Tackling child poverty delivery plan: fourth year progress report 2021 to 2022

4. At a glance summaries

Introduction

The following section provides a series of 'at a glance' tables providing a summary overview of activity in 2021-22.

The first table provides overall progress on each of the actions committed, all of which are now being delivered. It also sets out which of the priority families are anticipated to benefit and the expected outcome.

Table two sets out what has been spent from the Tackling Child Poverty Fund across 2018-22.

Table three sets out an estimate of Scottish Government investment in 2021-22 directed at low income households with children and investment targeted at low income households more generally – where children are also expected to benefit.

Table four sets out estimates of Scottish Government investment across 2018-22 directed at low income households, and those with children.

The final table outlines the requirements of the Child Poverty Act, and how we have addressed each within this report. Responses to the comments and recommendations of the Poverty and Inequality Commission are also noted here.

Progress against actions and impact on priority families

The following table provides an at a glance update on the status of all actions in 'Every Child, Every Chance', with all actions being delivered as of 31 March 2022. The table also summarises which priority group(s) are expected to have benefited from the action and how it helps us to tackle child poverty.

Key:

means early stages of development, means in progress and currently being delivered or completed means currently being delivered or completed.

Priority families:

• LP Lone Parents
• ME Minority Ethnic
• YM Mothers Aged <25
• <1 Youngest Child Aged <1
• 3+ 3+ Children
• DAC Disabled Adult or Child

Expected outcome:

• EMP Increasing income from employment – relevant to all four targets
• HC Reducing housing costs – relevant to all four targets
• OC Reducing other costs of living – relevant to the low income and material deprivation target
• SS Increasing income from social security and benefits in kind – relevant to all four targets
• LC Improving children's life chances in ways that are not about increasing current income or reducing costs of living – potentially relevant to future child poverty levels, when these children become parents themselves

Table 1 – Summary of action status

Action	Priority groups expected to benefit	Expected outcome	Status
Fair Start Scotland	All – but especially LP, DAC, ME	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Parental Employability Support Fund	All – but especially LP, DAC	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Additional investment to support disabled parents	DAC	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Additional investment to support young parents	YM	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Additional investment – ELC alignment	All	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Building a Living Wage Nation	All – but especially LP, YM	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Tackling low pay in the public sector	All – but especially LP, ME, YM, DAC	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
New action on the gender pay gap	All – but especially LP, ME, <1, YM	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Flexible Workforce Development Fund	All – but especially LP,DAC, ME, YM	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
The Workplace Equality Fund	All – but especially DAC, ME	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
New support for flexible working	All – but especially LP, DAC	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Expanded Early Learning and Childcare	All – but especially LP, 3+	EMP, OC	currently being delivered or completed
After School and Holiday Childcare	All – but especially LP, 3+	EMP, OC	currently being delivered or completed
A new Family Learning Programme	All	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
An increased School Clothing Grant	All – but especially 3+	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Reducing food insecurity in the school holidays	All – but especially 3+	OC, SS	currently being delivered or completed
Further support on costs of the school day	All – but especially 3+	OC, SS	currently being delivered or completed
New support, incentives and rewards with the Young Scot Card	All	OC	currently being delivered or completed
Making sure young people receive EMA payments	All – but especially YM	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Work with the social housing sector to agree the best ways to keep rents affordable	All	HC	currently being delivered or completed
Ensure that future affordable housing supply decisions support our objective to achieve a real and sustained impact on child poverty	All	HC	currently being delivered or completed
Evaluate the impact of the private residential tenancy on families with children	All	HC	currently being delivered or completed
Scottish Housing Regulator	All	HC	currently being delivered or completed
New action on homelessness	All	HC, LC	currently being delivered or completed
Increase uptake of our Warmer Homes Scotland programme amongst low income families	All	OC	currently being delivered or completed
Target fuel poverty and energy efficiency measures on those most in need, including low income families	All	OC	currently being delivered or completed
Money Talk Team Service	All	SS, OC	currently being delivered or completed
Health and Income Maximisation	All	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Benefit Take Up Strategy for devolved benefits	All	SS	currently being delivered or completed
New support for affordable credit	All	OC	currently being delivered or completed
Tackling problem debt	All	OC	currently being delivered or completed
Access to period products	All – but especially 3+	OC	currently being delivered or completed
Connecting Scotland	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
Action on transport strategy, policies and programmes	All	EMP, OC, LC	currently being delivered or completed
Pandemic Payments	All	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Scottish Child Payment	All	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Best Start Grant	All – but especially 3+, <1, YM	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Enhanced support through Best Start Foods	All – but especially 3+, <1, YM	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Increased support for carers	All	SS	currently being delivered or completed
New Job Start Payment	All	SS, EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Widened Funeral Support Payment eligibility	All	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Child Winter Heating Assistance	All - but especially DAC	SS	currently being delivered or completed
Extra help for families with children's health in the early years	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
A new resource for disabled children, young people and their families	All	SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Action on parental imprisonment	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Supporting redesign of the care system	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
New action on transitions	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Help for children's neighbourhoods	All	LC, EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Targeted opportunities for cultural participation	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Facilitating access to music education	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Improving inclusion in sport	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Increased funding for mental health	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Tailored learning support for Gypsy/ Traveller families with children	ME	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Support to address bullying	All	LC	currently being delivered or completed
Support for students and communities from further and higher education	All – but especially YM	LC, EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Innovation Fund with the Hunter Foundation	All	LC, EMP, SS, OC, HC	currently being delivered or completed
Investment in the STV children's appeal	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
Investing in Communities Fund	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
Partnership between the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Region on inclusive growth and child poverty	All	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Community Wealth and Localism	All	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
Town Centre Fund and Business Improvement Districts	All	EMP	currently being delivered or completed
A National Child Poverty Co-ordinator	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
A new analytical partnership on local child poverty	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
A new Fairer Scotland duty	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
Bringing the voices of people with experience of poverty into local decision-making	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
New support from the Poverty Alliance	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed
A role for the Children's Sector Strategic Forum in monitoring implementation	All	EMP, HC, OC, SS, LC	currently being delivered or completed

