Mainstreaming and Equality Outcomes Report - 2026 to 2028
Foreword
We are pleased to introduce our fourth Mainstreaming and Equality Outcomes Report. This document highlights the progress we have made in delivering our 2024 to 2026 equality outcomes and sets out our equality outcomes for 2026 to 2028 and the actions we will take to achieve them.
We aim to review our progress and planning relating to equality regularly and, as a minimum, to conduct a formal appraisal of our activities including our progress in achieving our mainstreaming equality objectives, on an annual basis.
We introduce this report after successfully operating the re-opened Independent Living Fund in Scotland for two years. Since April 2024, we have received over 1,400 applications and provided funding of £9.7 million, enabling many more disabled people with the most complex needs to access the support they need to live independent lives within their chosen communities.
ILF Scotland Strategy - 2025 to 2028, its associated Delivery Plan, our suite of ILF Scotland Policies and actions flowing from our Charter for Involvement Action Plan and our Equality Committee meetings, demonstrate our overall commitment to promoting equality.
Equality is at the heart of what we do as an organisation and runs through all our everyday activities, thoughts, behaviours and plans. We strive to continuously improve on our commitment to mainstreaming equality across the organisation.
Our Board and staff group are diverse with regards to their own lived experience and they are also well-informed about equality, diversity and inclusion more broadly. We continue to listen to and learn from disabled people and strive to provide better-informed services relating to equality, diversity and inclusion to our Recipients, our staff and our other key stakeholders. The organisation does not operate in isolation and we continue to seek out best practice, obtain feedback on our services, consider reporting tools and be involved in partnership working.
Our key focus on addressing inequality is in relation to protected characteristics but we are also considerate of broader definitions of diversity that focus on additional areas. This last year, for example, we have had a greater focus on neurodiversity, cognitive diversity, social mobility and socio-economic diversity. We realise the importance of considering the intersectionality and the impact of how a combination or more than one protected characteristic can perpetuate different forms of discrimination or inclusion challenges.
Our plans are informed by a consideration of the existing context, as well as anticipated future impacts, such as the increase in the use of AI technologies, increased regulatory interest in identifying meaningful diversity metrics, the Scottish Government’s revisions to the National Performance Framework, and the introduction of the Human Rights Bill. We also look to incorporate best practice and guidance such as the UK Government’s Disability Action Plan.
Anne-Marie Monaghan
ILF Scotland Board Chair
Peter Scott, OBE
ILF Scotland CEO
Introduction
About Us
ILF Scotland is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), governed by a Board of Directors, appointed by and accountable to Scottish Ministers. See a brief history and context of ILF Scotland.
We operate a discretionary fund providing ongoing awards to just under 4,000 disabled people in Scotland and Northern Ireland to help them live independently with choice, control and dignity in their own homes and within their local communities.
In addition, we provide one-off grants via our Transition Fund for young disabled people in Scotland aged 16 to 25 to help them increase their independence and participate in their communities. Between 2024 and 2026 we provided grants to just under 5,000 young disabled people.
Our Staff
ILF Scotland employs 80 people – 3 on temporary contracts. Of those, 3 members of staff are based in Northern Ireland and 77 work across Scotland. 53 of these are support staff based in the Livingston office and 27 are home-based assessors. We actively recruit colleagues who are disabled and who have long-term health conditions. We are a close team and we regularly listen to what staff have to say both informally and using regular survey tools. On our website there are two case studies from members of our staff to hear from them directly.
Legal Framework
The Equality Act 2010 sets out the general equality duty for all public authorities to have due regard to the need to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation and other prohibited conduct
- advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not, particularly by removing or minimising disadvantage; meeting the needs of particular groups that are different from the needs of others; and encouraging participation in public life
- foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
The Equality Act 2010 lists nine protected characteristics:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender Reassignment
- Marriage and Civil Partnership
- Pregnancy and Maternity
- Race
- Religion or Belief
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
and defines direct and indirect discrimination as:
“Where someone is treated less favourably according to a protected characteristic or could be disadvantaged compared to someone who does not share that protected characteristic.”
All people are entitled to equal treatment and the way in which people are treated shapes their lives and lived experiences. We recognise and understand how unequal treatment under each characteristic impacts people, particularly those who are living with more than one or multiple protected characteristics.
ILF Scotland must comply with the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 and the specific duties designed to help Scottish public authorities meet the general duty. Regulation 4 of the specific equality duties requires that we base our Equality Outcomes on evidence and involvement of equality groups.
ILF Scotland is required to report on the areas outlined below every two years, apart from the Statement on Equal Pay, which is every four years. We also have a duty to publish diversity information about our board members. This report meets our general and specific duties under the Equality Act 2010 and outlines:
- Mainstreaming the Equality Duty in ILF Scotland
- Report on Progress
- Board Diversity Duty
- Employee Information
- Gender Pay Gap Information
- Statement on Equal Pay (covering sex only)
Mainstreaming the Equality Duty in ILF Scotland
Introduction
As a fair work organisation working with disabled people, we regularly review our working practices to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion are at the centre of our decision-making. We also seek to adopt recommended practices for mainstreaming as outlined in the Equality Human Rights Commission - Mainstreaming the Public Sector Equality Duty - A guide for public authorities in Scotland.
