SWBG blog

SWBG's 2017

2017 was a busy year for the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, so here's some things you might have missed in some of our key areas of work.

Our first meeting of 2018 will be on February 1^st in Glasgow – we’d love you to come along, find out more, and help us plan our work for the year ahead. There are more details below and you can sign up here.

Scottish Budget

Last week the Scottish Women’s Budget Group submitted our response to the Scottish Government’s Draft Budget and the Equality Budget Statement, focusing on key areas including the social contract, taxation, local government, housing, childcare, infrastructure, and the budget process itself. You can read the response here.

Angela O’Hagan, the Convener of the Scottish Women’s Group, sits on the Scottish Government Budget Review group who this year submitted their report (read BBC coverage of it here, and the full report here). The group’s proposals were accepted by the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government and will therefore shift the budget process to a year round cycle of evidence, scrutiny, evaluation, and formulation of budget options; this means there will be greater opportunities to advance women’s equality and ensure equality analyses in the budget process.

Scottish National Investment Bank

In response to the Scottish Government's consultation on the direction and governance of the Scottish National Investment Bank we joined sister organisations Engender, Close the Gap and Women's Enterprise Scotland to produce seven principles which we believe are vital for creating a gender-competent national investment bank. Read them here.

Social Security and Austerity

Women are bearing the brunt of cuts to social security, so this will always be a key area of work for the Scottish Women’s Budget Group. We’ve worked hard this year, along with sister organisations, to present social security as an issue of women’s equality, and to make the case for individual payments of Universal Credit. Our sisters at the UK Women’s Budget Group have done brilliant work highlighting the disproportionate impact of austerity on black and minority ethnic women. More work needs to be done in Scotland to explore this link, and that's just one of the things we're looking forward to in the coming year.

Get Involved

We always welcome new members to the Scottish Women’s Budget Group. This email is being sent to the full mailing list, but there is more regular communication with members of the group, giving you opportunities to help shape our policy responses, plan our priorities, and share ideas with other group members. Sign up as a full member here.

Our next meeting is 1^st February in Room W005 of the Hamish Woods Building, Glasgow Caledonian University at 6pm. All are very welcome to attend, and if you can’t make it in person, you can always join us via Skype. Just email us at info@swbg.org.uk to arrange this, and with any other questions you might have.

Sign up for the meeting here.

Thanks for your support for the Scottish Women's Budget Group, and we look forward to working with you over the coming year.