Investment through the Tackling Child Poverty Fund

Investment made from the £50 million Tackling Child Poverty Fund, across 2018-22, is set out below. The table below outlines recorded and provisional levels of investment, correct at the point of publication, all totals expressed are £0.000m:

Table 2 – Summary of Tackling Child Poverty Fund investment

Programme	Year				Total (2018-22)
	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Parent Employability Support Fund (PESF)	£0.050	£2.000	£4.822*	£5.050	£11.922
PESF - Support for disabled parents	-	-	£6.000	-	£6.000
PESF - ELC alignment	-	£0.100	£1.000	£3.000	£4.100
PESF - Support for Young Parents	-	-	£0.350	£0.650	£1.000
Timewise	-	£0.026	£0.133	£0.167	£0.326
Homelessness prevention	-	-	£0.250	£0.500	£0.750
Tenant Grant Fund	-	-	-	£0.500	£0.500
Family Learning Scotland	-	£0.050	£0.188	£0.147	£0.385
Access to Childcare Fund	-	£0.016	£1.305	£1.296	£2.617
Get into Summer**	-	-	-	£7.500	£7.500
Food Insecurity	£0.100	£0.500	-	-	£0.600
Healthier Wealthier Children	£0.250	£0.250	-	-	£0.500
Affordable credit marketing	£0.080	-	-	-	£0.080
Money Talk Team Marketing	-	£0.220	-	-	£0.220
Bridging Payments**	-	-	-	£5.150	£5.150
Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland	£0.250	£0.374	£0.727	£0.262	£1.613
Preventative work for low income young people at college	£0.242	£0.308	£0.300	£0.500	£1.350
Gypsy / traveller	-	£0.030	£0.035	£0.125	£0.190
New Innovation Fund	£1.100	£2.534	-	£1.366	£5.000
National Child Poverty Coordinator	£0.069	£0.070	£0.091	£0.089	£0.318
Local analytical partnership	£0.020	£0.020	£0.048	£0.052	£0.140
Local support - first year reporting	£0.190	-	-	-	£0.190
Total investment	£2.351	£6.498	£15.249	£26.354	£50.452

* final outturns lower than anticipated, due to impacts of COVID-19 pandemic

** contribution toward total investment

Investment to support children in poverty

In the 2021-22 financial year, it is estimated that nearly £2.6 billion was invested across a range of programmes targeted at low-income households. Of this, we estimate that over £1.1 billion benefited children. These totals, along with the breakdown of estimated spend on individual programmes, can be seen in table 3 below.

