Corporate report

SLC EDI Annual Report 2023

Published 28 March 2024

1. Introduction – CEO Chris Larmer

This year has been an exciting year in relation to Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in SLC, with the development and launch of our refreshed 3-year Equality Diversity and Inclusion Strategy in August 2023.  I am proud to have been involved in its development which included collaboration and feedback from our colleagues, leaders, and stakeholders. Feedback from these variety of sources meant we have identified five areas of strategic focus and updated objectives that will drive our EDI maturity.

We have made an excellent start in laying the foundations of the new strategy promoting it through EDI roadshow sessions that I attended. During these sessions we highlighted the importance of sharing equality monitoring data to increase knowledge on the benefits of reporting and how we need to fully understand the diverse needs of our workforce to make more informed decisions.  This campaign led to an increase in colleagues reporting their status regarding their ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion.

We know that Colleague Networks are key in influencing our approach to EDI activity, which is why, this year, we have developed a Colleague Network Framework that has enabled us to launch seven new Colleague Networks in SLC enabling us to further incorporate colleague voice into decision making.

We have been re-accredited with the National Centre of Diversity Investors in Diversity Award in April, and in June we implemented more flexible and inclusive ways of working through our new Hybrid and Flexible Working Policies. Initial figures show that there has been a 300% increase in Flexible Working requests and these have contributed to increasing our part time population with an increase in part time working for both men and women, taking advantage of our new flexible working models.

This year we have also seen some excellent examples of inclusivity in working with our customers through the implementation of SLC’s Customer Charter, supporting customers with additional needs; the development of an interactive Vulnerability Toolkit to enable our colleagues to better support our customers; and the refresh of our Customer Panel, ensuring the opinions of our diverse customers are heard.

When we moved into our new office space in Glasgow in December this year, we ensured that the office space and move itself was Equality Impact Assessed in partnership with the Business Disability Forum. This has meant we now have a workspace which supports collaborative working, improves wellbeing and accessibility, and assists in meeting our sustainability targets.  

SLC still has a considerable way to go to meet the objectives of our 3-year EDI strategy, and I do not underestimate the scale of the task. However,  this year we have demonstrated positive progress, including clearly identifying our areas of focus to move beyond compliance and forward in progressing our EDI agenda. I’m pleased to share this report, which provides an update on the EDI activities undertaken within the last 12 months, and I am excited for our progress under the new strategy in future years.

2. Our Legal Responsibilities 

As a public sector organisation SLC has specific legal responsibilities we are required to meet to ensure compliance. The Equality Act 2010 tackles discrimination and inequality based on the nine protected characteristics. These are:  

• Race
• Religion and Belief
• Pregnancy and Maternity
• Sex
• Age
• Sexual Orientation
• Gender Reassignment
• Disability
• Marriage and Civil Partnership

Under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) there is a requirement to have due regard for eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation, advancing equality of opportunity and advancing good relations between those who have a protected characteristic and those who don’t.

3. Governance 

A governance reporting structure is in place whereby we report our progress on the EDI Strategy 6 monthly via both our Executive People Forum and our Remuneration Committee. In addition, we produce Gender Pay Gap reports and EDI Reporting annually. 

4. Equality Impact Assessments (EIA)  

As part of our obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) we are required to consider how policy and procedural changes may impact colleagues with protected characteristics. We currently carry out EIA’s within SLC and we have continued efforts to fulfil this obligation by providing key stakeholders in SLC with EIA training in January this year. Work is ongoing to embed a consistent Equality Analysis process that enables an effective approach to mitigate barriers for both colleagues and customers. 

5. Accreditations 

SLC is proud to hold multiple accreditations which reinforce our commitment to EDI. We have achieved the highest level of recognition under the Governments Disability Confident Scheme meaning we are a Disability Confident Leader. As part of this accreditation, we have committed to an extensive action plan which will improve the experiences of our colleagues. This will include considerations for tour recruitment process, reviewing the reasonable adjustments process and launching a disability network to allow continuous feedback on our policies, processes and procedures.

