Challenge Poverty Week 2026 – The NEN

Challenge Poverty Week: Thursday

TACKLING CHILD POVERTY

Challenge Poverty Week: Wednesday

FAIR WORK

‘Child Poverty remains a key priority for Local Government’

Child poverty remains a key priority for Local Government. Read more from COSLA’S Children and Young People Spokesperson, speaking on Challenge Poverty Week 2026:

Child poverty continues to be a key priority for Local Government. Despite unprecedented financial challenges, local authorities remain firmly committed to our shared goal under the Verity House Agreement: tackling poverty — particularly child poverty — and delivering vital services and support to children and families in need.

Commenting, Councillor Tony Buchanan, COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, said: “On Challenge Poverty Week, I would like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues across Local Government for the vital work they do every day to support our children – it is important that we can continue to recognise their dedication.

Child poverty is a cross-cutting issue that pervades across all council areas with latest figures estimating around 2 in 5 people in Scotland live in very deep poverty, meanwhile relative child poverty remains at 21%.

Local Government is at the frontline of tackling poverty. Every day, our councils work to boost incomes, provide vital services such as housing and transport, and deliver key interventions such as free school meals, and the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

However, we know we have more to do. COSLA will continue to call for evidence based whole‑family, community‑centred support, a balance between universal and targeted provision, and flexible and sustainable long-term funding so councils can build on and accelerate the vital work they already undertake to tackle poverty in their communities. COSLA will also continue to lobby for meaningful multi-year settlements for local government and our partners that enable preventative investment for children and families.

Despite the financial pressures facing councils, local authorities remain strongly committed to our shared priority under the Verity House Agreement to tackle poverty, particularly child poverty, and to deliver a range of services and support children and their families in need.

A holistic approach must be taken at the local and national level to ensure our approach is person-centred and utilises the lived experiences of local families, particularly those in priority groups, to overcome barriers and address specific challenges faced by those families within their community context. This requires adequate funding for local authorities, who are best placed to target provision for their local contexts.

Earlier this year COSLA published a white paper COSLA-White-Paper-Strengthening-Scotlands-Approach-To-Tackling-Poverty.pdf.

COSLA-White-Paper-Strengthening-Scotlands-Approach-To-Tackling-Poverty Download

The paper sets out how Local Government is already helping to address the impacts of poverty through action on the housing emergency, delivering free school meals and funded early learning and childcare, supporting households affected by in-work poverty, and helping people overcome barriers such as a lack of affordable transport

Challenge Poverty Week 2026 runs from Monday 6th – Sunday 11th October with events taking place across Scotland. Including an Elected Members Seminar on Wednesday 7^th October at 2pm hosted by Cllr Chalmers, Community Wellbeing Spokesperson.

COSLA Elected Member Webinar: Tackling Child Poverty

Challenge Poverty Week: Children First encourages Edinburgh families to call them for help

Scotland’s national children’s charity, Children First, has revealed new figures showing that financial difficulties remain the top reason for families to call its support line, as it urged families who are struggling to get in touch for support.

Over half of Edinburgh families (56%) who got in touch with the charity’s support line between July and September were experiencing money worries, with callers seeking help and advice when rising costs, household bills and unexpected expenses become difficult to manage.

Children First’s support line provides practical, emotional and financial support, including debt support, to parents and carers 365 days a year.

Last year, the charity worked with nearly 1,500 families to provide financial wellbeing support and advice that helped put £1.8 million in financial gains back in their pockets and manage over £1 million in debts.

Kerry* recently contacted Children First as she was experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety and a difficult financial situation that was affecting her whole family.

Describing the immediate impact of speaking to Children First, she said she felt:

“Overwhelmed in a good way as I have been listened to and told that food can be on the table tonight.

“Children First’s support line saved me – held me and gave me hope for the first time that there was light at the end of the tunnel.”

Children First was able to provide immediate hardship funding so the family could buy groceries. The family was also referred for ongoing support with energy debt and income maximisation, helping them develop a plan for their financial situation and allowing Kerry to focus on parenting and meeting her children’s needs.

Simon McGowan, Assistant Director at Children First, said: “When a parent or carer is worrying about whether there will be food on the table, it can be incredibly difficult to focus on anything else. It’s so important that families can access support before financial pressures become a crisis.

“Our support line provides a place for families to talk, be listened to and access practical, emotional and financial help without judgement.

“This Challenge Poverty Week and beyond, we’re urging families in Edinburgh not to struggle alone. If money worries or other pressures are making family life difficult, please reach out to Children First. We’re here for you.”

With around 210,000 children in Scotland living in poverty, the gap between current child poverty levels and the targets for 2030/31 is significant. As part of efforts to address this challenge, Children First has received a £2 million investment from the Scottish Government to expand its support line and help even more families.

Any family worried about their financial situation can call the Children First support line on 08000 28 22 33.

Challenge Poverty Week: Tuesday

ENERGY

Challenge Poverty Week: Monday

SOCIAL SECURITY

Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Poverty in Scotland 2026 report published

CHALLENGE POVERTY WEEK 2026

We are publishing this report at a critical crossroads in Scotland’s journey to a possible future, one free from poverty.

