Latest news, events, resources and learning to support local efforts to tackle child poverty across Scotland.
Challenge Poverty Week Breakfast Briefings
Running from 5 to 9 October 2026, the breakfast briefings will focus on the six priority household types in turn and explore some of the key issues affecting families at greatest risk of poverty.
With contributions from experts, the sessions will encourage greater understanding of lived experience, barriers to support, and opportunities to improve outcomes for children and families.
Each of the sessions will touch upon:
- The links between the relevant priority group and at least one of the three drivers of child poverty (income from employment, income from social security and the cost of living) .
- The barriers the relevant priority group experiences in relation to the three drivers.
- The role that local government can play in supporting the priority group in discussion.
The programme is:
Monday 5 October | Lone parent households |Child poverty, gender and violence against women
Heather Williams, Training Lead at Scottish Women’s Budget Group, and Joanna McLaughlin, Programme Manager for Protecting People at the Improvement Service.
Scottish Women’s Budget Group will explore the links between child poverty, gender and violence against women, highlighting opportunities for local government to develop approaches that can both protect lone-parent families from harm and reduce their risk of financial hardship.
Register: Child Poverty, Gender and Violence Against Women - Breakfast Briefing
Tuesday 6 October | Migrant households | Tackling the barriers driving poverty for migrant families
Dr Rebecca Kay, Associate Director, Migration Policy Scotland.
Migrant households with children experience particularly high rates of poverty and deep poverty, driven by intersecting issues including restrictions around access to benefits, language barriers, and gaps between specialist and mainstream services.
Migration Policy Scotland will share practical tools developed with migrants, community organisations and public services to address these barriers, including resources to support communication, local service needs mapping, financial health checks for migrant service users and migrant-led intercultural communication training.
Register: Tackling the Barriers Driving Poverty for Migrant Families.
Wednesday 7 October | Households in which someone is disabled | Disability, additional costs and barriers to employment and services
Karen Wylie, Policy and Participation Officer, Glasgow Disability Alliance.
The session will explore how disability can increase the cost of living and create barriers to employment and access to services, looking at what action is needed locally and nationally. The intended local-government focus is on households where either an adult or child is disabled and the implications for tackling the three drivers of child poverty.
Register: Disability, additional costs and barriers to employment and services.
Thursday 8 October | Families with a baby under one | Reducing poverty for families with a baby
Stefanie Keir, Senior Policy & Research Manager, Save the Children.
This session will focus on families with a baby experiencing poverty and the implications of Save the Children’s Better for Babies work for local partners. That work brings together targeted increases in social security with access to whole-family support through trusted practitioners for families with a baby at risk of poverty.
Register: Reducing Poverty for Families with a Baby.
Friday 9 October | Young mothers | Fair work and the employment experiences of young mums
Details TBC.
You can read more about the six priority groups in the Scottish Government’s overview and slide decks.
You can also contact childpoverty@improvementservice.org.uk to sign-up to the online sessions, taking place 9:30-10:00 daily.
Rural Childcare Challenge
On September 15th we hosted a special meeting of the Rural Child Poverty Network to explore further the relationship between childcare and child poverty in rural and island areas. The session took a broad, whole systems approach, hearing from colleagues in childcare, employability and child poverty with speakers from Jospeh Rowntree Foundation, Scottish Government, COSLA and the IS.
The update from Scottish Government colleagues provided an overview of the progress on ELC and school age childcare, as well as further detail on the commitments set out in Bringing Hope, Building Futures Child Poverty Delivery Plan. Looking ahead, SG outlined plans to develop and consult on the extension of childcare support from 9 months to the end of primary school.
Discussions were insightful and thought provoking, highlighting the major role childcare can play in enabling parents to access and progress within employment while recognising that childcare alone cannot substantially reduce child poverty without wider support to help families access secure and well-paid work.
The session also covered the rurally specific challenges our communities face when it comes to childcare such as: workforce recruitment and retention, funding models, regulation and flexibility, coordination of services, transport and the need to recognise childcare as an essential component of local economies and communities.
Examples of local approaches included reduced-cost out-of-school care in Shetland, expanded wraparound provision in Orkney, support for new childminders in Argyll and Bute, and innovative workforce models in Highland such as the Single Care Model.
A follow-up survey has been circulated to gather the reflections of attendees with the responses being used to help shape future discussions.
Child Poverty Peer Support Network
The Child Poverty Peer Support Network met on 17th September for focused discussion on learning from Year 7 Local Child Poverty Action Reports (LCPARs), advance sight of Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s ‘Poverty in Scotland 2026’ Report, and an update from Scottish Government on plans to refresh the Guidance on Developing Local Child Poverty Action Reports.
The network reflected on the progress highlighted in the recently published report, Local Action on Child Poverty: Insights from Year 7 Reports, and offered further insights on how the guidance on developing LCPARs could be improved, alongside plans from Scottish Government colleagues to refresh the guidance from Year 9 reporting onwards.
Members welcomed emerging findings from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s ‘Poverty in Scotland 2026’ Report, including the role of councils in tackling poverty and the challenges posed by the current funding landscape. The report is scheduled to launch on 5 October.
The next session, focusing on the lived experience of child poverty, will take place towards the end of October (date TBC).
Network members can access the meeting note and presentation slides in the Khub group. For further information and notes from previous PSN sessions, contact childpoverty@improvementservice.org.uk.
Connect with the Child Poverty team on LinkedIn
The child poverty team launched a LinkedIn page to share updates and publications, scale wider learning, and promote upcoming events.
We shared some examples of good practice identified in our recent publication, Local Action on Child Poverty: Insights from Year 7 Reports, over the course of our promotion week.
Publications
Report – Local Action on Child Poverty: Insights from Year 7 LCPARs
A new report published by the Improvement Service highlights evidence of continued progress in local approaches taken to tackle child poverty.
Local Action on Child Poverty: Insights from Year 7 LCPARs presents key findings from the review of all 32 2024/25 Local Child Poverty Action Reports, alongside insights gathered through feedback discussions with local child poverty leads from both the Local Authority and relevant territorial Health Board.
The report highlights emerging trends, examples of local practice, areas of progress and opportunities for improvement in local approaches to tackling child poverty across Scotland and is intended to support ongoing learning and improvement at both local and national levels.
It's a busy time for practitioners working to tackle child poverty. In our new blog, Isabella, child poverty project officer, discusses whether the wider national conversation may be overlooking local progress in tackling child poverty.
Using findings from the new report, Local Action on Child Poverty: Insights from Year 7 LCPARs, the blog highlights the progress being made in local approaches to tackling child poverty and why these findings are important in the context of the upcoming review of the statutory child poverty targets.
Previously published blogs:
The Rural Childcare Challenge: State of Play and What to Expect.
Tackling Child Poverty Through Community Wealth Building.
Why Person, Residence and Household Matter for Public Service Data Sharing
Stay connected
For further information on any of the items featured in this newsletter, or to join our Child Poverty Peer Support Network, contact childpoverty@improvementservice.org.uk.
Look out for upcoming child poverty events.
Follow us on LinkedIn.
Improvement Service | Supporting local action to reduce child poverty and improve outcomes for children and families across Scotland.