Edinburgh Napier University

  Until the late 1980’s social policy in Scotland was clearly targeted towards poverty as the primary source of economic disadvantage. Within this framework, geographical areas were identified which exhibited low income and high unemployment levels, and both social and regional policies were used in order to encourage economic growth in these areas. During the last fifteen years, however, Scottish social policy has changed in order to reflect the European tradition of looking beyond these two criteria. The term “poverty” has been replaced by “social exclusion” which in turn has been replaced by “social inclusion” and, more recently, “social justice”.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the extent to which the European social policy agenda has been embraced by social policy practitioners within Scotland. The paper presents the results from a survey of key players operating within the Scottish social policy framework, and examines the extent to which they have changed their practice in the light of the Europeanisation of social policy.