Positive action in minority ethnic employment: The role of Scottish housing organizations

This paper focuses on Scottish housing organizations, where the relative ab sence of black and minority ethnic employees is beginning to be addressed b y programmes of positive action. The paper defines positive action, discuss es experiences elsewhere in Europe and the M, and identifies issues that ha ve arisen from such programmes. Schemes targeted at the housing profession, such as PATH in both England and Scotland, are described in some detail. T he attitudes and experiences of Scottish housing organizations were examine d as part of an evaluation of the Scottish PATH programme carried out in 19 98, and these are discussed. The paper concludes that a reservoir of goodwi ll exists towards positive action programmes and that there is a need for s uch programmes to be extended, possibly with the support of the Scottish Pa rliament.