The Improvement Service and national partners can offer support to local areas both in the development of their Local Child Poverty Action Report and their wider work to address child poverty.
Please contact the National Coordinator if your area would benefit from:
- Feedback and advice in relation to your area’s Local Child Poverty Action Report
- Support going through a local child poverty self-assessment process or using other tools
- In-depth support with change and improvement in relation to your work to address child poverty
- Knowledge exchange and peer support from across Scotland.
See below for more information on the support offered by the national partners.
Improvement Support
National partners can provide additional support to local authority areas to help support a ‘stepchange’ in their work to tackle child poverty. In the past this has included an enhanced self assessment and improvement process in South Lanarkshire and in-depth support to improve the use of data and intelligence in Inverclyde.
Areas interested in accessing this kind of support should contact the National Coordinator for Local Child Poverty Action Reports to discuss their needs.
Some areas have gone through the child poverty self-assessment without additional support from the national partners. This can be a useful way of identifying strengths and areas for improvement. You can access the self-assessment materials here.
One-to-one Advice and Support
Those leading on work to tackle child poverty can contact the National Coordinator to request:
- Written or verbal feedback on their draft or completed Local Child Poverty Action Report
- Input to local planning meetings, information or advice, examples of good practice from across Scotland.
Local child poverty leads will also be contacted with an offer of feedback after publication of their Local Child Poverty Action Reports.
National partners are also keen to respond to local needs and requests for assistance. Those interested in accessing wider support should contact the National Coordinator for Local Child Poverty Action Reports to discuss their needs.
Self-Assessment and Self-Help
There is a range of tools and materials available to those working locally to address child poverty. These include
- The Self-Assessment Tool: An online survey aimed at those working locally to address child poverty. It can be undertaken by a local child poverty working group or a wider range of those involved in addressing poverty and inequality at local level. The purpose is to identify strengths and areas for improvement. The self-assessment has four sections: understanding poverty locally; policy and resources; understanding impact; and how we work. You can access the ‘master version’ using the link above and contact hanna.mcculloch@improvementservice.org.uk to discuss tailoring it to your local needs.
- A feedback framework: This framework is intended to prompt discussion about what should and should not be included in a Local Child Poverty Action Report and to help identify areas for improvement.
- An outcomes-based planning tool: This tool was developed by Public Health Scotland and provides a structure for discussing which policies and services might have the most significant impact on the drivers of child poverty in your area.
- A data dashboard from the Scottish Government: This dashboard provides a selection of data available at local authority level that can be used to monitor child poverty and its drivers locally.
- The prioritise child poverty data and intelligence tool: This resource describes a public health needs assessment approach to understand the local child poverty system and shape local child poverty priorities. It includes tables of locally available relevant data.
- A map of local child poverty rates at data zone level across Scotland: Our Child Poverty Map allows you to view and download the latest data for children in low-income families at a data zone level.
- A range of webinars and online meeting recordings
- A series of publications and reports on local and national action to tackle child poverty.
Peer Support and Knowledge Exchange
Child Poverty Leads Peer Support Network
The Child Poverty Leads Peer Support Network includes child poverty leads from local authorities and health boards across Scotland and meets online every 4 to 6 weeks. The Network provides an informal opportunity to share information and approaches to tackling child poverty. Contact Hanna McCulloch if you are interested in joining.
The Knowledge Hub Group
The Knowledge Hub Group ‘Taking Action on Child Poverty in Scotland’ is an online network of those working to tackle child poverty in Scotland. It is a repository of relevant resources and has the potential to share messages with others. You can request to join the network on Knowledge Hub.
Newsletter
The IS produces a quarterly newsletter on local action to tackle child poverty. You can sign up for the newsletter here. If there is anything you would like to include in the newsletter then please contact the National Coordinator or Project Officer.
Events and Webinars
The IS and national partners organise a range of meetings and events – both online and in person. You can keep up to date with upcoming events via the newsletter, Knowledge Hub and peer Support Network.
Follow Hanna McCulloch, National Coordinator (@Hanna_McCulloch) and Felicia Szloboda, Project Officer (@FeliciaSzloboda) on Twitter.