Mainstreaming equality is a long-term, strategic approach to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is truly integrated and sits at the heart of organisational culture, strategic planning and operational delivery.
This ambition is evolving and ongoing and we have the commitment, encouragement and support of our Board and our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to deliver on this. We aim to make sure that every member of our staff team understands, accepts and embraces equality across every part of our organisation and in the services we deliver to our Recipients. We believe that mainstreaming equality has many benefits including helping us to:
- put equality at the heart of everything we do
- embrace diversity across our organisation and attract and retain a motivated workforce, rich in talent, skills and experiences
- continually improve our service delivery and make sure our services meet the diverse needs of our Recipients
- help us to be more socially inclusive and engage better with those most excluded in society
- improve our performance generally
- improve our HR policies and practices
- improve our procurement processes
- help us to deliver our Strategic Plan: Realising Ambition – Re-Opening and Beyond and our associated Delivery Plans
We strongly embrace the principles of equality and are proud of the journey we have taken so far.
We became a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) in 2018 and since then there have been changes to the wider equality context in which we work. These include legislative changes, the impact of major events and societal changes bringing certain inequalities into the foreground. Key recent examples to note include:
Legislation Milestones:
- The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) came into effect in July 2024. The UNCRC aims to ensure that the rights of children are upheld and that their views are taken into account in decisions that affect them including policy, practice and budget-making decisions. As a public body, ILF Scotland is required to report on our implementation and progress towards compliance as at the end of March 2026. We plan to publish our child friendly statement and plan within the first quarter of 2026 to 2027. As part of ensuring compliance with the UNCRC, we have:
- Added a UNCRC page to our website with links to Scottish Government videos and information and ILF commitment to the Act.
- Publicised information in our Recipient newsletters and discussed with our Scotland and Northern Ireland Advisory Groups and our Young Ambassador Groups.
- Raised awareness of the legislation and our duties and requirements, promoting children’s rights throughout the organisation from our Board to our front-line staff. We are including the online Scottish Government e-learning course, Introduction to Children’s Rights, as a training course for all staff and incorporating it in our induction material for all new staff. Relevant staff will participate in more targeted training courses to be delivered by an external trainer later in the year. Additionally, we will incorporate elements into our existing EQIA, corporate parenting and child protection training courses.
- Revised our published complaints process to ensure it is relevant and accessible to children and young people and we are committing to review all our other publications to ensure the material on our website, newsletters, leaflets, correspondence, etc. is child friendly and accessible.
- As part of encouraging participation and empowerment of children and young people and ensuring that young people have a voice, we are reviewing and developing a relaunch of our Young Ambassador Group to include Recipients of our re-opened fund, should they wish to join. As part of this exploratory work to ensure we take the views of young people on board, we are liaising with the members of the UNCRC peer group to share best practice and exploring involvement with other relevant, and already established, youth groups.
- Incorporated Wellbeing Impact Assessments (CRWIA) in to our existing Equality Impact Assessments.
- From 1 April 2025, changes to the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 – Protection of Vulnerable Groups mean that people working in a regulated role must register to become a member of the PVG scheme. This impacted on our disabled Recipients, primarily in relation to our main Independent Living Fund but also our re-opened ILF in 2024.
- We published information and individually advised our Recipients of this change ensuring they understood the legal requirement for any Personal Assistants (PAs) who support them, to join the PVG scheme. We confirmed that the legal onus is on the PA not the recipient to join the scheme and that it would be a criminal offence for their PA to continue to support them in paid work if they do not have a PVG membership.
- ILF Scotland is considered a relevant public authority under the Consumer Scotland Act 2020 (relevant public authorities) Regulations 2024. This requirement came into effect on 1 April 2025 and places a statutory duty on us as a public body, when making decisions of a strategic nature, to have regard to the impact of those decisions on consumers in Scotland and the desirability of reducing harm to those consumers.
- This requirement will be introduced by ILF Scotland formally on 1 April 2026. Guidance from Consumer Scotland recommends the use of an impact assessment and has provided a template incorporating the Consumer Duty Assessment with the Equality Impact Assessment and other statutory impact assessments. ILF Scotland staff members are currently considering the best way to incorporate everything we need in the one impact assessment process, where possible, as part of an overarching Equality Impact Assessment Process with a view to implementing this after appropriate training in 2026 to 2027.
- We have met some of the requirements of the 2020 Act during the financial year 2025 to 2026, specifically ensuring we actively consider the impact of our strategic decisions on consumers and having regard to the desirability of reducing harm. For example, we co-produced our 2025 to 2028 strategy with disabled people and their representative and supporting organisations, resulting in a strategy that puts disabled people at the heart of everything we do, leading to improved independent living outcomes that are important to consumers – our Recipients.
