The Scottish Government

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A PARTNERSHIP FOR A BETTER SCOTLAND: PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

SUPPORTING STRONGER, SAFER COMMUNITIES

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Introduction

We want to give every child and young person the best possible start in life. Helping our children realise their potential is the key to giving them a sense of self-fulfilment and equipping them for their future.

Scotland's children and young people have energy and enthusiasm that we should release and voices that we should listen to and learn from. We will work in partnership with young people, the voluntary sector, the business community, local authorities, health boards and other bodies to provide the best and most exciting opportunities that we can to allow children and young people to get involved and get active.

We will continue to provide support for children, families and carers especially those in difficult circumstances. We will act to ensure that our most vulnerable children have the protection they need and deserve.

Our aim is to deliver world class services for our children. That means a commitment not just to investment but also to reform - to cut through bureaucracy, simplify funding and ensure services are flexible and focused on the needs of children, young people and their families.

High level commitments

• We will provide opportunities for our children and young people at all ages to grow and develop through the provision of:
  • more flexible and more available childcare
  • safe places for our children to play and leisure activities that will excite and stretch our young people
  • increased access to sports and leisure facilities.
• We will encourage the more active involvement of young people in the lives of their communities and wider society through the introduction of a scheme, alongside the existing Millennium Volunteers scheme, which recognises youth volunteering and continued support for the Scottish Youth Parliament.
• We will protect our most vulnerable children through:
  • A tough new inspection system for child protection services
  • A new Children's Charter
  • A review of the Children's Hearings system
  • Improved services for children leaving care.

Supporting activity

Providing opportunities for our children and young people to grow and develop

• Alongside nursery school provision for 3 and 4 year olds we will aim to create flexible childcare provision accessible to all, expanding facilities, in the public, private and voluntary sectors and through co-operative arrangements.
• We will continue to support the establishment of youth cafes and other alcohol free activities for young people.
• We want to see more children undertaking regular physical exercise. We will encourage local authorities and health boards to build on existing best practice, channelling resources such as the Quality of Life Fund and health promotion budgets through the community planning framework, to encourage better access to swimming pools and other sports facilities.
• To encourage the active participation of young people we will:
  • develop a national strategy for youth work
  • introduce a national recognition scheme, alongside the existing Millennium Volunteers scheme, to support youth volunteering, giving young people the credit they deserve for the commitment they are making
  • develop our support for mentoring programmes for young people
  • continue to support the Scottish Youth Parliament in developing its role of representing the views of young people.

Improving and reforming services to ensure our children and young people are safe and well

• We will put in place a tough new inspection system to ensure that the reform of child protection services is delivered.
• We will introduce a Children's Charter to protect the most vulnerable, setting out children's rights in language children can understand.
• We will establish the new Children's Commissioner before the end of 2003.
• We will review the Children's Hearings system to develop and improve the current service. Scotland has led the world in developing a system that puts the child at its centre, involves local people in deciding what is the right thing to do and focuses on the care and welfare of young people. We will hold on to those fundamental principles. It is now however, time to review the system to ensure that it has the right set up and adequate resources to ensure that it does the best possible job to protect children.
• We will both invest in and reform children's services to cut through bureaucracy, simplify funding and ensure services are flexible and focused on the needs of children, young people and their families.
• We will continue to improve and develop the services provided for those leaving care to ensure that services, including mentoring and befriending, continue to be available beyond the age of 16.
• We will improve procedures, services and support for adoptive and foster parents.

JUSTICE (including YOUTH CRIME and PROSECUTION)

Introduction

We will continue to work for a Safer Scotland, reducing crime, particularly violent and drugs related crime, and reducing re-offending. Alongside measures to improve education and opportunity, we will tackle the causes of crime to make communities safer places to live and work. We will deal swiftly and effectively with those who commit crime and secure a criminal justice system that fully supports victims and witnesses. We will combat anti-social behaviour, particularly by a minority of young people. We will reform the courts and legal system to deal with cases more efficiently. We will continue to modernise the law and legal system to protect individual rights.