In this year’s election campaign and programme for government, we have consistently heard the First Minister describe eradicating poverty as his defining mission (Scottish Government, 2026a). This commitment is welcome, but there is an increasing disconnect between the Scottish Government’s rhetoric and the reality of life for families in poverty across Scotland.

New data for 2022–25 shows that:

17% of people in Scotland were in poverty, 11% in deep poverty and 7% in very deep poverty. Around 2 in 5 people in poverty in Scotland are in very deep poverty
relative child poverty sits at 21%
over 9 in 10 children in poverty are in one or more of the Scottish Government’s priority families.

Despite some progress, the legal target to reduce relative child poverty to 10% by 2030/31 is set to be missed by a wide margin. Interim targets have been missed, and the Scottish Government’s current plans will not deliver the scale of change needed to shift the dial.

We want a better start for all children in Scotland, and there is clear evidence of overwhelming public support for more, and more effective, action on child poverty.

The Scottish Government’s plan to review Scotland’s landmark statutory child poverty targets risks delaying action and lowering ambitions. New targets need to be genuinely stretching, grounded in income as a central measure of poverty, and have teeth to hold the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament to account for meeting them.

In parallel, the Scottish Government needs a new, much bolder and properly funded plan to reduce poverty in Scotland. Only 1 in 4 people (26%) somewhat or strongly agreed that the Scottish Government is doing enough to tackle child poverty in Scotland (Birt, 2026a).

This year, as well as assessing the national picture, we have focused on the vital role of local government in reducing poverty, backed by new public attitudes data and engagement with people with lived experience.

In findings that must shape live discussions about the future of local governance and public service reform in Scotland, we have heard that:

people think councils are too underfunded to provide the services needed in their area
there is significant public disaffection with councils, regardless of people’s backgrounds and across Scotland’s different communities
councils are not doing enough to tackle poverty, with people on low incomes and living in more deprived areas reporting worse experiences of services and higher levels of disaffection.

To fix this, the Scottish Government and local government will need to work more effectively – in their own right and in collaboration.

Every council needs to ask itself, just as the Scottish Government should do, whether they have genuinely prioritised child poverty reduction and if their services are best where they are needed the most.

Fundamentally, these should be the core questions of public service reform; otherwise it simply becomes a numbers game of reductions in the number of councils and/or budgets. It is also clear that public service reform needs to go hand in hand with a fundamental rethink of local government funding to rewire our services and tax system to radically reduce poverty.

It is also vital that national and local government’s bandwidth across this parliament is not consumed by bureaucratic strife; families in poverty need to see rapid progress in the immediate term.

We want the Scottish Government, as part of its renewed drive to reform local government in Scotland, to:

provide local government with a more stable platform for anti-poverty work — avoiding single-year funding settlements and allowing councils greater freedom to adapt to their communities’ needs
take steps to fundamentally reform local government finance in Scotland
ground public service reform in 2 key questions: would the changes reduce child poverty and will they make services best where they are needed the most?

We want all councils to:

prioritise preventing poverty in their communities, and make full use of their levers including economic development, childcare, employability, transport, housing and schools
provide better-quality and more joined-up local services to support families in or at risk of poverty, with genuine partnership with the third sector, co-location of services, a ‘no wrong door’ approach and better use of data
significantly improve day-to-day communication with the public, underpinned by deeper and more meaningful work to involve people with lived experience of poverty in local decision-making.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Poverty in Scotland 2026 report

Executive Summary

COSLA Resources Spokesperson Cllr Kelly Parry has responded to ‘Poverty in Scotland 2026′ by @jrf_uk : “This report is a stark reminder that far too many children and families in Scotland are still being denied the security and opportunities they deserve.”

Challenge Poverty Week: Get Involved

Organisations across Scotland are getting ready for #ChallengePoverty Week from 5th to 11th October – and it’s not too late to join them.

On our website povertyalliance.org/CPW you can find events and download our social media graphics and other fantastic resources. Share them and your messages of support with the hashtags #ChallengePoverty and #CPW26.

And there just a few spaces left for this year’s Annual Lecture with Asad Rehman, CEO Friends of the Earth England, Wales and NI. Asad brings 40 years’ experience campaigning for environmental, social and racial justice, with a deep understanding of how these struggles are inextricably linked.

Come to our AGM and discuss a better future

It’s wrong that growing division is being fostered our communities – but how can we respond?

Join our AGM this #ChallengePoverty Week, and take part in a discussion led by Satwat Rehman (One Parent Families Scotland), Sabir Zazai (Scottish Refugee Council) and David Hilferty (Citizens Advice Scotland) .

Gather to talk about delivering change on poverty

Join members of the Poverty Alliance, campaigners, community organisations, policymakers, practitioners and everyone committed to eradicating poverty in Scotland and across the UK for a day of discussion, debate and action.

This year’s conference will explore how we respond to the changing political environment, strengthen our collective voice, and build momentum for policies that reduce poverty and inequality.

Keynote speaker:

Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing

Read why social security is a social good

The latest Scottish Anti-Poverty Review looks at how social security is the foundation of a good society, with contributions from Citizens Advice Scotland, the Scottish Poverty & Inequality Committee, Engender Scotland, the Scottish Health Equalities Research Unit.

Only Poverty Alliance members get print copies, but you can read the latest edition online here:

anti-poverty-review Download