Scotland

More than a quarter of children in Scotland live in poverty, and children experiencing poverty in the early years are twice as likely to have difficulties with their early learning and development.

Poverty makes it much harder for a child to achieve their potential at school, and harder for their parents to support their learning.

By the time they start school, many children in poverty are already falling behind their classmates.

As they get older, this education gap widens and can leave them at an unfair disadvantage. It is a huge challenge for children, teachers and parents.

Through our programmes and campaigns, we’re aiming to give every child in Scotland the support they need to fulfil their potential.

Mum and Dad Leanne and John with daughter Keira, 5, take part in Save the Children's UK Families Connect programme.

Our Families Connect programme empowers parents to create a supportive home environment, so that children can achieve their full potential at school and in life.

We are currently supported by the Scottish Government to deliver Families Connect as the outreach arm of its Read Write Count programme. Read Write Count encourages parents and families to include reading, writing and counting in their everyday activities, such as walking around the supermarket or travelling home from school. Families Connect complements the government-led social marketing campaign, and the book gifting delivered by Scottish Book Trust, providing additional resources and support for families.  

Families Connect has been delivered in Scotland since summer 2016, when it ran in 6 schools across the country. With support also from the Big Lottery Fund, the programme has been rolled out to 13 local authority areas and feedback to date has been overwhelmingly positive:

· 92% of parents said Families Connect has changed what they do with their child at home

· 69% of parents said Families Connect changed the behaviour of other family members at home

· 97% said that they would recommend Families Connect, and 65% said that they had recommended Families Connect already.

“Families Connect has really helped me understand my child's learning and made me think about my parenting skills and make positive changes at home, which have helped the whole family.” - Parent

These numbers reflect similar findings in UK-wide evaluations, which have consistently shown a positive impact on the emotional wellbeing and behaviour of both children and parents. Evaluations have also shown that parents who participate in Families Connect grow in confidence and spend more time engaging with their children and supporting their learning.

Building Children’s Places

Children’s Places is an area-based, community initiative that tackles disadvantage at a neighbourhood level to improve local children’s lives. The project is made up of community-based partnerships – where children, families and the wider community get to shape local services and to work towards improvements through shared goals and governance.

Save the Children supports Children’s Places in areas of Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire, in partnership with Aberlour Childcare Trust, Action for Children, Barnardo’s, Children 1st and One Parent Families Scotland.

We’re currently creating guidance and resources for community groups and practitioners on how to engage families, and particularly children, in community led action planning, service planning and local development.

For more information about Children’s Places, contact Laura Devine, l.devine@savethechildren.org.uk, or Claire Masson, c.masson@savethechildren.org.uk.