Fairer Scotland action plan: progress report 2020

Other actions

Collaboration is often required across a number of areas to make progress on tackling poverty and reducing inequalities, reflecting the cross-cutting nature of the efforts to make Scotland fairer. The recommendations and actions contained in this section are clear examples of Scottish Government activity which cut across a number of the themes, such as those on public service delivery, public sector reform and inclusive growth.

An update on the action above can be found in the Tackling Child Poverty Progress Report.

Broadband

We will deliver on our commitment to ensure that every premises in Scotland will have access to superfast broadband by the end of 2021 through our Reaching 100% (R100) programme. This will be delivered through three strands of activity, namely the £600 million R100 contracts in North, Central and South Scotland, our Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (a supplier-led voucher scheme for businesses and homes worth up to £5,000) which opened for applications in September 2020, and through commercial coverage. Work has commenced on the Central and South of Scotland contracts with BT and we aim to sign the North contract by the end of 2020.

We are also taking action to eliminate digital exclusion and tackle the digital divide in Scotland which has been shown in sharp focus during the pandemic when physical ways of staying in touch and contact were restricted. During lockdown, working with the third sector, councils and Scotland's tech industry, we established Connecting Scotland. It has provided iPads and Chromebooks, with internet connections, and helps tackle the causes and consequences of poverty. The initial priority was people shielding or at high risk of severe illness. The programme is now helping care leavers and low income households with children. It connects families, improves employment opportunities and provides better access to health care and education.

We intend to significantly expand the programme in the coming year and are investing £43 million to allow us to reach 50,000 low income households, providing a device, internet connection, training and support to get people online. On 30 November as part of our Winter Plan, we announced a further extension of the programme to help to 5,000 socially isolated older and disabled people to get online over the winter months.

Inclusive growth

Scotland's Centre for Regional Inclusive Growth was launched by the Scottish Government in July 2018 to support and enable the delivery of inclusive growth across Scotland. The Centre works across government, industry and academia to provide access to toolkits and data, research and examples of good practice that support the delivery of more inclusive economic outcomes. It also delivers an inclusive growth 'community of practice' in partnership with Economic Development Association Scotland which brings together public, private and third sector partners to share lessons and experience of how to deliver inclusive growth on the ground.

Justice

The presumption against short periods of imprisonment was extended to 12 months or less in 2019 following Parliamentary scrutiny and approval. This move will help mitigate the detrimental impact of short periods of imprisonment by instead better supporting the rehabilitation of individuals who have offended and prevent reoffending. In February this year we published information to monitor the effects of the implementation of the Extension to the Presumption Against Short Sentences^[16].

The Scottish Budget for 2020-21 increased investment in community justice services to more than £117 million, which is an increase of over £6.5 million. Programme for Government 2020-21 affirms our commitment to promote and expand the availability of effective community interventions, including bringing forward regulations for the use of electronic monitoring on bail, supporting increased accessibility to supervised bail services and publishing guidance on structured deferred sentences.

Public sector reform and public service delivery

Public services, community organisations and charities have come together to respond to the crisis collaboratively – with speed, conviction that a common challenge presents, and agility in overcoming long-standing barriers. This has been buoyed by strong community spirit, commitment to informal volunteering and mutual aid. The Scottish Government has also acted well. To quote Caroline Gardner, former Auditor General for Scotland, the Scottish Government "has responded quickly and at scale, reorienting its organisational structures, resources and governance arrangements to react to the pandemic".

As outlined earlier in this report, the work of the recently established Social Renewal Advisory Board will help shape the new normal that we now move into and joined up public services that are person-centred, agile and responsive to best practice will be key to this work. The Board's independent advice will support Ministers in overcoming the challenges faced and help drive progress towards a fairer, more equal Scotland in the wake of COVID-19.

We continue to fund access to free period products in education and wider community settings – estimated to benefit around 400,000 people in education alone. In addition, we have provided funding to enable grassroots sports clubs to provide free products and help reduce the stigma and address the overarching gender equality and dignity issues that affect everyone who menstruates. This will help to ensure people feel they belong and are welcome to participate in club and community sport. Through investment of £1.5 million to FareShare since 2018, almost 80,000 people on low incomes have benefitted from access to free period products which represents around 25% of women and girls living in relative poverty.

In a survey^[17] of over 3,000 pupils and students in Scotland, conducted between June and September 2019, almost two thirds of respondents reported they had benefitted from access to period products in education settings. Around one in eight reported that they or their families did not have sufficient income to buy products and 84% of respondents felt the provision had a positive impact on them, with improvements in mental health and wellbeing and increased attendance at school.

In partnership with Zero Waste Scotland and Marine Scotland, we ran a campaign entitled "Trial Period" across November and December 2019 to raise awareness of the benefits of reusable period products and to give people a chance to try out some of the available range of such products. The campaign was such a success that the Scottish Government provided extra funding for further products, and almost 3,000 reusable products were distributed in total.

From January to March this year, we ran another awareness raising campaign, which focussed on tackling the stigma around talking openly about periods thereby helping to encourage and normalise these conversations and access products.

Through our collaborative work on the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, which passed by the Scottish Parliament on 24 November 2020, access to free period products will be enshrined in law for anyone who needs them, building on Scotland's world-leading work in this area.