Social Inclusion - Opening the door to a better Scotland

5. Tackling barriers to inclusion

5.1 Many people face particular barriers to taking up the opportunities society has to offer - barriers to inclusion. Often these are associated with particular groups - families or pensioners, who are more vulnerable to poverty, or those who are subject to discrimination or disadvantage for reasons of gender, race or disability. Other barriers are more personal and can be directly damaging to an individual's prospects of inclusion - like poor health, homelessness, or drug misuse. Other barriers may be as simple as a lack of affordable, local childcare.

5.2 Tackling barriers to inclusion is, therefore, a key strand of the Government's programme. Action under this strand brings together a wide range of activity - from tackling child and family poverty; through promoting good health; to tackling homelessness.

Tackling child and family poverty

5.3 One of the most obvious barriers to inclusion is lack of money. Low income is a fundamental cause of exclusion, simply because so much social activity is dependent upon our ability to pay. Poverty increases people's vulnerability to poor health, poor housing and exclusion from a wide range of everyday activities and services that many of us take for granted. The Government's approach is based on tackling the causes of poverty; but action is also needed to address specific problems of low income. Action at this level includes, for example, the introduction across the UK from April 1999 of the National Minimum Wage which will benefit an estimated 157,000 people in Scotland, by removing the worst excesses of low pay.

5.4 In terms of the long-term prevention of social exclusion, what happens to today's children and young people is obviously critical - and this is discussed in more detail in the next section. However, it is also the case that children, especially young children, are disproportionately represented among the numbers of people with low incomes in Scotland. There is therefore a clear need to support low-income families, by helping parents secure an adequate income.

5.5 The Government has brought forward a wide range of initiatives at a UK level to tackle family poverty. Central to this effort is the Working Families Tax Credit, which from October 1999 will guarantee every working family an income for full-time work of at least £190 a week. In Scotland alone, it is estimated that around 4,000 families will benefit from its introduction. In addition, from April 1999 the standard rate of Child Benefit for the first child will increase by nearly £3 a week: this alone will be worth around £60m a year to families in Scotland. The poorest families will also receive a further £2.50 a week for every child under 11.

5.6 Lone parent families can sometimes face particular difficulties, and it is important to find ways to help parents in that situation make the most of available opportunities. Lack of support structures traditionally associated with the family can, in some cases, leave lone parents isolated from mainstream society. For example, it may be difficult to arrange suitable childcare, which in turn presents problems for those lone parents trying to get back into the workplace. The Government has therefore committed £191m over the lifetime of this Parliament for the New Deal for Lone Parents in Great Britain. In Scotland, 92,000 lone parents on Income Support now have access to their own tailor-made Personal Adviser service to help them overcome obstacles to work. Specially trained Advisers will discuss with lone parents the possibility of training or work, and can advise on in-work benefit entitlement and help them to arrange registered childcare.

People with disabilities

5.7 Physical, sensory or mental disability can also be a barrier to inclusion. Physical difficulties in accessing public transport and public buildings can have a substantial effect on the ability of disabled people to participate in economic, social, cultural and sporting activities; but attitudes are also important. All too frequently the able-bodied underestimate the contribution which people with a disability may be able to make.

5.8 The centrepiece of the Government's strategy for promoting the social inclusion of people with physical and learning disabilities, people with mental health problems (including dementia and head injuries), people with other long-term illnesses and their carers, and, indeed, frail older people, are the community care policies. They are not just about the location where people are cared for. The key principle is to enable people to participate as fully as possible in society, by providing support which opens up the options available to them, encourages independence and enables them to make their own life choices. The recent publication 'Modernising Community Care' develops these concerns by setting out a clear framework for action, emphasising better resources for users and carers through better and faster decision-making, caring for people at home wherever possible, and innovative working at local level based on partnership between health, social work and housing. Carers will benefit through the Government's National Carers Strategy, which will provide information, support and care for carers; in Scotland, £5.1m has been set aside for carers and respite care in 1999/2000.

5.9 For many people with disabilities, though, there remain the hurdles created by others' perceptions of them. The Government is taking steps to tackle these issues through the full implementation across the UK of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The final part dealing with goods and services (Part III) is being phased in over 5 years, by which time service providers, businesses and landlords, amongst others, will need to have developed policies and removed physical barriers to reasonable access for disabled people to their services. The scope of the Act is presently under review; and a Bill to set up a Disability Rights Commission is currently before Parliament.

5.10 Further legislative changes will be introduced to improve the range and level of benefits available for the most seriously disabled and, from October 1999, a new more generous Disabled Person's Tax Credit will replace the Disability Working Allowance. The New Deal for Disabled People is also supporting the development of innovative schemes to help more disabled people move into or remain in work.

