by Erica Young, CAS Social Justice team.
This article was first published in the Herald on 3 August 2024.
The new Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has stated powerfully that “tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty leaves them not ready to learn and robbed of opportunity.”
While the UK’s fiscal situation is in the spotlight, the new Government has committed to a strategic approach to tackling the social, and economic, devastation associated with child poverty. This makes it a timely moment to reflect on what we have learned so far from the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment (SCP).
Evidence is emerging that in Scotland child poverty rates and growth, and patterns of food insecurity, are diverging from the rest of the UK because of the bold choice to implement SCP.
The payment provides vital cash support, giving parents the dignity of choice over how to provide for their children. Since insufficient household income is the fundamental driver of child poverty, a cash-first approach is foundational to the success of a wider strategy.
At CAS our data is beginning to reveal the impact. The proportion of households with children receiving food insecurity advice decreased by 10% over February to March in the financial year 2023-2024. In the same period the previous year it increased by 29%.
This shift coincides with the expansion of Scottish Child Payment. It is soon to become legally independent of UK-delivered social security. This provides an invaluable opportunity to ensure that it truly targets need, catching people not currently able to access it, including those in receipt of Maternity Allowance, some students, and those with no recourse to public funds. There is an opportunity to prevent an abrupt loss of support (so called “cliff-edges”) by considering a gradual reduction in payment levels as people earn more and children transition to adulthood.
Of course, SCP is only part of the journey towards eradicating child poverty. Accessing SCP could be the “front door” parents can open to access complete early years support for families, built from Social Security Scotland’s Local Area Delivery service.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies concluded that this approach, formerly implemented via the Sure Start programme, reduced the need for support for many children initially recorded as having a special need, and was particularly effective for children from low-income backgrounds. The programme was managed by a partnership of health, education, social services and the voluntary sector.
The Local Area Delivery service provides an infrastructure that has the potential to reach parents at a key point of contact to ensure that those who need it can be supported to access a range of services under one roof, through drop in and pop-up services, referral pathways and warm handover arrangements with key partners. The links could include to debt advice, childcare providers and health, employability and parenting support. The Local Area Delivery service existing home visit capacity could be developed into a service able to provide outreach provision.
In the context of labour, energy, and housing market failures, bold, holistic, root-cause driven solutions are crucial. SCP is one of these solutions; it is a “pollinator” policy upon which an ecosystem approach to tackling child poverty can be developed. Unlocking human potential requires us to collectively transform the life chances of every child.