[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f10b3rz2z388kj":3,"$f2tsqrns2hsshr":17},{"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":16},"01m5fanaffkxrzkrpj1x4keag4","9cdbdd6d-4900-4646-a012-d3e67a5ee788","01j303dmcc6n6900v73fs88bc7",false,"Right to Food Commission supports Aberlour's Call to End School Meal Debt","right-to-food-commission-supports-aberlours-call","\u003Cp>School meal debt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Three words that should never be uttered in the same sentence\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Children bearing the burden and stigma of debt should shame any society.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, here in Scotland that is what we saw happening for thousands of children and their families around the country.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For many high school children having a negative balance on their parent pay account would mean being unable to access a meal at school.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>School meal debt and hidden school hunger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two sides of the same coin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter what side that coin lands on it would still show how badly we have failed many of Scotland’s most disadvantaged children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is why at Aberlour we were compelled to do something about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To make sure we stood beside those children and their families and to call for something to change – urgently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We wanted to make sure we saw an \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fabout-us\u002Fpolicy-and-influencing\u002Fpublic-debt\u002Fschool-meal-debt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">end to school meal debt and hidden school hunger for good\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In 2023 we urged the then First Minister, Humza Yusaf, to act.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To bring an end to the shameful practice of children and their families being chased by debt collectors for school meal debt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>School meal debt is a symptom of families not having enough money to provide the very basics for their children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fundamentally, it is about a lack of income.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We welcomed the introduction of a one-off School Meal Debt Fund to write off outstanding debt for one year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But we were clear that was not enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Our evidence shows that the majority of children with school meal debt are from low-income working families who do not qualify for free school meals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, along with writing off the debt for struggling families, we called for the expansion of Free School Meals to all low-income families across Scotland to help prevent school meal debt in the first place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Again, we welcomed John Swinney’s subsequent commitment to continuing the School Meal Debt Fund for a further year to write off nearly £3 million of school meal debt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Figures show that this benefitted 70,000 children and their families across Scotland over the last two years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A welcome relief for many, but still a limited intervention without a long-term solution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Our campaign to end school meal debt has continued up to and during the recent Scottish Parliament elections.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last year we also published evidence that pointed to the extent of school meal debt for children and their families in England.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What our research suggested was that around 1 in 4 children not eligible for free school meals in England had regular or persistent school meal debt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And so we called on the UK Government to act and follow Scotland’s lead by taking action to end school meal debt for children across the rest of the UK.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This week saw the launch of the independent UK Right to Food Commission report and findings following their work to evidence the scale of food insecurity across the UK.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Commission’s report provides a roadmap and clear actions all governments across the UK must take to end food insecurity for all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This includes ending school meal debt for good for all children the length of the country, from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Scotland, the SNP made a commitment during the Scottish Parliamentary election campaign to end school meal debt once and for all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That manifesto pledge was then followed by the First Minister announcing that families struggling with school meal debt would continue to be helped by committing the same level of investment again this year to write that debt off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time this will happen alongside the further expansion of Free School Meals in primary schools.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The urgent measure and a preventative solution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There is much more the First Minister must do to make real progress on his ambition to “eradicate child poverty”.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this is one example that the rest of the UK can follow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Making sure no child ever again is burdened with debt or goes hungry at school would be a quick win for Andy Burnham, to show his commitment to tackling food insecurity by ending school meal debt in every postcode.