Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026-2031 – annex 10: Islands Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA)

Step three - consultation

As this plan builds on the two previous Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plans, feedback from island communities and representatives had previously been gathered and impact assessments undertaken.

The consultation and engagement exercise undertaken ahead of this plan was therefore intended to build upon the existing information base, while recognising the evolution of child poverty in island communities since the previous consultation took place.

A wide-ranging and targeted consultation process was conducted in 2025 to gather feedback from community based and national third sector organisations, local authorities, health boards, COSLA, and the Scottish Parliament, in line with the requirements of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

This included:

• A written call for evidence and feedback sessions led by both Scottish Government officials and partner organisations.
• Deep dive sessions with gender, minority ethnic, and disability stakeholders.
• Scottish Government commissioned several external organisations with expertise in tackling child poverty to undertake research with stakeholders (including those with lived experience) representing a wide range of characteristics and covering the priority family groups.
• Scottish Government officials also engaged with a range of organisations representing children's interests, as well as consulting children and young people themselves.

From this consultation process, examples of engagement with island organisations regarding specific impacts on their communities include:

• Poverty Alliance hosted a members’ seminar on embedding rural and island experiences into the next Child Poverty Delivery Plan, with a written briefing submitted to Scottish Government.
• A written consultation response from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.
• A session with the Rural Stakeholder Group, consisting of various internal and external stakeholders on rural and islands child poverty.
• The Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit (SPIRU) convened a research and analysis workshop at Glasgow Caledonian University on behalf of the Scottish Government, bringing together researchers from academia, government, and the Third Sector to provide evidence-based insights to inform the development of the plan. This included discussions on the needs of rural and island communities.