Report Summary
As a public body, SPA has a specific duty to publish relevant information to demonstrate our compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), part of the Equality Act 2010. We publish information relating to our recruitment practices and information about employees who share protected characteristics from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
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Disability
Within the 2022 Census, a total of 377,700 people said their health was bad or very bad, an increase of 80,700 people since 2011 - mostly driven by Scotland’s ageing population and an increase in older people.
The Census also found that the percentage of people reporting a long-term illness, disease or condition increased from 18.7% in 2011 to 21.4% in 2022. The second most common condition reported in the census was a mental health condition.
Based on the overall workforce, 6.57% of people have declared a disability.
We recognise that many employees have traditionally been reluctant to disclose that they consider themselves to be disabled, and this continues to be the case. In our 2023 report, 5.35% of staff confirmed they had a disability. This figure has increased in 2024, now representing 6.57% of the workforce.
In comparison to 6.57% of the overall workforce, 12.5% of new starts confirmed that they considered themselves to have a disability.
Analysis of the leaver data above shows that the number of leavers indicating that they have a disability has decreased to 11.54%, compared to the 24% reported in 2023.
The Disability Pay Gap is the difference in average hourly earnings between staff who have disclosed a disability and staff who have stated they do not consider themselves to have a disability.
The disability pay gap on 31 March 2024 was 6.7%.
A likely contributing factor to the gap is the higher representation of those with a declared disability at grade 7 and below (7.9%) as opposed to the 4.1% at grade 8 and above.
A key area of focus in terms of disability is understanding whether the low level of disability disclosure is likely to be an accurate reflection of our workforce or if staff with a disability are choosing not to disclose this.
The Authority is a Disability Confident employer and will continue to emphasise the support available to employees through Occupational Health and the Employee Assistance Programme.
Through engagement with diversity staff associations, trades unions and consideration of relevant research and evidence, we will continue to seek to understand the barriers to recruitment and retention of those with a disability.