We are members of Business Disability Forum (BDF), a leading organisation who specialise in disability inclusion. This year we have utilised their specialist knowledge on our move between our Bothwell Street and 10 Clyde Place offices, we have asked specific questions relating to best practice ensuring our colleagues have the best experience possible and we continue to consult with them on our reasonable adjustment process. In addition, we have joined many of their Networks who provide specialist advice and information.  

In April 2023 we retained our Investors in Diversity award provided by the National Centre for Diversity, this reaccreditation reinforces SLC’s desire to put equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do.

As part of our commitment to supporting the Carers within SLC we hold a membership for Employers for Carers, this provides us with advice and best practice to ensure those who are caring for others have the flexibility they need to fulfil both roles.

6. Engagement and Listening 

We have multiple groups who we engage with to ensure we put the colleague voice at the heart of all key decisions. This includes our union, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), with whom we have a recognition agreement.

Our Colleague Representative Group (CRG) a colleague led network which provides key feedback on policies and procedures.

Our Colleague Networks who act as a critical friend and provide solutions for organisational barriers.

Our senior manager-led People Group who provide a business view of people issues.

Finally, we utilise our Employee Engagement Survey to understand what is working well, and what opportunities there are within SLC to improve colleague experience.

7. SLC’s Strategic Aims, Objectives and Updates

This year, through consultation with our colleague networks, senior leaders, and our unions, we have set out an ambitious 3-year EDI strategy which works to embed EDI across the whole organisation and move beyond compliance towards maturity.

The EDI strategy sets out the following objectives within five pillars. Please find progress against these objectives outlined below:

7.1 Data

We will understand the needs of our workforce and customers through transparent data, reporting, insight, and analysis to support evidence based and data led decision-making. 

Objectives: 

• We will develop intuitive data collection processes of our workforce and customers to understand how we can be more representative of our localities and customer demographics.
• We aim to understand the diverse needs of our workforce, increasing knowledge and building confidence in equality reporting.
• We will implement reporting mechanisms to encourage transparency, and support proactive, data led decision making.

As part of the promotion of the refreshed EDI Strategy, we shared with colleagues the current demographics of the organisation and highlighted the importance and benefits of individuals sharing Equality Information with the organisation.

EDI Roadshow sessions highlighted the known and unknown data that we currently hold for colleagues within SLC, outlining specifically, the difference between ‘known’ data, ‘blank/unknown’ data and ‘prefer not to say’. 

An equality monitoring campaign ran concurrently to the EDI Roadshows Sessions to encourage

colleagues to provide us with their Equality Monitoring information and reduce unknown data.  

We have updated our equality data terminology in Workday to allow for more inclusive and accurate gender identity reporting. We have provided further options for gender identity reporting to include trans man, trans woman, non-binary, genderqueer, gender fluid, agender and prefer not to say options. 

There has been an increased focus on tracking the leave types being utilised across the organisation. We know that ‘pregnancy and maternity’ is one of the protected characteristics we need to be mindful of, however, previously we had limited reporting of which colleagues were on maternity leave, paternity leave or shared leave. We have had this field added into the protected characteristic report so that we can accurately track this, consider it as part of Equality Impact Assessments and make comparisons year on year.  

In addition, we have worked with the Business Disability Forum (BDF) to develop further reporting terminology for disability, neurodiversity and carers to aid deeper understanding of how to best support our colleagues to thrive.

An Equity Dashboard is in development which incorporates equality data in relation to recruitment as well as updated information for our workforce demographics to aid further reporting.

7.2 Recruitment, retention, and progression

We will support our ambition to be a diverse and inclusive workforce that attracts individuals from a range of backgrounds and is representative of our local demographics and the customers we serve. 

• We will attract diverse talent and promote SLC as an employer of choice.
• We will ensure fair, inclusive and transparent recruitment and selection processes.
• We will promote the retention and progression of talent within SLC, ensuring equity of opportunity to enable diversity at all levels.

To achieve our aim of having a more diverse workforce we are utilising a wider range of recruitment platforms including Indeed, Facebook, LinkedIn, Civil Service Careers and S1Jobs. In addition, we have initiated the following campaigns:

• Unlocking potential: discover your new role at SLC
• Unlocking Technology: Discovering your potential with SLC careers
• Unlocking opportunities: Leadership and management roles at SLC

The purpose of these campaigns is to attract colleagues with disabilities, women, and those from ethnic minority backgrounds since our data shows we are not representative overall in relation to disability and ethnic minority groups and in relation to gender, data analysis shows that although most of our workforce is female (increasing from 53.25% in 2022 to 53.48% in December 2023), women are underrepresented in grades 15 and above.  

