SWBG blog
Women and active travel: lessons from our work with Sustrans
Our Training Lead, Heather Williams, discusses why the work we did with Sustrans is key to reducing inequalities in active travel.
Over the last few months, we’ve been working with Sustrans to look at how gender budgeting approaches can be used in the active travel field. Scotland has set out a vision for active travel to be ‘seen as the norm, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, or background’ [1]. While the Scottish Government has committed to spending 10% of the transport budget on active travel infrastructure, increased investment in active travel alone will not lead to the increased diversity needed to achieve their vision.
There’s a theory that says we measure what we value. If we look at active travel policy from this perspective, what do we see?
One of the strategic objectives in the Active Travel Framework [2] is ‘Reduced Inequalities’. Despite this, the outcomes and indicators focus on the need to improve the availability and safety of infrastructure for ‘all’ and on increasing the number of kilometres built.
This tells us something about where the strategic focus is of those involved in designing the active travel strategy. It also highlights why the work we have carried out with Sustrans is essential.
Our Women’s Survey [3] which looked at transport and active travel last year showed that:
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Only 5% of those responding to our survey used cycling as a main mode of transport, this dropped to none for single parents.
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17% used walking/wheeling as the main mode of transport, this increased to 23% for single parents
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59% of respondents to the survey felt questions on access and safety of cycle routes was not applicable to them, 34% of respondents felt the same for walking and wheeling routes
Those who completed our survey told us that the reason they didn’t walk, wheel or cycle for journeys is because routes didn't take them to where they needed to go, or they didn’t feel safe on the routes available. Our survey echoed what other research has found, that women are more likely to trip-chain engaging in multi-purpose and multi-stop trips related to caring and other household tasks. Those who completed our survey told us that current infrastructure does not allow them to undertake these journeys in the time available to them:
‘There are "nice" cycle routes but a lack of safe practical routes between shops, train stations & home etc.‘
‘No segregated cycle lanes anywhere I need to go. Nothing that connects me to even simple places like post office, shops, etc. Some cycle lane for leisure, but not far'.
‘Kids go to school in next town to our home and I work in neighbouring local authority area so need to travel quite a bit to do school run and get to work'.
To help ensure that as many people as possible benefit from spending on active travel, our work with Sustrans has highlighted it’s essential that:
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We know our local communities and consider the journeys people take and how active travel can support them to do this. This means asking why people travel and where they need to get to and designing routes which support these journeys.
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We design (and fund) community engagement processes to help hear from a diverse range of people.
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We collect sex disaggregated data on those who take part in any community consultations or engagement exercises, so we know who we have heard from and who we haven’t.
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We carry out Equality Impact Assessments in the early stages of any project to ensure that they are as accessible as possible. These should be reviewed and updated as the project progresses.
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We ensure that active travel projects support people to undertake care related journeys. This means looking at investing in infrastructure to support people walking and wheeling as well as in cycling infrastructure. The design of these need to be based on providing people with as direct access as possible to the places they need to get to.
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We consider women’s perceptions of safety in the design of active travel schemes using tools such as “safety audits and safety tours” as standard practice.
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We invest in social infrastructure as well as physical infrastructure in order to grow the numbers from diverse groups who walk, wheel and cycle. Projects such as Women on Wheels are essential if we are to diversify those who benefit from active travel expenditure. We have to recognise that funding these types of programmes is as important as building the physical infrastructure.
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We ensure there is space for people to stop and sit in the design of active travel infrastructure.
As Transport Scotland take over some of the work which has been carried out by Sustrans, it is crucial that the learning from our work is taken forward and that those involved at all stages of delivering the active travel strategy are able to apply an intersectional gender perspective to address inequalities in active travel. If we continue to develop and design these projects as if they will benefit everyone without considering the need of specific groups, we will continue to embed inequality.
References
[1] Transport and Travel in Scotland 2014 | Transport Scotland
Women's Survey 2024 Launch
On Friday 1st March we launched our Women's Survey 2024!
