Social Justice ...a Scotland where everyone matters

Social Justice ...a Scotland where everyone matters - Annual Report 2002

Serish Khan

Introduction

Social justice is an investment in the people of Scotland and is the foundation of our prosperity. We are delivering social justice by improving public services for all, by tackling the social, educational and economic barriers that create inequality and by working to end poverty. We are investing to make every community a safe, attractive place to live, where everyone has the opportunity to make the most of their potential.

In November 1999, the Executive published Social Justice ... a Scotland where everyone matter, ¹ which set out our ambitious targets and milestones for tackling poverty and injustice. This is the third annual report, setting out progress against these social justice milestones.

Our goals are:

The elimination of child poverty in a generation.
Enabling all our young people to contribute and develop life-skills.
Full employment by providing opportunities for all those who can work.
Securing dignity in old age.
Building strong, inclusive communities.

This report comes in three sections:

an introductory overview, setting the context;
five life-cycle chapters, reporting on what we are doing, what we will do and measuring progress against baseline data for individual milestones; and
a set of articles by independent commentators on topics which widen our understanding of social justice in Scotland.

The Social Justice Annual Report fulfils the commitment by the Scottish Executive to report regularly on what it is achieving under its social justice strategy. The strategy was our response to clear evidence that previous interventions by government aimed at tackling deprivation and discrimination had not worked or had not been sustainable. Such interventions had failed to recognise sufficiently that the reasons that people face social exclusion are complex and inter-related. Housing, health, educational and employment opportunities, fear of crime and poor environment, are not issues that could be successfully tackled in isolation. A joined-up, cross-cutting approach is required. The forthcoming statutory basis for community planning will facilitate this approach by providing a framework for effective partnership working to tackle such issues.

The social justice strategy was widely welcomed as a new approach which offered the prospect, over time, of making a real difference to people's lives. Over the last three years, a great deal of progress has been made. Key information about the nature of social exclusion has been improved significantly, allowing policy makers for the first time to make a proper judgement on what policies are working and where more needs to be done. And as a consequence, policy has become more joined-up and effective.

But the strategy is not about improving information or processes. These are just tools - a means to an end. What the strategy is actually there for is to improve people's lives. And by that measure, the strategy is delivering results. The case studies which appear throughout this document give very specific evidence of that. But the statistics which underpin this Report are also showing how, at a very practical level, people's life opportunities are being improved.

What the Report shows is first, that children are now getting a better start in life. We have fewer children living in low income households and in households where no one is in work. Attainment levels for our younger children are continuing to increase and we have met our targets for pre-school education - almost all 4 year olds and 85% of 3 year olds use the service. Mothers are making the healthier choices - fewer are smoking during pregnancy and more are breastfeeding. We are removing the need for homeless families to be housed in inappropriate temporary accommodation (B&Bs).

Our young people are having greater success in managing the often difficult transition to adulthood - so much a critical influence on their future life prospects. We have high numbers of young people staying in education post compulsory schooling. For the first time, more than half of that age group is now participating in further or higher education. Overall attainment of pupils at the end of compulsory schooling is improving, with small improvements by the poorest-performing pupils. Of the 20% most deprived schools, around 80% showed an increase in the proportion of pupils achieving at least five standard grades at the highest level (Credits 1&2). We are making progress on discipline in schools and the number of removals from the register is falling, although the time lost through temporary exclusions is not yet moving in the right direction. Youth unemployment has fallen to less than three-quarters of the level of early 1997. Rough sleeping is on the decrease, although we are aware that those who do choose to sleep rough have complex problems that need to be tackled.

The Report shows that a growing number of families are now able to support themselves. Unemployment levels have shown a slight change in recent months, but overall the trend has been downwards and now stands at nearly two percentage points lower than in 1997. Employment of groups that are disadvantaged in the labour market has shown some progress. The most encouraging is for lone parents where there has been an increase of 14 percentage points to 56%. For other groups, such as minority ethnic groups, there is much activity but the data are limited, so we are funding an increase in the survey for the future. The proportion of working age adults living in low income households has increased slightly in relative terms but decreased in absolute terms. Strong earnings growth has led to a rise in incomes of 13% in real terms since 1996-97. This has pushed up the relative threshold, leading to a small increase in the relative indicator despite real improvements in the incomes of poor people of working age ².

