Swinney: Progress made on ‘national mission’ to cut child poverty but more to do

Scotland is “making progress” in tackling child poverty but there is still “more to do”, First Minister John Swinney has said.

Child poverty levels in Scotland are now “lower than they were 30 years ago”, he said, adding they are falling at the same time as the problem is increasing in the rest of the UK.

“There’s a whole amount of information that demonstrates quite clearly that we are making progress in the journey to eradicate child poverty,” Mr Swinney said.

However he acknowledged the number of children in poverty is “not falling enough”, and he declared: “There is more that we have to do.”

He stressed the importance of providing a range of services to support families in poverty in different areas, saying this “whole family support” is the “pathway to eradicate child poverty”.

While he said there are “countless” examples of such work in Scotland, he insisted whole family support is “not nearly systemic enough in our country”.

To address the issue, he announced Fairer Futures Partnerships (FFP) schemes will be expanded.

The eight existing FFPs, which bring together a range of services such as childcare, education, health and social care along with help with housing, are to be rolled out into five new areas –  Dumfries and Galloway, Edinburgh, South Ayrshire, West Dunbartonshire, and West Lothian.

Mr Swinney said: “Through the Fairer Futures Partnerships, backed by £4 million investment this year, we are working hand-in-hand with local authorities, communities, and the third sector to deliver real, lasting change.”

In addition, the Scottish Government is making up to £1.12 million of Adopt and Adapt funding available to local authorities not currently engaged in FFPs.

The First Minister made the commitments as he addressed some 500 representatives from the public and third sectors at an event in Glasgow on Wednesday, urging them to “sign up to a national mission to eradicate child poverty”.

He said whole family support “is critical to how we succeed in our journey of eradicating child poverty and ensuring that children in our society have the best opportunities and the best prospects they possibly can have”.

Mr Swinney said: “This is essentially a national mission for Scotland. This is our central mission as a country, to ensure, together, we are able to succeed in this journey of eradicating child poverty.

“In our public authorities, in our third sector organisations, in the private sector, in our communities, in the charitable sector in Scotland, we have got to operate in a fashion that all of us together working on a national mission to eradicate child poverty by boosting whole family support to families who are in need and getting that support to them as early as possible.”