We hope that this campaign will increase women in leadership positions and in technology roles, which will assist in decreasing our overall mean gender pay gap which is currently 12.7%.  

We have developed new job adverts which make candidates aware of our commitment to flexible working by clearly detailing our hybrid working policy and highlighting our flexible working opportunities. Our intent here is to attract candidates from more diverse backgrounds and increase our reputation as an employer of choice. 

We have updated the diversity and inclusion information on our external careers website, currently being refreshed, to reflect the objectives of our current strategy. We have also detailed the accreditations we have achieved in the past year.

We have also a new programme, ‘Licenced to Hire’ with non-Operational managers over two sessions.  Aiming to eliminate unconscious bias by asking managers to concentrate on what unconscious bias is to them, provide examples of when they have seen unconscious bias take place and the impact this may have had on our colleagues.

Furthermore, the modules increase knowledge of equality legislation governing SLC, such as the Equality Act, aiming to reduce potential discrimination in the application process and encourages managers to be proactive in providing reasonable adjustments to ensure colleagues have the tools they need to thrive.

Following the successful trial, this training is now being rolled out to hiring managers across the organisation. 

Supporting women into STEM careers is a key element of our Emerging Talent strategy. In the 2023-24 financial year 10% of our STEM Apprenticeship roles were filled by women and our Graduate STEM roles were filled by 31% women and 69% men.  

We have implemented a STEM woman working group, which has been involved in careers fairs and school visits. SLC has also been involved with various programmes including Hello World and Career Ready in England; and Career Ready and the Skills Development Scotland working group ‘Women into Tech’ in Scotland. Getting more women into tech is not just about attraction for relevant posts – we know we need to encourage more women to consider a STEM-related career, therefore early intervention is required. One of the main aims of our school’s partnership programme is to support education and socialisation of many different careers stories and discuss requirements for future skills in order to influence choices for more young people. We have carefully considered the recruitment methods for our Emerging Talent programme through the completion of an Equality Impact Assessment to ensure we are encouraging uptake from women whilst being fair and consistent.  

This includes ensuring we have equal gender representation at interviews and flexibility and inclusiveness in recruitment processes. We have designed a 360 Assessment centre process which is based on meta-skills, aptitude, and openness to learn, not just current ability. This has proven to be a key strength in allowing our Emerging Talent programme to support our Women in STEM agenda. 

We will utilise SLC’s newly formed Women’s’ Development Network to support uptake and promotion of our graduate and apprenticeship programmes and inform any potential barriers within our recruitment processes.

7.3 Leadership

We will support our leaders to effectively role model Equality Diversity and Inclusion from the top down and create an environment where everyone can thrive. 

• We will ensure our leaders are accountable, make data led decisions, and actively lead Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives throughout the organisation.
• We will build the capability and confidence of our leaders to be culturally aware and effectively promote EDI initiatives.

To show SLC’s commitment to leading EDI from the top down, our CEO has included an EDI objective for the 2023-24 performance year to all Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and Senior Management Team (SMT) members setting out their responsibilities in driving the EDI agenda as leaders of the organisation. 

This promotes a top-down approach to leading EDI and represents a cultural shift being the first time EDI has been referenced in ELT and SMT objectives, enabling our leaders to show their commitment and be accountable for progressing the EDI agenda through their Performance Development. 

Members of both the ELT/SMT attended Pride events in both Darlington and Glasgow showcasing their support as for LGBTQ colleagues in SLC, Arcus (SLC LGBTQ Network) and the local LGBTQ communities. 

Our leaders have promoted and attended the EDI Roadshow sessions, and ensured colleagues are given time to attend, allowing us to access direct feedback on a range of topical themes. This has been invaluable in the development of our networks, and we have been able to identify several networks which will support the EDI strategy and our colleagues as a result. 

Our leaders have approved a new SLC Colleague Network Framework which enables inclusive colleague engagement to influence decision making. The framework also enables senior leadership to support networks through active sponsorship roles with members of both the ELT and SMT volunteering to take on the important role.