The quality of life of older people is improving. We have significantly fewer older people living in low income households in both the relative and absolute sense, with falls of 4 and 14 percentage points respectively. We have introduced free personal care for the over 65s and free off-peak bus travel. These will help older people keep their independence whilst increasing disposable income. We have also helped more than 10,000 social sector tenants and pensioners by providing free central heating, and we have given many more free insulation under the Warm Deal. By providing warm, dry homes we are reducing the number of people in fuel poverty and improving their health. There have been continuous decreases in the rates of mortality from coronary heart disease.

And finally, the Report demonstrates the progress that is being made towards building strong, inclusive communities. Unemployment rates in the areas where there is the lowest employment have fallen by almost a third. Nevertheless, this drop is in line with the rates for Scotland so a person living in one of the worst areas for unemployment can be two-and-a-half times more likely to be out of work than the average Scot. We are working to close the gap. Our investment in social housing will make a difference to thousands of tenants across Scotland. The transfer of council homes to Glasgow Housing Association, as part of our community ownership programme, will provide the 80,000 Glasgow tenants with the warm dry homes they deserve. We have met our Programme for Government target of providing 20,000 new houses for affordable renting or low-cost owner occupation. We are introducing Public Access Internet Points in a wide range of public and private sector venues throughout Scotland as part of our drive to close the digital divide. Scotland has a high level of volunteering, helping our communities but also widening the skills of the volunteers. Crime rates are falling, although we cannot yet measure the position in disadvantaged areas. Deprived communities often suffer from drug problems, so we are investing in help for treatment and prevention. Since the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency was established in 2001, controlled drugs with a street value of ?100 million have been seized and 400 people arrested for drug trafficking.

These are measures of real success. But they are not grounds for complacency. They show generally the good start that has been made, on which we can build. But they also highlight areas where we need to concentrate greater efforts. That is why the additional resources which are available in the Scottish Budget 2003-06 are going to be used to sharpen the attack on poverty and disadvantage.

Scottish Budget

In Building a Better Scotland, ² we set out the Executive's spending proposals for 2003-06. Our plans are for a better, prosperous and ambitious Scotland. We want a Scotland where everyone can benefit from the opportunities available, to build a successful, sustainable and healthy life for themselves, their families and their communities. A fairer Scotland, founded on the values of equality and non-discrimination, in which everyone can achieve their full potential and no one is excluded. A Scotland with a modern, dynamic and welcoming society, defining the image that we present to the world.

We are prioritising investment in skills and enterprise to open up opportunities and create the foundation for Scotland's future.
We are investing in our children and young people, to give them the best start in life and the opportunity and confidence to build their future.
We are taking action to drive up the quality of lives in communities across Scotland.

This Budget has ensured that our resources are allocated to deliver on our priorities of health, education, crime, transport and jobs. In addition, we considered the cross-cutting themes of "closing the opportunity gap" and sustainable development across the work of all the portfolios. These are the issues that matter most to the people of Scotland, and they form the basis for all of our work. We have published statements of how our spending proposals are helping in these areas - Closing the Opportunity Gap: Scottish Budget 2003-2006 ³ and Building a Better Scotland: Spending Proposals 2003-2006: What the money buys. ⁴ The Closing the Opportunity Gap document sets out the very specific actions it will be taking to close the opportunity gap over the coming years, setting itself very specific targets. These complement the targets in this report; they do not replace them. But they do signal a new stage in the Executive's commitment to social justice, focused increasingly on action and the delivery of results.

The People's Priorities

Across each of our five priorities for action, health, education, crime, transport and jobs, our aim is to close the opportunity gap - providing social justice for the most disadvantaged Scots by giving them the opportunities they lack. Everything we do, every policy we introduce, every decision we make will be measured against success in closing the opportunity gap, to ensure that we live in a society founded on fairness, equality and opportunity. Scotland must be a society of strong, inclusive communities, a society where poverty is a thing of the past, a society where everyone, young or old, whatever their circumstances, can live with dignity.

Health:Scotland's health record needs to improve. We are committed to improving Scotland's health, and improving Scotland's health services.

Education:Education is the key to improving opportunities for young Scots and building a prosperous and vibrant future for Scotland.

Crime:We are determined to make Scotland safer and make Scottish communities feel safer.

