Chamber and committees

Letter from Cabinet Secretary Social Justice and Social Security dated 22 February 2022

Child poverty priority groups: Examples of targeted measures

Dear Convener,

Thank you for your letter of 10 February which requested further information following my joint appearance with the Minister for Children and Young People before the Committee on 8 February.

Please see my response to each of the Committee’s queries below:

Child poverty priority groups: Examples of targeted measures

The Committee requested examples of interventions targeted at six child poverty priority groups and the impact these have had. An overview of the Access to Childcare Fund (ACF) and the Connecting Scotland programme are provided below. More detailed information on the impact ACF is having is provided in Annex A, and the Connecting Scotland impact report can be accessed via the link provided.

Access to Childcare Fund

In 2020, the Scottish Government created a new Access to Childcare Fund, worth £3 million across 2020-22 to test new models of school age childcare that will be accessible and affordable for low income families. The fund aims to support projects to deliver a range of activities, childcare, food and family support for children, including those from the six priority family types identified in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

Projects have been exploring new models of school age childcare, including holiday provision, flexible delivery, specialist services for children with additional support needs, and increasing access to families most likely to be living in poverty. Grants are provided to establish and test new models of delivery of out of school care in order to make services more accessible and affordable for low income families.

As of September 2021 the services reported supporting 703 families, including 689 from the six priority family types and 14 experiencing crisis. Two of the projects work solely with children with additional support needs and their families, and their reporting demonstrates how much value the parents or carers put on these services.

“Families have reported that this service has made a massive difference to their children’s and their lives. They have stated that there is no other organisation that can cater for their children’s support needs. The clubs are allowing them to continue to work or look after their other children whilst their child attends the club. One mum has started a course at the local college to re-skill with a view of earning more in the future.” - Support Help and Integration in Perthshire (SHIP), Perth and Kinross

Organisations funded through this route will be able to access ongoing support and mentoring to ensure the success of the project and the sharing of ongoing learning with government and others delivering school-age child care. The evaluation of these projects will help to shape our final strategic framework on out of school care. A full evaluation report will be published in May.

Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment / Best Start Foods

As you know, Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods are key elements of our five family benefits which currently provide up to £5,300 for a families first child across the early years. The Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payments and increased value Best Start Foods in the first year of a child’s life focuses increased support for families with a child aged under one. Pregnancy and Baby payment is also particulary impactful for large families, whose third and subsequent children would receive nothing under the UK’s Sure Start Maternity Grant.

From launch to 30 November 2021 we awarded £22.3 million for Pregnancy and Baby Payment – providing much needed financial support to families with a new baby – part of the total £76.6 million awarded through Best Start Grants and Best Start Foods over this time.

Connecting Scotland

The Connecting Scotland programme – which was set up as part of the Scottish Government’s emergency Covid response and provides devices, connections and training and support to those who are digitally excluded – recently reached the milestone of bringing 60,000 people online since programme launch.

Initially aimed at just 9,000 people who were shielding as a result of the pandemic, the programme has grown significantly over the last two years and is now one of the most comprehensive national programmes aimed tackling digital exclusion in the world, unmatched elsewhere in the UK. Over 17,000 families with children, 4,000 young care leavers and 1,500 other vulnerabilities (other family types such as kinship Carer's) were awarded devices during Phase 2 of the programme

Work is now underway to scope an extension to the service in line with the commitment in this year’s Programme for Government to bring up to 300,000 people online by the end of this Parliament. For further information, you may be interested in our impact report Connecting Scotland - A Year in View.

Discussions with retailers regarding the removal of value ranges from food stores and the impact on affordability of food

As the Committee is aware the cost of living crisis is a concern and it is clear that food price inflation is a major issue for consumers and retailers alike; that cost pressure is being felt right across the supply chain. The increasing costs in energy, diesel, the shortages in labour across the supply chain, the increased costs of bringing goods into the country and transport have all added to cost pressures.

I can assure the Committee that there is regular and on-going dialogue with the retailers. Scottish Government and Food Standards Scotland officials meet with retailers fortnightly. In discussions with retailers they have all given the same message: they will do what they can to keep costs down, but given the size and scale of the inflationary pressures they are not in a position to absorb all of the costs. The retailers in are committed to continuing to extend their value range and doing what they can to protect costs or minimise cost increases. That said, while they have assured us they will do whatever they can to protect these prices, food price inflation is significant across the food supply chain and it looks like it will continue to be so.

The Scottish Grocers’ Federation has spoken to a selection of wholesalers and overall comments are that there is no intention of discontinuing the value ranges that are available in convenience stores. One common issue is that availability is still a huge barrier at the moment and due to this some lines may not always be available, and retailers will fill the shelves with whatever products are accessible at the time.

The Scottish Government will continue to have regular discussion with the retailers to ensure we remain focused on the cost of living impact. However, the Scottish Government has limited levers in this regard and, as such, the Committee may wish to hear directly from retailers on this matter.

Budget

During the evidence session I referenced that Scottish Government investment focused on supporting low income households reached almost £2.5 billion in 2020-21, of which nearly £1 billion was specifically focused on families with children. A breakdown of our spend on tackling child poverty in 2020/21 by portfolio is provided in Annex A. An update in respect of 2021/22 will be made available in our fourth annual Tackling Child Poverty progress report, to be published by the end of June this year. It is not possible to produce this analysis until final spend is confirmed.

A table highlighting key policies and actions to tackle child poverty as detailed in the 2022/23 Budget, broken down by Government portfolio, is also set out at Annex A.

Further detail on financial resources committed to tackle child poverty will be set out within the forthcoming Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, to be published by the end of March 2022.

Updated information on support for young carers

The Scottish Government absolutely values the support provided by Scotland’s young carers. Young carers are dealing with pressures that are already great, and may be experiencing increased pressure at this time. This is why within the Carers (Scotland) Act the key rights outlined are also applicable to all young carers, including the right to a Young Carer Statement, which involves an outcomes based conversation about the young carer’s personal circumstances and must include information about the impact of caring on their wellbeing and whether the care they provide is appropriate.

We also provide additional support to young carers such as; the Young Carer Grant, the Young Scot Young Carer Package, and the annual Young Carer festival. However, we do recognise that the transition period from young carer to being seen as an adult carer can be a difficult one to navigate and additional support at this time is required. Annex B to this letter outlines the specific support available for young carers during this transitional period.

I hope the Committee finds this information helpful to its inquiry into the Health and Wellbeing of Children and Young People. I will of course write again to provide further detail on the pathfinders currently in development to understand barriers to employability for child poverty priority groups once this is available.

yours sincerely, 

Shona Robison