Hansard

This is a time of want and of need. People are afraid. Some are angry, and some are beyond desperate. Far too many children are hungry, cold, sleeping in unsafe places and excluded from going on the ordinary trips and having the toys that their classmates take for granted. Westminster politicians who, before they were elected, were telling stories of cohesion and solidarity are now in government, speaking the language of austerity. They wear their self-imposed fiscal policies like medals of military virtue, justifying cuts that bite to the bone.

Scotland, it seems, is imprisoned in a cage of consequentials, unable, as is claimed, to break the consensus and do what its people—its children in poverty—need it to do. I am not talking about 2024, although I could be. Thirteen years ago, in 2011, the Christie commission published its powerful, wise and widely acclaimed report. It was a time of conscious austerity, when social, economic and political pressures weighed heavily on Scotland’s communities. We were warned that budgets would buckle unless Scotland embraced a radically new collaborative culture—one that recognised the devastating effect of inequality and learned to prioritise preventative measures.

Tragically, that has not happened. As Mary Glasgow of Children 1st pointed out three years ago, marking the 10th anniversary of the report,

“While Christie couldn’t predict the pandemic, he clearly understood that when public finances were tightest, the need for investment in prevention was greatest. Yet when budgets are squeezed, preventative spend is always the first to go.”

We can see that now, urgently highlighted by the programme for government briefings that we have received from civil society—those who see, day in, day out, the excruciating impacts of not doing prevention properly; of not breaking those cycles of deprivation and trauma; and of condemning another generation, and another and another, to the waste and misery of poverty, the vastly unequal risks of poor physical and mental health, victimisation, incarceration and early death.

As the Child Poverty Action Group reiterates,

“Prioritising further action to tackle child poverty is a long-term investment, not just for families, but for Scotland’s economic security and the sustainability of public services.”

The Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland shared a striking example of prevention in action—the way in which short breaks for children with disabilities can forestall the need for much more overwhelming, expensive and potentially damaging forms of intervention later in their lives.

“Mend the roof while the sun shines”, folk wisdom tells us. However, if we have not done that—if the sun never quite seemed bright enough, and if there was so much to be done to tidy the front garden—we need to get out in the rain and do it.

This is not about blame—opportunities have been missed by everyone—but this is, in every sense of the word, a crisis. The Scottish Trades Union Congress general secretary, Roz Foyer, said that the cuts announced this week mean that

“workers and communities across Scotland will be scarred for generations to come.”

Scotland’s children do not need any more scars. They need, as an absolute minimum, the policies that are set out in our Scottish Green amendment: an increased Scottish child payment to the value of at least £40 per week for every eligible child as soon as possible, but definitely by the end of this parliamentary session; support into employment for parents, especially lone parents and those from minoritised communities; a full, independent and then implemented review of childcare in Scotland, so that we can understand exactly what is needed where, as called for by Pregnant Then Screwed and many other organisations; and, of course, the completed roll-out of universal free school meals in primary schools, as had previously been promised.

This is about children’s rights—not just a pious aspiration to ending their poverty but a solemn, serious obligation on the part of the Government to make their lives liveable. Incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was the beginning of that process, but children’s rights do not stand alone. They cannot be fulfilled unless their parents’ and carers’ rights are protected, too. As Engender rightly points out, women’s poverty and children’s poverty are “inextricably linked”. Those include rights to life, to a decent standard of living, to privacy, to health and food, to a clean environment and to protection from discrimination.

We are all vulnerable, although some of us have thicker armour to wear. We all need respect, care, safety and pathways to remedy when those are withheld. That is why UNCRC incorporation should have been followed by a Scottish human rights bill, which was promised for so long and worked for so hard by many people and groups from across Scotland, while the world watched on with hope and encouragement. It is a bitter disappointment that both that bill and the one that would have protected Scotland’s children from pernicious and toxic conversion practices are missing from this week’s programme for government.

Poverty is a breach of human rights, as is so clearly articulated by the Poverty Alliance. We have a moral and ethical obligation to act to protect, support and love those who should expect to inherit the earth. Each and every one of us needs to work together to fulfil that vision and requirement.

I move amendment S6M-14322.3, to leave out from “; further notes” to “once and for all” and insert:

“, but also notes the Child Poverty Action Group’s finding that Scottish Government policy is not yet adequate to ensure that child poverty targets are met, and that bold, decisive action is required; believes that part of that bold, decisive action must include increasing the Scottish Child Payment to at least £40 a week by the end of the current parliamentary session, providing accessible employability support, especially for lone parents, and establishing an independent review of childcare in Scotland to ensure the provision of what is most needed, as well as robust rent controls to complement affordable housing; notes with deep concern the apparent change in position from the Scottish Government on free school meal provision for all primary school children, with the Programme for Government only committed to expanding free school meals to those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in P6 and P7; calls on the Scottish Government to urgently confirm whether it is still its intention to complete the full roll-out that was previously promised; believes that the previously promised Human Rights Bill for Scotland would have provided the framework for improving Scotland’s public services, delivering its minimum core obligations, and thereby eradicating child poverty; expresses its deep dismay that the Human Rights Bill does not appear in the Programme for Government; calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that the burdens of its financial decisions do not fall upon the shoulders of Scotland’s most marginalised people, including families in poverty”.