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Our 2024 Women’s Survey is once again looking to capture women in Scotland's experiences of how they are managing the cost-of-the living crisis and the impact this is having on them and their families. While headline inflation figures have reduced during 2023 and into 2024, prices are still higher than they have ever been, and households' disposable income is lower now than in 2019. [1]
Our previous surveys have shown that women are often the shock of absorbers of poverty for their households skipping meals, not replacing clothes or shoes for themselves or skipping haircuts etc. to try and protect other family members from the impact of increasing costs.
‘Sometimes my meals are very different from everyone else’s’ [2]
The tactics women are using to manage their household budgets have been one of reducing spending on non-essentials to afford items like food and heat. Yet, our surveys have shown that for many this hasn’t been enough, and that single parents and disabled households often must make the decision between heating and eating.
With the UK having tipped into technical recession as a result of household incomes declining, as part of this year's survey we have added some additional questions around debt and savings. From previous surveys we know that women have been using savings or credit cards to manage regular monthly expenditure and that they are worried about the impact this will have on their retirement. This year, we want to explore the potential longer-term consequences of the current crisis for women.
Additionally, this year's survey also looks at public sector reform. In November 2023 we heard the Deputy FM say that
‘there was “no doubt” that staffing for services would have to be reduced due to tight budgets and inflation-driven pay deals’. [3]
Given the consequences that declining public services have on women, who often end up impacted or picking up the slack caused by this, we feel it's important that we understand what good public sector reform looks like for women and we want to hear from you about this.
Finally, with the country soon heading to the polls, we are keen to know women’s priorities for the upcoming UK General Election. Decisions made at Westminster have a great impact on women in Scotland. Analysis by the UK Women’s Budget Group last week showed that cuts to National Insurance contributions in the Spring Budget will benefit better off men, impacting on women’s inequality [4]. Let us know what really matters to you so we can advocate for policies that make a difference to women’s lives.
How can you help us?
We’d like to hear different views from women across Scotland. This is crucial for us to understand the different realities of women in all local authorities. We are particularly interested in hearing from more ethnic minority women, women that are carers, and women who are single parents.
We are also offering a £25 voucher to 10 people who complete the survey, this will be selected at random.
If you haven’t done so already, we’d like your support to share the Women's Survey 2024 to help us reach a diverse range of women across Scotland. You can do this by:
- Sharing the survey through your social media account (if possible): LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter).
- Sharing amongst your networks
- Sharing with any women’s groups you might work with
References
[1] https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/tuc-uk-families-suffering-worst-decline-living-standards-g7
[2] https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/SWBG-Cost-of-Living-report-proof-06.pdf
[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-67539045
[4] Tax giveaways to better off men will cost worse off women, says WBG - Womens Budget Group
The cost of funding tax giveaways. Reflections ahead of the UK Spring Budget 2024
Blog by Heather Williams, SWBG Training Lead
With a general election on the horizon, the newspapers and TV are full of the potential tax cuts being considered as the Chancellor comes under increasing pressure from MPs worried about their re-election chances. The hope is that tax giveaways in the 2024 Spring Budget can have a similar effect to those in Norman Lamont’s Budget in 1992.[1]
Doing the news rounds yesterday, Jeremey Hunt promised to embark on the ‘long path’ to lower taxation,[2] which suggests that the Chancellor hasn’t paid much attention to the recent YouGov poll. This showed that 3/4s of those polled were not supportive of personal tax cuts and would rather see the money used to prop up already crumbling public services.[3]
Due to the self-imposed fiscal rules the Chancellor is choosing to adhere to, the outlook for UK public services is potentially bleak. The decisions made this week could have worrying long term consequences for the UK economy, which has already slipped into a technical recession after being stagnant for a long period of time.[4] The impact of the cost-of-living crisis on the back of the pandemic and austerity has squeezed households’ disposable income, affecting their spending decisions. Our Women’s Surveys for the last two years have shown that households have been rapidly cutting back on what they see as unnecessary expenditure such as meals out, haircuts or clothes, all of which has had a knock-on effect on the High St.[5] While the Chancellor may hope further tax cuts could reverse this trend, with interest rates high, inflation still high, income tax personal allowance thresholds remaining static (pushing more into paying tax or into higher tax bands), and cuts to public spending including a punitive social security system, this short-term approach is unlikely to provide sufficient stimulus.