Older people

5.11 While many older people live full and enjoyable lives after retirement, others live in increasing isolation, cut off by poverty, ill health, disability or rural remoteness from contact with others and unable to participate in community life. This is a very direct form of social exclusion. As noted above, community care plays a vital role in promoting the inclusion of many elderly people; but these issues require a coherent strategy all of their own, with pension provision at its heart.

5.12 Larger than usual increases in pensions mean that from April 1999 pensioners will have a guaranteed minimum income of not less than £75 a week, and pensioner couples £116 a week. Around 1.5 million pensioners across the UK are affected, with an additional 65,000 new pensioners benefiting from the changes. Of particular relevance in Scotland, the winter fuel payment of £20 has been repeated this winter and will become a permanent feature of pensioners' income in future. Pilot projects aimed at improving the take-up of benefits available to pensioners were established in 1998 throughout the UK, with two based in Glasgow and East Renfrewshire. The pilots tested how effectively agencies identified pensioners who might be entitled to Income Support through data-matching existing pensions, housing benefit and Attendance Allowance records, and the success of different systems designed to encourage pensioners to claim. The results from the pilots are currently being evaluated. In the meantime, the Government announced in the Pensions Green Paper that action will be taken to encourage claims from potentially eligible pensioners at certain key points where entitlement to Income Support could arise, such as on reaching age 75 or 80, when a higher rate of benefit would be applicable. The Government is also taking forward its extensive Pensions Review and will be considering the implications of the report by the Royal Commission on Long-Term Care for the Elderly.

5.13 Another significant UK-wide initiative is 'Better Government for Older People', which aims to make public services better address the needs of older people; three pilot projects under this programme are being undertaken in Scotland. 1999 is the UN Year of Older Persons, and the Government, together with other public and voluntary bodies are engaged in a series of events which will involve older people as well as promote their interests. The Government hopes that these events will produce benefits that can be sustained beyond this year. There will also be a need to consider what more can be done within the Scottish Parliament's responsibilities to promote the inclusion of older people, and to ensure that distinctively Scottish aspects of the inclusion of elderly people are fed into the development of these UK-wide policies and programmes.

Gender and race dimensions of exclusion

5.14 Many women face specific barriers to inclusion. Women's average weekly earnings are 72% of men's, and 47% of women workers are classed as low-paid. The vast majority of lone parent families are headed by women. The fear of crime is more likely to isolate women than men; the majority of victims of domestic violence are women, which has a particularly damaging effect on their ability to play a full part in the community.

5.15 The Government is committed to tackling all aspects of disadvantage to women. This is partly a matter of ensuring that women's issues are fully understood and addressed when policies and programmes are being developed; it is also a matter of taking action to tackle the specific factors that exclude women.

5.16 The Government is striving to ensure that the Scottish Parliament will be one in which women can and will play their full part. The Scottish Office is committed to challenging targets on women in public appointments - 50:50 for members of bodies to which the Secretary of State makes appointments by the year 2002, and 35% of chairs of such bodies to be women. The Government has also set up the Women in Scotland Consultative Forum, to provide a direct channel for women to the Government. The membership of the Forum is drawn from a database of organisations concerned with women's issues, which is being drawn up by the Scottish Women's Issues Research Consultant. The Forum has already had its first proper meeting with the Minister for Women's Issues at The Scottish Office and arrangements have been made for a further meeting as part of the UK Government's 'Listening to Women' initiative. Further consideration is being given to how the Forum should develop in the lead up to the Scottish Parliament elections.

5.17 In other areas, The Scottish Office is tackling factors that exclude women through specific policies. In particular, the Childcare Strategy for Scotland and the New Deals for Lone Parents and for Partners have particular benefits in dealing with barriers to women's participation. The Scottish Office has also published as a consultation document an Action Plan on Violence Against Women containing 27 action points, and set up a Scottish Partnership on Domestic Violence to develop a strategy on that important element of the wider problem.

5.18 Nonetheless, there is still much to be done to ensure that women have access to the same range of jobs as men; that they can progress in their careers; and that they can plan effectively for retirement. There is also a need to educate boys and girls from the earliest age on the need for respect between men and women in the family and at work. Society must recognise that gender stereotypes are incompatible with social inclusion and must work towards a better understanding of equality of the sexes. This means not only equal opportunities to be included but equal rights to make choices and equal respect for all forms of social contribution whether through paid work or unpaid work in the home.

