Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022-2026 - annex 5: impact of policies on child poverty

Social Innovation Partnership (SIP)

The SIP's wellbeing and capabilities approach to policy and practice tackles poverty and inequality by supporting people to live flourishing lives, based on what matters to them, through more person centred and holistic responses.

• Costs of living

Enhanced life chances (e.g. health, wellbeing, capabilities, longer term goals)

Potential size of impact

SIP partners currently reach thousands of people with varying levels of need, including children and families. They operate across the country offering a wide range of support activities. For example they are estimating to reach 15,000 care experienced and disadvantaged young people through the Scottish Mentoring and Leadership programme, and a range of SIP projects will support over 3,000 parents through their Flourishing Lives programme to move towards sustained work and other positive destinations during the plan period.

Type of impact

The SIP consists of various partners delivering a range of support activities which may variously affect any of the three drivers. For instance, flexible childcare services can impact upon a parent's ability to find suitable work, increasing earnings from wages. Other areas of SIP work have impact through less direct mechanisms; for instance, building confidence and social skills so that people are able to engage with services and institutions. Some partners work directly with young people to support them so they do not themselves become parents/carers in poverty.

Certainty of impact

The learning partner to the SIP (I-SPHERE) has confirmed there is positive impact on outcomes through the SIP's wellbeing and capabilities approach and some individual partners have independent evaluations of their particular approaches. This may not translate into child poverty reduction in the short or medium term.

Priority families targeted by policy:

• Lone parents
• 3+ children
• Disabled
• Minority ethnic
• Baby < 1
• Mothers aged <25

Partners take various approaches to engaging with beneficiaries including through referrals from the public sector, being embedded in schools, and in their local communities. Some SIP partners work specifically with people in the priority groups with delivery models focused on women and their family's wellbeing, including financial inclusion, flexible working and flexible childcare. Another works with BAME individuals to support their employability needs.

Tracking progress

The learning partner will continue to track the impact of the SIP approach at the delivery and systems level. The next phase of the learning programme will focus in particular on understanding impact and change at the system level. Separate evaluation will be commissioned for the Scottish Mentoring & Leadership programme. The first outputs from I-SPHERE's work on impact are planned to be published in May 2022.