High level commitments

We will tackle crime and disorder by reducing violent and drug related crime and cutting re-offending.

• We will increase the number of police officers on operational duty in every Scottish force and improve on the current record level of overall police numbers.
• We will support Chief Constables to meet their target of an increase of 500 in the number of special constables.
• We will continue to expand the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency.
• We will use the model of Drug Courts across Scotland, where they are needed.
• We will continue to improve the range and quality of the sentences available to courts:
  • extending the availability of Drug Treatment and Testing Orders and other community penalties
  • extending reparation by offenders
  • expanding the role of restorative justice
  • improving the quality of prison programmes;
  • reducing the number of offenders sent to prison by more use of Supervised Attendance Orders.
• We will review devolved licensing powers to shut down drug dealing premises in Scotland and ensure that premises are not re-occupied by new dealers.
• We will work with the Home Office on reserved matters relating to drug dealing premises.
• We will improve the efficiency of police forces by providing more common support services, while enhancing community accountability for policing through local police boards.

We will work to make communities safer, and people feel safer.

• We will take forward the White Paper on the Fire Service by introducing a Fire Services Bill to modernise the service, meet local needs, increase local decision making and improve consultation with the workforce.
• We will review the law and enforcement on knife crimes.
• We will expand CCTV, in shopping and other areas, supporting businesses and others to reduce crime.

We will legislate to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour.

• We will introduce Anti-Social Behaviour orders for under-16 year olds. The order will continue to be made through the civil court and on application by a local authority or registered social landlord. Application for the order may be made without referral first to the Children's Hearing. Sanctions for breach of the Order will be dealt with by following the normal procedures in place for ASBOs and through referral to the Children's Hearing.
• As a last resort, and once offers of guidance, support and counselling have been refused or ignored, we will give the courts powers to make civil orders requiring parents to act in the best interest of their children. Such an order would be based on the parent's actions or failures, not their children's. If, when considering a referral, a Children's Hearing considers that a parent has failed to act in a child's best interest, and that voluntary arrangements have failed, the Reporter would apply to the court for a parental order. A further failure to act in a child's best interests in breach of a parental order would be an offence. Before any sentence could be imposed, the court would be required to take into account the best interests of the child in respect of whom the initial referral was made and also any other children within the parent's care. The sentence would be either a fine or a community disposal. Non-payment of a fine would initially be dealt with by means of a Supervised Attendance Order.
• We will provide sufficient secure accommodation and allow children who might otherwise be in secure accommodation to remain in the community through the use of electronic tagging.
• We will ban the sale of spray paint to under 16s.
• We will protect emergency workers from assault and obstruction.
• We will make kerb crawling a criminal offence.

We will address Youth Crime.

• We will support the Children's Hearings system, expanding fast track hearings, if these are evaluated as successful, and increase the resources available to deal with persistent offenders.
• We will roll out Youth Courts where they are needed, subject to successful evaluation as necessary.
• We will consult on a national system of warnings for young offenders, with a restorative element where appropriate.
• We will direct 10 million to provide additional support to localised action and initiatives to divert young people away from crime.

We will reform the courts and legal system.

• We will set up a judicially led Sentencing Commission to review sentencing and make recommendations on:
  • the use of bail and remand
  • the basis on which fines are determined
  • the effectiveness of sentences in reducing re-offending
  • the scope to improve consistency of sentencing
  • the arrangements for early release from prison, and supervision of short term prisoners on their release.
• We will publish proposals for consultation for a single agency to deliver custodial and non-custodial sentences in Scotland with the aim of reducing reoffending rates.
• We will legislate to protect vulnerable witnesses such as children and improve the support for victims and witnesses with increased privacy protection, including witnesses in Anti-Social Behaviour cases. We will boost victim support and court support schemes and expand the witness service to the High Court. We will encourage prosecutors to give appropriate information to victims whenever practical, on their reasoning for action taken or discontinued.
• We will set up an independent Police Complaints Body.
• We will legislate to reform the operation of the High Court.
• We will take forward the review of summary justice.
• We will place the reformed judicial appointments system on a statutory basis, and ensure that QCs are appointed in a more open and independent way.
• We will establish a Scottish Human Rights Commission.

