Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes the Challenges from the Frontline – Revisited report by NSPCC Scotland and Barnardos’s Scotland. We are committed to continued collaboration with stakeholders and partners to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on Scotland’s families.

In highlighting the importance of addressing poverty, the delivery of the conclusions of the independent Care Review and supported incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law, the report touches upon many cross-governmental initiatives that aim to improve the outcomes of children and young people.

The Scottish Government’s ambition to eradicate child poverty is set in statute in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 and the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan sets out concrete actions to make progress on this ambition. The introduction of the Scottish Child Payment for eligible children under 6 aims to support up to 194,000 children this financial year. Together with Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods this will provide over £5,200 for eligible families by the time their first child turns six, for second and subsequent children this is £4,900. This compares to £1300 for first child and around £900 for subsequent children in the rest of the UK.

In accepting the conclusions of the independent Care Review, the First Minister committed the Scottish Government to work with all of its energy and focus, along with local authorities, care providers and all relevant stakeholders, to make the changes to the system that the review considered necessary. The Scottish Government has remained committed to keeping the promise it made to Scotland’s care experienced children and young people, despite the challenges that the pandemic has presented.

The principles of holistic family support that were outlined within The Promise have been at the heart of policies aimed at supporting families through the pandemic and will continue to do so. In partnership with SOLACE, the Scottish Government established the Children and Families Collective Leadership Group to consider the impacts of the pandemic on children, young people and families. The Group have developed a vision and blueprint, as well as recommendations on improving holistic family support which will be progressed as part of the implementation of The Promise.

Funding is being made available to support public authorities in fulfilling the duties under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and embed children’s rights in decision making at all levels in public services.