This is the report of the action team established in March 1999 under the auspices of the Scottish Social Inclusion Network.
Social exclusion is a term that refers to a range of complex social problems.
Income poverty is at the heart of many of these problems. The Government's long term approach is to lift people out of poverty by moving them into work, and promoting opportunity. But the market has limits when it comes to social justice, and very significant numbers of people in Scotland remain in poverty. The Scottish Poverty Information Unit has estimated that 1 million Scots are in poverty, and that around 300,000 of these are children. The evidence suggests that the situation has been worsening since the late 1970's.