Social Inclusion - Opening the door to a better Scotland

1. Introduction

1.1 This report, 'Social Inclusion: Opening the Door to a better Scotland', describes the Government's programme of action to promote social inclusion in Scotland, and the principles underlying that programme. Its purpose is to inform those practitioners in the public, private, voluntary and community sectors who are working to promote social inclusion, and to provide a basis for consideration by members of the future Scottish Parliament. A summary of this report is also being published.

1.2 The programme of action described in this report provides a context for the social inclusion strategy, developed by the Scottish Social Inclusion Network, and published separately. The strategy sets out a complementary programme of work, aimed at ensuring that future action to promote inclusion is integrated, rigorously evaluated, and informed by new ideas and established best practice.

1.3 This report describes both the range of issues which make up social exclusion and current Government action to promote social inclusion. In the main, this relates to action which will be for the Scottish Parliament and Executive to take forward; where this is the case, any commitments to spending on initiatives to promote social inclusion are subject to future decisions by the Scottish Parliament and Executive. Where responsibility for action will remain at the UK level, this is made clear in the text.

1.4 The publication of these 3 documents (this report, its summary, and the social inclusion strategy) is the latest stage in the Government's development of an integrated approach to promoting social inclusion. In December 1997, the Secretary of State for Scotland established the Social Exclusion Network, a group of senior officials charged with developing a corporate approach to promoting social inclusion within Government. Lord Sewel was given responsibility for social inclusion at a Ministerial level, and has overseen the work of the Social Exclusion Network.

1.5 The consultation paper 'Social Exclusion in Scotland' was issued on 2 February 1998; 229 responses were received. One of the key issues to emerge from that consultation was the need for a more inclusive approach to policy development in this area. As a consequence, a new group, the Scottish Social Inclusion Network, was formed, comprising representatives of organisations with key responsibilities for promoting social inclusion, individuals with direct, personal experience of tackling social exclusion, including community representatives, and senior Government officials. A list of members of the Network is attached at Annex A. The Network's remit has been to improve co-ordination between agencies, and to help the Government develop its approach to promoting social inclusion. The social inclusion strategy is both the main output of the Network's work to date, and the programme for its work over the rest of this year.

1.6 The development and implementation of the Government's programme to promote social inclusion in Scotland has been informed by the 3 reports prepared by the Social Exclusion Unit in the Cabinet Office. While the Unit has addressed problems of exclusion in England, and made recommendations for action in England, The Scottish Office has maintained a close involvement in their work, and their findings have helped to inform the approaches taken to tackling similar problems in Scotland. This involvement is continuing in the ongoing work of the Unit, including the Policy Action Teams taking forward various aspects of policy and action on neighbourhood renewal.

1.7 This report begins by briefly discussing the nature and scale of social exclusion in Scotland (section 2), and the Government's approach to promoting social inclusion (section 3). Sections 4 to 7 describe the 4 key strands of the Government's programme to promote social inclusion in Scotland; section 8 describes the programme of work to be taken forward under the social inclusion strategy. Section 9 provides a brief conclusion.