Fiona King, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Save Scotland makes the case for focusing policy, practice and resource on the youngest children.
In a country as rich as Scotland, child poverty should be a thing of the past. But the reality for thousands of children is that growing up in poverty will affect their lives in a multitude of ways. We know all too well how poverty inhibits the chances of a healthy and happy childhood. And these negative impacts can continue into later life: the evidence shows clear links between growing up in poverty and long-term outcomes in mental and physical health, wellbeing, educational attainment, employment and lifelong earning potential. Drilling down further, we know that more fundamentally, growing up in poverty can a have significant impact on children’s cognitive development in the early years.
Why the Early Years matter
The importance of the Early Years is well evidenced and understood. The first year of a baby’s life is crucial in developing foundational skills that are essential for learning all the subsequent skills a child needs for literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills. Our recent Better for Babies briefing lays out in more detail why ending poverty for families with babies is so crucial.
Put simply, if we want to create a fairer Scotland, investing in the early years is one of the most effective groups to prioritise. And yet, there are 240,000 children living in poverty in Scotland right now and this rises to 34% of all babies. So while the evidence is abundant, it is clear that it does not yet inform national policies and priorities sufficiently to give every child the best start in life.
This is why Save the Children Scotland worked with Nesta throughout 2023, bringing together a range of stakeholders to consider what more is needed to truly prioritise the earliest years of a child’s life in policy, practice and budgetary decisions. By bringing together experts from academia, public health and local government, and charities working with children and families, we wanted to understand not just the links between cognitive development and poverty, but how we can translate the existing evidence base into policy that supports families to thrive.
Building on progressive policy
Scotland has led the rest of the UK in making progressive policy and budgetary choices in recent years . A fantastic example of this is the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment. Built on cash-first principles, evidenced and championed by the third sector, this (soon to be rising) £25 per week payment for all eligible children from 0-16 years is making a real difference on the ground. Importantly, this payment was rolled out to the youngest children first where impact is greatest. Other initiatives such as the Baby Box and the Best Start Grant also prioritise the youngest children during this pivotal period in their lives.
However there remains so much more work to do as our recent research shows. With recent statistics showing the poverty-related ‘attainment gap’ remaining stubbornly wide and with child poverty at 24% nationally, it is clear that we are still not giving every child in Scotland an equal and fair chance to thrive.
So, what’s needed to actually deliver transformational, generational reductions in the early years? It’s clear that the answer is not just ‘more evidence’. We know all about the impact of poverty on children and we have a pretty good idea of the combination of things that would help to lift families out of poverty – including simply putting more money in the hands of parents and providing holistic family support to those who need it.
Working in partnership
Our collaboration with Nesta pointed towards a lining up of evidence, resources, good practice and political will. If we know what works – cash first approaches, a secure, reliable income, responsive holistic family support, good, accessible childcare, flexible and fair paid work for parents - we then need to better understand how to implement and scale interventions that would address the link between family income and children’s outcomes. And we also need a change in narrative so that we can irrepressibly make the case for the value of investing in the earliest years of a child’s life.
This is what we will be exploring as we look ahead to 2024. They are no easy tasks. But they are at the very heart of creating a fairer Scotland.
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