Funding to help schools and councils close the attainment gap is the focus of a new Scottish Parliament inquiry.
The Education, Children and Young People Committee will examine the effectiveness of the Scottish Attainment Challenge in raising the attainment of children from deprived backgrounds.
A range of educational programmes are supported through this funding including support for local authorities and schools. The Scottish Government has announced it will allocate £1bn from 2021 to 2026 to support closing the poverty-related attainment gap.
In launching the inquiry, the Committee is seeking views on how the funding has benefited young people in deprived areas, what difference this has made to the attainment gap so far, and what more can be done going forward.
The Committee will also look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the attainment of pupils across Scotland over the past two years.
Committee Convener Stephen Kerr MSP said:“Every pupil in Scotland deserves an equal chance to succeed, no matter their background.
“With funding for the Scottish Attainment Challenge set to increase, we need to ensure this money is making a real difference. That is why we are launching an inquiry to determine the impact the fund has made so far in closing the attainment gap.
“To assist with our inquiry, we want your views not only on the progress of the fund but also on how we can best measure its success. That way, we can make sure the money is getting to those who need it the most.”
Deputy Convener Kaukab Stewart MSP said:“The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected young people across Scotland, but no group has been hit harder than those from deprived backgrounds.
“We need your help to better understand how the pandemic has impacted on the achievement of our pupils and how the announced new funding can best remedy these effects.”
The deadline for responses to the call for views is 8th February 2022.
Edinburgh School Uniform Bank has successfully secured £15,000 thanks to Scotmid Co-operative’s Community Connect award scheme.
Edinburgh School Uniform Bank, which distributes school uniform to families in Edinburgh who are facing financial hardship, was awarded the funding after being shortlisted by the convenience retailer as one of three good causes and charities in the East of Scotland to receive financial support from an £25,000 pot.
Other recipients of funding in the East include Canine Concern Scotland Trust, which provides therapy dogs for patients in hospital after a stroke or suffering traumatic brain injuries, and Scottish Huntington’s Association (see below).
Julia Grindley, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Edinburgh School Uniform Bank (above) said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive a £15,000 Scotmid Community Connect Award.
“This award will allow us to provide school uniform and warm jackets to over 600 local children. This funding will make a huge difference to their confidence and their sense of belonging, as well as keeping them cosy through the winter.”
Since Scotmid’s Community Connect launched in 2017, more than £460,000 has been awarded to 42 good cause groups, enabling key projects to come to life in local areas.
Shirley MacGillivray, Head of Communities and Membership at Scotmid, said: “Community Connect is one of the main ways we can support those communities that we serve and we are delighted to provide Edinburgh School Uniform Bank with this funding, which will help them to continue providing vital services.
“Times remain challenging for many people; being able to help improve the lives of others across the country is one of the very reasons we exist.”
Scottish Huntington’s Association has successfully secured £5,000 thanks to Scotmid Co-operative’s Community Connect award scheme.
The Association, which provides 1-1 advice, peer group work sessions, youth mental health services for children with a parent living with Huntington’s Disease and have a 50% chance themselves of inheriting the condition, was awarded the funding after being shortlisted by the convenience retailer as one of three causes and charities in the East of Scotland to receive financial support from an £25,000 pot.
Gemma Powell, Senior Fundraiser from Scottish Huntington’s Association said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive a £5,000 Scotmid Community Connect Award towards Scottish Huntington’s Association Youth Service.
“This funding will help us bring back our annual youth camp which is attended by young people growing up in families impacted by Huntington’s disease across Scotland.
“This camp offers young people the chance to make and catch up with friends, share experiences, learn more about Huntington’s disease and, for many, enjoy a break from caring responsibilities. We’re so grateful to Scotmid and their members.”
Mel Hughes, CEO of Canine Concern Scotland Trust said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive a £5,000 Scotmid Community Connect Award.
“This award will allow us to develop our Therapet® Visiting Service in the NHS Lothian area, starting with the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh.
“This funding will make a huge difference to patients recovering from a stroke or neurological condition, who will benefit from a Therapet® visit which will aid their physical, mental and emotional recovery.”
Since Scotmid’s Community Connect launched in 2017, more than £460,000 has been awarded to 42 good cause groups, enabling key projects to come to life in local areas.
While urban greenspace is often associated with improved mental health, new research has found the benefits are dependent on the characteristics of the population using the space – and their proximity to it.
Researchers at the James Hutton Institute and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) looked at the link between greenspace and prescription rates to treat mental health disorders across all Scottish towns with more than 10,000 residents.