7.4 Organisational development

We will support the effective development of our people to promote inclusion, develop cultural awareness, build cultural confidence and better understand the needs of our customers. 

• We will equip our workforce with tools and knowledge to better understand legal implications and responsibilities of equality related issues.
• We will develop colleagues’ cultural awareness and knowledge of inclusive behaviours to better understand the needs of our diverse colleagues and customers.
• We will support the development of our managers to build cultural confidence, promote an inclusive culture and better understand the diverse needs of their teams and customers.

We have reviewed the mandatory EDI e-Learning module to ensure greater levels of accessibility for our colleagues. We have maintained previous levels of engagement of 97% of colleagues having completed the module.  

As part of our EDI Roadshow sessions, we have raised awareness of our legal obligations to provide an inclusive culture for colleagues who possess protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). 

In January this year the EDI team has launched its review of the Equality Impact Assessment process with external training provided for relevant colleagues across the organisation in the People, Change and Customer Experience functions to increase knowledge and embed a consistent process across the organisation to mitigate potential bias and/or discrimination of our policies, services and processes. 

We have conducted a review into the eLearning modules provided on mental health and wellbeing, providing more intuitive guidance, training and signposting to improve the experience and accessibility of information for our colleagues.  

As part of our promotion of better metal health and wellbeing in the organisation we have assigned chairs of our Mental Health First Aiders Network who are formalising plans to promote mental health learning initiatives.  

In February we recruited and trained an additional 16 Mental Health First Aiders ensuring we have a diverse mix of MHFAs available across all office locations and remotely to support our colleagues.

7.5 Inclusive culture

We will support equity in SLC, embedding processes that identify and remove disproportionate impacts for underrepresented groups and create an inclusive culture.

• We will prioritise the retention of colleagues within SLC, ensuring our people are treated with fairness, dignity and respect.
• We will effectively engage with our workforce and customers, enabling them to contribute to an inclusive culture and improve our services.
• We will continually monitor our policies, procedures, and services to promote inclusivity and reduce potential discrimination or barriers to access.

Inclusive Workforce 

A communications calendar has been developed and shared with stakeholders across the business to support and promote EDI activities. 

This year we have celebrated: World Mental Health Day, Transgender Awareness Week, LBGTQ History Month, Pride in Glasgow and Darlington, International Care Day, Disability History Month, and International Day for persons with a Disability. We have also communicated advice and resources on Financial Wellbeing, Wellbeing over the Christmas period and Seasonal Affective Disorder on our intranet pages. 

We have continued to support our LGBT+ network Arcus to promote SLC as a great place to work, provide education to our colleagues and promote fairness and respect. The Network have transitioned onto the new Colleague Network Framework and are currently recruiting a Co-Chair to enable them to successfully celebrate more LGBT+ events throughout the year, provide consultation on policies and procedures within SLC to ensure they are fit for purpose and provide education and awareness of LBGT+ issues. SLC has joined with Arcus to celebrate Pride in both Glasgow and Darlington.  

National Inclusion Week (25 – 29 September) saw us promote multiple initiatives through the SLC intranet including a data drive informing colleagues of the benefits of updating their personal data, the introduction of our new Arcus Chair through a Q&A session; and finally, an interview with our new EDI Advisor, who shared her experiences since she has joined SLC and her excitement for the impact our new EDI strategy will have. 

Our Mental Health First Aid Network has been relaunched under the new SLC colleague network framework, providing the Network with two Co-Chairs, who have been utilising the benefit of protected time to recruit more members. We now have 40 Mental Health First Aid trained colleagues across all four SLC locations.  

To better support the establishment of new colleague-led networks, we have developed a new Colleague Network Framework which has been approved for implementation by the ELT. Our new framework sets out roles and responsibilities including protected time for co-chairs and provides chairs with protected time to effectively plan network activities. To further show out commitment we have provided networks with access to a modest centrally held budget and assigned Senior Sponsors to support network activities.  

Following Colleague Network Sessions and EDI Roadshow Sessions we engaged closely with colleagues and listened to what Networks they wanted in the organisation. We have now launched the following new Networks in addition to the LGBT, sustainability and MHFA networks: Ethnicity, Neurodiversity, Menopause, Women’s Development, Disability, and Carers.  

