Power back to the people?

A NEW report from the Scottish Affairs committee in the  House of Commons calls for the powers of the Crown Estate Commissioners in Scotland to be both devolved to Scotland and then decentralised to local communities.

Alison Johnstone MSP, who is a member of the Scottish Parliament's Scotland Bill committee, comments: "This report adds serious weight to the case for local democracy and for ending the detached way in which the Crown Estate is run in Scotland. The UK Government must now recognise the case for change. The committee's insistence on a double-devolution of powers, with control ending up in the hands of local communities, is a principle that I hope will get far more prominence in the debate on Scotland's future."

Full details of the report can be found here. It has significance for the allocation of resources, for community access and ultimately for the distribution of wealth and power - which lies at the core of addressing rural and urban poverty.

Library cuts may hit most vulnerable

CONCERNS that cuts in Edinburgh's world-renowned library services will hit the most vulnerable, and worsen problems of unemployment, lack of literacy, poverty and the exclusion have been expressed at a public meeting in Leith attended by 70 local people.

Edinburgh East Save Our Services and Greater Leith Against the Cuts had called the meeting on 5 March 2012 to discuss the planned changes to library services throughout the city, which are part of a wider programme of funding cuts.

 Edinburgh Council has carried out a consultation recently, and among the changes it proposes are an expansion of services in some libraries, and new facilities at Dumbrae. But an overall reduction of £250,000 is planned - reduced from £550,000 after a vigorous local anti-cuts campaign.

Unison says that the cuts will hit rural and more vulnerable communities, that there will be reductions of 4-9 hours a week across an number of libraries, cuts in Sunday opening hours, and the termination of temporary staff contracts contracts. 

Campaigners - who include people on low and fixed incomes, older people, families with small children and carers - say that libraries are not just about books: they are hubs for a range of local services and play an important wider role in combatting literacy problems, promoting education and all-age learning, safeguarding jobs and providing a meeting point for the otherwise housebound and isolated. 

Councillors were left with no doubt that users, workers, authors and communities will be struggling hard to maintain their libraries, book clubs for children and related services. They are being asked to scrap the cuts, and if not to defer the decision until after the elections on 3 May 2012.

Kinship carers seek Scottish Government petition backing

CLACKS Kinship Carers (CKC) will be at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 1 March 2012, at 1pm, to hand over a petition they want to see on the Scottish Parliament website. 

There is a formal process for making this happen, and CKC are hoping for a big show of support for the hand-over,  since the issue is of real concern to thousands of people across Scotland.

The text of the petition is: "Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to take action to ensure that all councils across Scotland pay kinship carers the recommended allowance (as suggested in the Scottish Government's Local Government Concordat for 2008-2011) and that any such allowance should be ring fenced, with resourced support equable with foster carers"

We will report further on developments as they happen. During the debate on Kinship Care in the Scottish parliament recently, Richard Simpson MSP cited material from the Poverty Truth Commission Kinship reports.  "It is good that we are getting these perspectives into the public and political consciousness," said Miriam Rose.

The PTC Kinship Care: Observations and Recommendations report can be read here (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document).

The Scottish Government COSLA Concordat is available here (also *.PDF). See page 5.

Third Scottish Assembly for Tackling Poverty

THE third Scottish Assembly for Tackling Poverty will take place on 15 and 16 March 2012, at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, it has been announced. 

The Poverty Alliance explains on its website: "Over the two day conference, we will be focusing on inequality and alternative ways of working during a time of economic austerity."

Confirmed speakers so far include: Owen Jones, author of Chavs; Anna Coote, New Economics Foundation; Philip Blond, ResPublica, and many more.

PA continues: "We will hear from inspiring community projects from across Scotland on how they are affected by these issues and what they are doing to combat them. This year we will be focusing on the themes of child poverty, fuel poverty, sustainable communities, welfare reform and alternative economic models."

The event will bring together community groups, national organizations and political representatives at a Scottish and UK level.

Ghazala Hakeem, commissioner of the Poverty Truth Commission, will be among the speakers at the event.

Please click here to see the full two day agenda for the Assembly. Please click here to see the evidence session descriptions. To register for the Assembly, please click here.

Childcare costs higher in Scotland than elsewhere

CHILDCARE costs more in Scotland than in most other parts of Britain, concludes a new report from children's charities. 

It echoes the concerns of parents and carers across the country, and their desire to be involved in helping to formulate policies and approaches that address these issues - as the Poverty Truth Commission has argued and demonstrated.

Some parents are facing bills of nearly £12,000 a year, says the report, published by the Daycare Trust and Children in Scotland.

What they uncover is a 'postcode lottery' whereby some local authorities are charging twice as much as others for child daycare.

The "Scottish Childcare Lottery" report finds nursery prices as high in Scotland as southern England in some areas, with 25 hours of care over 50 weeks at the most expensive nursery costing £11,688, reports the Daily Record newspaper.

The report says that out-of-school childcare in the most expensive local authority is 94% more expensive than the cheapest council.

The price of after-school care, at an average of £49 for 15 hours, is significantly higher in Scotland than in England and Wales.

 The report also finds that only 20% of local authorities have enough childcare provision to meet local demand. Moreover, only 10% have enough childcare for parents who work outside regular office hours or who live in rural areas.

More on the report for Britain as a whole here. 

The challenge of 'poverty truth'

THE Poverty Truth Commission was a two year project bringing together some of Scotland's civic leaders with people at the sharp end of poverty. And it isn't over! 

Though the work of the Commission has ended, the continuing quest for 'poverty truth', and for the engagement of people who experience with the formulating of strategies to combat and move beyond poverty remains vital.

It is this challenge which the PTC steering group and partners are seeking to push forward. Commissioners from varied backgrounds worked together to discover the realities of poverty, and to explore real solutions to it. They also became friends.

This website explains the story of the Commission and its Commissioners and also hopes to inspire people to think about working in a new way - where those affected by decisions are included in the decision making.

Fuel poverty remains rife

FUEL poverty remains rife in Scotland. Thousands of families can no longer afford to meet the cost of energy which forces them to go without essential heat even when they need it most. 

A recent survey showed that 658,000 households were living in fuel poverty in 2010, 28% of the population. Some experts are estimating that the figure for 2011 could be as high as 35% once data has been collated.

As a result Holyrood's Energy and Tourism Committee have urged the Scottish Government to do something about this increasing problem and to try to find additional ways to cut the cost of energy bills.

A range of factors are involved in the long standing predicament that many Scottish families find themselves in. The current state of the energy market is one. The need for conservation and insulation in affordable and accessible forms is another.

More on the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum.