Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction: welfare and devolution
- two Income and expenditure
- three Poverty, inequality and social disadvantage
- four Children, education and lifelong learning
- five Health policy
- six Scottish social welfare after devolution: autonomy and divergence?
- References
- Index
three - Poverty, inequality and social disadvantage
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction: welfare and devolution
- two Income and expenditure
- three Poverty, inequality and social disadvantage
- four Children, education and lifelong learning
- five Health policy
- six Scottish social welfare after devolution: autonomy and divergence?
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Tackling poverty and social exclusion [have been] seen as a major priority for the re-established Scottish Parliament…. Since 1999 the Scottish Executive has sought to present that attack on poverty as a central organising principle of the new Parliament. In some important respects this has involved a degree of divergence between Holyrood and Westminster. While it should not be overstated, nonetheless it is also clear that a different language is often mobilised in Scotland. Thus there is a greater stress on social inclusion (as opposed to exclusion), on partnership, equality, and, importantly, on social justice. There is now a Minister for Social Justice with responsibility for these issues. (Brown et al, 2002, pp 6-7)
Child poverty is at the heart of the UK and Scottish governments’ agendas …. The political context of a devolved Scotland (in which responsibility for some poverty-related matters is devolved), the subtlety of variation in political priorities that results (such as the greater emphasis on social inclusion in Scotland …) and a quantitatively and qualitatively different experience of poverty in Scotland … necessitate a Scottish-level analysis of poverty. Nonetheless, it should be acknowledged that responsibility for most of the economic factors which would tackle child poverty are reserved at Westminster.
The first of these quotes, from a joint publication of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and the Scottish Poverty Information Unit, neatly encapsulates a number of themes of this chapter and of this book as a whole: the possibility of policy divergence, the Executive's addressing of the issue of poverty, and the emphasis on classic social democratic preoccupations such as equality and social justice. The second, from an Executive publication of autumn 2003, illustrates that body's commitment to the issue of child poverty in particular, while also drawing attention to the policy constraints embedded in the devolution settlement.
This chapter:
• describes the historical and contemporary context of poverty in Scotland;
• examines New Labour attitudes to the issue, and its expansion into the more all-embracing concept of social exclusion;
• outlines analyses of Scottish poverty by both independent and official commentators;
• and discusses how the Executive has gone about addressing the problem.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Taking StockScottish Social Welfare after Devolution, pp. 45 - 66Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2004