Fairer scotland action plan: first annual progress report

Introduction

Our ambition, as set out in the original Fairer Scotland Action Plan, is ' to build a better country - one with low levels of poverty and inequality, genuine equality of opportunity, stronger life chances and support for all those who need it.'

We have made considerable progress on our actions since the launch of the Plan, and this has been outlined within this document. However there is still a considerable way to go to achieve this goal.

We remain committed to the value of our fairer Scotland conversations and in the spirit of the Open Government Partnership ( OGP) principles, have undertaken a series of engagement. Discussion groups took place across Scotland, testing the impact of the Plan, listening further to communities about the issues they were facing. The discussion groups ran from June to September and included a range of different perspectives. These conversations were well received by those who took part and demonstrate our on-going commitment to co-production of the fairer Scotland project.

The OGP is a United Nations initiative which aims to foster openness, transparency and citizen participation through National Action Plans ( NAP). The Scottish Plan has five commitments that together seek to change how government works so that we are as open and transparent as possible and people in Scotland have real influence and can hold government to account. The NAP commitments also support the development of newly devolved responsibilities such as Scotland's new tax, borrowing and welfare responsibilities. Delivering a Fairer Scotland is a key commitment that sits at the heart of the plan.

We intend to keep engaging in this way to deliver our fairer Scotland ambition.

Thanks go to the following organisations who took part in the discussion through the summer months:

Scottish Older People's Assembly
People First
The Women's Centre, Maryhill
Falkirk Council, particularly the communities of Maddiston and Langlees
Radiant and Brighter
The Poverty Alliance
Community Activists Panel, Glasgow
The Bike Project, Shetland