Composition

Summary

• • Our data shows that from our staff composition, a significant proportion of staff (>70%) are from either the 36–50 or 51–60 age groupings in both years.
    
    
  • We have seen a drop in our <35 age grouping, from 16% in 2022-23 to 10% in 2023-24.
    
    
  • Of the 36-50 age grouping the majority are within our Academic Departments.
    
    
  • Staff belonging to the 61+ age grouping went from 11% in 2022-23 to 17% in 2023-24. This reflects National Records of Scotland (NRS) projection of people aged 65 and over is estimated to grow by 30% by 2045 from 1.06 million to 1.37 million.
    
    
  • We recognise the implications of an ageing workforce, which may lead to an increase in staff managing caregiving responsibilities – whether for ageing parents or younger dependents – as well as potential health concerns. We remain committed, where possible to support flexible and part-time working arrangements and through our Occupational Health Team and any external supports.
    
    
  • The college has also established key initiatives which will help to strengthen connections across the college e.g. the Early Career Network will support colleagues who are in the early stages of their career to connect and create professional networks across the college.

Summary

• • Given the work undertaken to review our staff data, we have seen an impact in data collected on disability.
    
    
  • In 2022-23, staff with a disability accounted for 3% of the staff population. However, in 2023-24 this increased to 7%. Although this may appear to be a minor change, this increase could suggest staff are starting to feel confident in disclosing their disability status.
    
    
  • When comparing the statistics for no known disability, in 2022-23 only 94% of staff declared they were not aware of any disability. However, in 2023-24 this decreased to 90%.
    
    
  • An important change in our survey in 2024 was the breakdown of the disability categories available to staff. For anyone comfortable with sharing their specific disability status the supplementary question provided additional categories to select from.
    
    
  • We acknowledge there is still work to be done on creating a culture of trust where staff feel confident to disclose their disability status, however these figures suggest a meaningful step in the right direction. Due to limited data on each category, we are unable to provide any significant interpretations.

Summary 

• • Staff being married or in a registered civil partnership remain the largest cohort at NCL.
    
    
  • It is worth noting Scotland’s recent Census data revealed the percentage of households with couples where the couple were married or in a civil partnership decreased from 86.0% in 2001 to 76.6% in 2022.
    
    
  • All the other marital groupings have largely remained consistent, with some minor fluctuations, over the previous 2-year period, e.g. we have seen an increase in single people at the college going from 5% to 7%.

Summary

• • Over the 2-year period, our largest ethnic group was White – 78.6% in 2022-23 which increased to 80.3% in 2023-24.
    
    
  • In 2023-23, 2.4% of our staff were from non-white backgrounds, in 2023-24 this was 2.1%. This is also consistent with SFC's College Staffing Data (2022-23) where 2.6% of non white staff made up the total headcount. 
    
    
  • For the purposes of this report, we have decided to present our data in an aggregated format given the data for each non-white classification was limited, however we appreciate and understand the complex and diverse realities of our staff.
    
    
  • We acknowledge the underrepresentation of diverse staff and are dedicated to taking steps to improve representation across the college.
    
    
  • We also acknowledge the percentage of staff we do not hold this information for and we are working on ensuring regular communications are shared to encourage staff to complete this data.

Summary

• • Over this 2-year period the data highlighted that the two largest groupings for religion and belief belonged to the main Christian denominations, Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic. However there has been a slight decline in both categories.
    
    
  • In 2022-23, 19% of staff stated they had no religion or belief and in 2023-24 this figure increased to 23.5%. Interestingly the recent Census revealed the majority of people in Scotland said they had no religion.
    
    
  • We accept there is a large number of staff where their religion is unknown, and as with other protected characteristics we are committed in our efforts to encourage staff to feel comfortable and confident in sharing their data.

Summary

• • The majority of staff in NCL disclosed being heterosexual, seeing over a 4% increase from 2022-23 to 2023-24.
    
    
  • Sexual orientation was unknown for 35% of staff in 2022-23, with a slight reduction to 31% in 2023-24.
    
    
  • This figure is an improvement from our previous report where the numbers have been >50%. This may be a result of some of the key initiatives we have been driving e.g. completion of the LGBT Youth Scotland Charter and partnerships with external LGBT+ organisations to create a supportive environment where our LGBT+ communities feel safe and confident in disclosing their sexuality.

Summary

• • Our data on caring responsibilities shows that the highest percentage of staff have no caring responsibilities in both 2022-23 and 2023-24.
    
    
  • The second largest group of individuals reported that they were a primary carer of a child or children (under 18 years).
    
    
  • We acknowledge there is a significant proportion of data that is unknown. We will continue to encourage staff to share information on their caring responsibilities so that we can offer the appropriate supports, e.g. through our Family Friendly Policies.