20 calls to action on poverty

Date: 28th January 2021
Category: Child poverty

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 A new report by The Social Renewal Advisory Board has recommended 20 calls to action to ensure Scotland tackles poverty and inequality as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes actions around access to childcare and housing.

The Social Renewal Advisory Board was set up by Scottish Ministers to make proposals that can renew Scotland as the country begins to emerge from the pandemic. The 20 calls were identified through "Community Listening Events" across 31 local authority areas and subsequent follow up events.

The 20 calls to action for Scottish Government are as follows:

Money and Work

1. Commit to a Minimum Income Guarantee for all as a long-term aim.
2. Develop an approach to anti-poverty work, including personal debt, that is designed around the needs of the individual.
3. Work in partnership to develop a new social contract on Fair Work.
4. Focus Fair Work actions on those most affected by the pandemic.
5. Extend free early learning, childcare and social care so all parents and carers can access the childcare they need, when they need it.

People, Rights and Advancing Equality

6. Incorporate the right to an adequate and accessible home in Scots Law.
7. Make sure there are enough homes that are safe, warm, accessible, affordable, and in places people want to live.
8. Ensure everyone can access nutritious, culturally appropriate and affordable food.
9. Set a target to end digital exclusion in the next parliamentary term.
10. Adopt the principles of Universal Basic Services.
11. Incorporate key international human rights instruments into Scots Law to deliver real change.
12. Take action to realise the human rights of disabled people.
13. Build inclusive communication into all national and local government funding requirements.
14. Strengthen approaches to prevent and address hate crime and public sexual harassment.
15. Apply the rights and entitlements in this report to all migrants.

Communities and collective endeavour

16. Further shift the balance of power so individuals and communities have more control over decisions that affect their lives.
17. Improve service delivery and design by empowering frontline teams and the people and communities they serve.
18. Build on new ways of working, based on what has worked well during the pandemic, and develop new arrangements for local governance.
19. Focus everyone and all activities on building more resilient, fairer, healthier and stronger communities and places.

Closing the gap between promise and practice

20. Co-design how to assess progress towards renewal, incorporating deeper engagement with those people and communities who have first-hand experience of poverty, inequality and restricted life chances.

Read the report in full here.