Hansard

Eradicating child poverty is the Government’s top priority and a national mission that belongs to all of us. Today, I am pleased to publish the Scottish Government’s third and final tackling child poverty delivery plan. “Bringing Hope, Building Futures” is much more than a statutory milestone; it reaffirms our commitment to eradicating child poverty and transforming the lives of children, families and communities across Scotland. That commitment is shared collectively by all my ministerial colleagues, who have been critical to the plan’s development.

I put on record my significant thanks to all the children, young people, parents and stakeholders who have shared their views and experiences throughout our wide-ranging consultation. I also thank parliamentary committees for their responses and Scotland’s Poverty and Inequality Commission for the advice and challenge that it has given. Those views have helped to inform our approach and the actions that I will set out today.

The actions in the plan build on eight years of progress. That progress has been made despite years of austerity from successive United Kingdom Governments, and despite external shocks that include Brexit, the Covid pandemic, Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the on-going cost of living crisis.

We are making a real difference. In 2023-24, rates of relative child poverty fell to the lowest level in almost a decade—standing 9 percentage points below the UK average—with rates rising in England and Wales. That progress matters, but we must continue to go further. With the Scottish parliamentary elections due to take place in May, the plan that has been published today sets out a robust and enduring framework that will enable the next Government to meet the statutory child poverty targets.

Focusing on action during the first year, the plan is backed by considerable investment, including every penny of funding that was previously committed to our two-child limit payment, and it provides foundations on which any incoming Administration can build and reflect its own policy priorities and plans for accelerating progress.

“Bringing Hope, Building Futures” retains our focus on the drivers of poverty reduction and outlines four key themes: increasing earned incomes; reducing the cost of living; maximising incomes from social security and benefits in kind; and supporting children and families to thrive. It also retains our focus on the families who are at greatest risk of poverty and recognises that women’s poverty is children’s poverty. Underpinning that is our commitment to enabling whole family support and realising a transformative shift towards support that is more joined-up, easier to navigate and shaped around what families really need.

I turn to how we will drive progress on those priorities during the coming year. Through the Scottish budget and spending review, we set out plans that will help more parents to increase their earned incomes. Those plans include investing £90 million a year in our devolved employability services; delivering a national breakfast club offer for all primary school children, which is backed by more than £100 million across the next three years; and providing up to £9 million through a new raising income through skills and education—RISE—initiative for colleges, to help parents access the skills and education that they need.

Today, I confirm our plans to go further still to strengthen in-work support for parents and remove barriers relating to skills, childcare and transport. First, in partnership with Scotland’s colleges, we will invest £2 million in a new training access fund to provide training opportunities for parents in low-paid work. Secondly, we will invest up to £4.2 million to deliver 200 paid work placements in our national health service for parents at risk of poverty—helping more parents into good-quality NHS jobs. Thirdly, we will invest an additional £15 million to support low-income families to access the childcare that they need to enter and stay in employment. Fourthly, we will invest up to £19 million to develop a new transport to employment offer for low-income parents—helping parents with travel costs and increasing the travel options available. Finally, we will invest £10 million in a new flexible workforce development fund to help incentivise employers to support upskilling and progression opportunities for parents and implement fair work policies—investing in support that is good for families and for economic growth.

We also set out plans in the budget to help tackle the cost of living for families. They include investing a record £4.1 billion over the next four years to support the delivery of 36,000 affordable homes; providing a further £1 million in our islands cost crisis emergency fund; and continued investment in our energy efficiency programmes, including warmer homes Scotland.

Building on our record commitment to invest £106 million in discretionary housing payments next year, we will go even further. The UK Government’s decision to freeze local housing allowance rates is wrong and is making it harder for families to make ends meet. That is why I am confirming our intention to invest up to a further £9 million in discretionary housing payments to support those impacted. That investment is homelessness prevention in action and will support up to an estimated 18,000 families to meet rent costs and maintain their tenancies.

As a result, we have committed a total of £159 million next year to the mitigation of UK Government policies, including the bedroom tax and the cruel benefit cap. Investment through social security remains the most direct way to increase family incomes and keep children out of poverty. From April, all Scottish benefits will increase in line with inflation. That means that our unique Scottish child payment will be worth £28.20 per child per week, keeping an estimated 50,000 children out of relative poverty next year. We have already committed to going further by introducing a targeted Scottish child payment premium for children under the age of one, increasing the total payment to £40 per week during 2027-28, benefiting an estimated 12,000 children and providing enhanced support in the first crucial year of a child’s life.

We have also committed to investing more than £27 million in welfare, income maximisation and debt advice services over the next two years, which is expected to support at least 80,000 households annually.

Although we encouraged more ambitious reform to the child maintenance system, the UK Government has failed to act. As a result, we will make further targeted investment, providing up to £275,000 to One Parent Families Scotland and Fife Gingerbread to help more separated families to secure regular and reliable child maintenance payments.

“Bringing Hope, Building Futures” reinforces our commitment to supporting children and families to thrive. That includes our continued investment in our Scottish attainment challenge and free school meals. Today, I confirm two further steps. First, we will expand the reach of the family nurse partnership programme, so that up to an additional 500 young parents can benefit from that trusted support next year. Secondly, we will invest a further £1 million to expand the successful MCR Pathways school-based mentoring programme, so that up to 5,500 care-experienced and disadvantaged young people can benefit across Scotland.

Providing support in a way that is joined up, easy to navigate and responsive to need is essential. I saw exactly that earlier this week, when the First Minister and I visited CentreStage, which brings to life what is possible when we work together across organisations and sectors.

Building on such approaches, as well as the £50 million of whole family wellbeing funding that has already been committed, the budget includes a £20 million whole family support third sector delivery fund. The fund, which was launched today, will help to scale up support that wraps around families and their communities, with funding available to partners who can work nationally or across multiple local authority areas to deliver an integrated, person-centred approach. That has the potential to be truly transformational, enabling our vital third sector to scale up what we know works and providing a helping hand for families that connects them to the wider services that they need to thrive.

I am pleased to announce two further steps to strengthen support for families. First, we will invest an additional £2.2 million to double the coverage of whole family support in general practice in Glasgow, delivering targeted preventative support for 500 families. Secondly, we will invest up to £5 million in activity that seeks to make the best use of data to enable all families to receive the services and support that they need to thrive.

Beyond that, Social Security Scotland will play a key role by continuing its important work to share data, by strengthening how it proactively signposts clients to relevant support and advice services, and by building referral pathways with partners in the longer term.

I said at the beginning of my statement that eradicating child poverty is a national mission that belongs to us all. Ending child poverty cannot be achieved by Government alone—it requires all of Scotland to play its part, and the plan acts as a catalyst to accelerate progress ahead of 2030.

If returned after the Scottish elections, this Government commits to working with partners across Scotland to drive forward the change that is needed—strengthening the role of our vital third sector, engaging business through our investment and working hand in hand with Scotland’s local authorities and our national health service. Only by eradicating child poverty can we unlock Scotland’s full potential.

Scottish Government policies are estimated to keep 100,000 children, or one in every 10, out of relative poverty next year. That is the scale of the difference that we have made together in Scotland and the impact that our action can have against the strongest of headwinds. By taking forward the plan, which was laid in Parliament today, we can bring hope to families across Scotland and build futures that are free from the scourge of poverty.