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Briefing Document No 2 - Page 2 of 4
"Social Inclusion: Opening the door to a better Scotland" - Continued.
Opportunities (Ch4)
The key "opportunity" is seen as the opportunity to work, requiring measures on both the supply (skills and circumstances) and demand (job availability) sides of the labour market. As elsewhere in the report, "top-down" and macro-economic solutions are either rejected or played down in favour of what can be done more locally. Opportunities to learn and to "participate" (as volunteers) are also seen as important steps to social inclusion.
Barriers (Ch5)
The section on tackling barriers to social exclusion focuses on tackling child and family poverty, promoting good health and tackling homelessness. The commitment to ending by 2002 the need for anyone to sleep rough is renewed. Gender, race, age, crime, drugs, and disability are other barriers to inclusion which are to be tackled.
Children & Young People (Ch6)
Young people are seen as the key to achieving the vision of a new inclusive Scotland, with a welcome recognition that schools fail many young people, as well as young people failing at school. Perhaps there is too much emphasis here on education (meaning schooling, colleges etc, and with strong links to work), and not sufficient attention paid to the context of families and communities in which children grow (although these are mentioned).
Communities (Ch7)
The section on building stronger communities is one in which churches have a considerable involvement (not reflected specifically in the report). The recognition that communities as well as individuals suffer from social exclusion, and therefore that all the weight of solutions cannot be put on individuals, is a welcome start. However, it is here that some of the questions about the gap between rhetoric and practice become apparent, on the report's own criteria of integration, prevention, understanding, inclusiveness and empowerment.
Some Questions
(a) Clearly the integration of services that too often seem to be in competition or pulling in opposite directions is vital to a successful strategy. But, if it is seen as crucial that "the various agencies responsible for providing services to the community will have a shared view of the community's needs, which will fully reflect the view of the community", how are conflicts to be resolved, and how compatible is this with widespread PFI funding in which shareholder interests have to play a significant part? And the comments on car dependency as a drain on family finances in rural areas (s7.43) do not seem to have been integrated into the latest Budget.
(b) How viable is it to speak of prevention without commitment to redistributive policies? There is an assumption running through the report that with some adjustments the "trickle down" theory will operate to overcome poverty.
(c) The emphasis on evaluation of what works, leading to building on good practice, is welcome, but there are issues around whose understanding and evaluation of policies/practices is decisive.
(d) This carries very much into issues of inclusiveness. If the input of those currently excluded is to be taken seriously, this implies more radical re-thinking than the £1m per year for the "Listening to Communities" Programme would indicate. In the new Social Inclusion Partnerships (and other Partnerships), there are questions about who are to be seen as "partners" when the report seems to differentiate partner agencies from clients and the "community itself".
(e) The rhetoric about empowerment and the Giving Age rings a bit hollow for those involved in voluntary sector projects that have borne the brunt of local authority cutbacks. The practice has yet to catch up with the talking here.
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