[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f10b3rz2z388kj":3,"$f2l1qzekl6m3k2":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":26,"next":27,"prev":35},"01k0vvdnq7h4ksy0g9aqpge1q2","1","Blog: 'We all need a box full of memories'","blog-we-all-need-a-box-full-of-memories","\u003Cp>\u003Cem>Expert on why we must protect snapshots, certificates and childhood bits and bobs for care-experienced young Scots\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For many of us, the lucky ones, it is just there. Those of us fortunate to spend our childhoods with our parents will often still have a box full of memories in their loft or under the bed in our old room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps it isn’t a box, perhaps it is a battered holdall bursting with old photographs; school report cards; our first toys; first shoes; a baby tooth in a matchbox wrapped in cotton wool; a certificate for swimming; medals for netball; badges and ribbons; all the other bits and bobs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It might not have been opened for decades. We might not have thought about it for longer but we know it’s there. Memories we can touch. Our childhood in a box.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Professor Ruth Emond, of University of Stirling, believes those boxes and bags do a lot more than gather dust. They give us a sense of ourselves, who we are and where we came from.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Children who have not had such luck, who needed care and support when their parents, for whatever reason, could not cope, do not have those memories and Emond has been working with Aberlour Children’s Charity to help change that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Along with colleagues in Germany, a \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Farchproject.stir.ac.uk\u002F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">research project\u003C\u002Fa> was launched to detail how residential children’s homes capture and look after information relating to children, not only the formal and administrative detail but the often forgotten everyday things, the small delights, the fun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Aberlour donated its archive to University of Stirling, the research team began cataloguing and analysing the information collected between 1920 and 1980.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Emond, a professor in social work, said: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Adults who have accessed their care records will often say the information on file is incomplete and too often about paperwork and process.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course, the formal information about decision-taking should be retained but we were more interested in what was kept relating to the day to day lives of children, about how they lived, the things they did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There is a whole other part of childhood memories that is not about being in care, it’s about going to gymnastics , or who your pals were when you were six. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s the kind of information, we were interested in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>The huge archive of Aberlour records, now spanning a century and a half, was a goldmine for the research team and remarkable not only for what was there but what was not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Emond said: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>There was a hospital at Aberlour, for example, and often the medical records give a more illuminating account of children being children than the drier administrative files.\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>“We would get a glimpse of them having fun, climbing trees in the orchard or whatever, because one would fall and break their arm and end up in the hospital.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“These were the often the places where the children’s accounts were recorded in their voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>The Aberlour magazine was also a useful source of information. Primarily written for donors and potential donors, the monthly pamphlet celebrated activities at the orphanage and often featured letters from old boys and girls looking to reconnect with childhood pals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Emond said: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>The children’s voices are in there, carefully curated and selected, but they are there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The children used to call the magazine The Blue Liar, and were obviously aware it was a very sanitised version but their lives were still recognisable in its pages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We started with the assumption that information being held for children now would be better than then. That is true in some ways but not others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In the past, there was often an author’s voice in the records, a personal opinion, a tone, but we seem to have moved to a more bureaucratic style of record keeping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>The research is intended to help care providers ensure they are not only keeping records but keeping memories.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Children in care might not be fortunate enough to have a parent stuffing their childhood memories into a box so carers must.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bespoke software shaped by the research now allows carers and children to create a digital album, a video memory box, that can be accessed and added to through the decades. Designed by the research team, it is now being piloted by Aberlour.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How much involvement children themselves should have in the information kept by care providers and how it is recorded can be contentious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Emond highlighted work to ensure children growing up in care know their family history and are actively involved in the records that are kept about them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>However, she added: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>We were surprised by how many of the young people we spoke to felt the responsibility for keeping that information and objects from their childhood rested with the adults.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They were saying no, my pals don’t have to look after their own photograph albums, why should I? That is completely understandable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Another issue is that children are expected to take whatever memory objects they have, photographs, certificates, whatever, with them when they leave care.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Many said that was too soon. They would tell us they just want it to be kept in the equivalent of the loft for a few years, until they get sorted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s not surprising because it is exactly, the way other children feel. Parents keep this stuff for you. My mum still has my school reports tucked away somewhere and I’m 54. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We might be busy in the here and now but we know this stuff is safe and also, importantly, that someone cares enough about us to hold onto all of these things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The challenge for us is to create that for young people in care.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Children leaving care may not have a single photograph of their childhood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>The researchers realised many children leaving care feel they have nowhere to return to, that the option of “going home” during years of transition into adulthood, when young people will often leave home and move back, is not there for them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Emond said: \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>We found in the archive that the orphanage had a house that young people could come back to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There was this idea that you could go home, which feels so innovative today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Our understanding of experience changes over time as our understanding of the world changes and memory objects are a way of orientating us. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Objects hold significant memories and are a way of saying to another person this is who I am and this is the life I have lived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s not just the photograph or whatever the object is, it is the story around them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We spoke to one young person who told us about the image of herself in a photograph but also about how her dad had printed it out and had held it. