Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how important the third sector is to its priority of eradicating child poverty, and what impact (a) inflation has had and (b) the UK Government’s decision to raise employer national insurance contributions will have on that sector’s ability to achieve this goal.
Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and this Government’s top priority.
The third sector is a key partner in this work. The Scottish Government greatly values the important role of Scotland’s third sector in providing support for children and families across Scotland – empowering people and enabling communities to thrive – and as a critical friend to both local and national government, helping to guide the action needed.
The latest wave of the longitudinal survey we support through SCVO shows that many third sector organisations are feeling the pressure of rising costs and inflation. Overall, 94% of organisations reported facing challenges, up from 92% in summer 2024.
It is not right that these organisations should be disadvantaged by UK Government policy changes. The Scottish Government has called upon the UKG to take an ‘actual costs’ approach to compensation for increased costs as a result of the increase in employer’s national insurance costs.
In the absence of full funding we will be very restricted in the extent to which we can respond.
We recognise this may mean continued challenges for our third sector partners. We are aiming to assist the sector by improving notification of continued funding to third sector organisations and increasing the number of two year grants we can offer as part of our commitment to Fairer Funding.