[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f10b3rz2z388kj":3,"$f15agmovo0zd9a":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":18,"category_id":6,"is_featured":19,"title":20,"slug":21,"content":22,"link_text":11,"link":11,"content_overview":11,"published_at":23,"seo_title":24,"seo_description":11,"image":25,"attachment":26,"created_at":27,"updated_at":28},"01j6cdwjnkgwqtq6qgwy7f9my9","2",0,"Scorecard for the Scottish Budget 2024-25","scorecard-for-the-scottish-budget-2024-25","\u003Cp>In December 2023, members of the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fendchildpoverty.org.uk\u002Fabout\u002F\">End Child Poverty (ECP) coalition in Scotland\u003C\u002Fa> set out what \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fcpag.org.uk\u002Fsites\u002Fdefault\u002Ffiles\u002F2024-01\u002FECP%20Budget%20Briefing%202024%20-%202025%20.pdf\">we believe needs\u003C\u002Fa> to happen to shift the dial on child poverty. The \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fendchildpoverty.org.uk\u002Fabout\u002F\">Coalition\u003C\u002Fa> is made up of over 80 organisations. Members in Scotland have longstanding expertise and policy calls informed by the voice of children and families. Overall, we urged the Scottish Government to apply a robust test across the entire Scottish Budget: will this meaningfully support Scotland’s child poverty ambitions? This briefing is our top-level ‘scorecard’ assessing how the draft Budget responded to this challenge, as measured against our calls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In setting out this assessment, it is important to recognise that we have strongly welcomed the Scottish Government’s commitment and actions to date to drive down child poverty across Scotland. Investment in the Scottish Child Payment is alone estimated to lift around 50,000 children out of poverty. Low-income families with children have seen their incomes boosted by around “\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fifs.org.uk\u002Fnews\u002Fscottish-budget-changes-tax-and-benefit-system-widen-gap-rest-uk-higher-taxes-and-more\">a sizeable £2,000 a year\u003C\u002Fa>” compared to those in England and Wales, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. As a result, there are families no longer relying on foodbanks, children able to join their friends in activities previously denied them, and struggling parents whose financial worries have lessened, and mental health improved. We know from our work, that the extra money has been spent on essentials, like nappies, while also helping parents travel to interviews, a new job, or college – opening up long-term routes out of poverty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>However, we are bitterly disappointed that the draft Scottish Budget for 2024-25 fails to sufficiently build on these efforts. As it stands, the Budget will, at best, stall progress in some areas, while hampering progress in others. Overall, there is a lack of concerted investment to further reduce child poverty in the short-term or to prevent it in the future. We are concerned by choices – such as funding a Council Tax freeze that will disproportionately benefit better off households whilst providing little if any support for low-income families – that do not align with the Government’s stated priority of tackling poverty. As a result, we are deeply concerned the Budget may be a step back, putting the statutory 2030 targets in yet more jeopardy.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n","2024-02-20 13:09:07","Scorecard for the Scottish Budget 2024-25 - Aberlour - Web Backend","media\u002Fecp-scorecard-scottish-budget-2024.jpg","docs\u002Fecp-scorecard-scottish-budget-2024.pdf","2024-08-28T12:03:10.000000Z","2024-11-25T07:44:44.000000Z"]