[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f10b3rz2z388kj":3,"$fktijn93kc0yo":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":28},"01m45vtvk0pdb1y7c1cqv76edp","1","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",{"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},{"id":29,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":19,"is_featured":7,"title":30,"slug":31,"content":32,"content_overview":11,"published_at":33,"seo_title":30,"seo_description":34,"image":35,"created_at":36,"updated_at":37},"01m2ndea3c4hycfb1md1eg972n","Children must be heard as Scotland's drug deaths continue to destroy families","children-must-be-heard-as-scotlands-drug-deaths-continue-to-destroy-families","\u003Cp>The number of drug-related deaths will be announced this week, once again heralding one of the bleakest days in Scotland’s year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bleak because, once again, we are forced to confront the human cost of this crisis, in lost lives and bereaved families, and our enduring failure to ease the pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bleak because this tragedy has become an annual opportunity for political point-scoring, for hand wringing and finger pointing, for turning a public health calamity coloured in shades of grey into binary black and white.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It has become a hollow, repetitive, black-edged day of claim and counter claim when too many of the voices that demand to be heard – including the voices of children - are lost in the stramash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More than 600 children lost a parent in 2020 to drugs, according to analysis four years later, and there is nothing to suggest that level of loss, or its impact, has eased dramatically in the years since. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time last year the National Records of Scotland revealed 1017 drug-related deaths in 2024, a year when 3167 children were placed on the child protection register. Almost 40 per cent of those registrations were linked to the substance use of parents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hundreds of children in Scotland lose parents to drugs every year. Thousands more grow up on the constant brink of crisis and the edges of care because of the impact of drug harm on their families. Their childhoods are turbulent, education sabotaged, talents untapped, and opportunities curtailed. It cannot go on. Our country cannot allow so many babies, children, and young people to be the invisible and forgotten victims of this crisis. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The number of lives lost to drugs last year will be revealed this month [WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER] when a single number will, inevitably, be framed as a simple measurement of our success, or otherwise, in tackling the worst drugs death rate in Europe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is, of course, more than a number. This is about life and death, grief, and loss, and our response demands more than over-hyped, quick win “solutions” or politically-motivated potshots. After the sound and fury, when the news cycle spins again, will we be any closer to tackling the symptoms of this crisis never mind the root causes?  Well, we should be. We know what works and needs to be done. We have known for years. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tomorrow? Next year? The decade after? That will demand practical policies, political will and far-sighted strategy to transform the lives and life chances of children living in our poorest postcodes. It demands long-promised support to end child poverty, close the attainment gap, create opportunities, jobs and apprenticeships, encourage hope, and rebuild thriving communities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today? We must do whatever we can, as much as we can, and certainly more than we are doing, to heal those lives damaged by substance use, shore up families, and support children to a better future. That means throwing a protective arm around them and their families. It means support that is expert, intensive, and encompassing and, most crucially, there when needed for as long as it is needed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his Programme for Government announced earlier this month, First Minister John Swinney promised to eradicate child poverty and treat drug use as a public health emergency, while vowing prevention and early help will be a seam running through our care, health and criminal justice services.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Look up prevention and early help in the dictionary and you might find a picture of our Mother and Child Recovery Houses. \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fservice\u002Fmother-and-child-recovery-house-falkirk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Burrow\u003C\u002Fa> in Falkirk and \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.aberlour.org.uk\u002Fservice\u002Fmother-and-child-recovery-houses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Discovery Grove\u003C\u002Fa> in Dundee offer residential recovery spaces for pregnant and new mums with a history of substance issues, allowing them to recover while staying safely with their babies. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We wrap around both mother and child, supporting bonding, building their confidence as parents, and laying the foundations of a safe and secure childhood for their baby.  Without our intensive support, many of those children would be placed in care. With it, three quarters of babies remain safely with their mothers when they leave. For all sorts of good reasons our two houses, backed by the Scottish Government and shaped by the experiences of the women living there, make sense. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Intensive perinatal support for pregnant and new mums and their babies transforms the lives of whole families. It is an investment which is already paying off in better lives, thriving families, stronger communities and (let’s not overlook this) significant money saved. An independent evaluation of our community-based intensive perinatal services in Falkirk estimated it saved £1million a year in avoided care placements for babies and other crisis interventions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Money invested in drug and alcohol recovery and high quality, intensive support for mums and their children is best spent keeping families safely together, than managing their separation through a lifetime of crisis-led state intervention. This is true child protection. Wherever they live in Scotland, pregnant and new mums need a straightforward route to expert, effective and non-judgmental support, giving their children the best start.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is not about new money but smarter spending, to ease the pressure on our partners in social work and health care in every region of Scotland. The big question is not whether our country can afford to roll out and scale up these services nationally, but whether we can afford not to?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One mum hailed the support she found in Discovery Grove after struggling to find the help she needed elsewhere: \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cp>It isn’t all cuddles and fluffy blankets, there is a lot of hard truths and hard work, but there is also kindness, patience, and respect. Until now, I had been crying out for help but felt like no one could hear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\u003Cp>It is time to start listening to Scotland’s mums and their children and now, today, is a good time to start.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Justina Murray\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Aberlour CEO\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp> \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cem>This article was written for The Scotsman and published on 22nd September 2026.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>","2026-09-22T00:00:00.000000Z","Aberlour Children's Charity's CEO, Justina Murray, calls for more family support as drugs deaths statistics in Scotland are announced","media\u002FRS1300_0E5A9849.jpg","2026-09-16T15:30:22.000000Z","2026-09-22T08:43:28.000000Z"]