They found a significant relationship between mental health and the amount of urban greenspace in areas with high proportions of people from black and minority ethnic and/or in areas of high deprivation.
However, the link between lower prescription rates and greenspace in these communities was only evident when looking at those spaces in the immediate neighbourhood. When considering greenspace within a 30-minute walk, no significant relationship was found between greenspace and mental health disorders.
This suggests that the mental health benefits of greenspace for these groups occur where it is closest to home – with previous research finding they are often the least likely to use their nearest greenspace.
Researchers found no significant relationship between mental health and green space in all other population groups.
The research, which has been published by the Urban Forestry & Urban Greening journal, will provide valuable information for urban and land-use planning, where decisions are taken at the population level.
The lead author Dr Michaela Roberts, Environmental Economist at the James Hutton Institute, said: “Our work supports the broad supposition that greenspace and mental health are positively related, and adds further support for the need to understand a populations’ relationship with greenspaces, to ensure urban greening achieves the highest gains for communities.”
Co-author Alistair McVittie, Ecosystem Services Economist at SRUC, said: “Our results highlight that the relationship between greenspace and mental health relies not only on the presence of greenspace itself, but also on the characteristics of the population using the greenspace.”
The research was funded by the Scottish Government’s Rural & Environment Science & Analytical Services Division.
TWENTY years gap in life expectancy between rich and poor
A new report from National Records of Scotland (NRS) highlights differences in outcomes for people living in the most deprived areas of Scotland compared to the least deprived areas.
Data from “Scotland’s Population 2020 – The Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends” shows that the death rate for all causes of death in the most deprived areas of Scotland was 1.9 times the rate in the least deprived areas.
The rates for drug-related deaths (18.4 times as large), alcohol-specific deaths (4.3 times as large), suicides (3.0 times as large), and COVID-19 deaths (2.4 times as large) were all notably higher in the most deprived areas.
This Annual Review provides a unique analysis of a wide range of datasets, highlighting emerging trends across a number of important themes.
Pete Whitehouse, Director of Statistical Services, said: “Our report on Scotland’s Population in 2020 shows that the death rate from all causes in the most deprived areas of Scotland is nearly double the death rate of people in our least deprived areas.
“The difference in death rates is higher for drug-related deaths, alcohol-specific deaths, suicides, and COVID-19.
“People in more deprived areas can also expect far fewer years in good health. There is a 20+ year gap in healthy life expectancy between people in the least and most deprived areas.
“This Annual Review has been produced since 1855. This year we have restructured it and presented datasets by a number of important themes, aiming to make it more accessible to a wider range of people.”
More than 120 organisations from across Scotland are urging First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to double the Scottish Child Payment in this year’s Programme for Government.
The campaigners say the 1 in 4 children living in poverty in Scotland cannot wait.
In an open letter the End Child Poverty coalition is calling on The First Minister to “do the right thing” to help thousands of poverty-stricken children and families.
The letter in full:
Dear First Minister,
As a broad coalition of national organisations, community groups, academics, trade unions and faith groups, we are writing to you to urge you to use the upcoming Programme for Government to commit to doubling the Scottish Child Payment in this year’s budget.
We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling child poverty, evidenced in the setting of statutory child poverty targets, introducing the Scottish Child Payment and the upcoming incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These steps have laid the foundation for tackling child poverty in Scotland and we have been delighted that they have been supported across Scotland’s political spectrum.
This cross-party agreement was also evident in May’s Holyrood elections, when all Scotland’s five main political parties committed to doubling the Scottish Child Payment. Such political consensus is welcome, and provides the opportunity for your government to act quickly and decisively in doubling the payment now.
To do so would provide a lifeline to families who are struggling to stay afloat. Even before Covid-19, people across Scotland were being swept up in a rising tide of poverty, with child poverty rising in every Scottish local authority. And the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities in Scotland and pulled many more people – particularly women, disabled people, and Black and minority ethnic people – into hardship.
With women’s poverty being inextricably linked to child poverty, the pandemic’s impact has pulled children across Scotland ever deeper into poverty. It has hit lone parents – the overwhelming majority of whom are women – particularly hard, a group already disproportionately affected by years of social security cuts.
Unlocking people from this poverty requires long-term work to tackle the structural inequalities around the labour market – particularly for women, disabled people and Black and minority ethnic people – and it will also require action like further expanding childcare provision. But we also need action now to boost incomes in the short term.
