those shortlisted and appointed were Jewish followed by Church of Scotland. 
No Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim applicants were appointed.	Most applications were from those who stated ‘n/a’ or ‘no religion’, followed by Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic. Fewest applications were received from those who were Jewish or Buddhist. As a percentage of applications received, the highest percentage of those shortlisted were from Church of Scotland (44.4%). No candidates who applied and were Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim were offered appointments.	
Sexual orientation	91.2% of all applicants stated they were heterosexual/ straight. 4.1% stated prefer not to say; 0.8% provided no information and 3.8% stated they were gay or bisexual.
	92.5% of all applicants stated they were heterosexual/ straight. 3.4% stated prefer not to say; 0.6% provided no information and 3.5% stated they were gay or bisexual.
	91.2% of all applicants stated they were heterosexual/straight. 3.4% stated prefer not to say; 2.8% provided no information and 2.6% stated gay man, gay woman or bisexual.
Analysis beyond this is not given here due to small numbers in some categories.	Too few applications have been received from each category to be able to report this information.	
1.	
C. Promotions
During the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014, 15 employees were promoted and 18 employees were in receipt of an acting up or additional responsibility allowance. The total number of employees who were either promoted or in receipt of an acting up/additional responsibility allowance was 33.

Exhibit 3
Promotions, acting up and additional responsibility opportunities by gender over the last six reporting periods

Acting up/Additional Responsibility/Promotions	
 	March 2009 	March 2010	March 2011 	March 2012 	March 2013	March 2014	
 	No	%	No	%	No	%	No	%	No	%	No	%	
Male	6	28.6	15	50.0	11	45.8	19	46.3	17	51.5	22	66.7	
Female	15	71.4	15	50.0	13	54.2	22	53.7	16	48.5	11	33.3	

D. Performance Appraisal and development
An individual’s performance is assessed annually against the core competencies for their role at a formal Performance Appraisal and Development (PAD) meeting. Performance is scored using a 1-3 scale with 1 being highly effective performance and 3 indicating that improvement is required. Members of the leadership group are not included in the figures. Recent new starters and scores for three staff members are also not included.
The distribution of PAD scores across the organisation and distribution by gender can be seen in Charts D and E. A breakdown of PAD scores by other protected characteristics has not been provided for this report due to the small numbers involved in some categories. However, our HR team has analysed the information and will look for trends over time.

E. Training 
Our HR system keeps a record of corporate staff training organised through HR. A review of these training records for the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 shows:
•	training was recorded as having been undertaken across 29 different training areas 
•	190 employees are recorded as having received formal training during 2013/14. Of those employees:
	81 (93.1 per cent) were white and 6 (6.9 per cent) were from a minority ethnic group.
	97 were female (51.1 per cent) and 93 were male (48.9 per cent).

F. Leavers
During 2013/14, 15 people resigned from the organisation (29 leavers in total including, eg the expiry of fixed term contracts, voluntary early release and career breaks). Exhibit 4 shows leavers (resignations only) by gender. The majority of resignations were from men. Resignations were received from staff in age bands 25-34 (26.7 per cent), 35-49 (60 per cent) and 50+ (13.3 per cent). 

Exhibit 4
Leavers by gender
 	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	
Gender	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	
Male	10	71.4	6	43	7	38.9	4	30.8	9	90.0	9	60.0	
Female	4	28.6	8	57	11	61	9	69.2	1	10.0	6	40.0