NICOLA Sturgeon unveiled her first programme for government yesterday.
Looking at the legislation and policy initiatives she proposed, the new First Minister does not expect it to be her last for a very long time to come.
This was not the programme for government of administration reaching the tail end of its time in power. With its array of commissions and conventions, of long-term targets and "partnerships for change", Ms Sturgeon is taking the long view. She has shown a willingness to acknowledge long-standing and deep-rooted problems in education, health, local government and society generally, and she has set in train efforts to find solutions.
A commission to consider alternatives to council tax is long overdue. The council tax freeze may have been a success electorally but it has undermined local democracy and threatens to damage local services further. Councils are shedding jobs, turning down the heating in schools, closing libraries and increasing charges for services. Over the course of next year, the commission will look at ways to improve council funding. It will not be straightforward. The SNP continue to favour a local income tax, while their opponents insist a property-based tax is fairer. However, a start has been made.
As has an effort to ensure fair and equal access to university for teenagers from poorer backgrounds. Another new commission will promote wider access. In its sights will be a long-term target to end inequality of access within a generation. Twenty per cent of university places will go to teenagers from the most deprived 20 per cent of communities, Ms Sturgeon said, proclaiming it a "personal mission" as well as a "national imperative".
The new First Minister also sought to address one of the biggest challenges facing not just Scotland but most developed countries, the pressure placed on health and care services by an ageing population. A short-term blitz to reduce "bed blocking", which, shockingly, has doubled in the space of a year, will be followed by a concerted effort next year to push through the complex integration health and social care services, bringing the problems of delayed discharges under control and offering a better deal for the elderly and infirm.
Gender equality will be promoted by a "50:50 by 2020 campaign" to encourage private companies and public sector bodies to make sure half their boards are female within six years.
Ms Sturgeon's land reform proposals, which will give ministers powers over how private estates are managed, will cause a great deal of anger and controversy in the weeks and months ahead.
But her goals for the years ahead are the most striking aspect of her programme for government.
Scottish Labour said the new First Minister had missed an opportunity to act sooner on the council tax or on forcing companies with public sector contracts to pay the living wage, a higher rate of pay than the minimum wage. The direction of government she set out, however, was widely welcomed.
Of course there are no guarantees her ambitions will be achieved. Successive administrations have failed to reform local government finance. University access remains a problem despite years of pressure on principals and a whole series of initiatives in schools. The glass ceiling has proved stubbornly shatterproof for women. Progress on all these issues may falter and stall. Today, though, Ms Sturgeon should be applauded for making a start.
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