Every level of government has a duty to boost incomes where it can, and we are clear that the UK Government must scrap its planned and unjust £20 Universal Credit cut. But just as the UK Government has a moral responsibility to do the right thing, so too does the Scottish Government have a moral responsibility to use all of the powers at its disposal to loosen the grip of poverty on people’s lives.
We have the powers, we have the urgent need, and we have the cross-party consensus to double the Scottish Child Payment. If your government is to truly make ending child poverty a ‘national mission’, and if we are to ensure that a more just Scotland emerges from the pandemic, then we must not delay. Children growing up in the grip of poverty right now – as well as their parents and care-givers – simply cannot endure until the end of this Parliament to be unlocked from poverty. Their lives and life chances are too important for this action to wait.
The evidence is clear that if it is doubled now, it will represent the single most impactful action that could be taken to help meet the interim child poverty targets in 2023, and would signal that ending child poverty will be a defining priority for this Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament. If it is not, more and more children will be pulled into poverty and the opportunity to meet the interim child poverty targets will be missed. Under the current roll out plan and value, the Scottish Child Payment will reduce poverty in Scotland by between 2 and 3 percentage points. This could leave child poverty rates as high as 26% in 2023/24, when the interim target in legislation for that year is 18%. We cannot allow that to happen.
We therefore urge your government to do the right thing, to capitalise on the cross-party consensus that already exists, and to commit to doubling the Scottish Child Payment in this year’s budget. We look forward to your response.
Kind regards,
Peter Kelly, Director, Poverty Alliance
Claire Telfer, Head of Scotland, Save the Children
Paul Carberry, Director for Scotland, Action for Children
SallyAnn Kelly, Chief Executive Officer, Aberlour
John Dickie, Director, CPAG Scotland
Martin Crewe, Director, Barnardo’s Scotland
Jamie Livingstone, Head of Oxfam Scotland
Satwat Rehman, Director, One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS)
Amy Woodhouse, Joint Interim CEO, Children in Scotland
Christine Carlin, Scotland Director, Home-Start UK
Clare Simpson, Manager, Parenting Across Scotland
Anna Ritchie Allan, Executive Director, Close the Gap
Polly Jones, Head of Scotland, The Trussell Trust
Mary Glasgow, Chief Executive, Children 1st
Eilidh Dickson, Policy and Parliamentary Manager, Engender
Hugh Foy, Director, Xaverians UK Region
Russell Gunson, Director, IPPR Scotland
Dr Patrycja Kupiec, CEO, YWCA Scotland – The Young Women’s Movement
The Rt Hon Lord Wallace of Tankerness QC (Jim Wallace), Moderator of the General Assembly, The Church of Scotland
Emma Cormack, Chief Executive Officer, The Health Agency
Gillian Kirkwood, Chief Executive, Y sort it Youth Centre
Agnes Tolmie, Chair, Scottish Women’s Convention
Linda Tuthill, CEO, The Action Group
Steven McCluskey, CEO, Bikes for Refugees
Trishna Singh OBE, Director, Sikh Sanjog
Professor Adrian Sinfield, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Edinburgh
Jimmy Wilson, CEO, FARE Scotland
Ian Bruce, Chief Executive, Glasgow CVS
Revd Gary Noonan, Minister, Houston and Killellan Kirk
Jacqui Reid, Project Lead, EBI Unites
Innes McMinn, Manager, Independent Living Support
Suzanne Slavin, CEO, Ayr Housing Aid Centre
Fiona Rae, Interim Chief Executive, Community Food Initiatives North East
Mhairi Snowden, Director, Human Rights Consortium Scotland
Juliet Harris, Director, Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights
Tressa Burke, CEO, Glasgow Disability Alliance
Martin Wilkie-McFarlane, Director, Wellhouse Housing Association
Morna Simpkins, Scotland Director, MS Society
Kara Batchelor, Operations Manager, Alexander’s Community Development
Murray Dawson, Chief Executive, Station House Media Unit
Ashli Mullen, Creative Director, Friends of Romano Lav
Professor John McKendrick, Co-Director of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit, Glasgow Caledonian University
Justina Murray, Chief Executive Officer, Scottish Families Affected by Drugs and Alcohol
An Edinburgh-based American football project which is using sport to drive young people from the most deprived areas of the city into further education, is taking part in a national campaign, supported by Dame Katherine Grainger, highlighting how universities are helping local communities recover from the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Edinburgh Napier Knights Youth team was set up by Edinburgh Napier University in 2017, with the goal of working with school-age children in Sighthill and Broomhouse – areas with low levels of educational attainment – to promote health and wellbeing and provide a pathway for players to transition into higher education.
