[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f10b3rz2z388kj":3,"$f2k1x91e8briua":16},{"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},"01m45vtvk0pdb1y7c1cqv76edp","9cdbdd6d-4900-4646-a012-d3e67a5ee788","1",false,"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>",null,"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":17,"author_id":5,"category_id":11,"is_featured":18,"title":19,"slug":20,"content":21,"link_text":11,"link":11,"content_overview":11,"published_at":22,"seo_title":23,"seo_description":24,"image":25,"attachment":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27},"01jp2tmmwfe1wmxmvza73mcex8",0,"Aberlour's School Meal Debt Briefing ","aberlours-school-meal-debt-briefing","\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Aberlour Children’s Charity has campaigned to see an end to school meal debt in Scotland.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That children should ever be burdened with debt or could be denied a meal at school because of that debt goes against everything that seems fair and just.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>School meal debt is a symptom of families not having enough money to provide for their children. Tackling child poverty must include ending school meal debt and hidden school hunger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aberlour’s research has shown that school meal debt has been on the rise year on year as ever more families struggle to feed their children at home let alone at school.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>In 2023, more than 30,000 children across Scotland had school meal debt, totalling £1.8 million.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>By 2024, local authorities reported that school meal debt had increased to £2.8 million.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Cp>At Aberlour we see families every day who rely on foodbanks because they can’t afford to feed their families. We see parents going without so that their children can eat. We see children arrive at school having had no breakfast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aberlour’s campaign to #EndSchoolMealDebt successfully persuaded the Scottish Government to write off nearly £3 million of school meal debt through the introduction of the School Meal Debt Fund.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We welcomed this clear action to tackle school meal debt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>However, to end school meal debt and hidden school hunger for good, we must extend free school meal eligibility to all low-income families in Scotland—starting with all families receiving the Scottish Child Payment.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>","2025-03-11 14:41:00","Aberlour Children's Charity's End School Meal Debt Campaign Briefing","Read Aberlour Children's Charity's End School Meal Debt Campaign Briefing.","media\u002F01JP2TMMPN19TXGSJV5XAKPBYQ.jpg","docs\u002FSchool Meal Debt Briefing_2025_Digital.pdf","2025-03-11T14:44:47.000000Z"]