5.19 Members of ethnic minorities also face particular problems of exclusion. Research at a UK level into the income levels of ethnic groups shows a wide diversity of living standards but that some, notably Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, are particularly likely to be in low income households. This results in part from cultural differences such as larger family sizes and lower rates of female participation in the labour force. They also experience poorer quality housing and poorer health. Some groups within the ethnic minority communities also experience underachievement in education and a higher rate of school exclusions. Evidence from the Commission for Racial Equality suggests both that ethnic minority unemployment is above the rate in the white community in Scotland, and that underemployment exists (where people from ethnic minorities whose educational attainment is comparable to the population as a whole, are less likely to attain high quality jobs). Further, the relatively small numbers within ethnic minority groups in Scotland can mean increased isolation and lack of community support.

5.20 The main barrier to inclusion that members of ethnic minority communities face is racial discrimination, which is harmful and unjust to its victims and to Britain as a whole. Scotland benefits from being a multicultural society. The Government believes that ethnic diversity should be valued and that racial discrimination is incompatible with a decent and inclusive society and must be tackled vigorously. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 contains new measures to deal with racially aggravated offences by introducing a new offence of racially aggravated harassment, and an obligation for courts to take account of any established racial motivation in any offence as an aggravation when determining the appropriate sentence. A specific strand of the New Deal seeks to improve employment opportunities for members of the ethnic minorities. The Ethnic Minority Grant Scheme provides £275,000 per year to Scottish projects which promote racial equality and tackle racial discrimination. Other aspects of Government action recognise the position of ethnic minorities: the White Paper on the National Health Service in Scotland, 'Designed to Care', recognises the need to ensure access to information by members of ethnic minority communities and others who find this difficult; and the National Carers Strategy, published in February 1999, specifically recognises and addresses the position of ethnic minorities.

5.21 Much more needs to be understood, though, about the exclusion of ethnic minorities in Scotland: we are working from a very low research base. As a first step, the qualitative research study 'Perceptions of Social Exclusion' will provide in-depth information on how social exclusion is experienced by ethnic minorities. The results of this study should help inform what further work needs to be done. Proposals to promote the social inclusion of ethnic minority communities are currently the subject of bids for Social Inclusion Partnership status, as part of the competition described in section 7.

Specific barriers to inclusion

5.22 So far, this section has considered those particular groups who face common problems of exclusion, and the action which can address those problems. We now look at a number of other barriers to inclusion, not related to particular groups as such, but which can act to exclude individuals from full participation in society. We look at 5 such barriers: poor health; homelessness; crime, and having a criminal record; drug misuse; and prostitution.

5.23 Health inequalities are worst where deprivation is keenest. Life circumstances, including a worthwhile job, decent housing, education and a clean, pleasant environment, all contribute to good health: but the converse is true as well. Lifestyles _ like smoking, diet and exercise _ are closely linked with health, and these factors too are strongly associated with underlying life circumstances. Similarly, conditions like coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, mental illness and unwanted teenage pregnancy reflect socio-economic inequalities.

5.24 The White Paper 'Towards a Healthier Scotland' therefore set out a three-pronged attack on health inequalities, focussing on improving life circumstances, as well as addressing lifestyle factors and specific health topics. A key instrument for improving health in deprived neighbourhoods will be new healthy living centres, based on ideas from local communities themselves. More than £34m will be available from the New Opportunities Fund in Scotland for these centres. As a focus for action and a measurement of progress, the Government have set a range of targets to help guide both national and local activity. In particular, headline targets have been identified in relation to coronary heart disease, cancer, smoking, alcohol, unwanted teenage pregnancy and dental health. Full details of these targets are set out in 'Towards a Healthier Scotland'.

5.25 The Tobacco Control White Paper, published in December, sets out a comprehensive package of measures to tackle smoking. A key objective is to help adults - especially those living in the most deprived communities - to give up smoking. At least £3m will be made available over the next 3 years to provide NHS smoking cessation services throughout Scotland, able to offer a week's free supply of nicotine replacement therapy. £5m will be available over the same period for health promotion, targeted on smoking among low income groups, young people and pregnant women.

5.26 Another serious barrier to participation is homelessness, particularly in its most severe form of 'rooflessness'. Homeless people can immediately face difficulties in finding or keeping a job; they are more vulnerable to physical and mental ill-health; and these difficulties may simply compound the problems which contributed to their homelessness in the first place. Effective partnership at the local level, led by local authorities and supported by central Government, is often the key to tackling homelessness: both by developing preventive strategies and helping homeless people into permanent housing and avoiding becoming homeless again.

5.27 The Government's recent Green Paper on housing in Scotland proposes a thorough and wide-ranging review of the causes and nature of homelessness in Scotland, with a view to producing evidence-based recommendations on both these aspects. The recently updated Scottish Office Code of Guidance on Homelessness stresses the importance of prevention, and the need for all relevant agencies to work together to address the full range of a homeless person or family's needs. Placing homeless people in secure housing is an essential first step in ensuring that they are able to re-connect with employment and training opportunities, and to establish a stable healthy lifestyle.