Transport:An efficient, sustainable transport system is a key element in Scotland's economic prosperity.

Jobs:One of our core priorities is to work for full employment and a prosperous and sustainable Scottish economy.

Closing the Opportunity Gap Objectives

Health	To work towards a step change in life expectancy for Scots, particularly disadvantaged members of the community, including children and older people
Education	To close the gap in educational achievement between the most disadvantaged children and young people and the average, and promote equality, inclusion and diversity
Crime	To reduce crime, particularly violent and drug-related crime and housebreaking, which disproportionately affects disadvantaged areas
Transport	To reduce social exclusion by making public transport easier to use, and helping vulnerable and disadvantaged people to access services, employment and leisure opportunities
Jobs	To close the opportunity gap on employment and learning, breaking the cycle of poverty and working to break down barriers faced by the most disadvantaged

Social Justice Strategy: People and Places

Social Justice is about people and places. Poverty and disadvantage can strike individuals and communities. It is sometimes easy to see area disadvantage in a geographic community, where unemployment and ill-health can blight the lives of the residents. What is not so easy to see is that individuals within that community may have different needs, for example the lone parent or the elderly disabled person. Individuals living in relatively affluent areas can also suffer from poverty and exclusion. This may be an unemployed person living in a wealthy rural area or a minority ethnic person living in a predominately white area.

As part of our approach to the Social Justice Strategy we have the Equality Strategy, focusing on people and groups, often called communities of interest, and the Community Regeneration Statement, setting out our area-based agenda, as it impacts on the lives of those living in disadvantaged communities. Our work to deliver social justice across Scotland is also being informed by the Poverty and Social Inclusion in Rural Scotland ⁵ report, which helps our understanding of social justice in a rural context.

Our Equality StrategyWorking together for equality ⁶ was published in November 2000. It outlined how the Scottish Executive planned to make real, long-term changes to our culture and integrate equality into policy. It focuses on making better policy, providing better services for people from disadvantaged groups and promoting equal opportunities and tackling discrimination. It provides a framework for building on earlier work on race, gender and disability and for developing work in areas of sexual orientation, religion and age.

Where possible the social justice milestones are broken down by gender. Breakdowns for other groups are often not possible due to small sample sizes.

The Community Regeneration StatementBetter Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap ⁷, published in June 2002, sets out the Executive's strategy for tackling deprivation in Scotland's disadvantaged communities and for closing the opportunity gap between them and the rest of the country.

There are two key elements to the strategy:

Making core public services as effective as possible in deprived areas. Public services account for the lion's share of spending in deprived communities. They must be designed to meet the needs of people in deprived communities and delivered in ways that improve the quality of their lives.
Making sure individuals and communities have the social capital - the skills, confidence, networks and resources - to take advantage of and increase the opportunities open to them.

Building on these two principles, the strategy identifies two key changes to the organisational structure of regeneration activity in Scotland - the identification of community planning as the primary means of co-ordinating and taking forward regeneration activity and the creation of Communities Scotland with a particular role in respect of regeneration.

We are committed to Community Planning as the most practical and effective way to deliver better and more responsive services for our communities and promoting their wellbeing. The process will provide:

A strategic vision for the whole area, covering the social, economic and environmental needs of the area and its communities. This means at a local level as well as authority-wide.
Community engagement.
Partnership with the private and voluntary sectors as well as the public sector.
Community leadership.

We are learning the lessons from local authorities' ongoing experience of the value and challenges of community planning and are bringing in legislation to make the process statutory.

The Rural Poverty and Inclusion Working Group (RPIWG) was established to look into poverty and social exclusion in rural Scotland. The working group comprised members from Scottish Enterprise, CoSLA, the SCVO, local authorities and others with a remit to improve the understanding of rural social exclusion in Scotland. The Executive's Cabinet Sub-Committees on Rural Development and Social Justice are taking forward the follow-up to the report of the RPIWG, Poverty and Social Exclusion in Rural Scotland. ⁸ The Technical Report to this document contains rural and urban analysis for 12 of the milestones.

Rural and urban analysis is not available for some indicators. Further work is being taken forward to address the current data deficiencies, for example the Neighbourhood Statistics project and SCOTXED.

Where possible, the analysis uses the Scottish Household Survey 6-fold urban rural classification (at unit postcode level). This is an enhancement on last year, when much of the rural analysis was at local authority level.

