Programme for Government 2015-16

When First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2015/16 earlier this week, she outlined what the Government intends to do over the coming year but also set out a longer term vision. Assuming that the polls are correct (and why wouldn’t they be?) the SNP will return to power next year and this programme gives the clearest indication yet of what their priorities will be for the next Parliament. A Social Security Bill in the first year of the new Parliament will determine how the Scottish Government uses the new welfare powers coming from the Scotland Bill. There’s some positive noises being made about involving people in the process but greater detail is needed on how they plan to harness the knowledge and expertise of the third sector to create a genuinely more compassionate system. The announcement of an amendment to the Carers Bill which will bring the support for Kinship Carers in line with foster carers is positive and long overdue. However, it’s disappointing that there is little in the way of commitments for increased support for unpaid carers. It was encouraging to hear the notion of Fair Work being given high priority by the First Minister, with continued support for the Living wage and the Youth Employment Strategy as well as a further increase in the free childcare allowance. Given how highly people rate housing in their list of priorities, the efforts to tackle this growing problem will be welcome. The Help to Buy scheme may not enjoy universal support but a ‘root and branch review’ of the planning system coupled with land reform and the Rural Housing Fund could begin to address the problems we have with housing.

"It was encouraging to hear the notion of Fair Work being given high priority by the First Minister"

The First Minister finished by talking positively about the role of communities. Proposals to give more power to the islands will be interesting (why just islands?) and I’m excited that Participatory Budgeting continues to rise up the political priority list. In terms of new legislation, the Lobbying Bill and Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm Bill are the two new bills that will be of most interest to the third sector, though the Carers Bill and the Land Reform Bill will continue their passage through Parliament. On the international front, it was good to see the promise to adopt and implement the Sustainable Development Goals. These cover a broad range, from tackling poverty and inequality to achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable consumption. It remains to be seen how far these will get in actually influencing policy but I’m cautiously optimistic. The lack of any major new proposals for addressing climate change is perhaps the most disappointing omission from the programme. Given the four years of missed targets, this area might have expected greater priority. The Programme for Government has set out what we can expect from the coming year and given as a flavour of what might come after that.There are some encouraging signs but as always, it’s how the government goes about working with the third sector to put the rhetoric into practice that will be the real test.