A cross functional working group has been set up to ensure our colleagues receive the reasonable adjustments they require. The group is reviewing current process to improve colleague experience and build manager understanding of adjustments in the workplace.

To ensure we are considering the impact of our projects on our colleagues we have conducted an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) on the move from Bothwell Street to 10 Clyde Place. As a part of this process, we have consulted with several different groups including PCS, our Colleague Representative Group and The Business Disability Forum and ARCUS, our LGBTQ Network.

Our consultation allowed us to consider the impact of the move upon colleagues with protected characteristics. In partnership with the Business Disability Forum, this EIA assessed accessibility requirements, neurodiversity considerations of our office design, and provided facilities for colleagues who have specific needs for their protected characteristic. 

 The results of the EIA highlighted improved accessibility for our colleagues including step free access, dedicated disabled parking, accessible, adapting the décor of the building to take cognisance of neurodiversity needs, introducing gender neutral toilets, providing a dedicated prayer room and facility for expressing and storing milk for those who are breast feeding as well as considerations for our neurodiverse and disabled colleagues. We outlined neurodiversity considerations for our new office design and outlined how Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) and effective communication methods could support colleagues with the move itself.  

We are currently redeveloping the EIA process to ensure it is embedded within projects across the organisation. This will mean all relevant projects, policies and processes are impact assessed and consulted upon by the groups mentioned above ensuring a better overall experience for our colleagues and ensuring SLC’s position as a great place to work.  

Changes have been made to our policies to incorporate more inclusive ways of working for SLC. We know that flexible and hybrid working supports colleagues with a protected characteristic particularly women and colleagues with a disability. Our new Hybrid Working Policy now offers all colleagues the opportunity to work up to 3 days from home and 2 days in the office.  

Our Flexible Working Policy increases the flexible working options available and allows the use of flexitime as a day one privilege for all colleagues, promoting conversations around flexible working ‘from day 1’ and allowing up to 3 requests annually. Flexible working requests are up by 300% following the implementation of the refreshed policy, and in addition, our equality monitoring data shows this has been successful in increasing the number of men and women working part time within SLC.  

We have continued to engage with ARCUS our LGBT network in the review of our EDI and Transgender/Gender Identity Equality Policies.  

We enhanced the Holiday and Time Off Policy to better support colleagues undergoing surgery, including considerations for colleagues undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

Inclusive Customer Experience 

In October 2023, we published SLC’s Charter for Customers Requiring Additional Support, the charter itself outlines SLC’s principles, values, and organisational vision in the context of supporting customers who need additional support when they are interacting with us. A number of different categories are recognised within our customer charter, and we are looking to implement further tools and initiatives into our business-as-usual operational processes to ensure we can provide and even more robust service and level of support to customers that require additional help.  

We are developing a Reasonable Adjustment Policy and associated e-learning are aiming to be introduced by the end of this financial year.  

We have provided customer-facing colleagues with an interactive desk guide, based on the cross government ‘Vulnerability Toolkit’. The desk guide has several different customer scenarios and supports colleagues to effectively engage with our vulnerable customers. This toolkit is regularly reviewed by the ‘Fairness Group’ (a cross government customer experience focused forum) to ensure its fit for purpose. 

In October 2023 we began to introduce customer indicators into the Salesforce platform. The customer indicator project identified 14 different indicators that can support customers who need additional help when interacting with us, incorporating elements such as Reasonable Adjustment requirements and Mental Health considerations as examples of indicators that can be applied to accounts to help support the customers’ experience.  

In January 2024 we published an external adaptation of our customer charter which encourages customers being open and honest with us about their circumstances and advising them that we can apply indicators to their account in specific scenarios and we can offer additional support where possible. Finally, we have a refreshed our membership of the Customer Panel in January 2024.

 The panel has members from across Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, and Wales and is key to support our pledge of improving customer experience. The panel is one of the ways we listen to our diverse customers and ensure their views are reflected in the decisions we make about the service we provide.

