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Context:
As a named Corporate Parent under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, SQA has specific legal duties and responsibilities to care-experienced people, including taking action to tackle discrimination they face. Care-experienced people, their supporters, and others — including Who Cares? Scotland — have called for Care Experience to become a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. SQA recognised that it could act to treat Care Experience as a protected characteristic within its own processes without waiting for a change in law, and that doing so would help it meet its existing Corporate Parenting responsibilities.
Approach:
SQA made a commitment to ensuring its policies consider Care Experience as a protected characteristic. It did this primarily by updating its Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) process and staff training to incorporate the needs of care-experienced people, and by aligning its Corporate Parenting and equality and diversity workstreams.
Implementation:
• Updated the EqIA process and guidance to ensure consideration of the needs of care-experienced people as a standard part of all EqIAs.
• Aligned the Corporate Parenting workstream with equality and diversity work, and with responsibilities under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024.
• Published a new Corporate Parenting Plan 2023–26 in January 2024, committing to ensuring the voice of care-experienced people is at the heart of SQA decision-making.
• Launched a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion module in 2024, including a section raising awareness of Corporate Parenting responsibilities and reminding employees that SQA considers Care Experience a protected characteristic.
• Launched a new Corporate Parenting and Care Experience module in 2024, developed by Who Cares? Scotland, and promoted it to all staff with completion rates monitored.
• Completed EqIAs of SQA’s employment policies, identifying opportunities to enhance employment support for people with care experience and their line managers.
• Made a commitment to taking measures to develop support for care-experienced people to gain, stay, and progress in employment, and is currently exploring methods to better understand the employee lifecycle and barriers for care-experienced people.
Impact:
• SQA’s EqIA process now systematically considers the needs of care-experienced people across policies and practices.
• Staff training ensures employees are alert to matters that might adversely affect the wellbeing of children and young people in care.
• Policy owners are being supported to engage with the EqIA process and consider the needs of care-experienced people, building expertise and raising awareness of Corporate Parenting responsibilities.
• EqIAs of employment policies have identified opportunities to enhance employment support for care-experienced people and line managers.