Children gain new inclusion funding
Annette Rawstrone
Wednesday, January 10, 2001
Childcare and children's literacy programmes in deprived areas should be in the front line to benefit from 105.5m funding awarded to Scotland's Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) for 2002-2004. The Scottish Executive is steadily increasing funding for SIPs, and has also announced an additional 1.9m in addition to the grant of about 50m available this year.
The Scottish Executive is steadily increasing funding for SIPs, and has also announced an additional 1.9m in addition to the grant of about Pounds 50m available this year.
SIPs support a range of initiatives on poverty and social exclusion. The Scottish Executive has encouraged them to support the work of childcare partnerships and the New Community Schools programme, which aims to raise educational standards and promote inclusion.
The SIPs programme brings together the public, private and voluntary sectors to co-ordinate work in local areas addressing the causes and effects of poverty. SIPs are a key tool in the Executive's drive to meet its social justice commitments, which include seeing that child poverty in Scotland is defeated within a generation and that all Scottish children can read, write and count to a level appropriate for their ability on leaving school.
Work undertaken by SIPs across Scotland has included training courses for parents with integrated childcare facilities and health projects, to enable single parents and others to take up jobs or education.
While many SIPs are area-based, such as Drumchapel, Glasgow's Greater Easterhouse and Greater Pollok, and the former coalmining community in East Ayrshire, others focus on groups including young people and ethnic minorities.
