Consultation on the region’s Social Inclusion Statement has just started. The Social Inclusion Partnership South East (SIPSE) has reviewed and updated the statement which was first published in 2002. The statement forms a commitment from regional organisations to making social inclusion a priority.

The South East is one of the most successful UK regions with prosperity built upon a robust, innovative economy and high levels of employment. However, the region has the largest number of excluded or deprived people of any UK region. Exclusion isn’t just a problem affecting individuals – it also affects society as a whole which means that the ‘Social Inclusion Statement’ has a key role to play in the region.

The statement highlights seven socially inclusive targets which are essential to reducing social exclusion in the region. These include everyone having somewhere to live, reducing the gap between the deprived areas and the rest of the region, being able to access services including good quality healthcare, being able to take up learning opportunities, improved health, engaging in cultural activity and being able to benefit from the economic growth of the region.

The statement sets out some of the work which SIPSE has been doing in the region, but recognises that there is a very important role to be played by everyone. Partnership working is central to ensuring that the needs of vulnerable people in the region are met.

The organisations involved in SIPSE want to encourage you to have a say about the aspects of social inclusion you know about – where you work, where you live. They would like to ask you a few questions and have devised a questionnaire to help ensure that the statement reflects the true picture of social exclusion in the region. SIPSE welcomes any views you have on the statement and, in particular, is asking organisations, businesses and individuals to consider the questions on the questionnaire.

The closing date for the consultation is Friday 3rd August 2007. An electronic version of the questionnaire and the Social Inclusion Statement is available from the SIPSE website www.raise-networks.org.uk/sipse.
 
For further information please contact Simon Plummer, SIPSE Policy & Development Officer Tel: 01483 501343. E-mail: simon@raise-networks.org.uk