Scotland Falling Short on Child Poverty Targets, Warns Charity

Scotland is projected to miss its legally-binding child poverty reduction targets by a significant margin, according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). The charity warns that "radical change" is necessary to put the Scottish government's pledges back on track.

The JRF's "Poverty in Scotland" report found that one in five children in Scotland are living in poverty, with the average figure remaining at 21% between 2022 and 2025. This figure is below the UK average of 28%, but the report stresses that the current trajectory is insufficient to meet the targets.

In 2017, Scottish lawmakers passed legislation requiring ministers to achieve specific goals, including reducing the proportion of children in relative poverty to below 10% by 2030. Relative poverty is defined as having a household income, after housing costs, that is below 60% of the UK median.

The report highlights the critical role of Scotland's 32 local councils in poverty reduction efforts, noting that these authorities are currently undergoing significant restructuring. However, the JRF asserts that councils are not doing enough, with residents in lower-income and more deprived areas reporting poorer experiences with services.

The JRF urges the Scottish government to seize the opportunity presented by local government reform to create "refitted" councils capable of playing a more substantial role in poverty reduction, in collaboration with the third sector. This necessitates reforms to both the structure and funding of local government, including a re-evaluation of the council tax, which the report describes as "regressive" due to its disproportionate impact on low-income households.

According to the JRF, council funding is "stretched to breaking point," and the existing model is "increasingly unfit for purpose." The report attributes this to "years of austerity, shifting goalposts from the Scottish government, single-year budgets and an ever-blooming number of strategies and action plans," which often hinder local efforts.

A spokesperson for the Scottish government stated that its policies have already helped keep 100,000 children out of poverty, but acknowledged that further action is needed. The government is pursuing a public service reform agenda, including a "whole-family support" approach designed to tailor services to individual needs.

The JRF, however, deems the current rollout and funding for this whole-family support initiative as "wholly inadequate."

Cosla, the body representing local authorities, stated that its members take the report seriously and are committed to poverty reduction. However, a spokesperson for Cosla, Kelly Parry, pointed to funding shortages and increasing service demands as significant constraints for councils.

Polling conducted by the Diffley Partnership for the JRF indicated that two-thirds of people in Scotland believe their local council is underfunded, with only 4% holding the opposite view. The poll also revealed that a significant portion of the public underestimates the extent to which local government funding comes from the Scottish government, which accounts for 61% of council budgets, compared to 17% from council tax. The poll surveyed 3,381 adults in Scotland between June 22 and 26.