[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f10b3rz2z388kj":3,"$f2n5hx9phgt1g8":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\u002Fmartin canavan 3.jpg","2026-10-21T13:33:25.000000Z","2026-10-21T15:24:48.000000Z",{"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},"01k0vw4jyy12x4fck4px9r20ra","1","Blog: ‘We have the strength of a family. We are family’","blog-we-have-the-strength-of-a-family-we-are-family","\u003Cp>A party, a cake and everyone being nice about you? Who doesn’t love a birthday?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Birthdays - and our charity’s 150th anniversary is a pretty special one - are also a chance to take a breath, however, and press pause, just for a moment. They are an opportunity to look back on how far we have come and ahead to where we want to go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this year is a special one for Aberlour. It is a milestone, of course, but a staging post too because, even after a century and a half, our journey is far from over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Offering care, support and love to children in need was our mission when four little boys were given a home when they needed one in Speyside in 1875. Since then, what we do and how we do it has been transformed. Why we do it, to offer care, support and love to children in need, however, remains entirely unchanged. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today, that first house is long gone and the orphanage too, closed in 1967. The charity that emerged from those homes is still here, however, and delivering life-changing, often life-saving, residential care and frontline services supporting children and their families across Scotland. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aberlour is now one of Scotland’s most enduring, significant and impactful organisations in the Third Sector and across our public life. It has improved the lives and life chances of generations of children and this anniversary is a chance to remember our past, be inspired by it and learn from it too. Much of our history should be celebrated and all of it should be remembered. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Our mission is simple but the work we do, and have always done, to support disadvantaged children, is the opposite of easy. It is difficult, relentless and presents new challenges every day. Shirking those challenges not only fails children but their families and our communities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Our ultimate ambition is, of course, to be no longer needed. To help build a country where children are protected, where safety nets are strong, secure and supported. We are, sadly, a long way from there. Scotland has far more children growing up in poverty than it should, far more families on the brink than it should, and far more children in care - and needing care - than it should. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those children, their childhoods and their futures, are curtailed by poverty, their lives circumscribed by inequality. They are more likely to fail at school, their talents untapped and potential unfulfilled, end up in homeless accommodation or the criminal justice system, have poor health outcomes and shorter lives. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is shameful that so little has changed since 1875, that, one of the wealthiest countries, in the world still struggles to protect its most vulnerable. Child poverty is not new and, when Canon Charles Jupp opened his orphanage for those “mitherless bairns” at Burnside Cottage, Aberlour, in March 1875, he was tackling exactly the same inequality, the same squandered potential, as we are today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What has changed utterly is our knowledge and insight. We now know, with certainty, what will make most difference: parents having more money and the time and ability to build strong and stable relationships with their children. Sometimes, sadly, it just cannot be done but keeping families together wherever possible is always our priority.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Child poverty has, unfortunately, become a catch-all term for policy-makers, two little words that mean so much but, through over use, risk becoming empty shorthand for a crisis so huge and intractable that it is impossible to know where to start. Well, the scale of the crisis is certainly huge but it is absolutely tractable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are many pressing social issues including, but not limited to, ill health, mental illness, addiction, unemployment, low paid and uncertain work, poor housing and domestic violence. Poverty, however, underpins almost all of them, makes almost all of them worse, almost always impacting most on those with the least resource to defend themselves or their families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We know more now. We know how to do things better. The changes made in the last 50 years have been transformational never mind the last 150. Our commitment to evolve, to engage with new research and to learn from best practice is one of our greatest strengths. We follow the evidence and, when the facts change, when our knowledge changes, we change too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many organisations are now acknowledging difficult and troubling aspects of their history. There is a lot to be proud of in our history but we must look back with clear eyes. Money from the slave trade helped pay for our first houses, for example, where, as recorded by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, a small number of staff betrayed the trust placed in them and the children they were meant to be caring for. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We have apologised unreservedly to the children failed then and are entirely committed to preventing the same failures now. This is an organisation unafraid to learn from its past, good and bad, but always with the ambition of improving the lives of children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Closing the Aberlour Orphanage where 6850 children spent some of their childhood, up to 500 at a time, more than fifty years ago and beginning to open much smaller houses for children needing care is an obvious example.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The aim of creating a stable, family environment for children in need of residential care means our houses have become smaller and smaller again as the years pass. Today, we are moving to a model where there will be a maximum of four, more often three, children in our houses. The key is for them to build trust with the adults caring for them and, for that, smaller is better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A focus on training and increasing staff’s specialist knowledge of child development and trauma is another example of our determination to improve and innovate. Across the Third Sector, Aberlour, with around 700 staff and 400 volunteers, is in the vanguard of change. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We move quickly and try things, with our services now ranging from ground-breaking \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fservice\u002Fmother-and-child-recovery-houses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mother and Child Recovery Houses\u003C\u002Fa> offering intensive support for new mums recovering from substance and alcohol problems to specialist support for survivors of domestic violence. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Other services help families secure financial stability offering specialist advice and support on debts and household budgets. Meanwhile, our \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fget-help\u002Furgent-assistance-fund\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Urgent Assistance Fund \u003C\u002Fa>has, in recent years, rushed millions of pounds to families on the brink.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Across 150 years, our charity has shown it is unafraid of change and unafraid to raise the voice of children and young people. Today, that seems as important as it ever has been. There is an idea that charities, particularly supported by public money, have become more reluctant to question policies or make the case for change. That cannot be said of us. We will be brave for children and when challenging our politicians to do better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Our \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fabout-us\u002Fpolicy-and-influencing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">current campaign to change how public debt\u003C\u002Fa>, like council tax, is collected is just one example. Our successful efforts to encourage ministers to write off £2.8 million in school debt is another. There are better, more humane, and less destructive ways to collect – or even cancel – this kind of debt that is needlessly and unfairly trapping so many children in poverty and we will continue to say so.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Our concerns are raised with respect and in the knowledge that issues can be complicated but they are raised all the same. Our work is guided by what we know is good for children and part of that is to help provide governments, on both sides of the border, with the same insight and ambition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Politicians are, of course, committed to ending child poverty and regularly tell us so. In truth, it would be odd if they were not but it takes more than warm words, good intentions and the right policies. It takes clear, transformative action and investment to deliver change. Poverty is not a choice for children, it is a choice for our politicians: to secure and improve those young lives or to continue talking about it. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Political promises have been made to generations of young Scots that have not been kept, a national shame even more acute because so many of them have only known lives full of betrayed trust and uncertainty.  \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We live in one of the richest nations in the world and better protecting those furthest away from power and privilege, those living in poverty and struggling to keep their families intact, should not seem like an impossible dream. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It will need commitment and courage but can be done and, until then, Aberlour, always changing, always caring, always brave, will continue to help our children thrive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is a significant year for our charity and, on a personal note, for me too after deciding to stand down from Aberlour later this year after 11 years as chief executive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It has been my absolute privilege to lead such an important, impactful organisation supported by such a skilled, talented and committed team. Fittingly, from staff and board members to volunteers and donors, our organisation has the strength of a family. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We are family, have been for 150 years, and will be for many more to come.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>SallyAnn Kelly OBE\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003Cbr>\u003Cstrong>Chief Executive, Aberlour Children’s Charity\u003C\u002Fstrong>\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, Aberlour's CEO, SallyAnn Kelly OBE, shares how over the past 150 years Aberlour has become a family.","media\u002Fthumbnail_SallyAnn Kelly Aberlour chief executive 1.jpg","2025-07-23T14:48:57.000000Z",{"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"]