Falkirk Council is committed to ensure fair treatment and equal opportunities for all employees. As a public sector employer, we recognise our role in promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion across all aspects of our operations.  

The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public authorities to have due regard to certain equality considerations when exercising their functions, like making decisions.  One requirement under the specific duties is to publish equality outcomes every four years and report on progress every two years – these must include employer equality outcomes. Progress on our previous Employer Equality Outcomes can be found in Appendix 5. 

Over the past two years, the following policies/strategies were developed and reviewed:  

This Policy is intended to prevent conflict of interest arising between extra mural employment/ activities undertaken by employees and their Falkirk Council employment. The update includes accessing the form through the employee portal, includes a How to Guide for colleagues to use. This will help with monitoring and ease of access for colleagues, including for those who require taking multiple jobs. This revised policy also recognises that individuals undertake valuable voluntary work on behalf of their communities, can be used to also promote the Council's Employee Volunteering Policy.  

We are continuing to work towards the Fair Work First Principles and payment of Real Living Wage to apprentices. Increasing the hourly rate of pay towards the Real Living Wage for apprentices would benefit everyone, including those with protected characteristics, care experienced and those with low income. 

Redeployment provides a mechanism for employees who have been registered for redeployment to have the opportunity to be considered for other suitable posts within the Council. Whilst it does not guarantee alternative employment, it is a positive measure to enable the Council to retain skills, experience and knowledge within the workforce. 

The policy has been updated to provide more control to employees so they can apply for posts through TalentLink, rather than going through a skills audit and applying through Human Resources, which can create barriers for some.  

Setting out Falkirk Council’s aspirations and expectations as an employer, the workforce strategy links in with the Council plan to achieve financial sustainability whilst delivering on priorities. Actions to progress on the Councils commitment to improving outcomes for those with protected characteristics are outlines in the Workforce Plans, which includes:  

• Increase awareness of equality and diversity issues in the workplace 
• Gender pay actions 
• Improve the quality of data across all employees. 

Focusing on three main streams of work, this plan continues to improve the Council’s incident reporting process, improve arrangements for Health and Safety, and working with Service’s to improve their governance arrangements for health and safety.  

Consulting with trade unions and employees, the strategy aims to continue to promote equality of opportunity across the workforce to access and implement the necessary tasks in relation to Health and Safety. 

Building Maintenance Division received several requests from Falkirk Council Schools, Education Training Unit and Inclusion and Wellbeing Unit requesting opportunities for their clients to gain experience within the division. Building Maintenance Managers met to discuss a way of providing opportunities within the community. Following meetings with employees from Falkirk Council Schools, Education Training Unit and Inclusion and Wellbeing Unit a process for work placements and work experience was established. This has proved to be a success with over 50 clients from the community having a placement. Building Maintenance staff received training from the Inclusion and Wellbeing Unit to assist their clients. This training has also been beneficial for employees within Building Maintenance. Three clients who entered the process are currently serving apprenticeships with Falkirk Council. 

Trauma Informed and Responsive training is being rolled out across the Council. This recognises the importance of adapting the way we work to make a positive difference to anyone impacted by psychological trauma and adversity. A group of Customer and Business Support staff received the Level 1: Trauma Informed training. Feedback was sought from staff following their attendance where staff described feeling more empathy, compassion and understanding for the personal difficulties customers may be facing. They reported being able to use that understanding to reframe challenging or difficult conversations, and advised that they felt that the learning supported improved communications in and around the workplace. Staff advised that they felt reassured that many of the approaches used within the team were already trauma-informed, improving their confidence and commitment to supporting individuals with experiences of trauma.   

Falkirk Council collects information about its employees, including details on recruitment, development, and retention, focusing on protected characteristics including age, gender, and ethnicity. This information helps the Council meet equality goals. Each year, the Council must report on the progress it has made in gathering and using this information. 

By analysing employee data, the Council can identify areas where it needs to improve as an employer, and take steps to address them, for example, positive action initiatives. 

While we previously reported on returned data only, with gaps excluded, we have changed our approach this year and are now also reporting the gaps to make the data more accessible.  Going forward we will include ‘prefer not to answer’ as a response option for all relevant protected characteristics to improve reporting. A full breakdown of our employee profile (as of December 2024) is in Appendix 6. This includes workforce protected characteristic in the following categories: total employees, top 2%, top 5%, disciplinaries, grievances, health and safety incidents, leavers, dismissals, training and job applicants.  

The age breakdown of the workforce has been fairly steady over the past few years with just over 50% of the workforce in the 45+ category.  Whilst this has dropped very slightly it still remains the highest percentage age category. Under representation in the 16-24 category is still evident, with the percentage reducing since 2022. There has been an increase in those within the 35-44 age category. 