- We have not, however, met all of the requirements of the 2020 Act during this period. We are currently broadening our Equality Impact Assessment process and we will now include the recommended Consumer Duty Impact Assessment as part of this, which should allow us to confirm full compliance with the duty in next year’s report.
- The introduction of the Employment Rights Act (2025) brings important changes to equality and fair work, enhancing protections for employees and reinforcing employers’ responsibilities to create safe, inclusive and supportive working environments, including strengthened duties to prevent and address sexual harassment.
- Ongoing debate and legal action to clarify the definition of sex in law and attempts to reform the Gender Recognition Act in Scotland in 2023 has increased awareness of the experiences of transgender people. As a public body, we await guidance on any required changes to policy following the recent court ruling on gender.
- The Scottish Government has now committed to introducing a new Human Rights Bill for Scotland. This will incorporate United Nations (UN) human rights treaties of:
- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
- International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
- The new Bill will also include the right to a healthy environment, as well as rights for older people and LGBTQI+, which includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning) and intersex people.
- Following the implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, the Scottish Government is actively consulting on adding sex as a protected characteristic to this Act to specifically address misogynistic harassment, with reports on this activity released in early 2026.
- The Scottish Government is working on the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodiversity Bill, with a partial Equality Impact Assessment published in March 2026.
Key Events and Societal Changes
- The COVID-19 pandemic drew further attention to societal inequalities with women, disabled people and ethnic minority groups disproportionately impacted by the effects of the virus and of lockdown measures and we continue to see the effects of this. The pandemic has also changed the way we work and live, with more homeworking and reliance on digital technologies.
- Population growth in Scotland continues to be driven by international migration and migration from elsewhere in the UK, together with changes in birth and death rates.
- The ongoing cost of living crisis continues to intensify, driven in part by rising inflationary pressures linked to the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine. These pressures are widening existing inequalities and increasing levels of poverty, with disabled people disproportionately affected due to higher living costs related to disability, greater reliance on fixed incomes, and reduced access to secure employment.
- Recent events in global media have highlighted the serious impact of persisting inequalities related to gender, socio economic disadvantage, and power. Evidence across the UK, including in Scotland and Northern Ireland, demonstrates that these risks can arise across a range of different settings including in private family life, and that exploitation continues across workplaces and communities when vulnerability and power imbalances are not adequately challenged and addressed.
- Research indicates that misogyny is deeply ingrained in Scotland’s social and patriarchal structure, with minority groups of women facing higher risks. Women are not adequately protected and current misogynistic behaviour is widespread.
All of the above informs our thinking and our statutory responsibility under the Public Sector Equality Duty. These societal issues highlight the importance of us mainstreaming equality outcomes across policy development, decision making, service delivery, and review and this reports provides us with a vehicle to demonstrate progress in advancing equality and reducing unequal outcomes where we can.
Our Recipients
The Recipients of our funds are disabled people. We have two funds, the Independent Living Fund, which re-opened to applicants in April 2024, and the Transition Fund.
Our funding helps our Recipients to access the same opportunities as others and achieve their personal independent living outcomes. We continuously review our strategies, plans, policies and practice to provide the best service we can.
Here you can find out more about our work from some of our Recipients:
As part of ILF Scotland’s ethos and aim to work in co-production with our Recipients, we meet regularly with members of the ILF Scotland and Northern Ireland Advisory Groups.
The purpose of these Groups is to support the improvement and development of ILF Scotland for Recipients living in Scotland and Northern Ireland, by advising on all matters relating to the operation of the fund, including:
- experiences of using the existing fund
- experiences of communicating and interacting with ILF Scotland
- insight and advice into potential policy developments relating to the existing fund
- content and accessibility of ILF Scotland publications
- any other relevant matters
The Advisory Groups report to the ILF Scotland SLT, who in turn report learning and outcomes from the Group to the Board and the Scottish Government, as required.
The Groups meet quarterly on an individual basis and meet jointly three times each year with additional occasions meetings with the Minister of Social Care and Wellbeing in Scotland, the Minister for Health in Northern Ireland and with ILF Scotland’s Board members and staff.
The minutes from the Group meetings are available on our website.
We engage with our Recipients in a variety of other ways:
- We re-opened ILF in April 2024 with a policy framework co-produced with our Recipients and their supporters and other key stakeholders following a series of in person engagement events at venues across Scotland complimented by online engagement meetings. We have since collected Recipient feedback about the re-opened fund and published this on our website. Overall, the feedback captured demonstrates a high level of satisfaction with the funding awarded and with people’s interaction with ILF Scotland:
- 88% indicated their independent living outcomes were achieved
- 95% indicated the funding had a significant impact on their lives
- 94% indicated they were very satisfied with both the application process and their visit by one of our Assessors
- Between 2024 and 2026 members of staff attended more than 100 events with over 2,000 attendees, organised by partner organisations to present or to manage a stall to raise awareness and provide information about the Independent Living Fund and in the majority of occasions, the Transition Fund. A significant amount of this engagement takes place in schools, at transition events and with parent groups. These sessions also regularly involve young people who are care-experienced, supported by social work transitions teams, Looked After and Corporate Parenting staff, or school-based Additional Support Needs leads. We have, in addition, delivered workshops, guidance sessions and targeted outreach with a range of charitable, third, public and government sector organisations supporting young disabled people. This ensures that young people who require additional support, including those who are care-experienced, digitally excluded, or who have limited family resources and who are most at risk of missing out, find out about the possibility of funding from ILF Scotland.
