Resources for financial decision making
Destination Unknown: Tracking the lives of disabled people through cuts
The findings from this report creates a more varied picture of the lives of disabled people through a period of welfare and local service cuts.
Scottish Women’s Budget Group Response Draft Budget 2012-2013 and Spending Review 2011
This report highlights the impacts and effects of welfare and housing reform; public sector spending reduction and withdrawal of services on women who are the largest users – and providers - of public services. The limited economic growth and labour market downturn for women pose significant and potentially enduring threats to women’s earnings and economic independence.
Measuring the impact of cuts in public expenditure on the provision of services to prevent violence against women and girls
This report considers the evidence on cuts in budgets and services to prevent violence against women and girls. It collects together the data as to where the cuts have been falling drawn from around 20 published and previously unpublished sources.
Coping with Change and Uncertainty: Scotland’s Equality Groups and the Recession, 2010
A Review of Scottish data, literature and fieldwork 2009-2010, exploring the impacts of the recession and its consequences for equalities individuals and groups.
Scotland's Public Finances – Addressing the Challenges, Audit Scotland, 2011
The scale of the budget cuts brings immediate challenges for the Scottish public sector to reduce expenditure but also to ensure long-term sustainable public services.
Unravelling Equality? A Human Rights and Equality Impact Assessment of the Public Spending Cuts on Women in Coventry. May 2011
A summary of the key findings of the human rights and equality impact assessment (HREIA). It analyses the public spending cuts that are currently underway and their potential human rights and equality impacts on women in Coventry.
EHRC - Meeting the public sector equality duty in Scotland. Interim guidance for Scottish public authorities.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission strongly recommends that public authorities continue to follow good practice, in particular in assessing equality impact and gathering and using relevant evidence and information. To support Scottish public authorities in continuing to promote equality in their work, the Commission has produced interim guidance in April 2011. Further specific equality duties for Scottish public authorities are expected to be developed by the Scottish Government and the Commission will produce revised guidance as and when required.
Equality Statement Scotland’s Budget 2011– 2012
The Equality Statement provides a summary of the action the Scottish Government has taken to ensure equality has been considered within the Scottish Budget process. It outlines the equality implications of the budget proposals for each portfolio and how each contributes towards making Scotland a fairer and more just society.
Equality analysis in the Budget and Spending Review 2011 onwards
A report by the Equality and Budget Advisory Group (EBAG), 2009. EBAG were asked to consider how the Scottish Government could improve the equality analysis of future budgets and spending decisions, in particular with regard to the 2011/12 Budget and Spending Review.
Equality and the Budget. A guide to Making Informed Spending and Budget Decisions, Scottish Government, Nov 2010.
A resource pack distributed to all Scottish Government Directorates in 2010. Although designed for Scottish Government use, the framework can apply helpfully to most public sectors when impact assessing their financial decisions. The pack was developed quickly for the budget preparations and is therefore not a comprehensive resource. It includes some narrative on impacts of spend reductions, however this is part of early considerations and the Equality Budget Statement 2011-12 should instead be considered as the latest account of information on equality and the Budget..
What's it worth now?
The Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) report What’s it worth now? argues that the social and economic cost of poor mental health in Scotland has reached £10.7 billion a year. SAMH argues the figures show there is an economic imperative, as well as a legal and moral one, to provide support for people with mental health problems.
Spend Now:Save Later (Scottish Women's Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland, Oct 2010)
The case for gender budget analysis in violence against women spending
Counting the Cost (Equality and Human Rights Commission, Sept 2010)
The aim of this research is to provide an understanding of the role of the Public Sector Equalities Duties in local authority decision making in the years 2007/08 and 2008/09. The Equality and Human Rights Commission wished to find out how the changes in the context in which local authorities work impacted on activity to promote equality.
Using the equality duties to make fair financial decisions (Equality and Human Rights Commission, Sep 2010)
This guide sets out what is expected of decision-makers and leaders of public authorities responsible for delivering key services at a national, regional or local level, in order to make decisions as fair as possible.