Social Renewal Advisory Board: our response

Introduction

It is over a year since the world changed and found itself in the midst of a global pandemic, which has been an incredibly difficult time for people up and down the country. Despite this, we have seen countless acts of kindness and solidarity as communities, the third sector, and local authorities collectively stepped up to look after one another. The independent report "If not now, when?"^[1] produced by the Social Renewal Advisory Board (the Board) calls on all of us to harness the lessons we have learnt from these social actions that have made such an impact and apply them in a way that helps us navigate a path for Scotland towards a more equal and fairer country.

The following pages detail the Scottish Government's initial response to the report. It outlines the impact that the pandemic has had, how we have responded to support people and communities and our motivation behind the creation of the Board. We also highlight how the ambition of the report requires the next Government to consider fully the Calls to Action while also highlighting where the Scottish Government has already made progress and what we can do in the short term to take this even further.