During August and September 2020, GREC conducted a survey to gather feedback from people with protected characteristics to feed into Aberdeen City Council (ACC)’s Equality Outcomes. The survey was complemented by a series of focus groups held in October and November. In total, over 200 people took part.
More education to prevent prejudice and discrimination was widely acknowledged as a necessity by research participants. In the survey, some participants explained that more training is needed to tackle day to day racism, which is sometimes not even acknowledged as such, while others highlighted that systemic discrimination must be addressed as well.
In the focus groups, a key theme was the desire to see more work around education and equality, particularly in schools. Ethnic minority participants said that schools should help promote inclusion and respect for diversity, for example celebrating festivals from different religions. Other participants also pointed to specific issues, such as halal meat not being provided by schools, which impacts children’s diets. This issue had been raised previously but with no suitable resolution.
Data Source: 2020, .