The Scottish Government

Social Justice in Scotland

Social Justice Minister Margaret Curran gave the opening speech at the Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice at Aberdeen University on September 13, 2002, during a conference on the urban and rural dimensions to social justice.

Principal, colleagues: I am delighted to be here today for the Aberdeen launch of the Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice.

The centre is important for many reasons. It is an excellent example of partnership working between the two great universities of Aberdeen and Glasgow - and we all know how difficult it can be to achieve effective partnerships.

It is a fine example of the practical benefits academics can offer to the wider community.

The Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice seeks to integrate research and develop new research capacity in the field of social justice. The SCRSJ, established in January 2002, is based in the department of Urban Studies at Glasgow University and the Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research at Aberdeen University.

And most importantly, your work is crucial to the success of Scotland. By helping us understand more about poverty and exclusion in both urban and rural settings you will help us find ways of building a better Scotland. Your job is to provide the evidence; mine is to take action.

As most of you will know the First Minister, Jack McConnell, opened the Glasgow arm of the centre earlier this year, where he took the opportunity to lay out the Executive's commitment to closing the opportunity gap.

He said some important things that day when he talked about a Scotland "that is prosperous, outward looking and ambitious for its future". But for me, perhaps one of the most significant parts of his speech was when he described the realities of poverty.

He said:

"Confidence cannot flourish in homes which are cold or damp, in communities which are physically detached from employment opportunities because of inadequate transport, or impoverished by the absence of amenities and the presence of dereliction and neglect."

He is right. No one wants to live in a Scotland where poverty and prejudice are allowed to prevail.

No one wants to live in a Scotland where a family's potential is determined, not by their abilities, but by their postcode.

And no one wants a country where a child's future is decided before it is born.

That is why my cabinet colleagues and I are determined to build a better Scotland - one where growth and opportunity flourishes in all our communities - and this morning I am going to set out how we are going to do that. Not by airing abstract ambitions, but by showing how we will concentrate our efforts - and resources on the priorities that are important to people - regardless of where they live.

When I agreed to attend this launch, I did not know that the date would coincide with the announcement of the Executive's spending plans for the next three years. But this timely coincidence allows me to tell you that in a few weeks time I will publish our Closing the Opportunity Gap statement. This will set out how our spending plans will be used to tackle poverty, to build safe, strong communities and create a fair, equal Scotland, where rights for all are our by word.

And in government it is my job as Social Justice minister to make sure that the commitments in this document are translated into reality.

It is my job to check that our education policies deliver for all our children. It is not right that 40 per cent of pupils in Kelvin go on to higher education, while only 14 per cent of children from schools in Maryhill do so.

It is my job to check that our health policies deliver for people. It is not right that men living in deprived areas are more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as men living in our most affluent areas.

And it is my job to check that our transport policies allow every Scot, regardless of where they live, access to work and leisure. It is not right that a school leaver in rural Scotland cannot attend FE college, or enjoy a night at the cinema, because they cannot afford the bus fare.

In this new document, we have set ourselves real and achievable targets that are about improving people's lives - not simply policy tools for civil servants. Statistics are important, they illustrate and clarify what is happening to real people - but social justice is about helping people and not just measuring trends. And none of us should ever forget that.

But while I am proud to share with you our future plans, I am also proud to talk about some of the significant achievements we have made since 1999. Amid all the media noise about the parliament, the Executive and devolution, it is sometimes hard to remember that in the last three years we have a made a real and lasting difference to people's lives.

One of the biggest barriers to parents returning to work or education is the lack of affordable childcare. Our £24 million investment in childcare for lone parents to get into further and higher education has, quite literally, changed people's lives.

Women like Kareena Hammond, who four years ago at the age of 17 had a baby boy. At the time she thought her dream of becoming a primary school teacher would disappear, as she could not afford childcare. But last year, thanks to a £1000 grant from the Scottish Executive, she fulfilled her lifetime ambition when she enrolled on a teaching course at Strathclyde University.

Her life - and that of her young son - has changed for the better.

Our war on fuel poverty has made a difference. Since April 2001, more than 10,000 pensioners have received free central heating, and 140,000 people have got free insulation under our Warm Deal scheme. This has changed the lives of people like Mrs Celia Baird, who up until last year, had never lived in a home with central heating. She can now afford to heat her home, without skimping on food and other necessities.

Her life - and that of her husband - has changed for the better.

And our investment in social housing will make a difference, particularly in Scotland's largest city Glasgow where 80,000 tenants voted to transfer their council homes to the Glasgow Housing Association. Their decision will mean that over the next ten years, £1.6 billion will be spent to give every tenant the warm, dry home they deserve.

The life of 80,000 Glasgow tenants - and thousands of others throughout Scotland - will change for the better, thanks to our commitment to decent housing standards for all.

And there is more. Every 3 and 4 year old child in Scotland can enjoy pre-school education if their parents want it.

Children from low-income families can now afford to stay on at school after 16 thanks to our Education Maintenance Allowance.

We have provided £10 million to build new refuges and upgrade old ones so that women and children fleeing domestic abuse will have safe havens from where they can start to rebuild their shattered lives.

And next month every pensioner in Scotland, from Dumfries to Deeside, will get free off-peak travel thanks to our concessionary fare scheme.

But while we have achieved much, there is much more to be done if we are to build a better Scotland where all children are valued, where all cultures are celebrated and every Scot can enjoy a healthy, fulfilling life.