Where there is disaggregation by geographic location the general picture shows the situation being better in the more rural locations compared with the primary cities and other urban locations. For some of the milestones (e.g. educational attainment at primary level) there are no real differences.

Details of the analysis is included in the technical report.

The Cities Review recognises that the Executive's wealth creation and wealth redistribution agendas are intimately related. The challenges identified in the Review are:

To nurture successful, competitive cities _ we must deepen and widen our city labour pools. In the context of an overall declining Scottish population, getting the unemployed and long- term sick into work is fundamental to the success of our cities.
To improve the performance of state schools, particularly in Glasgow and Dundee. This is essential, not merely on equality grounds, but because the Smart, Successful Scotland9 economic strategy (that aims for a wide base of science and skills) will fail until city schools can equip their leavers for jobs which increasingly require better qualifications.
To tackle the vast stock of vacant and derelict land in Glasgow city region and Dundee. There is clear and long-standing evidence that vacant and derelict land is predominately close to poorer households and that they do see it as a major negative influence: a visual blight and nuisance that attracts anti-social informal uses, such as dumping.
To provide more socially mixed neighbourhoods within cities, and particularly in the context of spiralling city house prices, to provide affordable housing.

Environmental Justice

Closing the gap of quality of life is not just an economic issue. Some of our most disadvantaged communities also suffer from poor environments - rubbish, derelict land, poor air quality and landfill. We are committed to environmental justice and this goes hand in hand with our commitment to social justice. This means cleaner, healthier neighbourhoods, improving the quality of life and tackling crime. Environmental justice is also an essential part of our approach to sustainable development. We are committed, for example, to improving Scotland's record on waste by reducing the amounts going to landfill. Greater fuel efficiency in homes can improve the lives of the fuel poor as well as reducing resource use. Meeting the Needs, ¹⁰ our vision for sustainable development, contains 24 indicators, some of which overlap with social justice milestones.

Income Poverty

Poverty and exclusion come in many forms and affect different people in different ways. What is clear is that income is not the only factor in determining a person's life chances. The social justice milestones, as detailed in this Report, provide the framework for tackling poverty and injustice.

Interpretation of Low Income Milestones

Three of the milestones in this report monitor low income. The measurement of low income is not straightforward and a detailed discussion of the issues around the low income statistics and their interpretation is included in this year's Technical Report.

A summary of the main points is as follows:

Relative and absolute measures are both important. The relative indicator provides a measure of inequality whereas the absolute indicator allows the measurement of progress against a fixed baseline and removes the effects of external factors such as the performance of the economy. For example, economic growth has led to an increase in incomes of 13% in real terms since 1996-97; there has not been a sizeable decrease in the level of relative low income over this period because the threshold has increased. The considerable decrease in the level of absolute low income, however, suggests that poor families have seen real improvements in their living standards. Both measures are necessary to provide the full picture.
Five different thresholds of mean and median income are provided in the Technical Report to help identify changes in household income distribution, whether the changes are focused on certain parts of the distribution, or whether the changes are being experienced by households in general.
Housing costs are also a factor and both before and after housing costs information is reported.
These statistics are based on a sample survey and estimates are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. Small year-on-year changes are not significant and several years of data should be examined to establish trends.

Reports for previous years have only contained figures for the proportion and not the number of people in low-income households - this was as a result of methodological problems with the data. The Department for Work and Pensions have now revised their methodology and we are able to provide estimates of numbers of children in low income households as well as proportions (see Technical Report). As a result of the change in methodology, some of the figures differ from those published in last year's report. These differences are, however, very small and do not alter any of the general trends. As part of an ongoing programme to improve data quality, there will be a further revision to this data series when full results of the 2001 Census become available.

Working in Partnership

Tackling social justice requires the help of many partners. The Scottish Executive works with those involved in the delivery of the key services that impact on the everyday lives of the people of Scotland.

