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Options for developing a national cross-party and civil society agreement to meet the 2030 child poverty targets


January 2025

The Commission’s 2023-24 Child Poverty Scrutiny Report made a recommendation that the Scottish Government should convene and lead a national cross-party and civil society agreement to develop a shared six year strategy to meet the 2030 child poverty targets.

Following a meeting between the Chair of the Commission and the First Minister in July 2024, it was agreed the Commission would develop some options setting out how this could be taken forward and share these with Scottish Government officials.

The Commission’s options paper can be downloaded below, along with the Scottish Government’s response.

Download: Poverty and Inequality Commission – Options for developing a national cross party and civil society agreement on child poverty (pdf, 176 kb)

Scottish Government response – Letter from Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice to Poverty and Inequality Commission (pdf, 100 kb)

 

Report of workshops with priority families in Scotland and their ideas to reduce child poverty


October 2024

As part of its approach to the Commission’s 2023-24 scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s progress in reducing child poverty, the Commission wanted to hear from parents and carers who were a member of the Scottish Government’s ‘priority family types’. These are households types who are at greater risk of poverty.

The Commission worked with eight organisations to organise workshop discussions (and in one case a survey) to gather parent and carer participant views on:

  • What policies to reduce child poverty they were aware of
  • How well they felt policies were working
  • What else they felt was needed to reduce child poverty

This report summarises the views of participants on the three topics above, expanding on the material the Commission published earlier in 2024 as part of its 2023-24 child poverty scrutiny. The Commission is very grateful to all the participants in our workshops who took time to discuss these issues, and the organisations who we worked with to arrange them.

Download: Report of workshops with priority families in Scotland and their ideas to reduce child poverty (pdf, 422kb)

Response to Scottish Parliament Committee Post Legislative Scrutiny of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017


September 2024

The Poverty and Inequality Commission provided a response to questions in a Call for Views run by the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee as part of its Post Legislative Scrutiny of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

Download: Poverty and Inequality Commission – SJSS – Child Poverty Act Post Legislative Scrutiny response – September 2024 (pdf, 133 kb)

The Poverty and Inequality Commission Annual Report 2023-2024


June 2024

The Poverty and Inequality Commission’s Annual Report covers the period from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024.  It looks back at the work the Commission has carried out in the last 12 months, how it aligns with the Commission’s strategic priorities, and how the Commission has spent its budget.

Download: Poverty and Inequality Commission – Annual Report 2023-24

Poverty and Inequality Commission Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2023-24


4 June 2024

The Poverty and Inequality Commission has published its Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2023-24. The report sets out the Commission’s view on progress in 2023-24 towards meeting Scotland’s statutory child poverty targets.

Download Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2023-24 Executive Summary (pdf, 1.27MB)

Download the full Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2023-24 (pdf, 3.12MB)

This year, the Commission focused its scrutiny by looking more closely at the Scottish Government’s ‘priority family types’. These are the six family types that are at higher risk of poverty. The Commission worked with eight organisations who work directly with people from priority family types to get families’ views on their awareness of Scottish Government policies designed to reduce poverty, how well they felt these policies were working, and what else they felt was needed. The Commission has also published a separate report giving more detail on the views and suggestions of participants.

The Commission’s scrutiny report makes four recommendations for the Scottish Government:

  • Recommendation 1: The Scottish Government should convene and lead a national cross-party and civil society agreement to develop a shared six year strategy to meet the 2030 child poverty targets. This cross-party approach should consider the choices that need to be made around tax and spending.
  • Recommendation 2: The Scottish Government should reprioritise funding to ensure that the necessary resources are made available to deliver both its existing commitments and future actions to tackle child poverty. This will require the Scottish Government to reprioritise budgets across portfolios and consider the eligibility criteria for different services and support.
  • Recommendation 3: The Scottish Government should act quickly on the recommendations set out in the Commission’s report How better tax policy can reduce poverty and inequality.
  • Recommendation 4: The Scottish Government should clarify and further develop how the priority family types are used to inform policy development, implementation and monitoring in policy areas related to the three key drivers of poverty.

In preparing its own annual child poverty progress report, the Scottish Government must consult the Poverty and Inequality Commission on the progress that has been made towards meeting the child poverty targets and what more is needed. The Scottish Government’s Best Start, Bright Futures Tackling Child Poverty Progress Report 2023-24 can be found here.

Response to Scottish Parliament Committee short inquiry on Scottish Child Payment


May 2024

The Poverty and Inequality Commission provided a submission to a short inquiry on the Scottish Child Payment from the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

Download: Poverty and Inequality Commission – SJSS short inquiry Scottish Child Payment response – May 2024

 

Response to Below Average Resources consultation


April 2024

The Commission responded to selected questions in the Department for Work and Pensions consultation on the development of a new measure of poverty based on the Social Metrics Commission approach to poverty measurement.

Download: Poverty and Inequality Commission – consultation response – Below Average Resources – April 2024

Response to Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill consultation


January 2024

The Commission responded to a call for views from the Scottish Parliament Social Justice and Social Security Committee as part of its scrutiny of the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill.

Download: Poverty and Inequality Commission consultation response – Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill

Response to Pension Age Winter Heating Payment consultation


January 2024

The Commission responded to the Scottish Government consultation on its plans for the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

Download: Poverty and Inequality Commission consultation response – Pension Age Winter Heating Payment

Poverty and Inequality Commission Biodiversity Report 2021-23


The Poverty and Inequality Commission has published its Biodiversity report for 2021-2023. Under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, all public bodies in Scotland are under a statutory duty to further the conservation of biodiversity when carrying out their responsibilities. Public bodies are required to report every three years on the actions which they have taken to meet this biodiversity duty.

Download the Commission’s Biodiversity Report 2021-23

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