{"id":1281,"date":"2016-03-14T17:30:54","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T17:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2016-03-14T17:30:54","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T17:30:54","slug":"new-policies-for-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=1281","title":{"rendered":"New Policies for Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday\u00a0Nicola set out a range of new policies\u00a0which your SNP government will deliver if they\u00a0are re-elected in May.
\nA new initiative to build support for independence<\/strong><\/p>\n

This summer the SNP will embark on a new initiative to build support for independence.<\/p>\n

Nicola outlined the next steps to build a strong majority for independence \u2013 to hear and address the concerns of those who weren\u2019t convinced to vote for independence in 2014. That is how the 45 per cent of September 2014 will be turned into resounding yes vote.<\/p>\n

New funding for low-income families to give every child the best start in life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now, low income families can qualify for the Sure Start Maternity Grant \u2013 a payment of \u00a3500 on the birth of a child to help meet the essential costs of looking after a new-born baby. An SNP Scottish Government will use new powers coming to the Scottish Parliament to replace the Sure Start Maternity Grant with an expanded Maternity and Early Years Allowance. We will:<\/p>\n

– Increase the payment for the birth of a first child, from \u00a3500 to \u00a3600;<\/p>\n

– restore payments for second and subsequent children \u2013 cut by the Coalition Government in 2010 \u2013 of \u00a3300;<\/p>\n

– and, introduce payments of \u00a3250 for low-income families at other stages in children\u2019s lives \u2013 when they begin nursery and again when they start school.<\/p>\n

Extend free meals to 2,3, and 4 year olds in nursery<\/strong><\/p>\n

The SNP Scottish Government has already delivered free school meals for primaries 1 to 3, benefitting 135,00 children across Scotland and saving families around \u00a3380 a year for each child. If re-elected, when we expand early years education to include full day provision, we will also extend free meals will be extended to 2, 3 ad 4 year olds in our nurseries.<\/p>\n

An extra \u00a3750 million to raise attainment of the most disadvantaged young people<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Scottish Attainment Fund \u2013 introduced by the SNP in government \u2013 is helping to improve literacy and numeracy in over 300 primary schools in Scotland\u2019s most deprived communities.<\/p>\n

An extra \u00a3100 million in funding raised by progressive changes to council tax will see the reach of the Scottish Attainment Fund extended to every part of Scotland. Funding will go directly to head teachers, enabling them to invest in extra teachers, classroom assistants, equipment and additional learning support.<\/p>\n

Increased NHS funding every year in the next parliament<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the SNP funding for Scotland\u2019s NHS is at record levels \u2013 now \u00a313 billion. If re-elected an SNP government will continue to increase the NHS resource budget in real terms every year of the next parliament.<\/p>\n

An additional \u00a350 million for cancer treatment<\/strong><\/p>\n

If re-elected in May an SNP Scottish Government will invest an extra \u00a350 million to help more people beat cancer, with new state-of-the-art radiotherapy equipment and an extra 100 radiotherapy specialists.<\/p>\n

Superfast digital broadband for every community in Scotland<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Scottish Government\u2019s current Digital Scotland programme will deliver broadband to 95 per cent of premises across Scotland by the end of 2017. The remaining 5 per cent will be in some of the hardest to reach areas of rural and remote Scotland.<\/p>\n

If re-elected an SNP government will make sure no community is left behind. Over the next Parliament superfast digital broadband will be delivered to all premises across Scotland.<\/p>\n

You can watch Nicola’s full speech here\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=R31ObvBPRm0&mc_cid=271ca502f5&mc_eid=c81f47f6e1\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday\u00a0Nicola set out a range of new policies\u00a0which your SNP government will deliver if they\u00a0are re-elected in May. A new initiative to build support for independence This summer the SNP will embark on a new initiative to build support for independence. Nicola outlined the next steps to build a strong majority for independence \u2013 to hear and address the concerns of those who weren\u2019t convinced to vote for independence in 2014. That is how the 45 per cent of September 2014 will be turned into resounding yes vote. New funding for low-income families to give every child the best start in life Right now,Read More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[214,215],"class_list":["entry","author-margaretfw","post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-press-release","tag-nicolas-speech","tag-snp-policies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1282,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions\/1282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}