« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Social Justice ...a Scotland where everyone matters - Annual Report 2002
foreword
Social Justice
Delivering a better life for the most disadvantaged people and communities in Scotland
Three years on from the launch of our social justice strategy we are making progress. We are improving public services; we are improving the ways in which we tackle complex social problems. But above all, we are making real differences to people's lives. And it is by that standard that we have to measure everything that we do.
In previous Social Justice Annual Reports there has been a focus, properly, on improving the key information that we need to allow us to develop policies that really work to tackle poverty and disadvantage. That work goes on. And there is still more that we want to do and need to do if we are to understand fully the problems which people still face and the ways in which we have to confront those problems. So this year, we are for the first time able to measure the number of families with children living in temporary Bed & Breakfast accommodation, we have better urban/rural information and we are able to provide a gender breakdown for the young people not in education, training or employment.
But we must never forget that the whole of our social justice strategy is only a means to an end. Only if the strategy gives people new opportunities to improve their lives - closing the opportunity gaps which they face - can we say that it is succeeding.
The message which comes out from this report is that we are indeed succeeding. We are making inroads into the problems of poverty and social exclusion. We are turning people's lives around and beginning to break the cycle of deprivation. We are giving children and young people the chance to overcome the barriers they have faced, allowing them the chance to fulfil their potential. This is what all the data which we are now able to collect is telling us.
But this year, for the first time, we are not just providing statistical evidence. We are fleshing this out with a number of real case studies - people whose lives have been transformed as a result of the policies that we have implemented. I am grateful to Louise Hawkins, David Scrimgeour, Kareena Hammond, Celia Baird and Jim Coleman (on behalf of Greater Easterhouse Partnership) for allowing us to use their stories. Their experience is invaluable in putting a human face to the statistics.
We are not, however, complacent. The new Scottish Budget 2003-06 has given us the means - an unprecedented level of resources - to sharpen the attack on poverty and lack of opportunity that too many people still face. It has given us the chance to focus the analysis provided by successive Social Justice Annual Reports on renewed action. We have already described what that action will look like in the Closing the Opportunity Gap: Scottish Budget 2003-061 document, which we published in October 2002 and which sets out how each and every portfolio across the Executive will work to close the opportunity gap.
The Closing the Opportunity Gap agenda and the work described in the Social Justice Annual Report cannot be separated. In fact, our social inclusion agenda, our budget proposals for 2003-06 and our agenda for Closing the Opportunity Gap are all part of a single process. The Social Justice Annual Report provides the analysis to support our decisions on priorities for action; the Scottish budget provides the resources to support those actions - informed directly by the Social Justice Annual Report data; and the Closing the Opportunity Gap document sets out in detail how those resources will be used. There is, of course, a further stage; the evaluation of our actions. And it is the Social Justice Annual Report which allows us to see what works and what doesn't - completing the cycle of policy analysis, funding, action and evaluation.
There are examples of this approach at work throughout these documents. For example, the information shows us that the number of lone parents in employment is increasing and that the unemployment rate in disadvantaged areas is decreasing, but it also shows us that there are still gaps against the average. This is why I have allocated ?20 million from 2004 to help parents in those deprived areas into work by ensuring that availability of childcare is not a barrier to getting into education, training or employment.
We also know that there are a core of young people who are not engaged in education, training or employment, despite action on many fronts. That is why, from 2004, we will extend the Educational Maintenance Allowances, building on the success of the pilot scheme. This will allow young people from less well-off families across Scotland to stay on at school or college.
In these circumstances, I have taken the opportunity to reproduce the Closing the Opportunity Gap document, updated to reflect some new data, as an annex to this latest edition of the Social Justice Annual Report.
The third Social Justice Annual Report continues to underpin our efforts to close the opportunity gap and to deliver social justice for all Scotland's citizens, whatever their circumstances. Its milestones mark, as they were intended to, our progress along the road. It matters that we are able to chart that progress but to people like Louise, David, Kareena and Celia what matters most are the real opportunities which they have been offered to change their lives. That is what really counts. That is what we are going to build on.
Margaret Curran
Minister for Social Justice
« Previous | Contents | Next »