[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fil4miyfhw1iv":3,"$f10b3rz2z388kj":27},{"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,"next":16,"prev":17},"01kvcykq7ztyr3rq1bxk0h7fnr","9cdbdd6d-4900-4646-a012-d3e67a5ee788","2",false,"Leading Charities Demand Emergency Parliamentary Committee to Tackle Child Poverty","leading-charities-demand-emergency-parliamentary-committee-to-tackle-child-poverty","\u003Cp>A coalition of Scotland's leading children's charities and anti-poverty organisations has urged the Scottish Parliament to respond to the child poverty emergency by creating a dedicated joint committee, warning that greater parliamentary scrutiny is urgently needed if Scotland is to meet its legally binding child poverty targets. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The move comes ahead of this week’s annual Progress Report from the Scottish Government on its Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a joint letter sent to the Convenors of the Education & Gaelic Committee, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, and Social Justice, Housing and Local Government Committee, the charities argue that child poverty should be treated as the Scottish Parliament's number one priority in the years leading up to the 2030\u002F31 statutory targets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The coalition includes Aberlour Children’s Charity, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fopfs.org.uk\u002F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One Parent Families Scotland\u003C\u002Fa>, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.jrf.org.uk\u002F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joseph Rowntree Foundation\u003C\u002Fa> and \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.savethechildren.org.uk\u002F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Save the Children\u003C\u002Fa>, as well as the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cypcs.org.uk\u002F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The letter also calls for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament ‘People's Panel’ on ending child poverty, ensuring that children and families with direct experience of poverty can share their experiences to inform parliamentary scrutiny and help put policy into practice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These calls come only weeks after a JRF analysis of the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan found that it may not be compliant with the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 and could be open to judicial review.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Justina Murray, Chief Executive of Aberlour, said:\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Having legally binding Child Poverty targets means little if we are not taking bold enough action to get there, and if our Parliament is not holding the Scottish Government to account on its efforts (or lack of) to meet those targets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Creating a dedicated Cross-Committee would send a powerful signal to Scotland’s children that our Parliament is fully committed to ensuring every possible action is being taken to end child poverty for good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Children and families must be at the heart of this work. A People’s Panel working alongside the Scottish Parliament would provide insight and solutions to Scotland’s child poverty emergency from those who understand it most.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The First Minister has repeatedly stated that it is his Government's number one priority to eradicate child poverty. It is the Parliament’s role to hold him to his word on behalf of Scotland’s children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Satwat Rehman, Chief Executive of One Parent Families Scotland, said:\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Single parent families are amongst those most likely to be living in poverty in Scotland, and the vast majority of single parents are women. Every month that passes without a credible plan to meet our statutory targets is another month in which children in these families bear the cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We need more than good intentions from Parliament. A dedicated Cross-Committee would give MSPs the sustained focus this emergency demands, and the time to ask government the hard questions that a single committee, juggling competing priorities, simply doesn’t have space for.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Single parents know better than anyone what poverty does to family life, and what would actually make a difference. A People’s Panel that puts their experience at the centre of scrutiny isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s essential if the solutions Parliament arrives at are going to work in the real world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Claire Telfer, Head of Scotland, Save The Children:\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>Young people have told us that tackling child poverty is their top priority and families need action now. Parliament must play it’s part in making that happen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A dedicated joint committee would help hold the Scottish Government to account on its legally binding child poverty targets and help drive the scale and pace of action needed to meet them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A People’s Panel would ensure children, young people and families help shape the solutions that matter to them and make the biggest difference.