Equalities and Planning Directorate
This section provides information on the Equalities and Planning Directorate. Its goal is to help deliver a health service that ensures groups which continue to be disadvantaged or discriminated against have equal access to and experience in the NHS.
July 2009
The Equalities and Planning Directorate was put in place in 2008 to help NHS Scotland deliver real change, eliminate discrimination and promote equality. It combines and builds on the work of what were previously six separate Fair for All projects, providing support to NHS Boards with their work on delivering gender, age, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, religion, disability and race equality.
The work of the Equalities and Planning Directorate takes place across three teams; the Equalities Support team, the Equalities Development team and the Planning and Performance team.
The Equalities Support team has undertaken an Equality and Diversity Benchmarking exercise to develop a national picture of the status of equality and diversity delivered in NHS Scotland to date. The second wave report of the equality and diversity benchmarking exercise is now available. The first wave report was published in March. The aim of this project is to develop a national picture on the status of equality and diversity currently delivered by the NHS in Scotland. The final report will be available shortly.
The Equality Bill 2009
Following extensive consultation, the Equality Bill sets out the future vision of equalities within the UK and places public bodies at its heart. The Equalities and Planning Directorate welcomes the Equality Bill and the strengthening of existing equalities legislation which aims to provide greater consistency and access to protection across different groups of people and avoids the potential risk of a ‘hierarchy of rights’ emerging in the UK.