Ms Shirley Comerford:

Our strategy is a new strategy which we launched recently. It is a living document so as part of our normal business operations we would review it on an ongoing basis. From that perspective, it will be a living document.

With regard to impact, the ESRI representative made a very good point about data. One of the strategic change areas in our strategy is the piece about us having better knowledge and understanding of the recruitment market and the public sector workforce. We are very aware that we have gaps in our data and that we need to build our knowledge and understanding of the workforce and the recruitment pipelines and how they reflect the diversity of society. To do this we must develop our data capability and we have to develop accessible data-driven evidence bases. That is the piece on how we can establish that baseline so we can measure and see any interventions that we make, whether they are achieving anything or whether we are succeeding with them. Some of the associated elements would be items such as seeking to refine our messaging on diversity and inclusion data collection, to encourage candidates to complete it and to start building and increasing our knowledge. We know anecdotally that many people do not declare their EDI data when they are filling in forms or applying for roles. There might be something to do with the messaging on that. That is something which is an immediate focus for us.

Once we have that we will develop the key metrics relating to the brand awareness piece. We will have baseline data for our protected and diverse groups on public jobs, so we know we are going to be reaching people and whether we are reaching those diverse groups. That is something we are trying to do because we want to ensure that we are targeting our audiences.

We are also hoping to commission some independent research into EDI-related candidates' experiences of the recruitment process. We are doing this to try to help us understand where the barriers and the areas for improvement are. That will then contribute to the development of robust and sustainable mechanisms for mapping the EDI profile for the public sector. That is one of the first big pieces of work we will be giving our attention to this year. Obviously, we have to establish the baseline in order to have the measurement piece.

The internship programme for the Department of Justice is a new programme. It was to start in January this year, but it was delayed because of Covid-19. I understand it is going to start in May. There will be paid internships at clerical officer, CO, and executive officer, EO, levels for an 11-month period. The interns will have work experience across various departments in the Department of Justice when they are finished. We will come in towards the back end of that to run a careers clinic. We have run some of these previously. It is helping to support candidates through application processes, such as how to apply, how to present at interviews and tips, tricks and the like, with the aspiration that once the internships are finished they can go on to meaningful employment.

Does that answer the Deputy's question or is there anything else she wants me to discuss?