Claire Telfer of Save the Children on the upcoming Scottish budget

Ending child poverty is possible, but without an increasing child’s portion in this week's budget it’s less probable.

A government’s budget is a clear sign of their priorities so it’s important to see spending choices that back up the government’s number one priority of ending child poverty – meeting the needs of struggling families now and setting a clear path to achieve the target of less than one in 10 children living in poverty in Scotland by 2030. 

With one in four Scottish children currently living in poverty, we need a whole-government approach and clear signs of investment in families’ priorities.

We know from our work this year with families that making ends meet is hard. Tackling exorbitant childcare costs, inflexible working, lack of availability in social housing as well as frustration over services not being more joined up are the top issues for struggling families.

Listening to parents talking about the direct impacts of poverty, including struggling to feed and clothe their babies, the need to act is clear. The importance of acting on those voices and experiences cannot be understated – they should be the loudest influence on the choices government makes.

We welcome progress and action to tackle poverty to date. Yet, we know that for too many families our social security system and public services are just not doing enough to give every child the best start in life. The Scottish budget this week is an opportunity to change this.

Public finances are being squeezed, and we know what families need and are asking for is not easy to deliver. Yet, we also know the harm poverty can cause if we wait to invest further in support for families. 

We also know what is needed to lift children out of poverty. Families need an adequate income as well as access to connected, local services that meet their needs around childcare, employment, mental health and transport.

As part of the End Child Poverty Coalition, we are calling for further investment in the Scottish Child Payment, action to increase income from employment and joined up, community-based whole-family support. We also want to see the 2025/26 Scottish budget raise additional funds through bold use of tax powers and targeted action to support families with babies.

There is a strong economic case for driving down poverty, because we know the impact it has on our public services.

Research by Save the Children, IPPR and JRF has evidenced the long-term costs of responding to, rather than preventing poverty. £2.3 billion of health board budgets are spent on health impacts of poverty and £0.25bn goes towards addressing the consequences of poverty in our schools. These numbers show that prevention must be part of the solution.

The good news is that there is broad public support for government to take bold action. In a survey earlier this year, Save the Children found that 85% of people are concerned about the levels of child poverty in Scotland and 81% think that decision-makers could be doing more to address this issue. Delivering a budget with a sizable child’s portion next week is possible and would make ending child poverty by 2030 much more probable. 

“Services not linking together is a big thing. We need more money, but services need to match up and speak to each other. It’s difficult to find a way through the mess as parents. When you try and piece it together, especially with a young family, it’s not designed to make it this hard, but it just is.” (Mum, Dundee)

Claire Telfer is head of Scotland at Save the Children.