Are We Delivering for Families?

Fiona King, Snr Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Save the Children, outlines findings of a new report into child poverty in Scotland with partners JRF.

Today Save the Children is publishing a new report Delivering for Families, in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, examining efforts to tackle child poverty in Scotland. The report is grounded in the experiences of and insights from parents.

The report brings together parents priorities, along with some number crunching from the Fraser of Allander Institute, to assess how well the Scottish Government’s second child poverty Delivery Plan - Best Start, Bright Futures - covering the period from 2022-26 will deliver change for families. 

URGENT ACTION NEEDED

5 years on from when ambitious child poverty reduction targets were unanimously introduced in the Scottish Parliament, the interim targets (no more than 17% of children living in relative poverty by 2023/24) must be met next year.  Reducing the number of children currently living in poverty from 26% (or 1 in 4).  The COVID-19 pandemic and the current cost of living crisis has done nothing to make meeting these targets easier.

Our new report found that while the assessment of the issues is right, the scale and urgency of action will need to be increased if targets are to be met. We’re within touching distance of the interim targets, but the path to meeting the 2030 targets is not yet clearly articulated enough.

PARENTS' PERSPECTIVES

In April and May of this year, we spoke with nearly 50 parents representing all of the Scottish Government’s priority groups, who we know are more likely to experience poverty.

Parents painted a picture of deep hardship, of multiple and insurmountable barriers, of confusing and inaccessible services and an overriding fear of the future and how they will make ends meet.  The emergent priorities were around:

• The cost and inflexibility of childcare
• The challenges of finding a flexible, well paid job when you have children
• The difficulties accessing a range of services
• The inadequacy of the social security system.

And conversations highlighted all too clearly that despite progress and improvements in many areas – particularly the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment and funded childcare hours -  the fabric of support is still too fragmented, that waiting times are too long and poverty takes a huge mental toil on parents which becomes harder and harder to overcome.

On a more fundamental level, parents told us that they simply did not have enough money to get by and provide for their children:

“It’s getting to the point where it’s either freeze or eat.”

“And my daughter always asks why we have to walk, why we can’t pay for the bus? 80 pence for her and £1.70 for a single ticket, I say I can’t afford to pay anything even for the transport.”

And of course, the cost of living crisis came out as a key concern, with parents expressing concern over how they will cope in the months and years to come:

“I worry about my children. I don’t care if I go without a meal or two. See, as long as my kids have got, that’s all I worry about. And there is some nights me and Dad go without dinners, so my children have got.”