8. Equality Monitoring Data 

Following our equality monitoring campaign in September 2023, we have seen some positive progress, based on our data as of December 2023: 

A 4% increase (2.8 percentage points) in colleagues reporting their ethnicity and an overall 14.4% reduction (3.50 percentage points) in colleagues selecting ‘prefer not to say’. However, ‘prefer not to say’ data for ethnicity remains high and we will continue to prioritise decreasing this. 

A 1.17% (0.86 percentage point) increase in colleagues reporting their religion with a 5.3% (1.24 percentage points) reduction of unknown data for colleagues reporting their religion. 

An increase of 0.40% (0.26 percentage points) of colleagues reporting their sexual orientation. 

Unfortunately, the amount of known data for colleagues reporting their disability status has reduced and ‘prefer not to say data’ has slightly increased by 0.02 percentage points from 0.33% to 0.35%. We will look for insights form our newly develop Disability Colleague Network to inform the reasons for this behaviour.

8.1 Age

Comparison between 2022 and 2023 figures shows that SLC workforce has grown from 3,294 colleagues to 3,409 colleagues. This increase has also meant the average age within SLC has increased to 40 from 39 years in 2022. In addition, the median age of colleagues is 38, meaning the median age within SLC is lower than that of other Civil Service departments, in which the median age currently sits at 44

Year	2022	2023
No of employees	3,294	3,409
Average age	39	40
Median age	39	38

8.2 Sex

SLC figures show we have slightly increased the number of female colleagues by 0.23% while decreasing our male population by the same percentage points.  When compared to the wider Civil Service, we have a smaller proportion of women who hold 54.5% of positions across the Civil Service. 2 

This year’s figures suggest 23.31% of women work less than full time, a 1.18 percentage point increase on last year’s figure of 22.13%. The number of men working less than full time has also grown by 0.90 percentage points from 5.72% to 6.62%. Within SLC 15.55% of colleagues work part time, this is slightly lower than the Civil Service figures, who report 19.6% of people work part-time.

	2022	2023	% Change
Men	46.75%	46.52%	-0.23%
Women	53.25%	53.48%	+0.23%

8.3 Gender Identity

This year we updated our Gender Identity data monitoring, providing more inclusive reporting options and updating our terminology allowing us to better understand the needs of our colleagues within SLC. Because of the changes made, it is not possible to accurately compare data with previous years as some of the updated gender identity terms were not previously available. We have included the data we currently hold as an organisation to baseline for future years comparison data.

	2022	2023	% Change
Female	14.49%	19.07%	+4.58%
Male	13.76%	16.75%	+2.99%
Other	0.21%	0.23%	+0.02%
Transgender	0.18%	0.23%	+0.05%
Trans Woman	-	0.03%	+0.03%
Trans Man	-	0.00%	-
I Prefer not to Say	0.33%	0.44%	+0.11%
Blank/Unknown	71.02%	63.24%	-7.78%

As can be seen from the table we do not currently hold any data on trans men. Historically we only captured data for those who identify as transgender, we have recently updated this to encompass trans-men and trans-women to ensure accurate reporting for our gender pay gap, however, this means current data is too small to measure and we have no historic data to compare against. It is a positive sign that our transgender reporting continues to increase. 

In addition, we have high levels of unknown data in this category, this currently sits at 63.24%. This is an improvement on last year’s figure of 71.02% increasing our known data by 7.78 percentage points. This is an optional field, and we feel it is important for this to remain optional due to the sensitivity of the data. We will continue to provide education on the reasons we collate this data and to work with our LGBT Colleague Network ARCUS to support us in increasing the data we hold.

8.4 Ethnicity

Since 2022 we have continued to make progress with those who chose not to share their data with us through developing knowledge around data monitoring as part of our equality monitoring campaigns. Our Ethnicity data shows we have reduced our ‘prefer not to say’ data from 24.36% down to 20.86% in 2023. This reflects the data monitoring campaign held within SLC and hopefully increased confidence from colleagues regarding the way their data is used.