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cstrong>Full Letter\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\u003Cp>Karen Adam MSP, Convenor of Education & Gaelic Committee\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Katie Hagmann MSP, Convenor of Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Craig Hoy MSP, Convenor of Social Justice, Housing and Local Government Committee\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cbr>18th June 2026\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dear Convenors,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We are writing to you as a group of children’s charities and anti-poverty organisations with significant concerns about the progress being made towards meeting Scotland’s legally binding child poverty targets. As we embark on the seventh Scottish Parliamentary session since devolution, despite welcome commitments to end child poverty by successive First Ministers and very real progress in that time, Scotland remains a country where 1 in 5 children are growing up in poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Scottish Parliament plays the primary role in holding the Scottish Government to account on what we believe to be the most important policy commitment it can make – ending child poverty. Therefore, we are calling on you, as Convenors of those Parliamentary Committees which we believe must have a key focus on Scottish Government’s efforts to reduce child poverty and to meet the 2030\u002F31 targets, to come together to establish a Parliamentary Cross-Committee with a clear and undistracted focus on ending child poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We welcome the significant steps that have been taken by the Scottish Government to date to reduce the number of children and families living in poverty. Evidence shows the very real difference the Scottish Child Payment in particular is making in the lives of Scotland’s poorest families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, most recent child poverty statistics show this is still not enough. With over 200 000 children continuing to grow up in poverty, Scotland’s children and families deserve and demand much more. The Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-31 simply does not show how it will meet Scotland’s statutory child poverty targets by 2030\u002F31. An analysis published earlier this month by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation indicates that the plan is arguably not compliant with the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 and is potentially open to successful judicial review.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Scottish Government has been presented with this analysis, and we have called on the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government to provide an updated and more ambitious child poverty delivery plan that does meet the demands of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We believe there is more the Scottish Parliament could do to hold the Scottish Government to account and to help maximise efforts to reach Scotland’s child poverty targets. Parliament has the power to ensure that government is making every effort to reach those targets and lift as many children and families out of poverty as it can. Children have a right to grow up and live free from poverty, and Parliament, as well as government, has a duty to uphold that right through ensuring that legislation and policy in Scotland is consistent with duties contained within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The First Minister has repeatedly stated it is his government's number one priority to “eradicate child poverty”. We believe, therefore, that scrutiny of whether or not that ambition is met, or that at the very least every effort possible to do so is being exerted, should equally be reflected as the number one priority of the Scottish Parliament. In our view, oversight of the ‘national mission to eradicate child poverty’ in this crucial period between now and 2030\u002F31 requires more attention than it will otherwise receive sitting within a broader programme of work of a single Parliamentary committee with multiple and competing priorities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The commitment to end child poverty is a shared one, unanimously supported by all Parliamentary parties at the passing of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, and restated by the majority of Parliamentary parties in manifestos and during this year’s Scottish Parliament election. We believe a Cross-Committee working closely together with shared oversight and scrutiny would demonstrate the cross portfolio and urgent nature of ending child poverty, as well as provide a clearer structure and mechanism for accountability that reflects the vital role that Parliament has to play in helping make Scotland a country where no child grows up in poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is vital that the voices of children and families are central to shaping how Scotland responds to the impact of poverty on children, families and communities, and in making sure that policy solutions reflect what they tell us will make difference in their lives. Therefore, we also ask that the Scottish Parliament considers establishing a People’s Panel on ending child poverty. This would ensure that, beyond the formal structures and processes of committees, children and families can directly inform and influence the work of the proposed Cross-Committee and the broader work of the Scottish Parliament on ending child poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We are happy to meet with you to explore this further and discuss how the Scottish Parliament can work alongside civil society organisations, like ours, to make sure Scotland spares no effort in lifting children and families out of poverty for good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This must be the Parliament where we prioritise ending child poverty above all else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We have copied this letter to each of the named Committee Convenors and corresponding Committee Clerks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yours\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cbr>Justina Murray, CEO, Aberlour Children’s Charity\u003Cbr>Michele Janes, Director of Barnardo’s Scotland\u003Cbr>Claire Burns, Director, CELCIS\u003Cbr>John Dickie, Director for Scotland, Child Poverty Action Group\u003Cbr>Nicola Killean, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland\u003Cbr>Judith Turbyne, CEO, Children in Scotland\u003Cbr>Mary Glasgow, CEO, Children First\u003Cbr>Kaushik Mistry. Executive Director, Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights\u003Cbr>Nancy Louks, CEO, Families Outside\u003Cbr>Laura Millar, CEO, Gingerbread Fife\u003Cbr>Eliza Waye, Strategic Lead for Scotland, Home-Start UK\u003Cbr>Louise Hunter, CEO, Includem\u003Cbr>Sabine Goodwin, Director, Independent Food Aid Network\u003Cbr>Chris Birt, Associate Director for Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland, Joseph Rowntree Foundation\u003Cbr>Satwat Rehman, CEO, One Parent Families Scotland\u003Cbr>Amy Woodhouse, CEO, Parenting Across Scotland\u003Cbr>Peter Kelly, CEO, Poverty Alliance\u003Cbr>Claire Telfer, Head of Scotland, Save the Children\u003Cbr>Mandy Morgan, CEO, The Scottish Pantry Network.