"SPT is committed to providing equality of opportunity for all staff and in how we go about our business." (Ron Culley, Chief Executive, SPT)

SPT, as the regional transport partnership for the West of Scotland, works to ensure that all of the people who live in, do business in and visit our area have their current and future transport needs met. When SPT is preparing policies, strategies, plans and projects, it is important for us to ensure that the diversity of West of Scotland residents, communities and visitors is taken into account, including those groups of people who experience difficulties more than most when accessing the transport system.

We are also keen to ensure that our employees do not encounter discrimination at work because of their race, gender or disability.

Our Vision
"A world class, sustainable transport system that acts as a catalyst for an improved quality of life for all."

One of our Shared Goals
"...to promote social inclusion and equality, by providing a transport system that is safe, accessible, and affordable to all sections of the community."

One of our Strategy Objectives is "Access for All"
"...to promote and facilitate access that recognises the transport requirements of all."

Our Internal Goal
"To be recognised as an excellent organisation by continually reviewing and improving performance, by ensuring efficient and effective use of resources and by developing a highly skilled workforce".

Two of our Strategic Priorities are:

• Corporate Management - to provide effective and efficient management of the Partnership's people and resources;
  
• Pursuit of Excellence - to provide a high level of service based on the needs and expectations of customers
  

In this section of our website, you will find a variety of information on how we put this into action.

There is a variety of legislation which places responsibilities on SPT as both an employer and a service provider to ensure equality in how we go about our business. Please look at the sections on Disability, Race and Gender for information on the specific legislation which relates to them.

Useful links

Equality and Human Rights Commission

Do the Duty

SPT's Disability Equality Scheme 2007-10 was approved by the Partnership at its meeting of 14 December, 2007.

Download SPT's Disability Equality Scheme 2007-2010 (pdf format, 353KB)

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 has been amended by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 so that it now places a duty on all public authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the needs of disabled people.

From 1 April ,2007, SPT became subject to the specific duties of the Disability Equality Duty (from the Disability Discrimination Act 2005), following enactment of the Disability Discrimination (Public Authorities) (Statutory Duties) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2007.

The Disability Equality Duty aims to end discrimation against disabled people in accessing public services and employment. It encourages the positive promotion of equality and the need to address the root causes of disability discrimination. The duty is about public authorities like SPT working proactively towards delivering meaningful and demonstrable outcomes for disabled people.

The Duty consists of two parts: the general duty and the specific duties. The latter requires SPT to apply a legally defined framework to deliver the general duty. This general duty requires SPT to give due regard, when carrying out our functions, to:

• Promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons;
• Eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Act;
• Eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is related to their disabilities;
• Promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons;
• Encourage participation by disabled persons in public life:
• Take steps to take account of disabled persons' disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons.
  

The specific duties require SPT to:

• Publish a Disability Equality Scheme demonstrating how we intend to fulfil our general and specific duties;
• Involve disabled people in the development of the Scheme.

The Scheme must include a statement of:

• The way in which disabled people have been involved in the development of the Scheme;
• Our methods of impact assessment;
• The steps we will take towards fulfilling our general duty, through an "action plan";
• Our arrangements for gathering information in relation to employment and our functions;
• Our arrangements for putting the information we have gathered to use, in particular in reviewing the effectiveness of our action plan and in preparing subsequent Schemes.

Further, SPT is required to:

• Take the steps set out in the action plan and put into the effect the arrangements for gathering and making use of information;
• Publish a report containing a summary of the steps taken under the action plan, the results of gathering information and the use to which the information has been put.

Disabled people can experience more difficulties than other people when using the transport system. For example:

• A wheelchair user may have difficulty accessing a station due to stairs;
• A visually impaired person may have difficulty finding their way round a bus station;
• A hearing impaired person may not hear an announcement about the running of their train;
• A person with a learning disability may not feel confident about using the bus;

The impacts of these on people's lives can be significant. It may be that they cannot get a job, cannot visit friends or family or be unable to go to the shops.

How SPT helps

SPT has tried to address issues like these in a number of ways. For example:

• Ongoing compliance with DDA;
• Dial-a-Bus;
• REACT;
• Tactile maps;
• Equality Impact Assessments (EqIA); and
• CCTV/Help points.
  

Disability and Work

SPT is keen to ensure that employees who may have a disability are not discriminated against at work. A disabled employee could experience discrimination in the following ways:

• A wheelchair user may find it difficult accessing parts of the office building;
• A visually impaired employee may not have the appropriate software for "screen reading" on their computer.

How SPT helps
SPT has tried to address these issues in a number of ways:

• Installing ramps for access to buildings;
• Ensuring there are accessible toilets in our buildings;
• Ensuring disabled employees get the right equipment to help them do their job, for example, by purchasing the right computer software or adapting workstations.