The youth teams are coached exclusively by students and graduates from Edinburgh Napier University who have undertaken coaching awards. By working across age groups, student coaches are able to educate their participants about the benefits of physical activity and the opportunities that are available to them through education.
The project, which has gone from strength to strength and seen seven members of the locally recruited youth team progress to university recently, is one of a number being featured in this week’s Made at Uni Energising Places campaign led by Universities UK and British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and supported by Dame Katherine.
Pete Laird (above), Head Coach of the Napier Knights and the university’s programme leader for Sport, Exercise and Health Science explained how the project had helped inspire local youngsters: “We decided we wanted to give something back to the local community.
“We know from studies that sport can engage young people, and we also know that young people who play sport are also more likely to do better academically. So we thought American football as our sport would be fantastic vehicle to try and help local kids.
“One of the great success stories coming out of our youth team was the progression of some of our players on to further and higher education. For some of our kids they were first generation students, having never thought about university before. Last year we had seven students who progressed from the youth team onto university, which for us that is an unbelievable success story.”
One of those success stories is Robbie Wales, an incoming first year studying Physical Activity and Health at Napier and the first member of his family to attend university.
He said: “The coaching staff are amazing; the team is amazing. I’ve gained a lot of skills from American football, mainly teamwork but also patience. Talking with coaches and past players, it’s definitely helped me make decisions on my life.”
The university are hopeful that even more young people from Edinburgh will get involved in the project as Covid restrictions ease.
Pete Laird added: “We were very worried coming out of lockdown, about whether or not the numbers would stay the same – but actually what we’ve seen is a big growth in people wanting to participate in activity.
“Now more than ever, sport is a vital resource for post-pandemic recovery.”
Dame Katherine Grainger said: “A lot of people know about the role universities play in developing some of our greatest Olympians and Paralympians but there is a real untold story about the work they do in their communities to improve the lives of people through sport and physical activity.
“The Edinburgh Napier Knights Youth team is a great example of that.”
The Made at Uni Energising Places campaign is taking place between July 12-16th, and includes the BUCS annual awards event which celebrates the positive effect of student sport and students who participate in the wider sporting sector in the UK.
To find out more about the Made at Uni Energising Places campaign visit www.madeatuni.org or follow @MadeAtUni on Twitter
The report reiterates the need to eliminate the digital exclusion of children and young people for good, and sets out a 10-point action plan to ensure that all have an opportunity to access the benefits of the digital world, both to ensure their right to education and for the sake of their wellbeing.
Closing the Digital Divide for Goodnotes the increased awareness of digital exclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in light of the shift to remote learning, and commends the rapid responses put in place to get more children and young people online.
However, the report also underlines the need for a continued focus on digital inclusion, to ensure that learning from the crisis period is maximised, and that a long-term strategic approach is put in place, given that challenges remain.
The 10 recommended actions include implementing a co-production process to develop a nationally agreed definition for digital inclusion, recognising that a device, suitable connection, skills and a safe online environment are essential components.
The report also calls for regular measurement of the levels of digital inclusion amongst children and young people, and the development of proactive solutions such as working with teachers and education staff to identify gaps in skills and revising teacher training requirements and curricula accordingly.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please feel free to contact Anna Grant (Senior Policy and Development Officer, Carnegie UK Trust) via anna.grant@carnegieuk.org.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has not been felt evenly across Scotland. Some people have been much more likely to get ill or die from COVID-19, and others have been disproportionately affected by the measures taken to control the virus (write ALEX PRIESTLY, Researcher and LIZZY BURGESS, Senior Researcher, Health and Social Care).
This blog looks briefly at health inequality in Scotland before the pandemic, how the virus has had an uneven impact, and what could be done during the recovery to address these differences in health across the nation. For a more detailed look at the effects of COVID-19 on health inequality, check out the SPICe research briefing Health Inequality and COVID-19 in Scotland.
What are health inequalities?
Health inequalities are “avoidable and unjust differences in people’s health across the population and between specific population groups”. Many people think they are unjust and avoidable as they are caused by societal and economic factors known as the ‘social determinants of health’.
Which groups are affected by these inequalities?
People living in deprived areas, people with physical and learning disabilities, people belonging to ethnic minority groups and unemployed people are just some groups who are more likely to have worse health than the rest of the population. This list is not exhaustive, and where people fit into more than one of these groups, the effects can be compounded. This is known as intersectionality – a word used to describe the “interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, and gender, creating interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage”.
