Meeting of the Parliament 14 March 2024
I, too, thank the committee clerks for their diligent work in drafting such a comprehensive report and all those who supported the inquiry.
The Scottish Conservatives believe that the best way to tackle child poverty is to ensure that parents are in paid employment and earning a decent wage. It is very concerning that more than a third of children who are in poverty live in households that cannot get work, so delivering a growing economy with employment is key to tackling child poverty.
The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice—who, unfortunately, has just left the chamber—partially agrees with that approach, which was detailed in the Scottish Government’s response to the committee’s recommendations. She said that the Scottish Government
“recognises the importance of increasing family incomes from work and earnings as key component of achieving a balanced and sustainable approach to breaking the cycle of child poverty”.
I agree with the cabinet secretary’s statement in the same letter, in which she reaffirmed the Scottish Government’s view that
“a sustainable exit from poverty will never be just about securing and retaining a job”.
However, securing and retaining parental employment is a crucial element in addressing child poverty, and that cannot be overlooked. That is particularly important for women, and I am grateful to Close the Gap for providing its briefing ahead of today’s debate. It states:
“action to address women’s labour market inequalities is vital for tackling child poverty.”
Parents still face barriers to employment such as poor childcare provision, lack of support when re-entering education and a failing transport system. Not being able to access childcare was the most common barrier to employment that was raised in response to the committee’s call for views. For example, the Scottish Women’s Convention quoted a mother who was struggling to juggle work and childcare. She said:
“There are no childcare providers through there, so you’re constantly having to look into what family or friends are available … no women can develop in their work, or their career until their child has reached a high school age.”
Accessible, affordable and flexible childcare is essential to support parents into sustainable employment.
The “Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: progress report 2022-2023” recognised the need for more accessible, flexible and high-quality childcare, and a recent review of the impact of childcare on parental poverty noted that formal childcare is an
“indispensable part of a policy toolkit”
for tackling child and in-work poverty. Unfortunately, the toolkit is missing a wrench and a couple of spanners.
I must again mention the City of Edinburgh Council’s proposal to phase out funded childcare in private and independent nurseries for parents who live outside the city. That will have a massively detrimental impact on my constituents in Fife who commute to Edinburgh for work.
I was recently informed that, because of the deferred start date for primary 1 as a result of the Give Them Time campaign, North Lanarkshire Council will not allow three-year-olds to start their funded hours the day after their third birthday. The reports that some councils are looking at cutting the provision entirely in some areas due to lack of staff are deeply worrying.
Removing parents’ ability to choose a blend of childcare provision goes against the Government’s commitment to getting it right for every child, and it actively hinders parents who want to return to work. The committee’s recommendation that the Scottish Government should
“reassess the scope to accelerate and scale up its work in this area”
and should announce
“the exact timing, hours of provision, eligibility and income thresholds”
as soon as possible is therefore an important recommendation, and one of which the cabinet secretary should take note.
The Government could make a marked difference by ensuring that there is adequate provision in proximity to places of work or learning. I suggest that, instead of making things harder for private nurseries, the Government should look at ways of increasing the number of on-site nurseries on school campuses, for example. Streamlining the funding process to ensure that the money does, indeed, follow the child would certainly give parents increased flexibility to choose the blend of childcare that is correct for them.
The Scottish Childminding Association described the decline in its workforce as follows:
“In the six years of ELC expansion, the childminding workforce has declined by 34 per cent, which means, in real terms, a loss of 1,926 childminding businesses and more than 11,000 childminding places for families.”
In undertaking its annual audit for the Scottish Government, the association looks at where authorities are as regards their childminder offer. It projected that
“those trends are set almost to double by July 2026 unless we take urgent action.”—[Official Report, Social Justice and Social Security Committee, 25 May 2023; c 4-5.]
That is a sobering thought.
I also want to use my speech to highlight the importance of the public transport options that are available and how they can be used to encourage parents back into the workforce. We need to make it possible for people to make orbital trips between suburbs without having to travel via city centres, and we must engage in joined-up thinking on more workable transport options.
I will give an example. I was approached by Fife College, which recently had to cancel a fully subscribed course on its Kirkcaldy campus simply because the time of the bus route had changed. That is not the first time that that has happened. It is surely not beyond the realms of the combined intelligence of organisations in local government, local transport and local education to ensure that they work together on processes to provide a proper, sensible solution.
I fear that, if we do not find sensible solutions, we will actively force families to stay in an imposed poverty trap in which self-worth, pride and individual achievement are sidelined by hopelessness and reliance on others. That cannot continue.