According to the OBR, the impact of the Chancellor's decisions in the Autumn to prioritise tax cuts at the expense of further investment in public services along with inflation has meant that departmental spending is facing a £19bn real term loss by 2027-28.[6] Many believe that current public spending plans for both revenue and investment are illusory and cannot be sustained, with 3 councils in England having already issued bankruptcy notices and another 9 requesting further financial support. If the Chancellor chooses to cut personal taxes on the back of announcing further cuts to public spending, then this will be based on nothing more than ‘fantasy.’[7]
Additionally, if the Chancellor sticks to his current spending plans for public services, this will mean no further consequentials for the Scottish Government. In Scotland this has meant that in this year's budget the Scottish Government has cut back on planned capital expenditure (due to a reduction in the grant funding in this area and the impact of inflation). As a result of decisions taken by the Scottish Government to prioritise investment in roads, namely the A9, they have had to make substantial cuts to investment in social housing and hospitals[8]
Women’s Groups across the UK (including SWBG) are warning the Chancellor that his decisions risk putting ‘gender equality into reverse’ due to the disproportionate impact that cuts to public spending, needed to balance any reductions in tax, have on women.[9]
Ahead of Wednesday, the Chancellor needs to decide if he is going to prioritise the UK’s long term financial and social stability or roll the dice on pre-election giveaways in the hope that this Budget can do what Norman Lamont’s did for the Conservative Party in 1992.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/mar/03/budget1999.budget7
[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68461581
[3] https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1758539234733076563
[4] https://www.ft.com/content/94ecda75-35de-4d09-bda6-f3a7c71dc3c6
[5] https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/SWBG-Cost-of-Living-report-proof-06.pdf
[6] https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/obr-autumn-statement-measures-will-cause-19bn-fall-in-public-spending-power#:~:text=Speaking%20in%20a%20press%20briefing,eroded%20by%20around%20%C2%A319bn
[7] https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/five-things-look-out-spring-budget-2024
[8] https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2024-25/pages/2/#:~:text=Our%20%C2%A36.25%20billion%20capital,ambitions%20will%20not%20be%20easy
[9] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/29/cuts-to-public-services-in-england-will-reverse-gender-equality-unions-warn
Reaction to the Scottish Budget 2024/2025
On Tuesday 19th December, the Deputy First Minister (DFM), Shona Robinson, published the Scottish Budget 2024/2025. As stated in our pre-budget briefing, we knew that this budget was coming at a time of increased pressure on public finances due to an estimated funding gap of over £1billion for the next financial year (Fraser of Allander, 2023). The Autumn Statement did not help ease budgetary pressures. Consequently, the Scottish Government had to make tough decisions to balance the books. What are these decisions and what do they mean for women and gender equality in Scotland?
Here is our initial analysis of some budget portfolios.
Social Justice
Starting with the positives, the DFM announced the increase of all Scottish benefits in line with September’s 2023 CPI. This was a welcomed measure, and one we had advocated for as women are more likely to rely on social security and receive more of their individual and household income from the social security system than men (WBG, 2022). However, we were disappointed that the Scottish Child payment did not increase to £30 per week. Women’s poverty is inextricably tied to child poverty. Due to the high cost of essentials, particularly food for those on lower incomes, we argue that choosing not to increase the Scottish Child payment beyond inflation rates will have a detrimental impact on women and their children, worsening poverty rates.