In 2019, healthy life expectancy, the length of time someone can expect to live in good health, was 26 years shorter for men and 22 years shorter for women living in the most deprived parts of Scotland compared to those in the least deprived.
Cancer incidence is also more common in the most deprived areas of Scotland. Public Health Scotland found mortality rates for all cancers combined are 74% higher in the most deprived compared with the least deprived areas.
How uneven has the impact of COVID-19 been?
Early in the pandemic, some politicians and commentators referred to COVID-19 as “a great leveller” which would affect everyone equally. It has become clear that this is not the case. A few examples are outlined below, but many more groups have been affected particularly badly.
Research during the first wave of COVID-19 infection found that people with learning disabilities were twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19, twice as likely to be hospitalised, and three times as likely to die from COVID-19 than the general population.
People from ethnic minority backgrounds have also been disproportionately affected. National Records of Scotland analysed deaths from COVID-19 in the first wave of infection in 2020, and found that people of South Asian background were twice as likely to die compared to white people. When Public Health Scotland analysed data looking at the second wave of infection, they found that people of South Asian background were three times more likely to die or be hospitalised than white people.
The figure below shows how the impact of COVID-19 has varied by area of deprivation.
How could we address health inequality as we recover from the pandemic?
So we’ve seen that some groups mentioned above (and many others) were more likely to experience poor health before COVID-19, and have suffered more than the general population during COVID-19. How will we ensure that these groups are not left behind as we recover from COVID-19?
Looking specifically at Scotland, the Scottish Government set up the Social Renewal Advisory Board to make proposals for how to renew Scotland after the pandemic. Its report “If not now, when?” looks at how income could be distributed more fairly and how everyone should have access to basic rights and services.
The Mental Health Foundation, has looked at how the COVID-19 recovery can address worsening mental health in Scotland. Its manifesto outlines building a ‘wellbeing society’, where the causes of poor mental health are addressed highlighting the importance of prevention.
Most organisations who have looked at the COVID-19 recovery’s impact on health inequality agree that it needs to focus on addressing the fundamental causes of differences in people’s health across the population, rather than just dealing with the symptoms.
Speech by the Social Justice Secretary, Shona Robison, opening yesterday’s Tackling Poverty and Building A Fairer Country debate
Presiding Officer, I am pleased to open this debate on the urgent need for us to tackle poverty and build a fairer, more equal country.
We must seize the opportunity, build upon our strong efforts to date, and use every lever at our disposal to bring about the change needed to tackle this problem.
We already invest around £2 billion each year in support for people on low incomes, including over £672 million targeted at children. We have a strong focus on those at greatest disadvantage, including disabled people. And we are supporting innovative action with our £50 million Tackling Child Poverty Fund.
But we must do more. That is why we have committed a wide range of ambitious action to be delivered in the first 100 days of this Parliament – maintaining the tremendous pace taken of change throughout the COVID pandemic.
This is a priority across all Ministerial portfolios. No one action will bring about the change needed, it needs all parts of government and broader society to work together and to impact the drivers of poverty reduction – increasing household incomes from work, reducing costs on essentials and maximising incomes from social security.
The eradication of poverty and building a fairer more equal country must be a national mission for government, for our parliament and for our society. We must try, where possible, to unite on this issue and work together to create a fairer Scotland.
Backed by over £1 billion of additional funding, our response to the pandemic shows that we can make change happen at the pace and scale required to support people and improve their lives. And we wand to build on this can do approach.
We delivered free school meal support during all school holidays and periods of remote learning for children from low income families – helping to tackle food insecurity during the pandemic. We will continue this whilst expanding Free School Meal support to all primary pupils, which will start within the first 100 days of this Parliament.
Also, in our first 100 days we will complete the roll-out of 1,140 hours of funded Early Learning and Childcare and have set out the next stage of our ambition to expand childcare further and develop a wraparound childcare system, providing care before and after school, all year round. This will make an important contribution to children’s development and will unlock the potential of parents in the labour market.
We will also deliver our £20 million summer programme for pupils, helping children socialise, play and reconnect – an essential investment to support the wellbeing of all children and young people [backed by £7.5 million from our Tackling Child Poverty Fund].
Through two Pandemic Support Payments of £100 to low income families with children we put money directly into the pockets of those who needed it most.
