Policy blog

Scotland’s voluntary sector is a major employer, employing over 135,000 people, around 5% of Scotland’s workforce and a third more people than the 100,000 staff employed in Scotland’s digital and technology sector. This workforce makes a huge contribution to people and... Read more

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The Living Wage shouldn’t be an aspiration or a ceiling – it’s the bare minimum anyone should expect.   Read more

Summer 2022 has been like no other, dominated by excessive heat, drought, and what we have all learnt is the wrong type of rain. The political climate has fared little better, paralysed by a leadership contest while energy costs and inflation spiral. Despite the increasingly... Read more

Each year at the beginning of September, the Scottish Government delivers its Programme for Government, a set of actions that the government will take over the next year to progress its priorities. Specifically, the programme includes, legislation, spending, policy initiatives... Read more

The Fair Work Convention has recently published its ‘Fair Work Manifesto for Scotland’ urging all political parties as well as employers, unions, public agencies and civil society organisations to commit to delivering a Fair Work Nation by 2025. Scotland’s Fair Work Convention... Read more

Since the launch of the 2016 Fair Work Framework and the challenge set down by the Fair Work Convention for Scotland to be a world leading Fair Work nation by 2025, there has been much support, new government departments established, a Fair Work Implementation Plan and high level... Read more

The framing of a government budget is to identify the priorities and ensure funds reach where they're needed the most. That delicate process has become fraught with difficulty and trade-offs for local and devolved governments since the financial crash. Each autumn, our policy and... Read more

The release of the Paradise Papers during Living Wage week is something of a stark reminder of the inequality that still exists in the UK. While the wealthiest in society are able to stash money overseas, many are still fighting to receive a fair wage for a day’s work. Living... Read more

Happy #LivingWageWeek! This week sees the announcement of the updated real Living Wage, calculated according to the cost of living. The Living Wage increase will mean a payrise for hundreds of thousands of people. There are now 3,600 accredited Living Wage Employers that have... Read more

Recommendations fail to guarantee the human rights of the workforce in the UK The Taylor Report on the modern workforce was published earlier this week to mixed reviews. There was some criticism for a report that many feel is too cautious to enact real change for workers in... Read more

As we move from paper to action, practical projects like Community Jobs Scotland are key. Read more

Our out-dated, inflexible labour market is a key barrier to equality in employment Read more

Given the significant rise of working households experiencing poverty, the performance of the labour market can no longer be adequately represented merely by counting the number of people in work. Working with the UWS-Oxfam Partnership and Warwick Institute for Employment... Read more

Our sector has an ambitious vision for Scotland’s future. The question is how can we make our vision a reality? Read more