COMMUNITY REGENERATION STATEMENT: IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTION PLAN
COMMUNITY REGENERATION STATEMENT: KEY MESSAGES
5. The Statement sets out a coherent framework for how the Scottish Executive and its partners in the public, private and voluntary/community sectors will work together to close the opportunity gap between deprived communities and the rest of Scotland.
6. At the heart of the Statement are two key priorities:
- to make core services - our five priority services of health, education, transport, justice and employment, as well as housing, social work and child care - work as effectively as possible in deprived areas. This is the most direct way in which we can improve the lives of people in deprived communities. The challenge for all agencies - the Executive, local government, other public sector providers, the private sector and voluntary and community groups - is to ensure that services are designed to meet the needs of deprived people and delivered in ways that improve the quality of their lives.
- to make sure that individuals and communities have the social capital - the skills, confidence, networks and resources - to take advantage of and increase the opportunities open to them.
7. In order to achieve these core objectives, the Statement identifies some fundamental changes that need to be made to the way we undertake regeneration in Scotland:
- The way we approach regeneration in Scotland will be underpinned by the integration of regeneration within the wider framework of community planning. This will mean that we are better able to join up national, regional and local priorities and overcome some of the fragmentation and lack of cohesion, which reduced the impact of previous regeneration activities. One of the key challenges will be integrating targeted interventions, such as Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs), within mainstream approaches without losing the significant benefits these provide to disadvantaged communities. Other challenges include developing effective partnership working at a local or neighbourhood level and promoting genuine and effective community engagement in the community planning process.
- We need to put in place a more robust monitoring and evaluation framework that will allow us to measure progress over time in how we are closing the opportunity gap.