Steps To Tackle Poverty

The leader of Fife Council has pledged to 're-double efforts to fight poverty'

Every Fifer deserves a decent home, job and education. That's the vision of Fife Council Leader David Ross as he sets out the council's ambitions for the next two years of this Administration.

Cllr Ross said:

"In proposing approval of this report today, at this mid point in our Administration, I want to look more broadly at where we are, what we have achieved and most importantly what more we want to do in the future as we strive to build a better, stronger, fairer Fife.

"I am justifiably proud of what we have initiated and taken forward as an Administration. But I also recognise some of this builds on the work of the previous and past administrations.

"We face difficult and challenging times, major financial challenges and rising demands for local services. But the Council still has a significant level of resources at our disposal. What is important is that we use these resources in the best way possible focussing on our priorities to achieve the outcomes we want.

"We need to be creative and innovative, to look at how we can do things differently.

"And part of that new approach has to be continuing to develop decentralisation and devolution, to ensure decisions are taken at the appropriate level to suit local circumstances, and trying to reverse the creeping tide of centralisation we have seen from central government in the past few years.

"New powers will be coming to Scotland. But devolution can’t stop at Holyrood. New powers and greater control over resources should be devolved further to local authorities. And within Fife we need to go further still, pushing forward with decentralisation to local areas and engaging and empowering local communities.

"There isn’t an easy answer to some of the big challenges we face and none of the improvements we want to see will happen overnight. But I am convinced that if we work together with our partners and with our local communities, we will continue making a positive difference to the lives of people in Fife.

"Consider some of the things we have done already:

"The Fife Youth Jobs Contract – working with local businesses to provide training and apprenticeships for hundreds of young people.

"Investing in early years – ensuring that children get the best start in life at that vital first stage.

"Investing in new schools and education so every pupil has the chance to gain the skills and knowledge they need to reach their full potential.

"We are well into the biggest programme of building new affordable housing we have seen in Fife for many years.

"We are investing in our town centres.

"Investing in sports.

"Promoting fostering and recruiting more foster carers to give vulnerable children the support they need.

"We are renewing our care homes and have removed charges for home care.

"As a Council we chose to offset the Bedroom Tax to the maximum possible from day one and we have been at the forefront of local authorities lobbying for it to be scrapped and lobbying successfully for the Scottish Government to use its powers to fully offset its impact in Scotland this year.

"We have put in place local programmes to support people through the impacts of welfare reform and to address poverty more generally.

"We continue to tackle fuel poverty.

"We have introduced the living wage as the minimum for our lower paid employees.

"This work will continue over the coming months and years. But today I want to set out 6 further major priorities and actions we will put in place going forward.

"Firstly, tackling poverty is and remains a top priority for this Council, and not just the symptoms but the root causes of poverty. That is why we have been creating jobs and apprenticeships, investing in education, investing in early years, building new good quality affordable housing and supporting the development of a strong local economy.

"But we need to redouble our efforts to tackle the disgrace of poverty in our society. So I will be asking each Directorate and every Service to re-examine all their activities and set out explicitly what more they can do to help reduce poverty in Fife.

"And we need to look beyond the Council alone, so we will establish a Fairer Fife Commission - a cross and non-party body under an independent chair bringing together public, private, voluntary and local community organisations to understand better how we can tackle poverty in Fife, and to develop and implement practical action to reduce poverty across our community.

"Secondly, we are already seeing improvements in education and children’s services, improving literacy and beginning to break the cycle of deprivation holding back too many of our young people - but this transformation needs to go further and faster. So over the next 3 months we will be undertaking a major engagement with schools, parents, pupils, teachers and other stakeholders to explore ideas on how leadership models in our schools can be improved; how the continuity of learning and the professional learning of teachers and support staff can be enhanced; and on the design of curriculum pathways, on transition planning, partnerships for learning and the central role of employability

"Thirdly the Fife Youth Jobs Contract has been a major success under the leadership of Cllr Tony Martin. We will extend this with a further £2m in funding focusing on those young people who need most support to raise their skills and get into decent jobs.

"Fourthly we will press forward with Connecting Fife - improving the strategic and local transport links that underpin our local economy. Working with Transport Scotland and building on our recent meeting with the Scottish Transport Minister we will make the case for the Levenmouth Rail Link, and for improvements to the A92, we will press for the implementation of already agreed projects including the Halbeath rail interchange and the Rosyth park and ride, we will extend parking at Leuchars and seriously examine the case for local projects like the reopening of Newburgh rail halt.

"Fifthly we know that health and social care services across Scotland are under pressure and under-funded. We will be calling for that to change at a national level. At the same time we will work to improve our own services. The integration of health and social care in partnership with NHS Fife will bring improvements.

"But I have agreed with the Chair of NHS Fife that we will go beyond this to look together at key issues where further collaboration can improve services.

Developing anticipatory care providing care at an earlier stage and avoiding more expensive emergency interventions
Improving support to voluntary carers and building capacity in communities.
Taking forward the care village concept and making better use of our joint assets – housing, health and care facilities.
Reshaping our home care services to better fit with the needs of those we care for.
"Finally – to re-emphasize that a successful local economy underpins all our efforts to tackle poverty and create a more prosperous Fife, we will build on informal discussions that have been underway for the past year with Edinburgh City Council and other local authorities in our city region areas– looking at how we can work together to improve our economic infrastructure, and support and develop the regional economy to the benefit of us all.

"I will therefore be asking the Chief Executive to engage with these neighbouring authorities on a formal basis to bring forward a proposal for a City Region Deal for submission to the UK and Scottish Governments within 6 months.

"So in conclusion, today I am asking for support for these proposals across the whole of this Chamber so that we can go forward together to build a better, stronger, fairer Fife."