Public organisations such as local authorities and NHS Boards deliver many of the services on which people from disadvantaged groups or areas rely. These are people who have most need of services, but who have often in the past had least access to appropriate provision. Services must be effective in deprived areas and responsive to the needs of the community.
The voluntary sector is a key social partner for the Scottish Executive. Voluntary and community groups are in close touch with marginalised groups and are well placed to identify and respond to changing need, providing tailored services.
The private sector is also important. Providing employment opportunities is vital for local people. Many important services are also provided by the private sector such as shops and banks. The private sector is especially important in maintaining remote provision.
The UK Government is an important partner. It shares our goals of eradicating child poverty and tackling social exclusion. Their focus on a strong economy, making work pay and providing work for those who can and support for those who cannot, complements the Executive's work. The UK Government publishes its own report on their progress in tackling poverty and social exclusion. ¹¹ We are working with the UK Government on the EU social inclusion agenda, including the preparation of the 2003 National Action Plan on social inclusion.

The Independent Perspective

In this Report we have included four articles by independent academics and writers. These are intended to contribute to the understanding of our social justice strategy. The views expressed are the authors' own and not necessarily those of the Executive. They cover key issues for enhancing the development and implementation of social justice policy as follows:

Transport issues faced by residents in deprived areas in urban Scotland
Interaction between social and environmental justice
Community Safety Partnerships: Delivering the Social Justice Agenda
Inequalities in health in older people: is there cause for concern?

	Milestone	Progress	Comments	link to section
1.	Reducing the proportion of our children living in workless households			link
2.	Reducing the proportion of children living in low- income households			link
3.	Increasing the proportion of our children who attain the appropriate levels in reading, writing and maths by the end of Primary 2 and Primary 7			link
4.	All of our children will have access to quality care and early learning before entering school			link
5.	Improving the wellbeing of our young children through reductions in the proportion of women smoking during pregnancy; reductions in the percentage of low birth-weight babies; reductions in dental decay among 5 year olds; and by increasing the proportion of women breastfeeding			link
6.	Reducing the number of households with children living in temporary accommodation	**	Only one year's data on households with children in B&B	link
7.	Halving the proportion of 16-19 year olds who are not in education, training or employment	=		link
8.	All our young people leaving local authority care will have achieved at least English and Maths Standard Grades and have access to appropriate housing options	**	Data will be available in2003	link
9.	Bringing the poorest-performing 20% of pupils, in terms of Standard Grade achievement, closer to the performance of all pupils	=	The attainment of the poorest-performing pupils is increasing, but in line with rest of pupils	link
10.	Reducing by a third the days lost through exclusion from school and truancy		Unable to measure truancy separately from unauthorised absences. Removals from register decreasing	link
11.	Improving the health of young people through reduction in smoking by 12-15 year olds, teenage pregnancies among 13-15 year olds, and the rate of suicides among young people		Two of the three indicators are moving in the right direction. Rate of suicide not improving	link
12.	No one has to sleep rough			link
13.	Reducing the proportion of unemployed working age people			link
14.	Reducing the proportion of working age people with low incomes		Slight increase in relative terms. Decrease in absolute terms Incomes have risen by 13% since baseline.	link
15.	Increasing the employment rates of disadvantaged groups, such as lone parents and ethnic minorities, that are relatively disadvantaged in the labour market			link
16.	Increasing the proportion of students from under-represented, disadvantaged groups and areas in higher education compared with the overall student population in higher education	=		link
17.	Increasing the proportion of people with learning disabilities able to live at home or in a homely environment			link
18.	Improving the health of families by reducing smoking, alcohol misuse, poor diet and mortality rates from coronary heart disease			link
19.	Reducing the proportion of older people with low incomes			link
20.	Increasing the proportion of working age people contributing to a non-state pension	=		link
21.	Increasing the proportion of older people able to live independently by doubling the proportion of older people receiving respite care at home and increasing home care opportunities			link
22.	Increasing the number of older people taking exercise and reducing the rates of mortality from coronary heart disease and the prevalence of respiratory disease			link
23.	Reducing the fear of crime among older people			link
24.	Reducing the gap in unemployment rates between the worst areas and the average rate for Scotland	=	Unemployment levels in worst areas reducing but gap remains the same	link
25.	Reducing the incidence of drug misuse in general and of injecting and sharing of needles in particular	=		link
26.	Reducing crime rates in disadvantaged areas	**		link
27.	Increasing the quality and variety of homes in our most disadvantaged communities			link
28.	Increasing the number of people from across all communities taking part in voluntary activities	=		link
29.	Accelerating the number of households in disadvantaged areas with access to the Internet	**	Data not comparable with previous information	link