The Scottis experience

1. Europe Matters Conference
Cardiff
17 March 2016

2. MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN? THE ROLE OF ANTI-
POVERTY NETWORKS
 The Poverty Alliance: origins, structure, what we do
 Making change: impact and lessons learned
 Why Europe matters to us: networking in the UK &
Europe

3. POVERTY ALLIANCE: ORIGINS

4. WHO WE ARE
• A network of more than 200
organisations & individuals
• A staff team of 14
• Board of 12 (inc. Oxfam, CPAG,
STUC)
• Community Activist Advisory Group
• Core funding from Scottish
Government

5. WHAT WE DO
We have five objectives for the next five years:
 Influencing policy: we support the development of policies which
promote social justice and combat poverty
 Supporting Communities: we work with people and communities
experiencing poverty to help them to address poverty
 Networking: We support a strong anti-poverty network in Scotland
 Awareness: We raise awareness and encourage debate about
poverty
 Evidence: We provide high quality research and knowledge about
poverty in Scotland

6. OUR POLICY FOCUS
We focus on four key areas:
Incomes
Services
Participation
Attitudes and beliefs

7. INCOMES

8. ATTITUDES

9.  Living Wage: more than 7,000 workers received a pay
rise
 Procurement legislation includes Living Wage
 Scottish Welfare Fund was a comprehensive
replacement for Social Fund
 Principles for future social security broadly accepted by
government
 10 public sector organisations signed up to address
negative attitudes to people living in poverty
IMPACT

10.  To influence policy it is necessary to be both ‘in and
against the state
 Consistent core funding is critical to building and
maintaining dialogue
 Involvement of major organisations is critical for
credibility, authority, resources
 Grassroots involvement equally important –
opportunities to be engaged is rare (for some)
 Need to involve a diverse range of people with direct
experience of poverty
LESSONS

11.  European Anti-Poverty Network
established in 1990. Now made up of
31 national networks and 18 European
organisations
 We seek to influence the development
of EU social policy and processes
 An essential recognition that the
causes and consequences of poverty
do not respect national boundaries
NETWORKING IN EUROPE

12.  Some progress made during the Lisbon
process – greater coordination of
approaches to tackling poverty
 Significant progress in raising the
profile of participation of people in
poverty
 Recent success in campaign to secure
20% of ESF funding for poverty
reduction
SUCCESSES IN EUROPE

13.  Based on four ‘national’ networks until
recently
 Brought together a wide range of
organisations to engage with DWP on
European Social Inclusion process
 Economic crisis and political change
had a significant impact on activity and
ability to influence
 Emphasis now must be on analysis,
mutual exchange and solidarity
UK NETWORKING

14.  National (UK) networks need the
engagement of larger organisations to
be sustainable
 There are significant benefits to
European networking for policy
exchange & learning
 Funding opportunities can be facilitated
through better networking
 The political context in the UK & EU
levels is not favourable…
LESSONS & NEXT STEPS

15.  Networking at national, UK & EU is useful & important:
 To say and do things collectively that cannot be done alone
 For policy influence and change
 For learning & exchange
 For solidarity and cohesion
 EAPN UK is changing to be a single network – initially
will be focused on exchange
 Aim to organise a number of events in April & May
 Regardless of the outcome in June, there will still be a
need for European wide coordination of anti-poverty
action
CONCLUSIONS & NEXT STEPS

16. Contact: Peter Kelly
Director
peter.kelly@povertyalliance.org
www.povertyalliance.org