These figures are estimates. They comprise a mixture of outturn, budgeted, and forecasted figures, depending on what was available at the time. Some of the figures are published, whereas others were sourced internally. Furthermore, although we have attempted to stay consistent with the figures included in the equivalent table in previous progress reports, inconsistencies could remain. For policies targeted at all people on a low income, we have used the latest statistics on the proportion of people in poverty who are children (25% in 2019-20) to derive an estimated spend on children in poverty. We have excluded administration costs where possible.

As in previous years, these estimates do not include spend on universal services from which children in poverty will also benefit, including services focused specifically on children such as funded Early Learning and Childcare and universal Free School Meal provision in primary schools, or wider support including free prescriptions, healthcare or free tuition. Wider investments such as these are key to our overall strategy to reducing child poverty.

Table 4 sets out estimates of investment across 2018-22, drawn from Table 3 and calculations published in the respective progress reports. It is estimated that across the life of 'Every Child, Every Chance' £8.47 billion was invested across a range of programmes targeted at low-income households. Of this, we estimate that over £3.28 billion benefited children. Comparative to 2018-19 estimates, this represents an increase of £1.18 billion in spend targeted to low income households in 2021-22, and an increase of £576 million in spend which benefited children.

Table 3 – Estimate of spend to support children in poverty 2021-22

Policy	Estimated 2021-22 spend on low income households (£m)	Estimated 2021-22 spend on children in low income households (£m)
Targeted at low income households with children
Attainment Scotland Fund	67.80	67.80
Pupil Equity Funding	147.00	147.00
School Meals, including Free School Meals[49]	155.60	155.60
School Meal alternate holiday provision	21.75	21.75
Get into Summer 2021	15.00	15.00
Education Maintenance Allowance	22.30	22.30
Best Start Foods / Healthy Start	13.60	13.60
School Clothing Grant	11.80	11.80
Best Start Grant	14.90	14.90
STV Children's Appeal	1.00	1.00
Parental Employability Support Fund	8.65	8.65
Innovation Fund	1.37	1.37
Bridging Payments	79.16	79.16
Children's charities (cost of living)	6.00	6.00
Scottish Child Payment	55.10	55.10
Total	621.02	621.02
Targeted at low income households – not necessarily with children
Affordable Homes[50]	627.26	156.81
Council Tax Reduction - revenue foregone[51]	351.00	77.22
Fuel Poverty / Energy Efficiency[52]	187.97	46.99
Fuel Insecurity Fund	10.00	2.50
Discretionary Housing Payments	78.80	19.70
Scottish Welfare Fund	35.50	8.88
Regeneration Strategy[53]	102.73	25.68
Fair Start Scotland	27.47	6.87
Advice Services (Income max/financial advice)[54]	2.50	0.63
Fair Food Fund	0.78	0.19
Social Innovation Partnership	1.00	0.25
UC Scottish Choices[55]	0.32	0.08
Money Talk Team	1.50	0.38
Digital Start Fund	1.00	0.25
Funeral Support Payment	10.91	2.73
Carer's Allowance	299.70	74.93
Carer's Allowance Supplement	59.39	14.85
Financial Insecurity (Winter)	25.00	6.25
Connecting Scotland	26.60	6.65
Low Income Pandemic Payment	68.95	17.24
Self-Isolation Support Grant[56]	55.60	13.90
Total	1,973.98	482.96
Total	2,595.00	1,103.99

Table 4 – Estimate of spend to support children in poverty 2018-22 (£m)

Group	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	Total (2018-22)
Estimated spend on low income households	1412.08	1966.72	2498.8[57]	2,595.00	8,472.60
Estimated spend on children in low income households	527.22	672.1	978.5[58]	1,103.99	3,281.81

Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 requirements

Section 10 of the Child Poverty Act sets out a range of requirements around progress reports. This table explains how we have met those requirements, with directions to the relevant sections or specific pages within the Plan.

Table 5 – Summary of Child Poverty (Scotland) Act requirements

The Scottish Ministers must, before the end of the period of 3 months beginning with the last day of each reporting year, prepare a report (a "progress report") on the progress made during the year—

• towards meeting the child poverty targets, and
• in implementing the relevant delivery plan.

