From Justice to Opportunity
1:
Brief outline of Scottish Executive social justice
and inclusion strategies
In
March 1999, the Scottish Executive set out their 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
measure progress (see section 3). This target-setting approach, along with
the
commitment to accountability through an annual social justice report
were broadly
welcomed (as a sea change from two decades of government not talking about
poverty), though with reservations about the "top-down" nature of
target-setting and lack of involvement in the process of people with
direct experience of poverty.
The first annual report produced a fairly lively debate in Parliament and
some wider public reaction. However, succeeding reports excited little
interest beyond party political sniping over figures (partly because
annual changes tended to be marginal).
In
September 2002 the Executive introduced their
Building a Better Scotland spending proposals
(see section 4), covering the period
2003-2006 indicating a significant change in emphasis from social justice
or inclusion to "closing the opportunity gap" (as part of the Partnership
Agreement). The document was intended to demonstrate that growing the
economy, improving public services and closing the opportunity gap had to
work hand in hand. A few weeks later the specific Closing the Opportunity
Gap Scottish Budget for 2003-2006 was published,
setting out in more detail how the
Executive’s plans would "tackle poverty, build strong, safe communities
and create a fair, equal Scotland where rights for all is our byword". The
CtOG approach replaces the social justice
milestones from 1999 with new targets which are said to be more tightly
focused on fighting poverty. The Executive aim to:
prevent
individuals or families from falling into poverty; provide
routes out of
poverty for individuals and families; and to
sustain
individuals or families in a lifestyle free from poverty. Closing the
opportunity gap is one of the two cross-cutting key priorities that the
Executive has (the other is sustainable development).
In
July 2004 the Executive announced their six specific Closing the
Opportunity Gap objectives, which were followed up on 9 December 2004 with
ten targets which are meant to drive the delivery of the objectives (see
section 5). These targets were meant to build on the progress that the
Executive had made towards the social justice milestones (which, they say,
will continue to be measured), as well as identifying the key areas where
they felt that there was a need to see greater improvement; they are also
designed to have more focus on devolved issues.
The 1999 milestones embodied a "life stages" approach, covering five main
areas: children, young people, families, older people and communities,
with specific targets under those headings. CtOG has six objectives but
the emphasis has switched from particular groups of people to particular
policy areas relating to poverty: employment (for the disadvantaged);
(improving the skills and confidence of) children and young people;
preventing the
financial exclusion of low income families; regeneration
of neighbourhoods; health (of those in the most deprived communities) and
improving access to services in rural areas for disadvantaged groups.
There are now fewer targets – only ten targets were announced in 2004
compared to the twenty-nine milestones in the 1999 social justice
strategy. This reduction is part of the Executive's response to comments,
notably from Finance Committee, on the difficulty of tracking the progress
of a plethora of targets.
2:
Tracking the progress of targets
The Closing the Opportunity Gap priorities are not limited to just one
portfolio – they are spread across a variety of Executive departments. The
Executive co-ordinate efforts through a Cabinet Delivery Group, chaired by
the Minister for Communities, which leads the work across the different
ministerial portfolios. On one hand, this seems a positive step towards
joined-up government, but the distribution of the CtOG targets across the
different portfolios can create a considerable amount of work for anyone
trying to track the targets.
For a start only six of the current ten targets have been directly
incorporated into the draft budget 2005-06 spending targets (spread under
five different portfolios):
Target B = target
8 of the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning draft budget 2005-06
Target D = target 2 of the Health and Community Care draft budget 2005-06
Target E = target 1 of the Education and Young People draft budget 2005-06
Target F = target 9 of the Education and Young People draft budget 2005-06
Target H = target 7 of the Environment and Rural Development draft budget
2005-06
Target J = target 7 of the Communities draft budget 2005-06
The other four targets (A, C, G and K) do not appear to come under the
budget targets of any portfolio. In the case of target A, this may result
from the greater role of Westminster government in employment issues (the
reserved powers over employment, tax and benefits clearly restrict what
the Scottish Executive can do on their own initiative to tackle poverty).
A little further exploring finds that target K actually comes under a
"statement of priorities" in the Communities draft budget 2005-06.
However, Peter Peacock told the Education Committee that "in a sense, our
statement of priorities reflects our more current agenda and not the one
that we have in our targets" - which does not suggest a clear focus on
these targets.
The picture is currently somewhat confused; the Executive have so many
different types of targets, priorities and policy documents that it is
easy to get bogged down in the quagmire. There are the CtOG six objectives
and ten targets, then there are the ten budget targets for each of the
eleven different departments (which may or may not include some of the
CtOG targets) and within each department there are several "statements of
priorities" (which again may or may not incorporate the CtOG objectives).