- We co-produced our Strategic Plan 2025 to 2028 – Re-Opening and Beyond following four online engagement events in November and December 2024 and an in-person event in Glasgow in February 2025. Great turnout for ILF Scotland Strategy Event
- We celebrated ILF Scotland’s 10th birthday by holding events for our Recipients and their representatives and supporters in Scotland and Northern Ireland in June and July 2025. Speeches were delivered from advocates of disability and human rights, and people shared inspiring stories about how ILF Scotland helped them live with choice, dignity and independence. Our website provides further information, including videos and photographs about the events. Both events were a success and feedback from attendees demonstrated how impactful attendees felt the events were and provided helpful information on accessibility needs, the difference the funding makes in people’s lives and suggestions for improvements at future events. We produced a summary of feedback from attendees of both events which is available on our website.
Equality Impact Assessment
We carry out Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) when we develop our external policies and publish these on our website. In addition, we conduct screening exercises for all internal policies and produce EQIAs where required. We have incorporated early consideration of Equality Impact Assessments as part of our internal project planning tools and continue to work to extend EQIAs across all our service delivery areas to cover all relevant decision making that affects people with protected characteristics.
We have incorporated Care Experienced young people in our Equality Impact screening and EQIAs, and in the next financial year, we intend to include poverty and rurality as well, because of the effect of these conditions on disabled people.
ILF Scotland is a public authority required to comply with the Consumer Duty, the guidance on which includes a template incorporating the Consumer Duty Assessment with the Equality Impact Assessment and other statutory impact assessments. ILF Scotland staff members are currently considering the best way to incorporate everything we need in the one assessment process, where possible with a view to implementing this after appropriate training in 2026 to 2027.
We believe in the many advantages of conducting EQIAs, in addition to adhering to our statutory duty to do so, including:
- enshrining the rights of disabled people to being treated with dignity and respect and being able to exercise choice and control in living their lives
- systematically conducting EQIAs early in the planning process ensures that we identify any barriers that we need to avoid or mitigate as part of our decision-making
- going through the EQIA process makes sure that we think about how the consequences of our plans and decisions might affect people with protected characteristics, other than disability, ensuring that different groups are included
- ensuring that we gather relevant information to demonstrate that our decisions are based on evidence, which is important in the event of challenge
We raised awareness and provided training across the organisation of our Equality Impact Assessment tool and screening assessment plan, taking staff through relevant worked examples of EQIAs on live work-related topics during 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026. We will repeat this training in 2026 to 2027 along with additional worked examples to embed this area further in future, which will enable us to apply good equality practice across the organisation.
Our published policy Equality Impact Assessments can be accessed on our website.
Our Partners
Key partners in our approach to equality include the Scottish Government and the Non-Departmental Public Body Human Resources network and forum where core Scottish Government and other Public Bodies share best practice on equality and diversity policy and practice.
In addition, we have developed ongoing positive working relationships with ARC Scotland, Who Cares? Scotland. This ensures that we keep equality at the heart of any decisions we make regarding the services we provide to young disabled people through our Transition Fund. We also signpost disabled people to other sources of support, such as the Scottish Welfare Fund and other charities, benefits agencies / advisory organisations as appropriate.
We also actively seek opportunities to engage with partners across the sector to support the mainstreaming of equalities, sharing learning and contributing to wider improvements in equality outcomes through our continued participation in events and stakeholder meetings.
We value the important input and feedback of our Advisory Group members in Scotland and Northern Ireland on equality when we work with them to develop the Charter for Involvement and through co-production on our strategies and policies.
We aim to adopt a human rights approach to all that we do and the Charter fits with human rights legislation, specifically the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons, supporting the realisation of Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – “living independently and being included in the community”.
Implementing the Charter actions, co-produced by the Advisory Groups, helps ensure that we listen to our disabled Recipients and their representatives so that they remain at the heart of our decision-making.
We continue to embrace ways to work in partnership to improve our services and approach.
Report on Progress on Equality Outcomes for 2024
We set ourselves ambitious equality outcomes and these will be considered in the next section of this report.
Some of our Key Equality Achievements:
- We re-opened the Independent Living Fund so that more disabled people could continue to live independently at home with a better quality of life.
- We published our first feedback strategy and our feedback findings across various themes, which provided us with important learning.