The data shows an increase in the number of employees indicating they have a disability. There has also however been an increase in the numbers that have not disclosed that they have a disability.  Whilst we continue to see an increase in the number of returns we will continue to encourage employees to provide this information.  

The figures for ethnicity in relation to all categories have remained steady.   

Workforce gender has remained the same since last mainstreaming report and is consistent with previous years also. This is fairly comparable to the gender make-up of job applicants. 

Whist there are slight differences in the percentages of returned information, the biggest reflection of changes relating to Religion and Belief is an increase in the number of those who have not disclosed their information. 

This is very little change in sexual orientation data. As with other protected characteristics there is a slight increase in the number of employees who did not disclose their information. This may however be reflected in higher numbers of employees completing the request for data. Further work will be done to emphasise reasons for collecting data and encourage employees to disclose relevant information. 

There has been an increase in the numbers of those who have disclosed their transgender status which is a positive sign. However, as with other protected characteristics the number of those who did not disclose has increased. 

For the top 2% and 5% of the workforce, the data in relation returns for sex and disability have again remained fairly static over the last couple of years. The figure for Black and Minority Ethnic in the top 2% of the workforce has increased, whilst a decrease in white and undisclosed figures may correlate with the overall returns and the higher percentage of those who do not wish to disclose their ethnicity. As noted above, this may be reflected in higher numbers of employees completing the request for data.  Further work will be done to emphasise reasons for collecting data and encourage employees to disclose relevant information. 

In relation to disciplinary and grievance investigations, it is difficult to assess any trend as the make-up of employees involved in either disciplines or grievances changes each year. It is also important to note that the numbers are not always comparable to the workforce as the statistics are only based on those directly involved in disciplines or grievances and not the overall workforce.   

In relation to health and safety incidences, it is difficult to assess any trend as the make-up of employees involved in accidents and incidents changes each year. It is also important to note that the numbers are not always comparable to the workforce as the statistics are only based on those directly involved in accidents and incidents and not the overall workforce.     

Sex and disability figures for all leavers remain unchanged and there has been a decrease in Black and Minority Ethnic leavers, however, there again is an increase in those who do not wish to disclose their information. It is difficult to assess any trend as the make-up of leavers and dismissals as this changes each year. It is also important to note that the numbers are not always comparable to the workforce as the statistics are only based on those leaving and not the overall workforce.    

It is difficult to assess any particular trend as the make-up of employees involved attending training will change each year. Given the amount of online resources and training now available to employees, these can be accessed at any time and do not require employees to apply for training. 

There has been a higher percentage of males applying for posts during the reporting period.  There has also been a significant increase in the reporting of Black and Minority Ethnic in relation to job applicants, however, this is partly due to a change in the questions being asked which have helped better determine those within the “white” or Black and Minority Ethnic categories. Non-disclosure rates for each protected characteristic remain fairly static. 

This information is based on those employees who have disclosed their data.

Gender pay gap

The gender pay gap has fluctuated over the three years. It was highest in 21/22 at 5.4%, decreased significantly to 1.2% in 22/23, and then increased again to 3.2% in 23/24.

Despite the gender pay gap increasing slightly over the past year, the overall trend shows a narrowing of the gender pay gap compared to 21/22.

The following pay gaps have been calculated with this formula: (A-B)/A x 100

Disability pay gap

The difference in mean hourly rate between disabled and non-disabled individuals has widened over the two years. It was 5.2% in 2022/23 and increased to 8.8% in 2023/24.

This data indicates that while both groups have seen an increase in their mean hourly rates, the pay gap between disabled and non-disabled individuals has grown, suggesting a need for further efforts to address pay equity for disabled individuals.

Ethnicity Pay Gap

The difference in mean hourly rate between Black and Minority Ethnic and White individuals remained consistent at -5.56% over the two years. This indicates that Black and Minority Ethnic individuals, on average, earned more per hour than White individuals in both years.

This data suggests that while both groups have seen an increase in their mean hourly rates, the pay advantage for Black and Minority Ethnic individuals over White individuals has remained stable. 

We developed our proposed employer equality outcomes for 2025-29 based on our obligations under the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty, our workforce strategy and Fair Work First requirements. Our new Equality Outcomes were consulted with employees and Trade Unions through the online platform, Participate+. These are:  

• Improved quality of employee data across all equality protected characteristics 
• Address workplace inequalities including pay and employment gaps for women, racialised minorities, disabled people and workers aged 16-24 and over 50.   
• Reduced job segregation and pay gaps relating to gender, disability and ethnicity 
• Increased awareness and understanding of equality and diversity within the workforce