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

Health Visitor Advice Commitment

We will work with health visitors to build their confidence and competency in discussing financial circumstances with all families and understanding the individual barriers to accessing the support they are entitled to.

• Costs of living
• Income from social security and benefits in kind

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

Potential size of impact

The target group are pregnant women and families with young children who are on the Universal health visitor pathway. The aim is to roll this out across Scotland by the end of 2024. Health visitors see around 45,000 new parents every year and around 250,000 families on their service from 0-5 overall (of these about a quarter will require more intensive support).

Type of impact

Increased access to financial advice impacts upon income from social security as people can find out to what they are entitled and how to apply. More general money management advice can impact on cost of living.

Certainty of impact

Relatively confident that the policy could have an impact at scale on families with young children.

Priority families targeted by policy:

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

Pregnant women and families with young children who are on the Universal health visitor pathway.

Tracking progress

We will create a CPD plan which will show the level of training. We will look to test policy into practice through adding questions to local evaluations on whether families with young children feel more supported. This will be part of the follow up actions from recommendations from the Health Visiting Pathway Evaluation carried out in 2021.