Gender Equality Scheme 2007 - 2010

Download SPT's Gender Equality Scheme 2007-2010 (pdf format, 235KB)

Equal Pay Statement 2007-2010

Download SPT's Equal Pay Statement 2007-2010 (pdf format, 55KB)

Gender and transport

While men and women experience many of the same difficulties when using transport, there are areas where women face more difficulties. For example:

• Trip purposes and patterns differ for women compared with men, for example, when working part-time or shifts, or in relation to caring responsibilities;
• More dependent on public transport than men, and this increases with age;
• Higher rates of walking and taxi use among women, and as car passengers;
• Lower use of cycling by women as a means of travel than men;
• More travel by women to educational facilities, including escorting children;
• Affordability of transport - women's full-time and part-time earnings can be lower than men's;
• Lack of toilets/waiting facilities were mentioned as an issue for this group;
• Safety and security issues regarding travel at night or alone.

How SPT helps

SPT wishes to ensure that both men and women have equal access to the transport system, and that all people have a good experience when using the transport system. We have improved, for example, safety and security measures on the Subway to ensure everyone feels safe when using it - going to work, in the evening, or travelling alone.

Gender and work

Women and men may experience discrimination at work in a variety of forms:

• A woman may feel that her career has been affected by taking time off to have a baby;
• A man may feel that a request for a flexible working arrangement has been turned down because of his gender, where a woman in a similar position had her request accepted.
  

How SPT helps

SPT is a progressive organisation. We wish to ensure that our employees do not experience discrimination at work, and we also want to help them achieve a better life/work balance.

We try to address these issues in a number of ways, for example through alexi-time system for all employees. Requests for flexible working arragements are judged on objective criteria and are not based on the gender of the employee.

The Gender Equality Duty

A Gender Equality Scheme is a part of the outcome of the Gender Equality Duty ('the Duty'), placed on public authorities by the Equality Act 2006. The overall aim of the Duty is to make gender equality central to how a public authority carries out its activities in order to create:

• Better-informed decision-making and policy development;
• A clearer understanding of the needs of service users;
• Better-quality services which meet varied needs;
• More effective targeting of policy and resources;
• Better results and greater confidence in public services;
• A more effective use of talent in the workforce.

The Duty is in two parts: the 'general duty', and the 'specific duty'.

The 'General Duty'

The 'General Duty' places a statutory duty on all public authorities, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need:

• To eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment;
• To promote equality of opportunity between men and women.

This 'General Duty' applies to policy-making, service provision, employment matters, and in relation to enforcement or any statutory discretion and decision-making. It also applies to a public authority in relation to services and functions which are contracted out. In addition, it applies to private and voluntary bodies which are carrying out public functions on behalf of the responsible authority, but only in respect of those functions.

The term 'due regard' has two linked elements: proportionality and relevance. This means that in looking at how it will address and promote gender equality, a public authority should gauge the weight it will apply to this, depending on its relevance to the particular functions carried out by, or on behalf of, that authority.

As part of the 'general duty', public authorities are further required to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment in employment and vocational training for people who intend to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone gender reassignment.

The 'Specific Duties'

There are also a series of 'Specific Duties' placed on public authorities listed in the Sex Discrimination (Public Authorities) (Statutory Duties) (Scotland) Order 2007, which came into force on 9 April, 2007.

These 'Specific Duties' can be summarised as follows:

• To prepare and publish a gender equality scheme, showing how it will meet its general and specific duties and setting out its gender equality objectives;
• In formulating its overall objectives, to consider the need to include objectives to address the causes of any gender pay gap;
• To gather and use information on how the public authority's policies and practices affect gender equality in the workforce and in the delivery of services;
• To consult stakeholders (i.e. staff, service users and others, including trades unions) and take account of relevant information in order to determine its gender equality objectives;
• To assess the impact of its current and proposed policies and practices on gender equality, and to have due regard to the results of those impact assessments;
• To implement the actions set out in its scheme within three years, unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so;
• To report against the scheme every year and review the scheme at least every three years.

SPT's Race Equality Scheme was approved on 14 November, 2008.

Download SPT's Race Equality Scheme 2008-2011 (pdf format, 392KB).

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport is committed to ensuring race equality in all its activities. This includes the provision of services, the delivery of projects, and the treatment of staff. This Race Equality Scheme makes public this commitment.

Our Equality Scheme lets the people we serve in the west of Scotland, and our partners and stakeholders know how we intend to eliminate unlawful discrimination, based on race, and how we will promote equality of opportunity for all in the way we go about our business.

We will monitor our activities and actions based on this Race Equality Scheme and publish the results annually. We will strive to ensure that this Race Equality Scheme, along with our equality schemes for gender and disability, help us achieve SPT's Vision of "a world-class, sustainable transport system that acts as a catalyst for an improved quality of life for all."

Councillor Alistair Watson
Chair
SPT

Ron Culley
Chief Executive
SPT

Please contact us by email at equality@spt.co.uk or sonny.singh@spt.co.uk if you have any queries about our equality schemes or what SPT is doing to tackle inequality.

You can also write to us at:

Policy & Strategy
SPT
Consort House
12 West George Street
Glasgow
G2 1HN.