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That almost meant more to her than the photograph itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In the older archive, we have lovely handwritten notes. Contemporary notes written on a computer lack that personal touch. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So nowadays a letter or card from a child’s mum might be scanned and saved but, many years later, actually holding the bit of paper that their mum once held is a different sensory experience. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There is thinking to be done about technology and what might be lost as well as gained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Professor Ruth Emond\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>University of Stirling\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This article was written as part of the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fassets\u002Fpdf\u002Fwe-are-family-150th-celebration.pdf\">'We are family' special edition supplement with the Sunday Post\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>","2025-05-18T00:00:00.000000Z","In Aberlour Children's Charity's latest blog, Professor Ruth Edmond from the University of Stirling, explains why we must protect snapshots, certificates and childhood bits and bobs for care-experienced people.","media\u002Fthumbnail_Ruth Emond.jpg","2025-07-23T14:36:26.000000Z",{"id":28,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":19,"is_featured":7,"title":29,"slug":30,"content":31,"content_overview":11,"published_at":23,"seo_title":29,"seo_description":32,"image":33,"created_at":34,"updated_at":34},"01k0y62e39dhn70513tdeb50e9","Blog: ‘Children share the same money worries as their parents’","blog-children-share-the-same-money-worries-as-their-parents","\u003Cp>The pressure on many of the children is constant and relentless. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’m right there, based in their primary school, and there to help any pupils and their families who might need some extra support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their homes may be overcrowded and they will often have far more knowledge about their households’ finances than other children and carry that awareness around day after day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is a constant strain and they don’t have anything to look forward to or things to enjoy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their families cannot afford the same days out and treats that other children can expect and the pressure just builds and builds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Poverty takes a toll on the physical and mental health of children and their parents and then there are the other social issues, linked to poverty, like domestic abuse and issues with drink or drugs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pupils will arrive at school cold, wet, tired and hungry. Their clothes and shoes might be inadequate for the weather. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I have a rail of clothes in my office to offer children if they need a jumper or a winter jacket or whatever.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their home lives may be cramped or more chaotic and are often sharing the same anxieties caused by a lack of money affecting the mental health and wellbeing of parents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The priority is to offer them any practical help available but also to relieve the pressure a little, to give them the space to talk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They might want to chat about what is going on with them but often simply enjoy the chance to talk and think about something else, about the everyday stuff other children can take for granted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just that simple opportunity to talk about themselves and the things they enjoy doing, or are good at, can help.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>School is often a safe space, away from what can be difficulties at home, and that is why it can be so important for children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The impact of lockdown, for example, when schools were closed was particularly felt by pupils who rely on the routine, safety and support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Louise*\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003Cbr>\u003Cstrong>Aberlour pupil support worker\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>*Name changed\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This article was written as part of the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fassets\u002Fpdf\u002Fwe-are-family-150th-celebration.pdf\">'We are family' special edition supplement with the Sunday Post\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>","In Aberlour Children's Charity's latest blog, our pupil support worker Louise explains the constant pressure children are under due to poverty.","media\u002FiStock-541117484.jpg","2025-07-24T12:21:01.000000Z",{"id":36,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":6,"is_featured":7,"title":37,"slug":38,"content":39,"content_overview":11,"published_at":40,"seo_title":37,"seo_description":41,"image":42,"created_at":43,"updated_at":44},"01jv7kr4s5e7vy6y2fnqyr5sjn","Public bodies 'perpetuate harm' on families left in debts to abusive partners","public-bodies-perpetuate-harm-on-families-left-in-debts-to-abusive-partners","\u003Cp>Aberlour Children's Charity will give parliamentary evidence on the urgent need for compassionate reforms and protections against \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fpublications\u002Faberlours-joint-briefing-to-msps-on-coerced-debt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">‘coerced debt’\u003C\u002Fa> owed to public bodies, preventing further harm to domestic abuse survivors and their children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aberlour, one of Scotland’s leading children’s charities, will today [Thursday 15 May 2025] outline how survivors of domestic abuse and their families are being further harmed by inflexible debt-recovery practices, particularly council tax and rent arrears, imposed by public bodies, at an evidence session of the Social Justice & Social Security Committee of the Scottish Parliament.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Key points that Aberlour’s Chief Officer of Children & Families, Lynne O’Brien, will raise include:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Systems are failing vulnerable families:\u003C\u002Fstrong> Public bodies’ rigid approaches to debt collection fail to consider the coercive or fraudulent nature of debts accrued under domestic abuse, forcing survivors into destitution in order to leave abusive relationships.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Urgent, compassionate reform needed:\u003C\u002Fstrong> Just as FCA standards bind private creditors to treat vulnerable customers fairly, Aberlour calls on Scottish Government and public bodies to adopt trauma-informed, flexible debt management policies that recognise coerced debt as a distinct category.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Children’s rights at risk:\u003C\u002Fstrong> The current approach breaches UNCRC duties by perpetuating child poverty and homelessness when families leave abusive relationships, deepening existing inequalities.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Speaking ahead of the evidence session, Aberlour’s Chief Officer of Children & Families, Lynne O’Brien said:\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Women and their children who are victims of domestic abuse and financial abuse are currently being failed. The inflexibility of the systems and processes they have to navigate too often entrench existing inequalities, perpetuating harm on our most vulnerable families. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Many are forced to make difficult decisions in order to leave abusive relationships resulting in financial hardship and destitution and burdened with debts built up by perpetrators of the abuse they have suffered. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Urgent and compassionate reforms to public debt management and recovery are vital not only to tackle child poverty, but specifically to support women with experience of domestic abuse who face barriers to moving on from homeless accommodation into settled housing due to debt and rent arrears owed to public bodies. Right now, Scotland is failing to uphold the rights of children in families affected by domestic abuse forced into homelessness and destitution, and pushed into poverty due to financial abuse, coerced debt and aggressive public debt recovery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>","2025-05-15T00:00:00.000000Z","Aberlour Children's Charity will give parliamentary evidence on the urgent need for compassionate reforms and protections against ‘coerced debt’ owed to public bodies, preventing retraumatisation of domestic abuse survivors and their children.","media\u002Flynne obrien web.jpg","2025-05-14T14:39:02.000000Z","2025-05-14T16:16:04.000000Z"]