This is the fourth progress report due under the Child Poverty Act.

Section 3 outlines our approach to assessing progress toward meeting the targets. It presents the most recent data for the four targets. The most recent child poverty statistics available describe the situation in 2019/20, which covers the second year of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

Progress in implementing the delivery plan (2018-22) is set out in sections 1 and 2.

A progress report must in particular describe -

The measures taken by the Scottish Ministers in accordance with that delivery plan.

Section 2 contains an update on each action committed.

The effect of those measures on progress towards meeting the child poverty targets.

Section 4 provides impact summaries, where appropriate, for actions aligned to the drivers of child poverty reduction.

Economic Modelling was published alongside the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26 setting out anticipated impacts on the targets.

The effect of those measures on reducing the number of children living in single-parent households against each of the four targets.

Section 3 presents the most recent child poverty statistics for the six priority families identified in 'Every Child, Every Chance' – including children living in single parent households.

Section 4 sets out which of the actions in the Delivery Plan are intended to benefit these children.

The effect of those measures on children living in households whose income is adversely affected, or whose expenditure is increased, because a member of the household has one or more protected characteristics.

Section 3 presents the most recent child poverty statistics for the six priority families identified in 'Every Child, Every Chance' – including children living in families that include a disabled adult or child, minority ethnic families, families with a child under one year old, and families where the mother is under 25 years of age.

Section 4 sets out which of the actions in the Delivery Plan are intended to benefit these children.

If, in preparing a progress report -

Scottish Ministers consider that the measures taken in accordance with the relevant delivery plan have not delivered sufficient progress towards meeting the child poverty targets, the progress report must describe how the Scottish Ministers propose to ensure sufficient progress is delivered in the future.

The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26, published in March 2022, sets out further actions to deliver progress against the child poverty targets.

In preparing a progress report, the Scottish Ministers must —

Consult the Commission on;

• the progress made during the reporting year towards meeting the child poverty targets,
• whether it appears to the Commission that such progress is sufficient to meet the child poverty targets,
• what further progress the Commission considers is required to meet the child poverty targets.

And, include any comments or recommendations made by the Commission on the matters mentioned above.

The Poverty and Inequality Commission shared their advice with the Scottish Government in May 2022.

The response received from the Commission is reflected below.

Responding to the advice and comments of the Poverty and Inequality Commission:

In relation to the progress made during the reporting year towards meeting the child poverty targets the report of the Commission notes:

"Due to data quality issues resulting from the pandemic it is difficult to draw conclusions from the child poverty statistics about the progress that has been made towards meeting the child poverty targets. It seems likely that levels of child poverty may have reduced on some measures due to a fall in median income and temporary increases in social security. The temporary nature of these factors means that is unlikely to indicate longer term progress. What we can say is that, after delays caused by the pandemic, we have started to see progress being made again on delivering major commitments such as the Scottish Child Payment, funded early learning and childcare, affordable housing and employability support."

As set out in Section 3, only one out of the four statutory child poverty measures could be updated in 2022 (persistent poverty). The other three targets rely on data from the Family Resources Survey, and due to the impact of the pandemic we were unable to obtain a representative sample for Scotland.

Economic modelling published alongside 'Best Start, Bright Futures' estimates that the Scottish Government policy package reduced levels of relative child poverty by 2% points in 2019-20.

In relation to whether it appears to the Commission that such progress is sufficient to meet the child poverty targets the report of the Commission notes:

"While the progress made during 2021-2022 was very unlikely to be sufficient to meet the child poverty targets, commitments made during the year and in the 2022-2026 Delivery Plan now make it more likely that the Scottish Government will meet the 2023-24 interim relative child poverty target. Increasing the Scottish Child Payment to £25 per week is likely to have the biggest impact.

The Scottish Government is less likely to meet the absolute poverty interim target and it is unclear whether it will meet the other interim targets. There is also a strong risk that the rapidly rising cost of living will make it much harder to meet the absolute poverty and low income and material deprivation interim targets, and that families will not see an improvement in their quality of life.

The Scottish Government's cumulative impact assessment does not project as far as the 2030-31, but acknowledges that meeting the 2030 targets will require an unprecedented reduction in child poverty of a further eight percentage points, which is unlikely to occur without considerable changes to the drivers of poverty. The Scottish Government cannot wait until the next Delivery Plan in order to identify what more is needed as by then it will be too late to implement the kinds of the transformative policies that will be required in order to meet the final targets."