That is why that from today I am sharpening the attack on poverty through practical programmes that will bring real change to people's lives. That means investment in the things that matter to people - in childcare, in jobs and in training. Investment in people's homes and neighbourhoods. It means improving the way public services are delivered and it means securing rights for all, so that talent of every Scot is nurtured.

Unemployment may be falling, but people living in Scotland's most deprived areas are still four times more likely to be out of work.

This is unacceptable. Poverty and unemployment not only damages individual families, but it damages Scotland's competitiveness.

As the First Minister pointed out only two days ago, Scotland's population is decreasing and our demographic profile ageing. If we are to succeed in our ambition of creating a smart successful Scotland, then we need to help all our people realise their potential.

That is why from today I am taking on responsibility for increasing employment opportunities in deprived communities. I will lead for the Executive on New Deal issues.

I will also join up key local services - access to employment, skills development and employment support - for the first time.

I will ensure that our investment in stock transfer, central heating and insulation bring new job and training opportunities to our most deprived neighbourhoods.

And I am pleased to announce £20 million new money to help people into work.

And as I have already pointed out, lack of childcare is one of the biggest barriers to parents getting back into work, so I will use much of that money to ensure that no one in a deprived area is prevented from entering work because they cannot afford childcare.

And I will work with the DWP, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, local authorities, businesses, trade unions and communities to identify new ways that they can contribute to our goal of tackling poverty and building a better Scotland.

I realise this is a tough challenge. I also realise that I will only succeed if business is with us, but Scotland's New Deal task force has already achieved much. Together we can achieve much more.

But poverty is about more than low incomes - the homes people live in and the neighbourhood their children grow up contributes directly to the confidence they have for the future.

I am determined that every Scot should have access to decent, affordable housing, and I will say more about how I am going to achieve that in the next few weeks.

But I can tell you what we are doing to tackle the scourge of homelessness. On Monday we will introduce the Homelessness Bill which enshrines in law the Homelessness Task Force's recent recommendations for legislative change. And we are committed to tackling the problem of rough sleeping, made worse by the use of large outdated homeless hostels in Glasgow. We are making nearly £50m available to this programme over the next three years.

I am also determined that no child should be brought up in a neighbourhood where the streets and play areas are scarred by litter, graffiti and neglect.

That no family should live in neighbourhoods where vandals and hooligans roam unchecked.

And that no Scot should spend his or her retirement in a neighbourhood where crime and the fear of crime are commonplace.

That is why I am announcing today funding to roll out new approaches to neighbourhood management.

Over the next three years we will invest £30 million in securing safe communities, including spending £20 million on a network of neighbourhood wardens. The shape of this network will vary depending on the needs of individual neighbourhoods, but the common thread will be one of order, security and maintenance. This is what environmental justice is all about.

If we are to build strong, safe communities, then we must make sure that the key local services meet the people's priorities of health, education, crime jobs and transport. Over the next three years we will measure what these services have delivered in our most disadvantaged areas compared to the national average, to make sure that we are closing the opportunity gap. This is using statistics not as an end in themselves, but as a means to achieving our ambition of building a better Scotland.

And we will make sure that community planning works effectively at a local level. In June this year I launched the Executive's Community Regeneration Statement, which outlined our determination to make sure that all agencies work together to deliver better and responsive services.

Let me stress something here. Community planning is not the latest regeneration buzzword, to be discarded when the next fashionable phrase comes along. Nor is it, as some cynics have suggested, a device to boost the fortunes of local authorities at the expense of communities.

Community planning partnerships, such as Aberdeen Futures, are the most practical - and effective way to ensure that core public services deliver social justice for every Scot.

If we are to build a better Scotland, we also need to make sure that it fits together properly. That our city regions complement our rural areas and that the infrastructure that is so important to our growth and prosperity is in place. Next month I will publish the long-awaited Cities Review and our response to it. I will continue to ensure that our planning system helps communities to find the right solutions for the future.

And working with my cabinet colleagues, I will promote a vibrant rural economy. We need to open up employment all year and harness technology to improve public services.

I want to return for a moment to the First Minister's speech on Wednesday when he talked about the need to build a Scotland where people of all cultures, nationalities and backgrounds are welcome. I share his vision for a fair, equal Scotland, that is why later this month we will unveil our anti-racism campaign.

Racism is not acceptable in any form. It can destroy individual lives and it undermines our reputation as a caring, inclusive society. We are one country, let's celebrate the many cultures that make up a modern Scotland.

A fair, equal Scotland also means tackling the discrimination that still blights many lives. There are still too many Scots excluded because of their sex, their race, disability, sexual orientation or age.

A fair and equal Scotland also means closing the pay gap that still exists between men and women. It means there is no excuse for domestic abuse, and that all vulnerable children are protected.

I do not underestimate the challenges we have set ourselves in our stated aim of closing the opportunity gap.

Sometimes we will stumble, sometimes we will miss a target, and sometimes an approach will have to be changed, but these setbacks will not stop my colleagues and I from making the real and lasting changes that are needed to build a better Scotland.

But we cannot achieve social justice on our own. It is my job in government to make sure that every part of the Executive concentrates its efforts in closing the opportunity gap.

It is the government's responsibility to work with others including yourselves to achieve social justice for all Scots, whether they live in on the tenth floor of an Edinburgh tower block, or an isolated farm cottage in Argyll.

And it falls to each and every one of us to help build a country where the wealth we all help create is used to build a more prosperous, a more equal, a better Scotland.

I wish you well with your conference today and look forward to working with you and others in the academic world to find new and innovative solutions to tackling poverty and building strong communities. But let none of us ever forget that it is practical action that will change people's lives - and I for one am ready for that challenge.