\u003Cbr>Sara Cowan, Director, Scottish Women’s Budget Group\u003Cbr>Cara Hilton, Senior Policy & Public Affairs Manager (Scotland), Trussell\u003C\u002Fp>",null,"2026-06-18T00:00:00.000000Z","Aberlour Children's Charity and 21 other organisations have written to the Education & Gaelic, Equalities & Human Rights and Social Justice Committees to call for a joint Scottish Parliamentary committee on ending child poverty.","media\u002Fshutterstock_559526095.jpg","2026-06-18T08:47:22.000000Z",{"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},{"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},"01kt1m6yhpk9ybvdrhmnqjqthc","1","Survivor reveals how abusive ex weaponised apps to spy on her","survivor-reveals-how-abusive-ex-weaponised-apps-to-spy-on-her","\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>\"I kicked him out the house but he never left at all.\"\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first, I thought my neighbours were spying on me. I had finally got him out of the house but somehow he still knew what was going on in the house.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew who was visiting, when I was out with the kids, where we had been. Everything. He claimed neighbours were keeping an eye on us for him. I became paranoid, suspicious of everyone around us but it wasn’t a neighbour at all. It was him using my own devices to spy on me. Inside my own home. Watching us, listening in. I had kicked him out but he had never left at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When we met, I had my own house and a good, stable life. Within a year, he had stopped paying his rent and moved in with me and the financial pressure started almost immediately. “We need to buy this. We need to do that.” There were loans, cards, more loans.  \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within months, he’d stopped paying child maintenance and quit his job. Within a few more, we had around £20,000 of debt in my name. I was working 12-hour shifts, eleven days in a row, trying to keep afloat. I was earning good money but never enough. I wasn’t making a dent on the debt and he never stopped spending. It took me a little while to realise he was hiding a drug problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He took my car, decided who I spoke to, smashed my phones so we had to share one. I couldn’t send messages, couldn’t speak to anyone. He isolated me from my family.  If I tried to leave, it turned violent. The first time, he choked me. All I can remember was being hit off the fridge and off the cabinets and ending up on the tiles with his hand on my throat. After that, I stopped trying to leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He made me feel like everything was my fault or I was making stuff up, getting it wrong. “You’re overreacting. You don’t get it. You’re being stupid.” That was constant. Even when he crashed the car when he was high, it was somehow my fault. Constantly gas-lighting me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I finally got him to leave and had put Ring cameras inside the house to keep an eye on the dog when we were out. We had an Alexa device on my Amazon account, and that was all linked to the cameras too. But he had set things up so he could access all of it. Everything was connected - same email, same passwords. He could sit and see us, inside our home,  rewind, watch us all day, every day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He did that for over a year. I didn’t know. I was living my life, thinking I had my space back, not realising he was still there. I only found out by accident. A friend was at my house when my ex phoned me and said, “I know he’s there. He’s sitting on the couch.” My heart dropped. That wasn’t a neighbour. It was him and he was watching. I finally got it, checked the app and he had been stalking us for months, checking in all through the day and night. There were live views from five, six, seven o’clock in the morning. He was sitting watching, clicking around, coming and going. It was hard to take in, to be honest. Made me feel sick.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It all started to make sense. How he knew all this stuff about our lives. When I confronted him, he said it was an accident that it had just showed up on his phone. Sure. And it wasn’t just Ring. He was inside all the devices and apps, email, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix. I had to change everything. New addresses, new passwords, remove apps. I shut it all down and started again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even then, I knew he was still trying to get in. He was nowhere near the house but when he was trying to access my devices it felt like he was right outside trying the locks. It makes you feel vulnerable. Looking back, it was always about control. When he felt he was losing control over me, things would escalate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During one fight, he even said it out loud: “You’re supposed to fear me. That’s how relationships work.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That sentence has never left me. When I raised it with him years later, he said it never happened, that I was making it up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’m rebuilding now. Financially, I have a plan. I’ll be debt-free in two years. All laid out. Emotionally, it’s harder. He had chipped away at the sense of myself, my confidence. I was constantly being told what to wear, what to say, who to speak to, what to think, how to behave. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sometimes I don’t really know who I am any more, that I’ve lost something. But I’ll find it again. Whatever, he took from me, I’ll get it back. And more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Mum, supported by Aberlour.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cem>Stock image used.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cem>This story was provided to The Herald and published on Sunday 31st May 2026.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>","2026-05-31T00:00:00.000000Z","Woman supported by Aberlour Children's Charity shares how her abusive ex weaponised apps to spy on her.","media\u002FiStock-2262814359.jpg","2026-06-01T12:58:18.000000Z",{"id":28,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":19,"is_featured":7,"title":29,"slug":30,"content":31,"content_overview":11,"published_at":32,"seo_title":29,"seo_description":33,"image":34,"created_at":35,"updated_at":35},"01m45vtvk0pdb1y7c1cqv76edp","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>","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"]