In a series of research reports Equality Here, Now looked at what this revealed.
Two things emerged. An ultra-casual approach on the part of many in the public sector to meeting the duties, either in the letter or in the spirit of the law. Secondly, that institutional discrimination remains very much alive and flourishing in what is often described in political double-speak as a 'fairer Scotland'.
When looking at the NHS, the research found that the NHS in Scotland appeared to have significant problems with institutional discrimination in the employment of disabled people.
Just 0.86% of the whole NHS workforce across Scotland identified as disabled. This at a time when the census revealed Scotland has 20% of the population identifying as disabled.
Two years on, research - based on data published by NHS Boards themselves - reveals that across the whole workforce and after another two years of working on disability equality, the NHS can now conjure up 0.95% workers identifying as disabled.
Look at the table on page 14, providing some detail and texture to the bald but embarrassing and shameful figure of 0.95%. Out of the 22 NHS Boards serving [not very well, it has to be said] the population of Scotland, just 1 comes anywhere near employing the proportion of disabled people in Scotland's population. NHS 24 has 20.27% of its workforce identifying as disabled.
The performance of the rest of the 21 Boards looks dismal in comparison. Keep in mind that this is not about percentages, this is about disabled people being given the opportunity to work, or not in the case of most of the NHS. That opportunity is being denied them by the shockingly bad performance of most NHS Boards in meeting their specific and general equality duties. There can only be one of two possible reasons for this. Either most NHS Boards are led by a Chief Executive not competent in complying with the law on equality, or the institutional discrimination against disabled people in employment is deep and ingrained across most of the NHS in Scotland.
In the many questions on performance which Chief Executives need to answer and be held to account for, an obvious one is just why is it that NHS 24 can achieve a reasonable level of employment of disabled people while they in their own Board can't ?
Do they not work together, learn from each other ? Share insights to what works and what doesn't work ? There is even a dedicated Equality Directorate for the whole NHS and based in NHS Health Scotland. Why is it that Directorate is unable to ensure that progress with disability equality in employment is part of a coherent national strategy for the whole of the NHS ? The Cabinet Secretary for Health in Scotland needs to get a grip of Chief Executives failing to do their job. She would smack them hard enough and quick enough if they fell behind on waiting times.
As well as the Cabinet Secretary putting 21 Chief Executives on the seriously naughty step for awful performance on disability equality, the Equality & Human Rights Commission should also be holding the Cabinet Secretary, Boards and Chief Executives to account, given the obvious and continuing failings in tackling disability discrimination in employment. It is a fundamental part of the reason the EHRC exists.
The clue to their failure to wave the big stick of legal action on compliance is to be found in the Official Record of an evidence session involving 2 senior officials from the EHRC and the Scottish Parliament's Equal Opportunities Committee last year, just after the referendum vote on independence. During some occasionally tough questioning, the Scotland Director, Mr Pringle, was asked how many public bodies had the EHRC taken to court for non-compliance with the equality duties. The eventual and clearly reluctant answer was :
We have never taken a public authority in Scotland to court. We have never had to.The NHS is in trouble on disability equality and those responsible seem unwilling or unable to get out of the inequality jail they have created with their lack of meaningful efforts over a number of years. As a single measure of just how deep that trouble is, a look at the NHS Grampian workforce report for 2013/14 and published in January 2015 tells the reader, on page 15, that :
NHS Grampian has been given the right to display the “Disability Symbol” on our literature. This is in recognition of our commitment to employing disabled people and our assurance to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and consider them on their abilities.
Yet, just a few lines on and the report notes :
The number of disabled staff employed by NHS Grampian has shown a decrease in 2013/14. 73 staff considered themselves disabled in 2012/13.
This represents a stunningly eloquent illustration of the bankrupt nature of the 2-ticks symbol sponsored by Job Centre Plus and exposes it as the sham window dressing it really is It also illuminates the bankruptcy in the capacity of the NHS to analyse its own data and deal with the stark realities which it conveys. That Scotland's NHS is, for the most part, institutionally discriminatory in its employment of disabled people.
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| Scotland's NHS is, for the most part, institutionally discriminatory in its employment of disabled people |
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