[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f10b3rz2z388kj":3,"$f33n628997ky1r":16},{"id":4,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":6,"is_featured":7,"title":8,"slug":9,"content":10,"content_overview":11,"published_at":12,"seo_title":8,"seo_description":13,"image":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15},"01m45vtvk0pdb1y7c1cqv76edp","9cdbdd6d-4900-4646-a012-d3e67a5ee788","1",false,"Panic and Promises Won't End Child Poverty","panic-and-promises-wont-end-child-poverty","\u003Cp>We live in a world that seems to spin faster every day, where all the dials are turned to 11 all the time.  \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The headlines crash from one calamity to another as our political leaders rush to promise emergency action while their opponents demand even more urgency. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is noisy, tiring and a few hours later, when the news cycle spins to another red alert, the last one, whatever it was, is most often forgotten. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For years now, child poverty in Scotland has been routinely described as a national emergency demanding emergency action. It is and it does but, with more than one in five children still growing up in poverty in Scotland today, is it time to ask if the language of emergency and crisis is helping?  \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps it only encourages more haste but less speed, a birling carousel of taskforces and committees, policy papers and special reports, but too little measured and impactful action? Are we even checking if the blizzard of promises and commitments is being delivered before starting the snow machine again? \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What if the endless planning and process is actually slowing us down? What if somehow all the talk is delaying implementation of practical, tested, and effective measures to improve the lives and secure the life chances of the 210,000 children growing up poor in one of the wealthiest countries in the world? \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because we already know what works. We have known for years.  \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, there are no magic bullets, no simple solutions to the complex social issues that have blighted our poorest communities for decades. Child poverty, like Scotland’s drugs crisis, another national emergency, is embedded in longstanding economic trends that have stripped far too many of our neighbourhoods of jobs and hope. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those trends will not be reversed overnight but, in the meantime, we should not let perfect be the enemy of good. As Challenge Poverty Week begins today, the biggest challenge is to see the wood not the trees, to recognise and appreciate what is already working and build on it. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are things that we know ease the impact of poverty on young lives; that have been trialled, tested and measured; that inch their families from peril to safety; that give them new strength, confidence and a path to a more secure future. So why not have more of them? \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These are services that our charity and others are delivering every day, hand in glove with our partners in social work, health care and education. These are services delivering real, measurable success, making children safer, healthier and happier today and improving their chances tomorrow. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Intensive family support, for example. The clue is in the name. It is the opposite of easy. Any family’s journey back from the very edge of crisis is one of hard yards and no shortcuts. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Our teams arrive to work, shoulder to shoulder, with families on the point of collapse, with children often on the edge of care. Ensuring those babies and young people are safe is always the priority but, after that, keeping them with their families is the driving force because that, all research suggests, is the best way to stabilise childhoods and secure futures. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Intensive family support means doing whatever it takes to keep children safe and families together. It can rebuild broken relationships; improve parents’ confidence in themselves; create new connections in communities; and help build firmer financial foundations with advice on welfare rights, maximising incomes and problem debt. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Any investment in intensive family support and other specialist services, for pregnant women and new mums, for example, is more than returned in thriving families, stronger communities and money saved. Resource is better spent on intensive support keeping families safely together, than managing their separation through a lifetime of crisis-led state intervention.  \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Our two Mother and Child Recovery Houses, in Falkirk and Dundee, for example, offer recovery spaces for pregnant and new mums with a history of substance use, allowing them to recover while staying safely with their babies. This helps keep families together and children at home, improves their futures and saves millions of pounds in avoided care costs. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is true child protection and the big question is not whether we can afford to roll out these services across Scotland but if we can afford not to?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Justina Murray \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003Cbr>\u003Cstrong>Chief executive of Aberlour Children’s Charity \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cem>This article was written for the Daily Record and published on Monday 5th October 2026.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>",null,"2026-10-05T00:00:00.000000Z","Aberlour Children's Charity CEO, Justina Murray, explains what must be done to end child poverty in Scotland. We know what works and we've known for years. ","media\u002FRS873_0E5A9135.jpg","2026-10-05T11:05:26.000000Z",{"id":17,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":18,"is_featured":7,"title":19,"slug":20,"content":21,"content_overview":11,"published_at":22,"seo_title":23,"seo_description":24,"image":25,"created_at":26,"updated_at":26,"next":27,"prev":28},"01jeb31mdhejfjd2c4pb8pfb8f","2","Aberlour's response to the Scottish Government Budget Announcement","aberlours-response-to-the-scottish-government-budget-announcement","\u003Cp>We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling child poverty in yesterday’s (Wednesday 4th December 2024) Scottish Budget by taking steps to mitigate the cruel and unnecessary two child limit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When implemented this will lift 15,000 children and their families out of poverty and will help make progress towards child poverty targets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is the right thing to do, and we urge the UK Government to take note and follow suit by scrapping this poverty creating policy altogether.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, our poorest families need help right now and cannot wait until 2026 at the earliest for this commitment to take effect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Scotland’s children have waited long enough and so we need action not intention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, we urge the Scottish Government to use existing levers, such as increasing the value of the Scottish Child Payment, and urgently provide financial relief for families on the lowest incomes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With 10,000 children and their families currently living in temporary accommodation, reversing the cuts to the affordable housing budget is a positive step that will help to tackle the housing emergency and reduce the need for temporary accommodation that too often acts as a poverty trap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Again, this will take time to have any meaningful impact on families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We welcomed the earlier announcement this week of an extension to the School Meal Debt fund to wipe out all existing school meal debt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Extending free school meals to primary 6 and 7 pupils whose families receive the Scottish Child Payment will benefit thousands of children and their