Cash-First: Towards ending the need for food banks in Scotland Islands Communities Impact Assessment

Part 1 - Background and purpose

The Scottish Government’s 2021 and 2022 Programmes for Government committed to publishing a Plan, grounded in human rights, that sets out the further action we will take to improve the response to hardship so as to reduce the need for food banks. This is a cornerstone of our commitment to tackling poverty, protecting and fulfilling the right to food and achieving our Good Food Nation ambition.

On 5 June 2023, the Scottish Government published Cash-First – Towards ending the need for food banks in Scotland.^[2] This details the nine targeted actions the Scottish Government will take over the next three years, alongside other public bodies, local services and anti-poverty organisations to improve the response to crisis and start to reduce the need for emergency food parcels. The learning from these actions will help to identify scalable interventions that move us closer towards our longer term ambition of a Scotland without the need for food banks, which we will continue to pursue to the fullest of our power and resource.

Our shared ambition is that everyone has a sufficient and secure income to be able to access food that meets their needs and preferences. Where financial hardship occurs, coordinated local responses are in place which prioritise cash-first assistance and integrate money advice and other holistic support services to reduce the need for food aid and prevent future hardship. Where help to access food is still needed, this is provided in a way that maximises dignity.

While food insecurity and food bank use occurs across urban, rural and island communities, there can be unique risks and barriers to accessing supports in some island communities that we consider further through this impact assessment.

A draft Plan was developed with contributions from a stakeholder steering group and direct experience reference group, and this was published for consultation between 20 October 2021 and 25 January 2022.^[3] There were over 400 responses^[4] and an independent analysis of views has been published.^[5] This reaffirmed a shared consensus across Scotland, including among food banks and other food aid providers, for a human rights informed approach to ensure that everyone can afford an adequate diet.

Since then, the rising cost of living has caused more people to cut back, skip meals, seek assistance from food banks, and in extreme cases to go without food completely. Food bank networks are reporting unprecedented demand for their services, but have also indicated that some Scottish Government interventions such as the Scottish Child Payment may have helped to reduce need for some households.

The Trussell Trust’s End of Year Statistics for 2022-23 found a significantly lower level of need for households with children in Scotland compared to England in the second half of the year.^[6] They suggest that action in November 2022 to extend the Scottish Child Payment to include eligible children up to age 16 and the increase in value to £25 a week may have had an impact.