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Martin Canavan\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Head of Policy & Influencing \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>",null,"2026-10-21T00:00:00.000000Z","Aberlour Children's Charity's Head of Policy & Influencing, Martin Canavan, shares what must be done to end school meal debt and hidden hunger in schools for good. He shares what has been done in Scotland and what must be done in England.","media\u002Fshared image.jpg","2026-10-21T13:33:25.000000Z","2026-10-22T08:11:54.000000Z",{"id":18,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":19,"is_featured":7,"title":20,"slug":21,"content":22,"content_overview":11,"published_at":23,"seo_title":20,"seo_description":24,"image":25,"created_at":26,"updated_at":27,"next":28,"prev":29},"01k4my34fzsgxadng4s3mnncsf","1","Blog: Our poorest children cannot wait another 150 years for change","blog-our-poorest-children-cannot-wait-another-150-years-for-change","\u003Cp>Exactly 150 years ago, The Scotsman’s letter pages were ablaze with ferocious but terribly genteel debate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The courteous ding-dong spanned most of 1875, as gentlemen correspondents – and they were all gentlemen – debated the morality and merit of giving free broth and bread to 800 “poor neglected children” at an emergency shelter in Canongate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An appeal to Edinburgh’s “charitable spirits and kindly hearts” for donations had provoked some readers to question the wisdom of such charity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>One reader suggested: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>A poor neglected ill-fed child getting a dinner daily is getting a daily lesson in easy pauperism.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Even the testimony of a senior police officer enlisted to investigate the children’s background - “I can truly say their homes are a melancholy sight. The misery and wretchedness is beyond description.” - failed to convince the sceptics. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Finally, James Gowans, of Randolph Crescent, a reader of independent spirit, had enough and looked for himself: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Having a few minutes to spare today, I went over and saw a crowd of these children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In their presence it is of no use theorising. From their starved appearance the first duty is to feed them. There they are, the sight of them at once suggesting action.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Well, we’re with Mr Gowans, then and now, and, after 150 years of theorising, the sight of our poorest children is still suggesting action, the most urgent and effective action possible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sadly, shamefully, there could easily be 800 young people still going hungry in the capital tonight, as Aberlour Children’s Charity prepares to mark our 150th anniversary at the National Museum of Scotland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Personally, it is likely to be a night of mixed emotions with my pride in our charity’s achievements tempered with frustration that so much will remain to be done when I stand down as chief executive later this year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lives of our poorest children might be a little better after 150 years but, surely, by now, they should have been transformed? Certainly, since I began working to support families 35 years ago, the change has been incremental, the advances painstaking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That begs an obvious but difficult and necessary question for all of us working to ease the impact of poverty on young lives. If, after 150 years, we have failed to significantly ease, never mind end, child poverty perhaps it is time to ask if we are doing it wrong? \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Given the growth in our public sector over eight decades and the growth of services aimed at easing poverty, we would have expected some significant inroads, real measurable improvement in the number of families affected, in education, in health. That has not happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Real, lasting change, change that sticks and persists through generations, is about closing the attainment gap, about children engaging in education, securing better outcomes in school and wider opportunities when they leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That does not begin in school, however, but at home, in helping families live off an adequate income and reducing stress and uncertainty in their homes and the chaos it often provokes. That is when education and health outcomes start to improve. That is when the change becomes systematic, built on stone not sand, and the lines on the graph tilt, irrevocably, upwards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We should be aiming to steer families on the brink of crisis to that safe haven, a place beyond poverty, but what must change if, despite all the resource, strategies, and support, children are not already being helped there and helped to stay there?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The easy answer is more resource or more benefits but a better, more useful answer is about stress testing the money already being spent to tackle what is, beyond all doubt, a national emergency. Every pound must be spent with most intent and maximum impact, with a relentless, clear-eyed focus on what really helps families most, right now and in the future. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Too much time, energy and resource is spent managing not ending poverty, on keeping crisis from the door of one family today and tomorrow but not preventing its return next week, next year or the year after that, or for the next generation or the generation after that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of us involved in this work must be more flexible and cooperative and less precious and territorial even if that means people are doing different jobs with different priorities. Across the public sector, trade unions must be front, centre and fully engaged in that process and convinced by its ambition and potential.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It will mean more collaboration, less competition, and the breaking down of barriers between local and national government, charities and health boards. It will mean encouraging the swapping of skills, experience, resource, and personnel back and forth, from public sector to third sector and back again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It will mean fundamental change in what we do and how we do it. It will mean decision-makers in our public sector shaking off the psychological legacy of austerity and focussing not on lines on a budget but their potential impact on communities for generations to come, on making good investments and not easy short-term cuts that will cost much, much more down the line.