	2022	2023	% Change
Asian	2.83%	3.81%	+0.98%
Black	0.58%	0.82%	+0.24%
Mixed ethnicity	0.58%	0.56%	-0.02%
White	65.83%	67.94%	+2.11%
Other ethnic group	0.21%	0.18%	-0.03%
Not shared	24.36%	20.86%	-3.50%
Blank	5.62%	6.31%	+0.69%

8.5 Religion

Civil Service reporting rates have increased since 2021 and they now hold religion data for 69.9% of their colleagues. Within SLC we are pleased to report we hold religion data for 74.45% of our colleagues, an increase of 0.85 percentage points since 2022. Positively, unknown data has reduced by 1.24 percentage points, ‘prefer not to say’ has slightly increased by 0.39 percentage points. The Civil service also report 41.4% of their colleagues have no religion or belief, SLC mirror this sentiment with 41.36% of colleagues reporting having no religion or belief.

	2022	2023	% Change
Christian	27.22%	27.28%	+0.06%
Buddhist	0.09%	0.12%	+0.03%
Muslim	1.43%	1.85%	+0.42%
Hindu	0.88%	0.97%	+0.09%
Sikh	0.33%	0.35%	+0.02%
Jewish	0.03%	0.03%	No change.
Other religion	2.43%	2.49%	+0.06%
No Religion	41.19%	41.36%	+0.17%
Prefer not to say	3.01%	3.40%	+0.39%
Blank/unknown	23.39%	22.15%	-1.24%

8.6 Disability

SLC data shows that only 5.25% of colleagues currently report having a disability, this falls well below the Civil Service figures of 14%4. Although we have increased reporting by 1.67 percentage points, we still have a large amount of unknown data, up 5 percentage points to 29.42%. The establishment of SLC’s new Disability Network will help gain insight into why we have such a high percentage of unknown data. 

We have recently improved data collection processes for disability by providing additional terminology for reporting disabilities and reclassifying some conditions which colleagues may not consider a disability, this should help us decrease our unknown data in the future and give a true reflection of disability within SLC. We have also moved away from the clinical Equality Act definition of a disability, providing our colleagues with the ability to inform us of any long-term conditions which they are impacted by. This provides a more in-depth picture of the health of our colleagues and will better assist us in providing the right support.

	2022	2023	% Change
Yes	3.58%	5.25%	+1.67%
No	72.30%	64.98%	-7.32%
Prefer not to say	0.33%	0.35%	+0.02%
Blank/unknown	23.78%	29.42%	+5.64%

8.7 Sexual Orientation

Data shows that 5.63% of our colleague’s report being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or ‘other’ in SLC, this falls slightly behind the wider Civil Service who report 6.1% of their colleagues reporting as LGBO5, however, we are likely to be representative of our communities since the Office of National Statistics shows 3.16%6 of the population fell into the same categories in England and Wales, the most recent figures for Scotland are yet to be published following the recent Census. Our ‘blank’ and ‘prefer not to say’ data (30.36%) is also slightly higher than the levels found within the Civil Service (29.2%) however, there has been a year-on-year increase in the data held which is positive.

	2022	2023	% Change
Bisexual	1.55%	2.05%	+0.50%
Gay	2.34%	2.26%	-0.08%
Heterosexual	64.31%	64.01%	-0.30%
Lesbian	0.76%	0.67%	+0.09%
Other	0.43%	0.65%	+0.22%
Prefer not to say	3.31%	3.34%	+0.03%
Blank/unknown	27.31%	27.02%	-0.29%

8.8 Marriage

Figures from 2022 to 2023 show very little change in colleagues’ relationship status across SLC. We have slightly more people cohabiting and a slight rise in colleagues reporting they are divorced compared with 2022.

	2022	2022	% Change
Cohabiting	9.26%	9.74%	+0.48%
Divorced	3.80%	3.84%	+0.04%
Marriage/civil partnership	35.48%	35.11%	-0.37%
Separated	1.79%	1.79%	No change.
Single	40.86%	40.22%	-0.64%
Widowed	0.46%	0.41%	-0.05%
Prefer not to say	1.48%	0.41%	-1.07%
Blank/unknown	6.87%	7.16%	+0.29%

8.9 Pregnancy and Maternity

This is new data that is being collected for this first time in December 2023 following updates to SLC Protected Characteristic Report.  We can see that 1.35% of the organisation are on Maternity leave, 0.09% are on Paternity leave and 0.03% are taking Shared Parental Leave.

Type of Leave	2023
Maternity	1.35%
Paternity	0.09%
Shared Parental	0.03%