Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund: Island Communities Impact Assessment

Data and Consultation

Consultation on the fund

The fund was designed in close consultation with external stakeholders including the Peer Support Network of child poverty leads from local authorities and health boards (including island local authorities and local authorities containing islands) and the Local Child Poverty Co-ordination Group, consisting of national partners supporting local action on child poverty. Internal stakeholders were also consulted, including rural and islands policy colleagues.

Stakeholders have welcomed the initiative as a means to accelerate progress on challenges that are shared across areas, but which require additional expertise or coordination to overcome, and in particular have welcomed a focus on testing and evaluating approaches to improve our collective evidence base.

Consultation indicated a need for support to identify and evaluate practice focused on overcoming the barriers faced by priority families, and on routes to earlier interventions with families not currently well served by mainstream provision. There was also eagerness to test approaches to data sharing to better identify and target families, and to explore options to greater evidence the impact of other sectors on the drivers of child poverty.

Through consultation with local authority and health board child poverty leads, it was highlighted that smaller authorities/boards – including islands – could be at disadvantage in terms of capacity to complete bid-in applications. Recognising this, the application process was designed in consultation with stakeholders to ensure it was light touch and joined up with other funds. Similarly, reporting requirements will be accomplished largely through minuted meetings to avoid disproportionate reporting.

Evidence on tackling child poverty

As tackling child poverty is a critical mission of the Scottish Government, cross-government work and stakeholder engagement is ongoing and the government’s approach is informed by a wealth of evidence on child poverty.

Evidence on what works in tackling child poverty highlights the need for a person-centred, holistic approach, within a framework of understanding structural barriers, in order to maximise the effectiveness of policies and avoid perpetuating stereotyping and stigma.

Based on the evidence, the delivery plan promotes a person-centred, whole systems approach. This recognises the interconnected pieces which need to work together to effectively tackle child poverty – e.g. transport, childcare, employability.

The delivery plan was produced in consultation with a range of stakeholders including island representation from local authorities and local child poverty leads.

Evidence on child poverty in island communities

‘Improving our understanding of child poverty in rural and island Scotland’ published in 2022 explored existing data on child poverty in rural and island communities. Key findings include:

• It is estimated that 15% of rural residents in Scotland (170,000 people) are in relative poverty, compared to 20% (850,000) of urban residents. There are lower levels of child poverty in rural areas compared to urban areas, with 19% of rural children living in relative poverty, compared with 26% of urban children (Scottish Government, 2021a). [p7]
• Rural employment rates often compare favourably with urban areas, although it is well-known that rural incomes can be volatile and precarious, with unpredictable incomes from seasonal/casual work and zero-hours contracts characteristic not only of land-based and tourism employment but extending across many sectors of rural economies. [p7]
• Part-time work tends to be low paid and below workers’ skill levels and qualifications, with under-employment and limited opportunities for career progression (McKendrick et al, 2011; Shucksmith et al, 2022). [p8]
• This volatility of rural incomes presents a range of challenges for those who need to claim welfare support, including payment delays and overpayments, distances to travel for medical assessments and feelings of stigma (Shucksmith et al, 2022). These and other factors lead to lower claimant rates in rural areas. [p8]
• A lack of local and flexible childcare is a well-documented barrier to rural parents looking for employment (particularly lone parents), which can make the cost of childcare unaffordable for those who find work (Glass et al, 2020; Scottish Government, 2021b) [p8]
• Additional minimum living costs for households in remote rural Scotland typically add 15-30% to a household budget, compared with urban areas of the UK (Scottish Government, 2021c). Additional costs are even higher in some areas, with significant impacts on financial and psychological wellbeing in Shetland, for example (Stone and Hirsch, 2020). [p8]

Lived experience data is particularly important to understanding island child poverty due to its hidden nature. Lived experience data has highlighted issues around stigma, lack of extracurricular activities and limited resources in rural schools, seasonality of work and distance to school/services. [p21]

The report also highlights that there are gaps in our understanding, and calls for more rigorous evaluation of employment, childcare, transport, cost of living, enablers of wellbeing (e.g. debt, savings) and benefits levels and take-up. [p22]

The ongoing evaluation of Shetland’s Anchor project to understand tackling island child poverty is contributing to the evidence base. Scottish Government is working with partners to support sharing learning from this project with prospective Fund recipients.