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We need to get the right people around the table and begin an honest conversation about what we have been doing and why? What services are achieving the best outcomes for families and children? What are we doing that does not just ease the threat of imminent crisis but lifts families out of poverty and keeps them there? And, above all else, how can we do more of it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That conversation will depend, most of all, on good faith assessment of our work, of being led by the evidence and steered by what we know can deliver enduring change for families and their communities. We can build on that but must build swiftly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is the same urgent ambition that James Gowans appealed for in his call for action on the pages of the Scotsman 150 years ago. It is beyond time for Scotland to show it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>SallyAnn Kelly OBE \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Chief executive of Aberlour Children’s Charity\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cem>This article was written for the Scotsman and published on Thursday 11th September 2025.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>","2025-09-11T00:00:00.000000Z","As Aberlour Children's Charity prepares to mark it's 150th anniversary. CEO , Sally Ann Kelly OBE, discusses how children are still trapped in poverty and what must be done to End Child Poverty in Scotland.","media\u002FSallyAnn-Final-scaled-serious.jpg","2025-09-08T15:11:12.000000Z","2025-09-11T08:31:24.000000Z",{"id":18,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":19,"is_featured":7,"title":20,"slug":21,"content":22,"content_overview":11,"published_at":23,"seo_title":20,"seo_description":24,"image":25,"created_at":26,"updated_at":27},{"id":30,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":19,"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},"01k4mnmv0m3fqffx2v13hvrf9r","Blog: Scotland must end child poverty not just manage it","blog-scotland-must-end-child-poverty-not-just-manage-it","\u003Cp>Far-reaching reform and “a new honesty” is needed to transform the lives and futures of Scotland’s poorest children, according to a charity leader.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>SallyAnn Kelly OBE, chief executive of Aberlour Children’s Charity, called for a new culture of cooperation across public, private and third sectors in Scotland to improve the lives and life chances of one in four children growing up in poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Kelly, who will stand down as chief executive later this year, said: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>We can take pride in the charity’s achievements since 1875 while having huge frustration that there is still so much to be done.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The poverty risking children and their futures 150 years ago is doing exactly the same damage today. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Any improvements have been incremental and that has to pose serious questions for all of us working to support these children and their families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We cannot keep doing the same things day after day, year after year, and expect different outcomes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Kelly said too much of the resource and support being offered to families on the brink of financial crisis is only addressing the immediate emergency and not securing long-term stability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She called for far greater cooperation and communication between charities, councils and government to better understand priorities and build on best practice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>She said: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Of course, we must deal with the immediate crises today but it is tomorrow that matters most.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To give families stability in the long-term, to make changes that stick, means helping families live on an adequate income, reduce the stress in their homes and remove the chaos that can follow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That is when the education and health outcomes start improving and real change becomes embedded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If what we are doing is not delivering that, we must do things differently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It is not just about money but is absolutely about ensuring every pound spent is spent with maximum effect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We are spending too much time, energy and resource on managing not ending poverty, on keeping crisis from the door of one family today and tomorrow but not preventing its return.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We must be more flexible and less territorial. We need more collaboration and less competition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We must break barriers between local and national government, charities and health boards and start exchanging our best ideas, best practice and best people back and forth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Kelly speaking before Aberlour, one of Scotland’s most respected children’s charities, marks its 150th anniversary at an event in Edinburgh this week, called for a new urgency and focus how families can be lifted out of poverty and kept there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>She said: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>The immediate priority may be getting families through this week or the week after but the bigger ambition must be to see them thrive not just survive next year and the year after.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The key to that will always rest with families not us, however, and they need to make the change with our support to minimise the stress factors that might derail them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Meanwhile, we need to examine and evaluate all our services to ensure they are focused on those families most in need of additional support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We need an honest conversation about what we have been doing and why? We need the right people around the table including, most importantly, the families and assess what is being done with clear eyes and be led by the evidence wherever it goes. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What is working? What are we doing that is achieving the best outcomes for children and families? And how can we do more of it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cem>This article was written for \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.heraldscotland.com\u002Fnews\u002F25450422.leading-charity-demands-new-honesty-child-poverty\u002F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Herald \u003C\u002Fa>and published on 9th September 2025.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>","2025-09-09T00:00:00.000000Z","In Aberlour Children's Charity's CEO, SallyAnn Kelly OBE's latest blog she discusses ahead of Aberlour's 150th anniversary event in Edinburgh why Scotland must end child poverty and not just manage it.","2025-09-08T12:43:35.000000Z","2025-09-09T10:48:54.000000Z"]