Building upon this approach, we will effectively pay the Scottish Child Payment through introducing bridging payments of £520 for families not yet eligible for the Payment, with £100 to be paid to families this summer. We will also provide £130 to every household who received Council Tax Reduction in April, reaching around 500,000 households.
I am pleased I can also make two announcements.
First, building on the practical support we offered during the pandemic, we will be providing the British Red Cross with a further £250,000 to continue their cash-first crisis support to those most at risk of destitution. This includes help to those impacted by the UK Government’s hostile policies that exclude them from most mainstream supports including the Scottish Welfare Fund.
And secondly, in recognition of the importance of listening to families affected by poverty, we will trial Family Wellbeing Budgets to put families firmly in control of the support they need. This new support will be delivered in partnership with the Hunter Foundation and will help to improve people’s wellbeing and capabilities.
Presiding offer, where we have the powers we are making a difference to people’s lives.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our approach to housing. Scotland has led the way in the across the UK with almost 100,000 affordable homes delivered since 2007, over 68,000 of which were for social rent. This is making a significant difference to people right across the country, and particularly for families with children.
We want to deliver a further 100,000 affordable homes by 2032. It is our aim that at least 70% of those homes will be for social rent, helping to tackle child poverty and homelessness.
But to tackle poverty effectively we must deliver a fair work future for Scotland, and we are working hard to do just that just now – but we are constrained by the powers available to us.
We cannot accept a future where two thirds of children living in poverty come from working households and where people are forced to rely on benefits to top-up their earnings.
We have to transform workplaces to tackle poverty and long-standing labour market inequalities, such as the disability employment gap and the barriers to employment faced by people from minority ethnic backgrounds.
With full powers over employment we could, as a minimum, ensure that all employees in Scotland receive the Real Living Wage, ensuring that their wages represent the true cost of living.
We could outlaw unfair fire and hire tactics, prohibiting employers from dismissing employees and subsequently re-employing them on diminished terms and conditions, and we could ban inappropriate and exploitative use of zero hour contracts, giving people the certainty about their working hours – ensuring they can plan their lives and incomes.
That’s why I have asked all party leaders to support our request to the UK Government for the full devolution employment powers to this parliament. So we can tackle poverty with the powers we need to make the change.
Social security is also an important tool to tackle poverty, and again those powers don’t lie in our hands. 85% of spending remains at Westminster alongside income replacement benefits such as Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance.
If we didn’t already need it, the pandemic further evidenced that the UK welfare system is not fit for purpose and risks undermining hard won progress. This is the system people in Scotland have to rely on and we shouldn’t have to mitigate against polices we disagree with like the £80 million we spent last year on Discretionary Housing Payments to mitigate the bedroom tax in full and support people with housing – we could be investing in other anti-poverty measures. If we had the powers here we would be able to do that.
The removal of the £20 uplift to Universal Credit is a callous act which will push 60,000 families across Scotland, including 20,000 children, into poverty and will result in families unable to work receiving, on average, £1,600 less per year than they would have done a decade ago – a decade ago – in 2011.
That’s a massive threat to the progress we could make here. We could be delivering the doubling of the Scottish child payment with one hand, only to see it removed by Westminster welfare policies with the other. Surely there is no-one across this chamber that can think that isin any way a good idea or a fair system?
We need to make significant investment into the pockets of those who need it most need. The Scottish child payment does that. That’s why it’s so important.
We have urged the UK Government to make the changes needed and to deliver a social security system which is fit purpose – scrapping harmful policies such as the two child cap, the rape clause, the benefit cap and 5 week wait under Universal Credit. Unfortunately, our calls, alongside many charities, organisations, and even the UN Poverty Rapporteur have been ignored. It’s time for full powers to come here so we can make the difference.
We have already shown we can make a difference – a public service based on human rights with respect and dignity at its heart and viewed as an investment in the people of Scotland. Principles we enshrined in law.
Through our powers, we are tackling child poverty head on, with the Scottish Child Payment, which currently pays £40 every four weeks for every eligible child under 6. We are committed to doubling this to £80, making even greater impact.
Alongside our Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods we are providing over £5,300 of direct financial support for families by the time their first child turns six and further for subsequent children as we don’t put a cap on children. These payments are making a real difference to low income families, helping them to access the essentials they need.
That support is unmatched anywhere else in the UK.
Presiding officer, our next steps will build on the strong foundation we have set, and will be taken forward at pace these changes. No one who sits in this parliament, whatever their political beliefs, can underestimate the scale of the challenge that we face.
I want to take that forward and I’m pleased to work with anyone across this chamber who wants to join me in doing that.