Supporting activity

• We will take forward the Nicholson review on licensing.
• We will take forward the National Strategy on Domestic Abuse.
• We will work with the Home Office to introduce new protections for the public against inappropriate use of airguns and imitation guns.
• We will take strong action to reduce environmental crime through:
  • increased training and support for prosecutors and police in dealing with environmental and wildlife crime
  • consulting on access to courts for NGOs on environmental matters under the Aarhus convention
  • legislation on nature conservation
  • strengthening the enforcement of environmental law including consideration of the establishment of environmental courts and other options for improving prosecution and dispute resolution.
• We will complete the introduction of environmental information regulations to improve public access to environmental information.
• We will continue the modernisation of the Prosecution Service.
• We will regulate the private security industry.
• We will legislate to reform family law for all of Scotland's people.
• We will continue to modernise legal aid.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Introduction

We want a Scotland where everyone can enjoy a decent quality of life.

Too many lives are damaged by poor housing, a blighted environment and poverty. We want everyone to have a decent home. We will work to ensure that neighbourhoods are kept safe and clean and ensure that our planning laws work to improve the environment for all. We will tackle the social, educational and economic barriers that create inequality and work to end child poverty by tackling deprivation and social need.

We will support those who make a valuable contribution to the people and communities of Scotland through their work in the voluntary sector and through volunteering. In order to ensure that the sector is valued by government, we will rationalise and improve its funding mechanisms, respecting its independence.

We will act decisively to confront the evils of racism and sectarianism.

High level commitments

We will work to improve the quality of life for all in Scotland.

• We will introduce a quality of life commitment, support minimum standards for the removal of graffiti and litter and establish urban environmental task forces to tackle these problems.
• We will extend the neighbourhood warden scheme across Scotland and continue to evaluate its success.

We will regenerate communities and secure a decent environment through reforming our planning laws.

• We will improve the planning system to strengthen involvement of communities, speed up decisions, reflect local views better, and allow quicker investment decisions.

We will deliver good quality, sustainable and affordable housing for all.

• We will reduce the number of households living in Fuel Poverty by 30% by 2006.
• We will encourage local authorities, where appropriate, to pass control of housing to community based housing associations and tenants' co-operatives. We will transfer 70,000 houses by 2006 to community ownership, subject to the approval of tenants.
• We will invest in effective long-term improvement of social housing stock and develop a range of housing choices. We will provide an additional 18,000 new and improved homes for social rent and low-cost home ownership by 2006. We will take forward plans to increase the availability of affordable housing in rural areas.
• We will extend the home insulation and central heating programme to improve another 4000 homes by 2006, initially directing resources to the over 80s who have partial or poorly functioning heating systems. We will evaluate the success of the programme, with a view to extending the scheme to other pensioner groups beyond 2006.

We will work with communities to improve their standard of living.

• We will support an extension of the money advice service, building on the work of local authorities, the Citizens Advice Bureaux network and other voluntary sector bodies, to help those burdened by multiple debt.
• We will support credit union development and community banking arrangements to ensure alternatives to mainstream banking are available and we will encourage local enterprise and trading schemes.
• We will work with the Post Office to explore what role the Executive can play in efforts to revitalise the Post Office network in Scotland.

We will support the voluntary sector.

• We will act on the recommendations of the strategic funding review of voluntary sector funding, to support 3 year rolling core funding for the voluntary sector and improve its availability, effectiveness and sustainability.

We will promote equal opportunities.

• We will act against racist abuse and attacks. We will encourage the integration of refugees into local communities. We will tackle sectarianism and implement the proposals of the cross-party working group on tackling religious hatred.
• We will continue to improve the accessibility of public buildings.

