West Lothian Tackling Poverty Strategy
The Community Planning Partnership is committed to addressing poverty and believes that West Lothian should be a place where everyone has the chance of a decent and secure life free of money worries.
The Better Off West Lothian Tackling Poverty Strategy (PDF, 1 MB)(opens new window) sets out how the Community Planning Partnership aims to address poverty at a local level. Over the five year period from 2023/24 to 2027/28, the strategy aims to:
- protect people in West Lothian from the worst extremes of poverty, allowing them to meet their basic needs and live comfortably
- enable and empower people to access opportunities to become financially resilient through maximising income from social security and moving people toward education, employment and training
- change the mind sets of those who have negative attitudes toward our most vulnerable residents by re-framing how we talk about poverty and increasing understanding to reduce the stigma
- work collaboratively with partners, and use our collective voice to lobby the Scottish and UK Government to bring about change
Community Planning Partners develop and deliver a range of activities each year designed to work towards these overall aims. These actions are aligned with four key priority areas:
The strategy is overseen by an Tackling Poverty Task Force, which monitors progress through a range of performance indicators. These indicators link closely with the Local Outcomes Improvement Plan, West Lothian Community Planning Partnership's long term vision for West Lothian. It sets out the local outcomes the CPP will prioritise and how the CPP will deliver on these.