We agree with the Commission that further action is needed to deliver at pace and scale across a range of policies to meet the child poverty targets.

Whilst this report focuses on action taken in 2021-22, our second tackling child poverty delivery plan 'Best Start, Bright Futures', published in March 2022, sets out how we will build on the foundations of 'Every Child, Every Chance', to deliver greater progress across the areas identified by the Commission.

The advice of the Commission on the development of the second delivery plan informed the combination of policies, delivery and accountability mechanisms established under that plan.

In relation to what further progress the Commission considers is required to meet the child poverty targets the report of the Commission notes:

"The Scottish Government must now focus on implementing existing commitments, while also developing the transformative policies needed to meet the 2030 targets. The commitments made over the last year and the new actions set out in the 2022-26 Delivery Plan will need to be implemented effectively and at pace in order to deliver on their potential to meet the interim relative child poverty target. More transformational change to address the drivers of poverty will be needed if the Scottish Government is to meet the 2030 targets. The Scottish Government must start developing further action now, on shaping the economy, housing and transport in particular, in order to be on track to meet the 2030 targets."

Specific responses to recommendations are set out below, and will be taken forward through the implementation of 'Best Start, Bright Futures'.

The Commission provided 8 recommendations in relation to further progress required to meet the child poverty targets:

1. Focus on implementing at pace and scale over the period of the Delivery Plan, demonstrating this focus by ensuring detailed delivery plans and timetables are in place, published, and robustly scrutinised both inside and outside government.

2. Put in place a system to ensure that policies across government contribute towards reducing child poverty in a meaningful way and that this contribution can be clearly demonstrated to the Commission and others.

3. Commit to publishing robust monitoring data and evidence about actions in the Delivery Plan, and about the impacts for the priority families in particular, and demonstrate a culture of continuous learning and improvement where evidence is used to adapt and improve action.

4. Publish details of how experts by experience have contributed to the design, delivery and evaluation of actions in the Delivery Plan.

5. Engage closely with the Commission from now onwards to develop further action now to meet the 2030 targets, focusing particularly on shaping the economy, housing and transport.

6. Take specific and urgent action to mitigate the cost of living crisis.

7. Ensure that its assessment of what further action is needed to mitigate the impact of the crisis is informed by data and analysis for all four child poverty target measures and other relevant indicators that are sensitive to the impact of the crisis, and commit to publishing these assessments.

8. Advocate at UK level for urgent, progressive revenue-raising measures in order to fund greatly enhanced social protection measures in response to the cost of living crisis

'Best Start, Bright Futures' clearly commits to delivering at pace and scale. 'Scotland's offer to families' sets out an approach to delivery focused on testing, adapting and scaling holistic approaches, embedding an approach to continuous learning and improvement.

The breadth of policy contained in 'Best Start, Bright Futures' demonstrates the commitment to child poverty across SG policy.

Child poverty was one of four priorities in the recently published Resource Spending Review, reiterating its importance at the centre of government.

Newly established governance mechanisms will facilitate stronger accountability, with internal and external scrutiny more firmly established.

A refreshed evaluation strategy and monitoring framework were published as Annex 2 and 3 alongside 'Best Start, Bright Futures' and will be used to monitor and report on progress annually. The revised monitoring framework sets out a wider range of indicators that will be used to inform assessment of progress, in addition to the four statutory targets.

We will continue to work with the Commission in monitoring the impact of 'Best Start, Bright Futures', and seeking their advice on what further measures may be required to meet the 2030 targets.

Experts by Experience were involved in the development of 'Best Start, Bright Futures', both through a partnership with the Poverty Alliance and through the Commission's own experts by experience panel. The delivery plan provides specific examples of how this will be taken forward, including lived experience panels to inform employability and childcare offers.

Whilst data collection for 2020-21 was hampered by the pandemic, going forward we will continue to use and publish data for all four child poverty measures.

We are acutely aware that households across the country are facing a serious cost of living crisis, and that those on the lowest income are being hit hardest. We are taking and will continue to take specific action to mitigate the cost of living crisis, and we continue to advocate for more action at UK level.