5.28 The Government has set the target that, by 2002, no-one should have to sleep rough. The challenge is to ensure that, instead of having to cope with the consequences of homelessness, effective strategies are developed for preventing it. Government support for tackling the most serious cases of homelessness has included the Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI). Through the RSI, £30m is being invested over five years to help local authority led partnerships develop effective approaches to tackling rooflessness.

5.29 All too often crime has the effect of causing exclusion. It excludes victims, who may fear a repetition of the crime. It excludes other people who fear they may become victims or are depressed by the effect of crimes such as vandalism on the community. But a criminal record, and especially a prison record, is also a barrier to participation in mainstream society for those offenders who wish to mend their ways. Crime may also be a consequence of exclusion. While every criminal action is the responsibility of the individual who commits it, research has shown that the roots of crime themselves often lie in social exclusion. There is a need, then, to attack the causes of crime, because in the longer term this will avoid criminals excluding other people, and themselves.

5.30 Action to safeguard communities from crime is described in section 7, and in more detail in the recently published Scottish Office paper 'A Safer Scotland: Tackling Crime and Its Causes'. Beside this action, it is also important, not only for the individual but also for mainstream society, to offer offenders pathways back into legitimate activities - offenders who remain jobless are three times more likely to re-offend. Subject to the need to protect the public and provide credible forms of punishment and deterrence, rehabilitation programmes have an important part to play in confronting offending behaviour and developing employable skills. For prisoners, the objective should be to maintain family, home and employment links so far as possible, and to equip and motivate the prisoner to participate in legitimate activities on their release.

5.31 For some prisoners, the most serious offenders, there will be co-ordinated provision of throughcare services while they are in custody followed by statutory supervision by social workers after release. In addition to working with offenders on offending behaviour, social workers facilitate access to help with matters such as housing, training and employment to assist with re-integration and help motivate offenders to change their behaviour. Other prisoners can obtain voluntary social work assistance, designed to re-integrate prisoners into society and, where appropriate, to help re-establish ties with their family and local community.

5.32 For offenders sentenced to community disposals, specific programmes exist to assist in tackling issues of lack of housing, poor employability prospects and offending behaviour as part of a statutory order. The Government consultation paper 'Community Sentencing _ The Tough Option', invites views on how to apply the community disposals which work best. The budget for community-based treatment of offenders has been increased by £21.4m over the next three years as a mark of the priority attached to tough and effective sentencing. An Inter-Agency Forum on Women Offending has been established to examine how the issues and findings identified in the report 'A Safer Way', following the suicides at Cornton Vale Prison, might be addressed in the Glasgow area and the lessons disseminated more widely.

5.33 Many crimes will relate to drug misuse. The Government recently boosted funding in this area with a £5m package of measures between now and April 2000. The measures cover effective drug treatment and prevention services - backed up by increased accountability - including new treatment and testing services, and intensive probation aimed at cutting drug-related crime. A new criminal justice initiative, the Drug Treatment and Testing Order, will be piloted in Glasgow to provide a means for those seeking to overcome their drug dependency and achieve a law-abiding lifestyle. In the longer term, the objective must be to develop effective preventive strategies, so that the need for recovery and rehabilitation programmes is reduced. A national drug prevention resource will be established, and will help support agencies engaged in community prevention work, promoting consistency and effectiveness of approach. An enhanced drug misuse strategy for Scotland, to be published shortly, will encourage drug action teams to maximise community and multi-agency partnerships.

5.34 For a small number of people in Scotland, mainly but not exclusively women, exclusion and poverty, often combined with drug misuse, lead them to prostitution. The negative effects of this are many, including the physical danger encountered by those involved, the serious health consequences, and the yet further exclusion and marginality this lifestyle creates. Prostitution is a classic example of the kind of exclusion which society often prefers not to address, but for the sake of the individuals involved and, in many cases, for their children, it is an issue which must be addressed.

5.35 The Inter-Agency Forum on Women Offending will be addressing the issue of prostitution as part of its work. Also, proposals to develop a partnership approach between the police, health board, local authority and other parties to tackle the exclusion faced by prostitutes in Glasgow, and to challenge the factors which lead individuals to prostitution, have been made the subject of a bid for Social Inclusion Partnership status, as part of the competition described in section 7.

Conclusion

5.36 This section has looked at what can be done to tackle the barriers which can prevent people taking up the kind of opportunities described in section 4. The next section moves on to the long-term prevention of social exclusion through work with children, young people and their families.