- We organised a variety of engagement events to celebrate and support independent living and also spoke at a variety of other organisations’ events to raise awareness of our funding and the difference it can make to disabled people.
- We continued to work with our partners across Scottish and local government and the third and independent sectors to promote the provision of support to enable people to continue to live at home and achieve the independent living outcomes important to them.
- Produced a ILF Scotland Corporate Parenting Plan 2024 to 2027, which we continue to review and look for ways to improve.
- Made good progress on our Charter for Involvement Action Plan. Charter for Involvement Action Plan Update Summary 2024 to 2025
- Reviewed all of our fund policies to ensure they remain fit for purpose and offer as much flexibility as possible to allow disabled people to maximise their ILF awards or grants in the best way for them.
- In June 2024, we were awarded Best Small Employer and in June 2025 we received the Best Practice Family Friendly Champion Award at the Working Families Best Practice Awards. We were also recognised as one of the Top 10 Working Families organisations in both 2024 and 2025
- In 2025 we became the first employer in Scotland to be awarded the Gold Standard Kinship Friendly Employer accreditation. Gold standard support includes offering paid leave to all kinship carers, when they take on the care of a child, that equals the organisation’s adoption leave and pay.
- In addition, we signed up to the Age Friendly and Dyslexia Friendly Employer pledges demonstrating the commitment and value of recognising and supporting staff. We also set up Neuro Minds, our staff neurodiversity group to raise awareness and celebrate neurodiversity at ILF Scotland.
Progress in Relation to Objectives set for 2024 to 2026
Our Equality Objectives were integrated into our business plan as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound (SMART).
Outcome 1: Integrated Equality Impact Assessments
Integrated Impact Assessments are consistently applied across the organisation with a commitment to have our staff members appropriately trained and our board members fully aware of this.
Action: Further embed the use of Equality Impact Screening and Assessment practices across all business functions by providing additional awareness and practice training to Managers by the end of 2024 to 2025.
Update: We provided additional training to staff and managers in 2024 to 2025 and in 2025 to 2026. We have extended the automatic equality impact screening from our public policies to all of our internal policies and have incorporated this process into our project planning framework. During the next plan, we will continue to work to ensure all decisions about service development or changes to service delivery automatically incorporate equality impact screening and assessment where required.
Outcome 2: Promote Neuro-Inclusion
To start the neuro-inclusion journey within ILF Scotland focused on developing a neuro-inclusive culture with the aim of creating even greater comfort and belonging for our diverse staff group.
Action: We provided neurodiversity training to all staff in 2026 through The Donaldson Trust, raising awareness along with specialist training for our front-line staff so they can provide informed customer service to our Recipients who are neurodivergent, plus Leadership training for managers and Senior Leadership Team.
In 2025, we also created Neuro Minds, our staff neurodiversity group with the aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, fairly treated, supported and able to thrive. We celebrate the strengths and talents of neurodivergent people and work together to promote understanding, acceptance and meaningful inclusion.
Outcome 3: Corporate Parenting
More young disabled people who are Care Experienced are aware of the Transition Fund and how to apply, and our staff and Board members are aware of the Transition Fund and how it might positively impact Care Experienced young people.
Action: Through our Corporate Parenting Plan, we will further develop our communications strategy to target Care Experienced young people and those that support them to ensure they are aware of the Transition Fund. We will ensure ILF Scotland staff and Board Members are aware of the principles of Corporate Parenting through training courses and induction programmes.
Update: We updated our communication strategy to target Care Experienced young people and provided a series of Corporate Parenting awareness session for staff and Board members. We continue to progress improvement initiatives outlined in our published Corporate Parenting Action Plan. Corporate Parenting Plan - 2024 to 2027 and Corporate Parenting Plan - 2024 to 2027 - Progress Report at April 2025.
As part of our commitment to advancing equality and supporting diverse family structures, ILF Scotland introduced a Kinship Care Policy in 2025. This policy mirrors the principles of our Maternity and Adoption policies by providing equitable support to employees who take on the primary care of a child through kinship arrangements. It recognises the vital role that family members and close connections play in providing stable, loving care, and ensures that kinship carers have access to protected leave, enhanced pay and flexible working options during this important time. The introduction of this policy reflects our ongoing commitment to fair work, inclusion and ensuring that all forms of caregiving are valued and supported within our organisation.
In 2025, we introduced a positive action recruitment measure to support applicants who are Care Experienced, aligned in approach to the principles of the Disability Confident scheme. When an applicant identifies as being Care Experience and meets all essential criteria outlined in the job description, they are guaranteed progression to the next stage of the recruitment process.
We are proud to collaborate with them to recognise, value and support kinship carers, relatives and friends who step up to raise a child when their parents are unable to. We have ensured all our Family Friendly policies include kinship carers: providing our managers with guidance to help them support kinship carers with flexibility and kindness and raising awareness of kinship care to our staff. We are also proud to be introducing kinship care leave on par with adoption leave.
In 2025 we were recognised by the leading national charity Kinship as Gold Standard Kinship Friendly Employer and the first employer In Scotland to achieve the accreditation.