Supporting activity

Improving quality of life

• We will continue to assist public bodies to improve quality of life for local communities.
• We will continue to work with professional bodies, local authorities, the voluntary sector and higher education institutions to improve social work training in order to meet the new demands of the profession. We will take all appropriate steps to ensure best use of valuable social worker resources.
• We will evaluate the local pilot projects in order to assess the desirability of creating a national voluntary citizen's entitlement card for appropriate public services, taking care to protect individual privacy.
• We will increase, and encourage enforcement of, penalties for litter and extend local authority powers to tackle graffiti and fly-posting.
• We will introduce "acceptable behaviour contracts" for anti-social individuals and families.
• We will pilot an extension of the Land Fund to include communities not currently covered to assist the purchase of land for community activity.
• We will pilot 'good neighbour' declarations that set out the responsibilities of landlords, other agencies and tenants.
• We will encourage local authorities to set up proactive anti-social behaviour units.
• We will set targets for local authorities to recycle 25% of waste by 2006 and 55% by 2020 through increasing use of doorstep collection and through provision of recycling facilities in every community.
• We will continue to work with local authorities to deal with the nuisance of abandoned vehicles.
• We will strengthen local authority powers of enforcement to tackle fly-tipping and double the level of fines.
• We will require the production of a pollution inventory for every community, accessible through the Internet.
• As part of our commitment to sustainable economic growth, we will require public bodies to conduct waste minimisation audits to reduce the amount of waste produced.
• We will support a voluntary proof of age scheme, backed by national awareness campaigns, and test purchasing systems to reduce the supply of alcohol, tobacco and solvents to young people.

Enhancing the environment and reforming planning

• We will consult on new rights of appeal in planning cases where the local authority involved has an interest, where the application is contrary to the local plan, when planning officers have recommended rejection or where an Environmental Impact Assessment is needed.
• We will examine the mechanisms required for pre-application consultation and mediation in the planning process, including, where appropriate, involvement by local councillors, revising the councillor's code of conduct to assist this, so communities can engage with developers over controversial applications.
• We will use the National Planning Framework to support area regeneration.
• We will review planning guidance to set strong minimum standards for including public open space in new developments.
• We will enhance the urban landscape, particularly by introducing a more effective system for improving conservation and design.
• We will increase protection for communities affected by flooding through investment in flood alleviation measures and flood defences. We will support planning controls on building on flood plains.
• We will strengthen building standards to ensure that energy conservation levels improve to high and effective levels and consult on ways to ensure that new homes and public buildings increasingly incorporate solar power or other renewable energy sources.
• We will reform planning guidelines to ensure that new housing includes provision for separating waste, and space for kerbside collection of recyclable material.
• We will encourage awareness of the benefits of grey water schemes in new developments.

Improving Scotland's housing

• We will introduce a decent homes standard. We will use the standard to define a new energy banding system to classify houses according to energy efficiency, offering tangible benefits to homeowners for energy conservation improvements they make to their homes.
• We will provide effective support for homeless people and eradicate the need for rooflessness.
• We will build on the recommendations of the Housing Improvement Taskforce.
• We will introduce a single seller survey.
• We will establish an improved framework for encouraging the maintenance of private housing by reforming the law of the tenement to introduce a common factoring scheme. We will explore the possibility of owner-funded long-term maintenance funds.
• We will support standards for a voluntary accreditation scheme for private landlords to offer tenants and neighbours a level of quality assurance.
• We will ensure that more homes are barrier free.
• We will review restrictions that prevent social landlords playing a full role in community regeneration.

Supporting communities

• We will merge Social Inclusion Partnerships with Community Planning Partnerships, ensuring that the new partnerships are fully accountable to the local community.
• We will investigate the feasibility of community based insurance schemes, through credit unions, initially for areas at risk of flooding. We will support home insurance schemes tied to rents paid to landlords in the socially rented sector.
• We will work with the DTI to tackle harassment by loan sharks, introduce fairer credit schemes and new protection from exorbitant interest rates.
• We will implement the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act.
• We will work with the UK Government to secure a Scottish Opportunities Fund to provide sustainable core funding to relevant voluntary organisations.

Supporting the voluntary sector

• We will encourage compacts between local authorities and the voluntary sector and improve the partnership with health boards.
• We will legislate on charity law.