To add to the melee the targets for each portfolio budget do not always
appear in their statement of priorities.
Wendy Alexander MSP was also having difficulty in keeping track of all
this when, at an Education Committee meeting on the budget process, she
asked Peter Peacock about specific issues which she could not find in the
budget. The Minister told her that he is only allowed to have ten budget
targets, but he has "many other areas of activity and I need to have in
place the internal processes that will help to drive them forward". To be
fair, the Executive (after facing much criticism over their lack of year
on year continuity) are now taking measures to provide more clarity (and,
therefore, accountability).
Some of the milestones from 1999 are still reflected in the 2004 targets,
for instance milestone 7 is reflected in target B – it is the same target
except that instead of aiming to ‘halve’ the proportion of 16-19 year olds
not in education, training or employment, the Executive hopes to ‘reduce’
the proportion. Target F captures milestone 9 (improving the results of
the lowest attaining 20% of S4 pupils) and Target D includes part of
milestone 18 (heart disease). The 1999 milestones made a lot of reference
to low income households/workless households generally (see milestone 1,
2, 13, 14, 15, and 24). These households are now the subject of one target
apiece in 2004 (target C and A). Target A is geographically very specific
as it aims to reduce the number of people who are unemployed and on
benefits in particular areas of Scotland, chosen on the basis of greater
need (as revealed by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, published
in June 2004).
Target C refers to low income households (people who are in some kind of
work but still in poverty) where the Executive wants the public sector and
large employers to provide employees with opportunities to develop their
skills and progress in their careers (although no indication is given of
how many people the Executive intends to help in this way or how employers
are to go about providing these new opportunities).
One difficulty with the Executive being compelled to slim down to ten the
number of their targets is that sometimes important complex issues get
lumped together under one general aim.
This is apparent in target J where the
Executive states that it is going to: "promote community regeneration of
the most deprived neighbourhoods through improvements by 2008 in
employability, education, health, access to local services and quality of
the local environment" ("employability" – putting the emphasis on the
individual to be employable). Target E ("by
2008, ensure that children and young people who need it have an integrated
package of appropriate health, care and education support")
also suffers from the same problem
– how can you ensure that the
Executive fulfils this target if there is no indication of what exactly an
appropriate level of health, care and education support is?
Two new areas have been elevated to the list of CtOG objectives and
targets: disadvantaged groups in rural areas (objective 6 and target H)
and debt/financial exclusion (objective 3, target K). The Executive has
set the target of improving service delivery (by improving accessibility
and quality) for those in rural areas by 2008, and - as part of their
objective to reduce the vulnerability of low income families to multiple
debt and financial exclusion - the Executive are going to increase the
availability of financial services and money advice (for which they have
announced in January 2005 a "Financial Inclusion Action Plan").
So
what has been dropped from the 1999 milestones? The most notable
difference is the reduction in focus on older people (to whom the language
of "opportunity gaps" may seem less applicable). Milestones 19, 21, 22 and
23 all referred specifically to older people but this is certainly not the
case in the 2004 targets. In fact, where milestone 22 speaks of increasing
the amount of exercise older people take to reduce the rates of coronary
heart disease, the 2004 target D turns the emphasis around as it is
looking to improving the rate of coronary heart disease mortality in the
under 75s.
Reducing drug misuse (milestone 25) and reducing crime in disadvantaged
areas (milestone 26) are also no longer mentioned but that is an
inevitable consequence of the Executive being asked to reduce the number
of targets that they set. Instead, their CtOG targets are tightly focused
on fighting poverty which is to be welcomed. Their targets will only go
some way to achieving their end objectives but presumably these objectives
will be on-going (the Executive have been asked to maintain some
continuity year on year) and further targets will be set once the current
ones have been achieved. And hopefully we really will begin to see greater
clarity and accountability in the way that the Executive record their
targets and outcomes each year.
The Executive are currently looking at ways to involve in delivery of the
CtOG targets more people (especially those with direct experience of
poverty) and groups, who may benefit from the CtOG Fund (the distribution
criteria for which have still to be announced). Churches were represented
at a recent meeting with the Minister to begin this discussion.
At
that meeting, there was a recognition of the need (a) to make clearer the
links with other Executive policies (eg on fuel poverty), (b) to ensure
strong links with enterprise policy, (c) to ensure measures get through to
those most deeply stuck in poverty, (d) to monitor in ways that both
include those with direct experience and are alert to unintended
consequences of policies in other areas, and (e) to work together to build
greater public support for making these aspects of poverty history.
3:
Original 1999 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
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