families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nonetheless, it still will not prevent school meal debt and hidden school hunger, in particular for high school aged children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We continue to call on the Scottish Government to increase free school meal entitlement, at least to all families in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, to end school meal debt and hidden school hunger for good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We are also disappointed that there is no commitment in this budget to tackle the public debt crisis and the role it plays in trapping families in poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There is clear evidence of the way public debt contributes to levels of child poverty and in order to reduce child poverty we must see action to alleviate the harm public debt causes to so many low-income families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This Scottish Budget sets out admirable intention, but the First Minister and his government must urgently accelerate efforts to tackle child poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>SallyAnn Kelly OBE\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Aberlour CEO\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>","2024-12-05T00:00:00.000000Z","Aberlour's response to the Scottish Government Budget Announcement 2024","Aberlour CEO, SallyAnn Kelly OBE, responds to the Scottish Government budget announcement made on Wednesday 4th December 2024.","media\u002FSallyAnn-Final-scaled-serious.jpg","2024-12-05T09:40:02.000000Z",{"id":17,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":18,"is_featured":7,"title":19,"slug":20,"content":21,"content_overview":11,"published_at":22,"seo_title":23,"seo_description":24,"image":25,"created_at":26,"updated_at":26},{"id":29,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":30,"is_featured":7,"title":31,"slug":32,"content":33,"content_overview":11,"published_at":34,"seo_title":31,"seo_description":35,"image":25,"created_at":36,"updated_at":37},"01je3kp9dfnj3ek54b9gexd2yj","01j303dmcc6n6900v73fs88bc7","Blog: The Scottish Government must end school meal debt for good","blog-the-scottish-government-must-end-school-meal-debt-for-good","\u003Cp>The very idea of school meal debt is offensive. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That children should ever be burdened with debt or could be denied a meal at school because of that debt goes against everything that seems fair and just.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet school meal debt is on the rise as ever more families struggle to feed their children at home let alone at school.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At Aberlour every day we see families who rely on foodbanks because they can’t afford the cost of food.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We see parents going without so that their children can eat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We see children arrive at school having had no breakfast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How can we accept this is the reality for so many families in a country as wealthy as ours?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the coming months energy bills will rise again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So many of Scotland’s poorest families are looking ahead to another difficult winter wondering how they are going to get by.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As cost of living pressures continue to bite hard on families we need to do everything we can to provide urgent relief and reduce the financial burden they are facing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last year, along with The Scottish Sun, Aberlour successfully campaigned to persuade the then First Minister to write off school meal debt for around 30,000 children and their families across Scotland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We welcomed that one-off commitment and applauded action by the Scottish Government that would go some way to relieving the pressure on families. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, many of the families who have benefitted from having that school meal debt written off are seeing it begin to build again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason for this is simple – for too many families their circumstances have not changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Families are still faced with impossible choices. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their household budgets have been stretched so far but now can’t go any further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thousands of hard working, low income families across the country rely on benefits because their incomes alone can’t provide them with what they need to afford even just the basics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But so many of those families still do not qualify for free school meals, even though they struggle to put food on the table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And so, the result is that children who are not eligible for a free school meal go to school but don’t have any money for their lunch. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In most cases, primary school aged children will be fed but their parents will be charged the cost of that meal, and that is when school meal debt begins to accrue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>High school aged will often just go hungry with no means to pay for or access a school lunch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For some families school meal debt has risen to hundreds of pounds that then becomes an unmanageable financial burden on top of other money worries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This creates anxiety and contributes to ever worsening feeling of financial crisis that so many families find themselves in, impacting on parents’ and children’s wellbeing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Earlier this year children’s rights were finally protected in law.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This includes children’s right to be fed and not to go hungry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Government has a duty to uphold that right for all children in Scotland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is why, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fpublications\u002Fjoint-letter-to-the-first-minister-school-meal-debt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">along with many other children’s charities and anti-poverty organisations\u003C\u002Fa>, we called on John Swinney to use this week’s Scottish Budget to act to end school meal debt and hidden school hunger for good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To go one better than his predecessor by making the one-off school meal debt fund permanent so that no child ever again has to feel the burden and the shame of school meal debt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, we are delighted by reports in the Scottish Sun that he has committed to write off all school meal debt for children and their families across Scotland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is the right thing to do.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, that is only part of the problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We also need preventative action to stop school meal debt happening in the first place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is why increasing free school meal eligibility to all low income families is vital.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We know that guaranteeing free school meals to all those working families who also rely on benefits just to make ends meet will help to see an end to school meal debt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The First Minister has the chance to end school meal debt for good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I hope he takes it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>SallyAnn Kelly OBE\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Aberlour CEO\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cem>This opinion piece was written for the Scottish Sun and published on Monday 2nd December 2024.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>","2024-12-02T00:00:00.000000Z","Read the latest blog from Aberlour CEO, SallyAnn Kelly OBE, on what the Scottish Government must do to end School Meal Debt for good.","2024-12-02T11:57:00.000000Z","2024-12-02T12:14:36.000000Z"]