Outcome 4: ILF Re-Opening
Following an announcement by the First Minister in September 2023, the Independent Living Fund, closed to new applications since 2010, re-opened to new applicants in April 2024. This enabled up to 1,000 additional disabled people with the most complex needs to access the support they need to live independent lives.
A Co-Production Working Group was established in October 2023, consisting of disabled people, carers, disabled people's organisations (DPOs) and representatives of ILF Scotland, the Scottish Government and health and social care statutory partners. A range of engagement events were held to seek views on the policy framework for the re-opened fund. A commitment was given to continue to develop policy in 2024 to 2025.
Action: Facilitate meetings of the Co-Production Working Group every two months in 2024 to 2025, with the first meeting to be scheduled for June 2024. Report on learning from the first two months of receiving applications to the re-opened fund and work together with the group and others as required to further develop policies around the key issues raised by disabled people and others at the re-opening engagement events. Arrange further co-production opportunities with our Recipients and others as part of our strategic planning consultations in the latter part of 2024 to 2025.
Update: The Co-Production Working Group continued to meet regularly during 2024 to 2025 with the first of these meetings held in June 2024. Meetings continued during 2025 to 2026. ILF Scotland senior staff have worked closely with the Group to report on the operation of the re-opened fund, including the number of places allocated and taken up, challenges, learning and feedback. We received positive feedback and reported this back to the Group.
The Group recommended a policy change to include a Care Component. This would allow disabled people who did not currently meet the £800 local authority funding threshold for the re-opened fund, but who would have if account were to be taken of the significant amount of support provided to them by an unpaid carer residing with them. The Minister accepted this recommendation and ILF Scotland implemented a Carer Component in January 2025, which resulted in an additional 218 applications to the re-opened Fund.
During 2025 to 2026 we worked with the Group to develop a DPO supported pilot to test an alternative route to local authority applications, which will provide learning relevant to the consideration of a potential citizen led application route to the re-opened ILF. The pilot will last for 12 months from 2 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 and will be funded as part of the Scottish Government’s Disability Equality Plan. We ran a series of online and in-person events during 2024 to 2025 to co-produce our Strategic Plan 2025 to 2028 with our disabled Recipients and their supporters. They directly influenced our direction of travel through the articulation of aims and objectives important to the achievement of independent living outcomes.
Summary
We made strong progress in achieving the actions set out in our plan as part of our Mainstreaming and Equality Outcomes Report for 2024 to 2026.
We were unable, as planned, to undertake further work on our forms and systems to provide better equality data on protected characteristics across both funds to improve our monitoring and reporting practices in line with good practice. We will therefore carry this action forward to the next plan.
ILF Scotland remains committed to embedding equality outcomes and will pursue further expansion and improvement on our approach to working in partnership with others to promote equality in Scotland.
Board Diversity Duty
The Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 sets an objective that public boards should have 50% of their non-executive members who are women.
ILF Scotland has worked proactively with the Scottish Government over a number of years to strengthen the diversity and gender balance of our Board. We have maintained more than 50% female representation on our non-executive Board since 2015 and have sustained this position through to 2024, with women making up 75% of Board members.
We regularly review the diversity and representativeness of our Board to ensure it reflects the communities we serve, and we recognise that people from ethnic minority backgrounds remain underrepresented. We have 9 Board members, 4 of whom identify as disabled. We will continue to take proactive steps to improve representation, working closely with the Public Appointments Team during future Board recruitment processes to promote wider participation and encourage applications from underrepresented groups. ILF Scotland also follows the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s good practice guidance How to Improve Board Diversity: Six Step Guide to support fair, transparent and inclusive appointment processes.
In 2023 there were 4 women and 3 men.
In 2024 there were 6 women and 2 men.
In 2025 there were 6 women and 1 man.
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| Women | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Men | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Employee Information
Staff (Female / Male)
Female Employees: 77.58%
Male Employees: 22.5%
Full and Part Time Female / Male
Female Full Time: 51.25%
Male Full Time: 18.75%
Female Part Time: 26.25%
Male Part Time: 3.754%
Part time working patterns remain predominate toward women.
During 2024 to 2026, 100% of staff worked within our hybrid working offering, with employee choice and control over whether they were working in the office or at home.
We used data capture and analysis to measure the representativeness of our workforce profile and use this information to identify improvement measures such as targeted recruitment.
The accuracy of our equality profile data is important as it can assist our Board and SLT in planning the workforce of the future and provides for the potential justification of allowable positive action to make improvements, leading to a workforce that reflects the population and geographical locations we work in.
Our workforce monitoring data indicates that there is room for improvement in the representation of people from ethnic minority groups and LGBTQI+ colleagues within our workplace. Our organisational demography by the end of Q4 2025 to 2026 was 80 staff and 9 Directors.
Women are well represented in the general workforce and at managerial level: 77.5%:22.5% female: male. At Director and Senior Leadership Team level, however, women remain comparatively underrepresented (25%:75% female: male).