In addition, we were also disappointed to see standstill funding for the Scottish Welfare Fund despite increasing demand (Scottish Housing News, 2023) as well as cuts to the housing portfolio. Most importantly, there seems to be a lack of equalities’ analysis justifying these decisions, or providing detail as to how these decisions will affect people in Scotland, particularly women and girls.
NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care
This is a key area of the budget as it includes the revenue awards for Social Care Support and the delivery of the National Care Service. The percentage increase of this budget line is 29.1% in cash terms and includes funding for the pay uplift for adult social care staff to £12 per hour and additional investment in Free Personal Nursing Care.
Based on our cost-modelling research to support the transformation of adult social care in Scotland, we consider the total amount allocated to this area insufficient if the Scottish Government is to address the current challenges of the sector. The pay uplift does not recognise the value of the workforce, doing little to tackle staff shortages. Equally important, and despite making a reference to ‘increasing capacity’, there is no mention within the budget of expanding the workforce to meet current demand in line with care needs. While technology and data could play a role in increasing capacity, the very nature of social care is labor-intensive. Therefore, without appropriate levels of investment, the Scottish Government risks realising its intention of delivering a NCS able to “future-proof the social care sector for generations to come - and for people coming into the profession” (Scottish Government, National Care Service, 2023).
Education and Skills
Within this budget portfolio, we are pleased to see a rise of 205.8% (in cash terms) for the expansion of Early Learning and Childcare (ELC), with a commitment to ‘supporting sector sustainability’. This change in funding levels aims to deliver the commitment to pay £12/hour to staff in the private, voluntary and independent sector who deliver funded ELC. This is an important step to support these providers in offering better, more competitive rates for their workforce. Yet, this increase may fall short when we consider the impact that increasing operating costs such as higher energy and food prices are having on childcare providers. Regrettably, the budget failed to address the cost of expanding funded childcare for 1- and 2-year-olds, which is having a detrimental impact on families, and particularly women, in Scotland (SWBG, 2023).
In addition, while we welcome the 2.2% increase (in cash terms) in the budget line for ‘equalities, inclusion and additional support for learning’. Yet, this increase simply ensures the continuation of ‘statutory services affected by inflation rises’. Our Childcare Survey 2023 revealed the difficulties that mothers encounter when they try to access specialist services for children with learning support needs, and the personal and economic impacts that this has on them. The budget does not address this issue, or the lack of wraparound care for children with additional support needs (SWBG, 2023) let alone the ‘growing need’ for specialist support services as indicated by the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC, 2023). We are unsure if this 2.2% increase will be enough to also cover the pay uplift promised for the sector. Given the implications that that the lack of adequate childcare services has on women (SWBG, 2023), it is uncertain how this budget line will work towards the Scottish Government’s goals on gender equality and the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement doesn’t provide relevant information on this
Other budget portfolios
The budget includes other changes which may potentially entrench inequalities. We are particularly concerned about the 11.2% decrease in support for bus services. Our Women’s Survey 2023 found that 37% of women respondents from minority ethnic communities and 27% of disabled women relied on buses, with 41% of disabled women struggling to manage transport costs and 53% of women from ethnic minority communities having to change their travel plans due to the cost of public transport. Considering that last year transport costs rose 15% across Scotland (BBC, 2023), the decision to decrease support could have a detrimental impact on women from these communities, who are also most vulnerable to the cost-of-living crisis (SWBG, 2023; SWBG and Poverty Alliance, 2022). And while the decision has been justified because of shrinking demand, we argue that withdrawing support could also lead to lower demand, and overreliance on less sustainable modes of transport, such as cars, despite the government’s commitment to reduce car kilometers by 20% by 2030 (Transport Scotland, 2022).
The Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy budget portfolio has also been severely affected by changes in the budget. Within this portfolio, the Fair Work and Labour Strategy has seen a decrease of 51.4% compared to last year’s budget, resulting for example in the (planned) closure of the Workplace Equality Fund and the Disability Public Social Partnership. The reduction of the budget line for Fair Work is a disappointing decision from an equalities’ perspective. Further information in relation to this change and the impact of it on women and girls would have been helpful to understand how the Government intends to achieve greater equality in the labor market.
