Question reference: S6W-11626
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 20 October 2022
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 November 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to respond to recent research into Local Child Poverty Action Reports by the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights published in its report Black and Minority Ethnic Chid Poverty in Scotland: a review of the Local Child Poverty Action Reports 2020/21, which found that issues with ethnicity and poverty data availability at a national level are reflected and exacerbated at the local level, even though Black and minority ethnic people across Scotland are at a higher risk of poverty.
Answer
Evidence and data play an important part in efficient policy delivery. Our commitment to continue to improve on our data and evaluation efforts is highlighted as part of the revised evaluation strategy to tackle child poverty. The Scottish Government publish child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group and since March 2022, time series for ethnicity breakdowns have also been published, including for child poverty estimates by detailed ethnic group. The Scottish Government is happy to support CRER – and any stakeholders – with finding our published data and producing ad-hoc analysis.
Whilst recognising the important role of detailed statistical data, our tackling child poverty delivery plan is clear that an intersectional approach is needed to support priority families. Beyond statistical analysis, our action to tackle child poverty is based on a strong evidence base identifying the main drivers of poverty, as the CRER report acknowledges. To design policies that specifically help minority ethnic families, further evidence has been published to widen our understanding. This includes a detailed focus report on minority ethnic families, a summary update on drivers of poverty for all priority family types which fed into the development of ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ and detailed understanding of what works to tackle child poverty.