Through our Workforce Plan, we have taken active steps to strengthen gender representation at senior levels. As part of this work, seven women have recently been appointed as Leads across the organisation, broadening the leadership pipeline and increasing opportunities for women to progress into more senior decision-making roles.
We plan to continue addressing this through a sustained focus on leadership and management development, succession planning and strategic recruitment.
We have a good representation of disabled people with 30% self-identifying as disabled. As a comparison, in September 2025, the Scottish Government reported 14.2% of staff were disabled.
We have some representation of people from ethnic minority groups at 3.75%, an increase from our previous representation of 2.6%. In September 2025, for comparison, the Scottish Government reported a figure of 4.0%.
The information we have on sexual orientation and gender reassignment is that 1.25% of staff identify as LGBTQI+. In September 2025, the Scottish Government reported a figure of 8.1%.
Data on the current ILF Scotland workforce is robust in relation to age and sex. However, information on other protected characteristics – including ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and gender reassignment – remains limited. This is largely due to non-completion of questions within staff surveys or individuals choosing the prefer not to answer option.
We continue to raise awareness across the organisation about the importance and benefits of sharing protected characteristic data, emphasising that all information is held in strict confidence and used solely to support equality monitoring and improvement.
As a positive action measure in recruitment, we actively encourage applications from individuals with protected characteristics to help broaden representation across our workforce. Like many public bodies, we recognise the ongoing challenge of achieving a workforce that fully reflects the diversity of the communities we serve, and this will remain a key area of focus in the years ahead.
The findings from our 2025 employee engagement surveys indicate (84% response rate):
- 100% of our staff can and do continue to work flexibly and remotely
- Life / Balance Opportunities – 98.51% stated that they were in control of this most of the time
- ILF Scotland continues to be an outstanding place to work
Our Accreditations
Equality Outcomes 2026 to 2028
These are the new Outcomes for 2026 to 2028. We have consulted with ILF Scotland staff and Advisory and Young Ambassadors Group members. Our Equality Committee and our SLT have recommended them to the Board, who have approved them. We will integrate these as SMART objectives in our business plan.
Outcome 1: Making inclusivity central to how we work and lead, strengthening our commitment to having a workplace where everyone belongs
Action: Over the next two years, we will embed inclusivity as a visible, measurable and shared responsibility across our organisation. We will continue to equip our staff with the skills to foster belonging, ensuring transparent policies and processes, as well our ongoing commitment to actively listen, engage and respond to diverse perspectives. Clear goals and accountability will track our progress and celebrate milestones in doing so, making inclusivity a core part of how we lead, collaborate and continue succeed together.
Outcome 2: Ensure our Equality Impact Assessment is inclusive of all of our relevant public body duties
Action: By the end of 2025 to 2026, review and update our Equality Impact Assessment Screening Toolkit and EQIA template to incorporate all other relevant impact assessments introduced by other legislation where we have a public body duty including the UNCRC, the Consumer Duty and the impending Human Rights Bill.
Outcome 3: Provide improved data on protected characteristics to improve the inclusivity of our services and to demonstrate alignment with Scottish Government equality priorities
Action: Develop our application forms, our online portals, our review process paperwork and processes and our digital systems to systematically request information relating to protected characteristics for applicants to and Recipients of both the Independent Living Fund and the Transition Fund. Monitor and analyse this data and report appropriately in line with good practice on data relating to protected characteristics to our SLT, Board, Equality Committee, Scottish Government and publicly as required.
Outcome 4: Increase our partnership working to improve equality outcomes for people living in Scotland and Northern Ireland
Action: Contribute to working parties, briefing papers, meetings, conferences, information sharing, etc. with the aim of driving improvements generally in equality and diversity. Attend meetings with relevant partner organisations to carry out benchmarking with other public bodies to improve the equality outcomes across the organisation as we continue on our Mainstreaming journey.
These equality outcomes will guide our progress and direction, which will be monitored by our Equality Committee. We will develop action plans and monitor and review these annually to ensure we remain on track and will publish and update our progress annually as well as updating plans with any relevant information due to unplanned and / or unforeseen national and international events.
Conclusion
We continue to set equality outcomes with the intention that we truly embed equality, diversity and inclusion into our strategic and annual delivery plans and our daily activities. We are pleased to report that we have achieved the majority of what we set out to do in the period of this plan. Some actions are ongoing and we have incorporated them in our actions for 2026 to 2028, as we continue to identify opportunities for improvement and as part of our ongoing commitment to our equality mainstreaming journey.
We agreed the actions we need to take to achieve our equality outcomes through engagement with and listening to the views of our Advisory Groups and staff. We discuss these with our Equalities Committee and with our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and our Board formally approves them. Board members provide the necessary scrutiny to ensure that we meet our duties and that we consider potential equality impacts as part of our corporate decision-making.
Our SLT is responsible for promoting and embedding equality in our plans, projects and operational processes.
