The Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee has opened a consultation to consider the impact of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.
The Act aims to measure, tackle and report on child poverty in Scotland. It set out specific targets that seek to virtually eradicate child poverty by April 2030. The Act also established the Poverty and Inequality Commission, which has responsibility for scrutinising child poverty reduction targets.
The Committee has launched its call for views to understand the impact of the Act, and in particular the difference that has been made by having the framework for reducing child poverty set in law.
In addition to interested individuals or groups, the Committee would like to hear from local authorities, health boards, academics with expertise in this area and private and third sector organisations that are working to reduce child poverty.
The Committee also wants to hear from people who engaged in the scrutiny of the Bill in 2017, before it became an Act, so that it can assess whether the Government’s approach has lived up to expectations.
The issue of child poverty has featured prominently in the Committee’s work, including during an inquiry that focused on parental employment where the Committee encouraged the Scottish Government to “supercharge” its efforts.
Speaking at the launch of the call for views, Collette Stevenson MSP, Convener of the Social Justice Committee, said: “The Child Poverty Act is a landmark piece of legislation, enshrining in law targets to virtually eradicate child poverty by April 2030.
“As we are now more than halfway towards the date when the 2030 targets are due to be met, our Committee would like to hear views on how the Act is working in practice.
“We’re really keen to understand whether putting the targets into law has been effective and what might have been different had the Scottish Government not taken this approach.”
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