The Scottish Government

History of Social Justice Strategy & the Milestone Data

In March 1999, the Scottish Executive set out its long-term inclusion strategy Social Inclusion: Opening the Door to a Better Scotland. In November that year, Social Justice...a Scotland where everyone matters detailed the targets and milestones against which the Executive would use to measure its progress.

From 2000 to 2003, the Executive reported its progress against targets and milestones in the Social Justice Annual Report ( 2000/ 2001/ 2002), and its more detailed statistical Annex, Indicators of Progress ( 2000/ 2001/ 2002/ 2003)

From September 2004, the social justice strategy has been refocused with the Closing the Opportunity Gap approach. This brings new targets to replace the social justice milestones. Recent data on selected milestones is still available, and can be accessed below:

Original Milestones

1. Reducing the proportion of our children living in workless households
2. Reducing the proportion of our children living in low income households
3. Increasing the proportions of our children who attain the appropriate levels in reading, writing and maths by the end of Primary 2 and Primary 7
4. All children will have access to quality care and early learning before entering school
5. Improving the well-being of our young children through reductions in the proportion of women smoking during pregnancy, the percentage of low birth-weight babies, dental decay among 5 year olds, and by increasing the proportion of women breastfeeding
6. Reducing the number of households with children, living in temporary accommodation
7. Halving the proportion of 16-19 year olds who are not in education, training or employment
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
9. Bringing the poorest-performing 20% of pupils, in terms of Standard Grade achievement, closer to the performance of all pupils
10. Reducing by a third the days lost every year through exclusion from school and truancy
11. Improving the health of young people through reductions in smoking by 12-15 year olds, teenage pregnancies among 13-15 year olds and the rate of suicides among young people
12. No one has to sleep rough
13. Reducing the proportion of unemployed working age people
14. Reducing the proportion of working age people with low incomes
15. Increasing the employment rates of groups, such as lone parents and ethnic minorities, that are relatively disadvantaged in the labour market
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
17. Increasing the proportion of people with learning disabilities able to live at home or in a 'homely' environment
18. Improving the health of families by reducing smoking, alcohol misuse, poor diet and mortality rates from coronary heart disease
19. Reducing the proportion of older people with low incomes
20. Increasing the proportion of working age people contributing to a non-state pension
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
22. Increasing the number of older people taking physical exercise and reducing the rates of mortality from coronary heart disease and the prevalence of respiratory disease
23. Reducing the fear of crime among older people
24. Reducing the gap in unemployment rates between the worst areas and the average rate for Scotland
25. Reducing the incidence of drugs misuse in general and of injections and sharing of needles in particular
26. Reducing crime rates in disadvantaged areas
27. Increasing the quality and variety of homes in our most disadvantaged communities
28. Increasing the number of people across communities taking part in voluntary activities
29. Accelerating the number of households in disadvantaged areas with access to the Internet