Each employee also has an individual responsibility for considering equality issues in all areas of the work we do and in working with others to continually enhance our processes and our contact with our applicants, Recipients and others.
We will continue to identify and implement innovative ways to understand the needs of our Recipients, listening and working hard, to learn and improve what we do.
We will use the employee equality metrics in this report, together with developing best practice, to support and inform our recruitment and employment practices, to improve our workforce equality and diversity and to promote the organisation as an employer of choice.
As a Non-Departmental Public Body, we ultimately aspire to continue to work in partnership with the Scottish Government and other Public Bodies, to be an inclusive employer and to continue to enhance the access to our services and the support provided to disabled people in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Appendix I: Equal Pay Gap Information
We report our pay gaps using a single measure, comparing the average full-time equivalent earnings of men and women at March 2026. This includes both the mean and median hourly pay, excluding overtime. It is important to recognise that a gender pay gap reflects the difference in average earnings between men and women across the organisation as a whole and does not indicate unequal pay for comparable roles or work of equal value.
Gender Pay Gap by Grade
Administration
Grade A3
Female pay as a percentage of male pay: 105.74%
Median Pay Gap: -5.76%
Mean Pay Gap: -5.76%
Grade A4
No staff at A4
Specialist Professional and Technical
Grade B1
Female pay as a percentage of male pay: 103.61%
Median Pay Gap: -3.61%
Mean Pay Gap: -8.46%
Grade B2
Female pay as a percentage of male pay: 98.09%
Median Pay Gap: -0.82%
Mean Pay Gap: 0%
Grade B3
Female pay as a percentage of male pay: 111.65%
Median Pay Gap: -11.62%
Mean Pay Gap: -11.28%
Senior Leaders
Grade C1
Female pay as a percentage of male pay: 94.27%
Median Pay Gap: 5.75%
Mean Pay Gap: 0%
Grade C2
Female pay as a percentage of male pay: 93.32%
Median Pay Gap: 6.67%
Mean Pay Gap: 6.670%
Grade C3
Female pay as a percentage of male pay: not applicable
Median Pay Gap: 0%
Mean Pay Gap: 0%
CEO
Grade SCS 1
Female pay as a percentage of male pay: not applicable
Median Pay Gap: 0%
Mean Pay Gap: 0%
All comparable jobs or work of equal value are paid on the same scale. The pay gap in 2025 to 2026 is entirely due to spinal placement on the grade and will even out as employees reach the top of their scale.
This is set out in table form below.
Gender Pay Gap by Grade
| Job Type | Grade | Female pay as a percentage of male pay | Median Pay Gap | Mean Pay Gap |
| Administration | A3 | 105.73% | -5.76% | -5.76% |
| Administration | A4 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Specialist Professional and Technical | B1 | 103.61% | -3.61% | -8.46% |
| Specialist Professional and Technical | B2 | 100.82% | 0.82% | 0% |
| Specialist Professional and Technical | B3 | -111.65% | -11.62% | -11.28% |
| Senior Leaders | C1 | 94.32% | 5.75% | 0% |
| Senior Leaders | C2 | 93.32% | 6.67% | 6.67% |
| Senior Leaders | C3 | n/a | 0% | 0% |
| CEO | SCS 1 | n/a | 0% | 0% |
Where men and women are undertaking work of equal value, they are paid a similar hourly rate and consequently the gender pay gap is low.
Appendix II: Equal Pay Statement
Equal Pay Statement
ILF Scotland is committed to the principle of equal opportunities in employment and to ensuring that all staff are treated fairly, consistently and without discrimination.
We believe that employees should receive equal pay for the same or broadly similar work, for work rated as equivalent, and for work of equal value, regardless of:
- age
- disability
- ethnicity or race
- gender reassignment
- marital or civil partnership status
- pregnancy or maternity
- political beliefs
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
To achieve this, we operate pay and progression systems that are transparent, objective and free from unlawful bias. Our approach is underpinned by job evaluation, clear pay structures and regular monitoring to ensure equity is maintained and any emerging issues are addressed promptly.
Where a gender pay gap exists, this is primarily due to employees being placed at different spinal points within the grade, based on their time in post. Our pay structure is designed to ensure that staff progress through spinal points in a consistent and transparent way. As colleagues move through the scale, we anticipate that any current differences in average pay will narrow and even out over time.
As part of our commitment to fairness, dignity and equality at work, we are proud to be a Living Wage Employer. We ensure that all directly employed staff, as well as regular third-party contractors, are paid at least the real Living Wage as defined annually by the Living Wage Foundation.
This commitment reflects our belief that fair pay is a core component of promoting equality and reducing socio-economic disadvantage.
We will continue to monitor our pay practices and contractor arrangements to ensure ongoing compliance with Living Wage standards and alignment with our equality objectives.
ILF Scotland will continue to review its policies, practices and pay data to ensure that equal pay is embedded in all aspects of employment and that our workforce is supported to thrive in an inclusive and fair working environment.
