Equalities: Specific Duties
The Scottish Government published The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 which came into effect on 27 May 2012. The Specific Duties assist public bodies such as Aberdeenshire Council to meet the General Duty.
Report on mainstreaming the equality duty
We are building an equalities perspective into every part of our work here at Aberdeenshire Council; in other words, we are mainstreaming equalities. We are taking equalities into account in the way we go about our business when acting as:
| An Employer | A Decision Maker |
| A Policymaker | A Buyer of Goods and Services |
| An Education Authority | As Licensing Boards |
Mainstreaming equalities has a number of benefits including:
- Equalities becomes part of the structures, behaviours and culture of Aberdeenshire, to the benefit of employees and service users
- We can demonstrate how, in carrying out our business, we are promoting equalities
- Mainstreaming equalities contributes to continuous improvement, better performance and better value
Publish equality outcomes and report progress
Aberdeenshire's equality outcomes 2021/25
Aberdeenshire Council has used extensive research and community engagement to identify equality outcomes. The six outcomes have been developed based on the Council Plan 2020-2022, Directorate Plans, the Community Impact Assessment and national and local evidence and feedback from engagement activities including surveys and community conversations.
The draft outcomes were available for public consultation through the council’s engagement platform, Engage Aberdeenshire, during the summer 2021, and were presented to the Aberdeenshire Licensing Board and the Aberdeenshire Education Authority in August 2021. They were considered by Full Council along with our Equalities Mainstreaming Report on 23rd September 2021. The six proposed outcomes were agreed:
- Disabled people have an improved experience in accessing services that meet their needs through more regular and systematic involvement in design of service delivery across the council.
- Service users, particularly those who face barriers through disability and language, are provided with accessible information on services provided by the council, and are supported to access these digitally where appropriate.
- In Aberdeenshire people have opportunities to fulfil their potential throughout life.
- Aberdeenshire Council as an employer create a fair and inclusive place to work where differences between people are celebrated and barriers are reduced for women, disabled people, minority ethnic people and young people.
- An increased proportion of women, black and minority ethnic people, younger people, disabled people and LGBTI+ are supported to enter employment or training.
- LGBTI+, disabled, religious, faith and black and minority ethnic people have increased confidence to report hate crime through our work with partners to; prevent hate crime, encourage people to report hate crime when it happens, and improve service responses to victims.
Aberdeenshire's equality outcomes 2017/21
We have developed six equality outcomes. Read our equalities mainstreaming and outcomes report (PDF 556KB). We have specified which protected characteristics and legal entity each outcome applies to and how it relates to our local outcome improvement plan.
Our equality outcomes have been developed to enable us to:
- eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- advance equality of opportunity
- foster good relations
Assess and review policies and practices
We are committed to integrating equalities into our services, using tools such as the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA), to ensure that equalities feature in business planning, decision-making, and through all other policy development and review mechanisms.
Gather and use employee information
Information about the council's workforce profile and details about gathering and using employee information can be found in the Equalities Workforce Profile report (PDF 653KB).
Publish statements on equal pay and gender pay gap information
Find out more about the council's Equal Pay Statement, occupational segregation as well as the Council and the Aberdeenshire Education Authority’s gender pay gap in the equal pay statement (PDF 333KB). In terms of The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012, Regulation 7 (4) there is no requirement for Aberdeenshire Licensing Boards to publish information on the gender pay gap or information on equal pay.