Finally, we are concerned about standstill funding for the legal aid fund, which represents a real-terms cut to this budget line, with consequences for those in most need. According to the Law Society (The Law Society, 2023), cuts to legal aid in England and Wales have left people unable to get help with family, employment, housing and debt problems, or having to go to court without representation. Research by the UK Women’s Budget Group found that 85% of respondents from support services said vulnerable women are unable to access civil legal aid and 77% said a major consequence of the legal aid changes is ‘women reaching crisis point or problems escalating’ before they receive any legal help or advice (WBG, 2023). Therefore, the decision not to increase the legal aid fund could disproportionally affect women, particularly women reporting domestic abuse or discrimination, including maternity/pregnancy discrimination.
Conclusions
We knew that this budget was going to be a challenging one given the estimated funding gap for the next financial year. While some spending commitments are welcomed, these are not ambitious enough to tackle inequality and to substantially improve the lives of women and girls in Scotland.
References
Fraser of Allander Institute, 2023. Scotland’s Budget Report 2023. Last accessed 08/01/24: https://fraserofallander.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Scotlands-Budget-Report-2023-FINAL-for-publication.pdf
STV News, 2023. Warning over lack of support for children with additional needs. Last accessed 08/01/24: https://news.stv.tv/scotland/resources-are-lacking-to-support-scottish-children-with-additional-needs-say-campaigners
Transport Scotland, 2022. Reducing car use for a healthier, fairer and greener Scotland. Last accessed 08/01/24: https://www.transport.gov.scot/news/reducing-car-use-for-a-healthier-fairer-and-greener-scotland/
BBS News, 2023. Soaring bus fares ‘devastating’ for passengers. Last accessed 08/01/24: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65165906
The Law Society, 2023. A decade of cuts: Legal aid in tatters. Last accessed 08/01/24: https:// www.lawsociety.org.uk/contact-or-visit-us/press-office/press-releases/a-decade-of-cuts-legal-aid-in-tatters
Scottish Housing News, 2023. Statistics reveal 7% increase in demand for Scottish Welfare Fund. Last accessed 08/01/24: http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/articles/statistics-reveal-7-increase-in-demand-for-scottish-welfare-fund
National Care Service, Scottish Government. Social Care policy. Last accessed 08/01/24: https://www.gov.scot/policies/social-care/national-care-service/#:~:text=Our%20goal%20is%20to%20future,and%20delivering%20social%20care%20support
Scottish Women’s Budget Group, 2023. Women’s Survey 2023. Experiences of rising costs across Scotland. Last accessed: 08/01/24 https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/SWBG-Cost-ofLiving-report-proof-06.pdf
Scottish Women’s Budget Group, 2023. Policy Briefing: Childcare Survey 2023’. Last accessed 08/01/24: https://www.swbg.org.uk/content/publications/Policy-Briefing---Childcare-Survey-2023.pdf
Women's experiences of childcare shared through our survey
This is the second blog in our series by Heather Williams looking at what women told us earlier this year when we conducted a survey to find out more about their local public spending priorities, impact of the cost of living crisis and experiences of child and social care.
We heard from women in every local authority area in Scotland. 425 women responded to the survey with a range of life experiences.
Impact of childcare
Our survey showed the disparity in responsibility for childcare arrangements with over 80% of women who responded having made some change to their paid work arrangements to manage childcare arrangements while less than 40% of their partners made any changes.
