[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f1dqu7s71u7tow":3,"$f10b3rz2z388kj":17},{"id":4,"author_id":5,"category_id":6,"is_featured":7,"title":8,"slug":9,"content":10,"link_text":6,"link":6,"content_overview":6,"published_at":11,"seo_title":12,"seo_description":13,"image":14,"attachment":15,"created_at":16,"updated_at":16},"01m1kmjrpdsjrbv3zrfzq82zrk","9cdbdd6d-4900-4646-a012-d3e67a5ee788",null,0,"MSP Briefing For Debate on Programme for Government - Eradicating Child Poverty","programme-for-government-eradicating-child-poverty","\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>The First Minister’s continued commitment to “eradicating child poverty” is clear in its ambition and we welcome it\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Ending child poverty and meeting Scotland’s child poverty targets must mean that ambition is backed by clear and targeted actions, significant investment and a coherent plan\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Increasing incomes and putting more money in families’ pockets is the most direct and immediate way to tackle child poverty, and further investment in the Scottish Child Payment remains the best way to achieve that\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Accessible whole family support is vital to respond to the impact of poverty in the lives of children and their families and must include the necessary combination of practical, emotional and financial support that families need to help them thrive\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Guaranteeing support for all children and families living in poverty must mean long term funding and investment at scale to deliver the support that will help create sustainable routes out of poverty for families\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Scotland’s poorest families are in the grip of a public debt crisis and tackling public debt is vital to helping end child poverty\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Cp>More than 1 in 5 children in Scotland continue to live in poverty. This Scottish Parliament must be the parliament where we prioritise ending child poverty above all else. Our most disadvantaged families remain in the midst of a cost of living crisis, and much more action is needed in Scotland over the next five years to advance and sustain reductions in child poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Children have a right to grow up free from poverty and for their families to get the help and support they need to help them to thrive. Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament have a duty to uphold these rights.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Programme for Government sets out a range of actions that it identifies will contribute to tackling child poverty. We welcome many of these commitments – including increasing the Scottish Child Payment for families with a baby under one, expansion of free school meals and the delivery of whole family support – and recognise that individually and in combination some will have a real impact helping to tackle the impact of poverty in children and families’ lives. What is unclear is the level of investment that will follow in order to deliver on these and other commitments with many actions announced by the First Minister absent of any identified level of funding to deliver on them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Programme for Government does not significantly add to or build on the Scottish Government’s Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan – Bringing Hope, Building Futures – that was published earlier this year. Aberlour and others highlighted concerns that the actions contained in the plan fail to meet the ambition to “eradicate child poverty” and are potentially inconsistent with duties set out in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017. The Programme for Government provides nothing further to show how the Scottish Government intends to achieve this ambition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Scottish Child Payment remains the single most effective and immediate mechanism available to the Scottish Government for reducing child poverty. We know social security alone will not end child poverty, however increasing incomes and putting more money in families’ pockets is the most direct way to tackle child poverty and the Scottish Child Payment has already driven progress on poverty reduction in Scotland. Families we work with tell us the difference it is making in their lives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Read our full briefing to MSPs ahead of the Scottish Government debate: Programme for Government - Eradicating Child Poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>","2026-09-03 10:40:13","Aberlour Children's Charity's MSP Briefing For Debate on Programme for Government - Eradicating Child Poverty","Aberlour Children's Charity's MSP Briefing For Debate on Programme for Government - Eradicating Child Poverty on Thursday 3rd September 2026.","media\u002F01M1KMJRGYK5BT5XS1VBD2TWFZ.jpg","docs\u002FAberlour MSP PfG Child Poverty Briefing Sept 26.pdf","2026-09-03T12:40:57.000000Z",{"id":18,"blog_author_id":5,"blog_category_id":19,"is_featured":20,"title":21,"slug":22,"content":23,"content_overview":6,"published_at":24,"seo_title":21,"seo_description":25,"image":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":27},"01m45vtvk0pdb1y7c1cqv76edp","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>","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"]