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Closing the Opportunity Gap
FOREWORD
Scottish Budget for 2003-2006 Scottish Executive
October 2002
None of us wants to live in a Scotland where poverty and prejudice are allowed to prevail. None of us wants a Scotland where a family's potential is determined, not by their abilities but by their postcode. And no one wants a country where a child's future is decided before it is even born.
We published our Scottish budget, Building a Better Scotland, on 12 September. It shows clearly how our plans for growth in the economy, improvements in public services and closing the opportunity gap go hand in hand. This document sets out in more detail, by Ministerial portfolio, with objectives and targets, how our plans will tackle poverty, build strong, safe communities and create a fair, equal Scotland where rights for all is our byword.
We will do this by concentrating our efforts - and resources - on the priorities that are important to people, regardless of where they live. And we have set real and achievable targets that are about improving people's lives, not abstract ambitions.
We will help those without work find jobs. Unemployment may be falling, but people living in Scotland's most deprived areas are still four times more likely to be out of work. That is why we will devote our energies to increasing training and employment opportunities in these communities. We will provide childcare for those parents who need it, and work with others, such as Scottish Enterprise, HIE, the Scottish Welfare to Work Task Force, trade unions and employers to ensure that all Scots get the best of opportunities. In particular we will work with others to tackle the gap between men's and women's pay.
We will work with communities to help them take care of their neighbourhoods, making sure they are safe, secure and attractive. We will do this by investing in people's homes and their environment, and we will use community planning to ensure that public services meet the needs of people, not the demands of organisations.
We will focus particular attention on helping lone-parent families flourish and looked after children overcome their difficult circumstances.
We are determined to build a country where all children are valued, where all cultures are respected and every Scot can enjoy a healthy, fulfilling life.
It is my job in government to make sure that every part of the Executive concentrates its efforts on closing the opportunity gap, and delivers the commitments in this document. I shall champion social justice through:
- Developing specific initiatives with other Ministers to help their programmes close gaps, such as our recent package of grants for childcare costs to help lone parents get back into education.
- Making sure we mainstream social justice in all the Executive's policy proposals and spending plans, so that they contribute to closing gaps in opportunity and outcomes for the most disadvantaged people and areas.
- Reporting publicly on how well the Executive as a whole is doing in closing gaps.
None of this is easy or straightforward. It will take time to close the opportunity gap, and we cannot do it on our own. It is our responsibility to work with others in the public, voluntary and private sectors, and the UK Government, to win social justice for all. And it falls to each and every one of us to help build a country where the wealth we all help create is used fairly and is used to pay attention to those who need our commitment and energy most.
A better Scotland is not a slogan, or a throwaway soundbite. A better Scotland is what we will work for - because it is what the people of Scotland deserve.
MARGARET CURRAN
Minister for Social Justice
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