Memorandum submitted by the Scottish Executive
I am taking this opportunity to write to you
with regards to the Committee's forthcoming inquiry into Poverty
in Scotland, to provide you and the Committee with information
and statistics on the level of poverty in Scotland, and the measures
that the Scottish Executive is taking to combat poverty and disadvantage
within our communities.
Annex A to this letter provides you with official
statistics about poverty and deprivation in Scotland, taken from
the Households Below Average Income publication published in March
this year. Further details of the official statistics on poverty
in Scotland can be obtained at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/03/08155404/0.
The Executive is very much aware that poverty
and disadvantage blights the lives of far too many people in Scotland,
and acknowledges that much more needs to be done on all levels
to combat the destructive negative effects that living in poverty
and with disadvantage can have on both individuals and groups
across our society. The Executive is fully aware of the problems
being faced by many Scottish households as a result of them living
on a low income. This is, for many people, the definition of poverty.
However, poverty is only partly about low income; it also encompasses
a lack of opportunity, facing barriers to participating in social
and economic life, and access to appropriate and affordable public
services.
For families living on low income the effects
can be far reaching; from affecting children's education to creating
barriers to employability, and from not being able to properly
heat homes to impacting negatively upon health and well-being.
The Executive's "Closing the Opportunity
Gap" (CtOG) approach therefore looks to tackle the worst
effects of low income and disadvantage through a series of measures
which it can directly influence, using it's own resources and
efforts to bring about long-lasting changes to people's lives.
The overall aims of CtOG are:
— to prevent individuals or families
falling into poverty;
— to provide routes out of poverty
for individuals and families; and
— to sustain individuals and families
in a lifestyle free from poverty.
Through a series of six high level objectives
and 10 detailed targets the Executive is focusing the efforts
of all it's Departments and Agencies to help people overcome the
various barriers they face to increasing their income and to accessing
opportunities to enter into and sustain themselves in the labour
market.
The CtOG targets are aimed at reducing the inequalities
which still exist in our society—at tackling poverty and
deprivation, addressing health inequalities, improving access
to high quality services for all, and assisting community regeneration
in our most disadvantaged neighbourhoods—both urban and
rural. Annex B to this letter details the 10 CtOG targets.
CHILDREN & YOUNG
PEOPLE
The Scottish Executive shares the UK Government's
target to eradicate child poverty by 2020. Scotland has significantly
exceeded the PSA target of reducing child poverty by a quarter
between 1998-99 and 2004-05. We have lifted 100,000 children out
of relative low income. This is a reduction of 34%.
Moreover, the Executive is committed to securing
the best start for all our children and to providing a strong
foundation for their future development. Good quality early education
and childcare services are vital in helping children to develop
and grow, whilst improving their educational attainment and skills
levels is vital for moving them into and sustaining employment,
training or education. By targeting more specialized support (eg,
the Sure Start Scotland Programme) we are helping to meet particular
needs, especially for the most vulnerable or disadvantaged children,
in services such as childcare, health and pre-school provision.
In 2005, the Executive introduced the requirement
for local authorities to produce integrated children's services
plans. The aim of the plans is to rationalise existing planning
processes and focus activity on the delivery of effective child-centred
services, through drawing together previously separate planning
requirements for the different facets of children's services,
including plans for children in need, youth justice strategies,
education improvement objectives and local health plans, into
one single integrated plan, to be produced by local authorities
jointly with NHS Boards and other local partners.
We are currently working towards an Integrated
Strategy for the Early Years, setting out a framework which draws
together all of its existing policies to deliver services to children
and families in a more joined-up and effective way. Of particular
concern to the Executive are those young people aged between 16
and 19 years who are outwith education, employment or training—the
so called NEET group. At any one time this group represents around
35,000 young people in Scotland, about 13.7% —or one in
seven—of Scotland's young people.
Scotland performs poorly by international comparison
in the employment rates of 16-24 age group, and the longer a young
person remains NEET the higher the potential that they encounter
persistent problems of worklessness—or low paid low skilled
work—and social exclusion in later life. Tackling these
issues is of vital importance to the Executive and the NEET group
is a major priority in the context of Workforce Plus, see below,
alongside which it was published earlier in the year, while at
the same time ensuring the key messages from the NEET strategy
were embedded in the overall approach set out by the Framework.
The NEET Strategy will develop more client-centred
approaches and the need for local partners to work together in
joining up services and providing specialist services, whilst
examining the effect of the local labour markets on the numbers
of NEET young people and the advantages of targeting geographical
areas.
WORKING AGE
ADULTS
The Executive believes that employment provides
the best route out of poverty. However, there is a need to improve
the employment prospects of some people, helping bring them closer
to the labour market, as well as to enter, and remain in, employment.
This is an under-pinning theme to the CtOG approach. We also want
to reduce the number of people who are dependent upon benefits
for their income. That is why it has worked alongside other agencies
and providers to implement the Pathways to Work pilot that helps
people who can work to move from Incapacity Benefit back into
employment.
Workforce Plus: an Employability Framework
for Scotland was launched on 12 June 2006 and has been developed
from the work of the Cabinet Delivery Group on CtOG which aims
to tackle poverty and disadvantage in Scotland. The Framework
provides us with an opportunity to look at what measures and interventions
are already in place, and to identify with partners the changes
we need to make to support an individual's employability.
The aim of Workforce Plus is to give
everyone who wants to work, including those who face multiple
barriers, the opportunity to have a job. We need to make sure
that they have the right skills and knowledge to take up employment
opportunities in their area and to sustain their employment by
building on their skills and knowledge.
It is important however to recognize that the
development of Workforce Plus is taking place in the context of
Scotland currently having one of the highest employment rates
in Europe (74.8%) (April-June 2006), above even that for the UK,
and the highest employment rate since records began. This is complemented
by one of the lowest claimant rates for a generation (3.3% in
July 2006).
HEALTH & WELL-BEING
Of course, one of the major indicators as to
the quality of life experienced by Scots is their health. The
Executive acknowledges without reservation that too many Scots
are dying too young because of ill-health and poor well-being.
The prevalence of Cancer, Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke remains
higher here than in most other Western countries. Furthermore,
much of Scotland's ill-health has preventable causes.
Ill-health and poor well-being is highest, and
is concentrated, in our deprived communities denying many Scots
the opportunities and life chances afforded to the more affluent
in society. Poor health is both a cause and a consequence of living
on low-income and the Executive is determined to tackle health
inequalities and to improve the health of the Scottish nation
as a whole.
Our Prevention 2010 approach will look to find
effective means of reaching and engaging with those in deprived
communities and with particularly "hard to reach" populations.
Prevention 2010 will be piloted initially in five Community Health
Partnerships covering areas of high deprivation. Staff will identify,
contact and offer health checks and risk assessments to adults
who are most at risk. This programme will be extended in 2007,
learning what works best before rolling out across Scotland.
OLDER PEOPLE
Helping older people in society to live with
dignity, security and independence is important to the Executive.
Along with measures introduced by the UK Government to help maximize
pensioner's incomes, the Executive has introduced free personal
care for the elderly and free national bus travel. The Executive
also intends to publish a Strategy for a Scotland with an Ageing
Population by the end of 2006.
I hope that this is useful to the Committee
during their deliberations, and I would be happy to provide oral
evidence to the Committee in due course if they felt that this
might be beneficial to the enquiry.
Malcolm Chisholm MSP
Minister for Communities, Scottish Executive
30 September 2006
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