SPORT, CULTURE AND THE ARTS

Introduction

Sport, culture and the arts have a key role in today's diverse Scotland. Our vision is for a Scotland where our cultural life is inclusive and accessible. We recognise our proud and distinctive heritage and want to embrace the diversity in our language and our culture. We will develop a plan to support our traditional and other languages. We will promote the widest possible participation in a vigorous and diverse cultural life in Scotland, bringing real benefits for communities and individuals.

The creative industries will have an increasingly important role in the future economy. Scotland can already demonstrate considerable impact within this sector and we will improve the conditions for these industries to flourish.

We will promote excellence in culture and sport throughout Scotland and we want these aspects of Scottish life to play a part in the wider promotion of Scotland's image overseas and in the attraction of more cultural and sporting events to Scotland.

Sport, culture and the arts are integral to healthy communities and to developing self-confident individuals. We are committed to generating wider opportunities to participate in sport, culture and the arts - particularly in schools, and amongst under-represented communities. We will aim for excellence in sport, culture and the arts too - successful Scots on a world stage can have a major impact on participation at a domestic level.

High level commitments

We will develop a new focus for Scotland's languages recognising both our heritage and our diversity.

We will establish new partnerships in the arts and in our cultural society to develop national and local programmes aimed at achieving excellence.

We will maximise the contribution that sport, culture and the arts can play in the promotion of Scotland and in the attraction of international events.

We will promote a Scotland where everyone can participate in sport, excelling at their own level.

Supporting activity

We will develop a new focus for Scotland's languages recognising both our heritage and our diversity.

• We will legislate to provide secure status for Gaelic through a Gaelic Language Bill. We will introduce a national language strategy to guide the development and support of Scotland's languages, including British Sign Language and ethnic community languages. We will give local authorities and other public bodies a responsibility to draw up a languages plan which reflects the communities they serve.

We will establish new partnerships to develop national and local programmes in arts and culture aimed at achieving excellence.

• We will consult on the future governance of the arts, culture and the creative industries in Scotland. We will look at the creation of a single cultural organisation for Scotland. This will include a review of the structure and purpose of the Scottish Arts Council as well as the other national and regional cultural bodies and companies. It will look at the future role and funding of the arts in Scotland.
• We will support a National Theatre for Scotland to commission and create work in collaboration with theatre artists and theatre companies across Scotland.
• We will actively promote our young talent by increasing the links between public support and commercial enterprise.
• We will support local authorities and others who are bringing cultural opportunities to our towns, cities and rural communities. We will continue to support investment in our libraries and museums.

We will maximise the contribution that sport, culture and the arts can play in the promotion of Scotland and in the attraction of international events.

• We will aim to bring significant sporting and cultural events to Scotland through Event Scotland.
• We will support the Scottish Year of Highland Culture in 2007 and use the celebration in 2009 of the 250 ^th anniversary of Burns' birth as one means to encourage Scots worldwide to return to Scotland.
• We will strengthen the link between Scotland's arts and culture and the promotion of tourism and economic growth.
• We will establish support for international festivals.
• We will develop Scotland as a production centre for film, TV and new media and as a location for film-making; encourage and promote wider creative industries; and support the promotion of Scottish films and TV programmes overseas.

We will promote a Scotland which encourages participation in sport.

• We will implement the targets in the second stage of our sports strategy including the development of six indoor multi-sport facilities across Scotland, including a national indoor arena of competitive standard and two municipal stadia.
• We will develop the sporting champions scheme.
• We will promote golf internationally and make sure that international competitions such as the Ryder Cup are used to support the development of young golfers and increase the opportunity for young Scots to learn golf.
• We will work with sportscotland to complete the physical education and sports programme of new and refurbished sports facilities, including swimming pools.
• We will improve support for clubs and groups that provide coaching for sports and encourage them to provide coaching facilities for school children.
• We will develop accreditation schemes to allow greater numbers of people to act as coaches and physical activity trainers and promote New Deal programmes which provide opportunities to train as sports assistants.
• We will promote local community sports strategies.

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