Women told us that in order to manage childcare that they had to make changes as follows:
Women told us that having to juggle work and childcare impacts on the paid work they can do (58.12%), has affected their physical health (26.25%), impacted on their mental health (55.62%) and on their financial wellbeing (51.25%)
‘I have 2 children with no family network close by to help with childcare. There is a lack of availability around care that is affordable. The only provider to offer this requires a 52 week of the year contract with a minimum number of days a week - ie you must take a 3 day week contract for 52 weeks even if you only need 2 days term time. The hours of childcare do not accommodate shift work and I have had to move jobs as my employer at that time offered no flexibility - I was unable to finish work at 5pm and rely on public transport to ensure my child was collected by 5.30pm. I also am unable to take work with an earlier start due to the lack of childcare before 8am.’‘The high cost of childcare means I can only send my 2 year old to nursery 2 days a week this results in less time to do paid work and less time to manage the household effectively.’
‘I have struggled to find work due to be unable to afford private childcare and the funded childcare available to me not being flexible and employers expecting people to be fully flexible and work different hours each week.’
‘I am the only adult in the household so all childcare responsibility is on me, this is very detrimental to my health and well-being at times. Especially during school holidays. I find I use all of my entitled Annual leave purely for child care.’
‘I am constantly having to try to swap shifts to manage my childcare months in advance to work around family schedules. It is predominantly myself that this affects as it seems to be that as the female I am responsible for this. I have already had to change job once due to childcare issues and I am now going to have to change jobs again due to childcare. It is very stressful, impacting on my emotional well-being, my stress, my general health, my job prospects as since I have had a child I cannot stay anywhere long enough to progress and therefore also my self-esteem.’
We asked women about their experiences of accessing the 1140 hours free childcare for over 3’s, 41 of those who responded were entitled to access this, of these 29 were able to access the hours and 12 weren’t, this was primarily due to hours of availability not matching hours of work.
We asked those who were able to access the free hours how well it met their needs and for more than 2/3rds of those entitled to these hours the way these are delivered in their local area does not cover their childcare requirements, again this was due to a lack of flexibility in delivery.
‘We have been able to access these hours since August and it has made a huge difference to our budget. We are only able to use our full provision in a council nursery because of family support and flexible employers and this means that we do not pay any charges for our youngest child this year. We were entitled to the hours from August 2020, but in the year 2020/21 we were unable to access our full provision in a council nursery, and had to pay significant top up fees to have our child in a private nursery two days a weeks to cover our working hours and in fact because of the way private nurseries calculate their charges we were paying for 2-3 hours of provision that we did not need every day that our child was in nursery. I don't think the council really understand the financial implications for parents of using their hours in a private setting. It's good to have the flexibility to choose that option, but there needs to be the option to put your child in a setting that does not attract additional charges too. I'd like to see council settings moving toward greater flexibility in the hours they operate. At the moment ours operates 8.45-2.45 and we can only make that work for us because we are working from home/have flexible employers/have family support.’‘We get two regular days but additional hours are made up by ad hoc days which doesn’t allow me to work more hours regularly. School hours are such that we need to pick our older child up from school so can’t work during hours available at nursery.’
‘I'd prefer to have more flexibility in how we use the hours without attracting additional costs. The 30 hours are sufficient to cover the hours that my partner and I both work, but because of the fixed times when we are able to access them we still rely on family to provide wrap-around care two days per week.’
‘Hours are very ridged and do not cover full year round as some nurseries do not operate as 52weeks. If I choose to work I would still have to pay some fees and once this is added onto all other expenses in life it really has a huge impact on overall health and well-being of both the adult and the child.’
‘My son is due to start council school nursery next week however despite me applying for a morning space Monday to Friday he has only been offered afternoons Monday to Friday meaning I cannot get a job starting work before 2pm and cannot work later than 6pm due to lack of childcare however if I had morning nursery I could mornings while he is at nursery and afternoons when my mum is finished work and able to help.’
The commitment to provide 1140 hours of childcare to over 3s helps many women to undertake paid work and addresses the barrier this can create for many. However the lack of capacity in some areas, a lack of flexibility in how this is provided and a lack of wrap around care leaves many gaps that are often filled by other women providing unpaid care.
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