Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026-2031 – annex 7: Equalities Impact Assessment (EQIA)

Equality Impact Assessment of Strategic Themes, Areas of Intervention and Actions in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan

The delivery plan sets out a range of actions seeking to address many of the issues raised in the previous section for each protected characteristic group. The actions are only discussed in summary below and are grouped into the four key themes and fifteen areas of intervention which make up the plan. Many actions will require their own detailed EQIA as they progress.

As set out in the plan, continued engagement with stakeholders and those with lived experience of poverty will allow us to develop a deeper understanding of the barriers faced by families, the solutions to these challenges, and the true impact of intersection of protected characteristics and those in priority families. This engagement will be important throughout the design, implementation and monitoring of the actions to ensure delivery of approaches which are person-centred and effectively meet the needs and rights of protected characteristic groups, maximising their positive impacts and mitigating any risks identified.

This analysis below is therefore broken down into the four strategic themes on which the plan focuses:

• Increasing earned incomes
• Reducing the costs of living
• Maximising incomes from social security
• Supporting children and families to thrive.

Increasing earned incomes

Protected Characteristic: Age, Disability, Marriage & Civil Partnership, Pregnancy & Maternity, Race, Sex

Overview of Impact:

We know that by providing families with the skills and employment support they need, we can advance equality of opportunity for parents and young people in accessing fulfilling employment and in turn providing a sustainable route out of poverty. The plan will contribute to this by investing £11 million to support parents to access the skills and education they need to enter, sustain and progress employment. This includes investment of £9 million in the college sector to provide new opportunities, with support with childcare and transport, and £2 million for a new Training Access Fund.

The actions in the plan focused on employment support a joined-up approach on issues which impact parents’ ability to enter employment - such as childcare - and aim to help address further barriers to employment and reduce inactivity. Expanding the availability of flexible and affordable childcare – including through delivery of a national breakfast club offer for primary school aged children by August 2027, backed by over £100 million across 2026-29 - should have a positive impact on all parents and particularly those within the priority family groups.

As noted above, public transport that is available, affordable and accessible will be crucial in advancing equality of opportunity for certain priority groups. The investment of up to £19 million in 2026-27 to develop a new Transport to Employment offer for low income parents will help reduce costs for families and make it easier for parents to move into and sustain employment.

By driving positive change in labour market and workplace conditions, we can tackle inequalities including those experienced by women, disabled people, young people and minority ethnic people. Relevant actions in the plan - including a new £10 million Flexible Workforce Development Fund to incentivise employers to support upskilling and progression opportunities for parents and priority family groups in their workforce - should have a positive impact in advancing equality of opportunity for these priority groups.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

To drive further progress on helping families increase their earned incomes, we will take action focused on:

• Providing aligned skills and employment support for parents and young people
• Expanding the availability of flexible and affordable childcare for families
• Ensuring public transport is available, affordable and accessible and connects parents and young people to work
• Driving positive change in labour market and workplace conditions

Monitoring participation and outcomes of employability support programmes to ensure these priority groups are not only accessing support services, but progressing to access and sustain employment, and taking remedial action if data suggests this is not the case.

Protected Characteristic: Sex

Overview of Impact:

Expanding the availability of flexible and affordable childcare for families will be particularly beneficial to women, who we know carry out the majority of caring responsibilities. This will allow greater opportunity to access training, employment, learning and potential expansion of the hours they work. Action to drive progress in this area includes the actions on childcare set out above, and investment of over £1 billion in 2026-27 in funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC), providing 1140 hours of funded childcare for all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds - supporting parents to access work, training and learning, and giving children access to high-quality early learning.

Actions focused on strengthening skills and employment support for parents should have a positive impact for women given we know that they often work in lower paid sectors. This includes the introduction of a new £2 million Training Access Fund to provide access to training opportunities for people in low-paid work. Together with other initiatives, the Fund will strengthen our adult upskilling and reskilling offer, especially for those who need it most.

The availability of good quality, well paid jobs on a flexible basis can support women to enter and progress in the workplace. The continued emphasis on a Fair Work First approach and the focus on driving positive change in the labour market and workplace conditions will support jobs that are accessible to all; offering the conditions needed to allow parents to support their families, regardless of gender. This will be particularly beneficial for women who are more likely to work in sectors with historically low pay, low progress and are often undervalued.

As those on low incomes are more reliant on public transport, the actions set out in the plan to ensure public transport is available, affordable and accessible will be beneficial to priority families, including young mothers.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and target action to address the gender pay gap. Continued monitoring of the Fair Work First approach and other relevant actions should be used to help to inform and further develop specific proposals required to address disparities faced by women. This includes the undervaluation of women’s work, revaluation of the care role in society, increase of hours on childcare, increases in social security benefits amongst others.

Protected Characteristic: Age

Overview of Impact:

The plan sets out action focused on supporting young people to access the labour market and the training and learning they need to thrive, which should have a positive impact on young people’s chances to enter into good career pathways. This should support the next generation of parents and tackle the inequalities of opportunity and outcomes experienced by young care leavers, young disabled people, young people from minority ethnic backgrounds, and other groups. This includes investment of £9 million in the college sector through the RISE (Raising Income through Skills and Education) initiative to support families at greatest risk of poverty to access the skills and education they need to enter, sustain and progress in work. RISE will employ whole-family approaches, including support with childcare and transport support to support up to 2,400 parents in 2026-27.

The increased provision of flexible and affordable childcare as set out above should particularly support those most at risk of living in poverty - including young mothers - to enter paid employment, training and skill development opportunities.

The actions focused on provision of affordable and accessible public transport are expected to reduce household costs and make it more affordable for young people to access education, training and employment. This includes providing free bus travel for over 2.4 million people, including all children and young people under 22, backed by investment of £465.8 million, saving families over £3,000 across their child’s life and connecting almost 800,000 children and young people to new opportunities and activities, including work, training and learning.

The action focused on driving positive change in labour market and workplace conditions should positively impact young people by addressing the higher rates of in-work poverty experienced by this group.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor the impact of actions, particularly around Early Learning and Childcare, transport, and training opportunities to ensure that support does reach those most at risk, including young people and young parents.

Protected Characteristic: Race

Overview of Impact:

Actions in the plan, including those that have to potential to reduce the minority ethnic pay gap, tackle structural inequality in employment and support minority ethnic people to enter and sustain employment will be particularly beneficial to minority ethnic families.

As part of the focus on driving positive change in labour market and workplace conditions, the plan commits to amending the Scottish Specific Duties to extend the scope of pay gap reporting to race and disability, with a view to ultimately having a positive impact for these employees.

The plan also outlines the need to continue working with employers to promote Fair Work through channels such as our Fair Work resource hub. This will support employers to implement fair and flexible working practices, which will help tackle barriers and inequalities experienced by groups including racialised minorities.

Minority ethnic families are more likely to use buses than their white counterparts. Providing affordable and accessible public transport - including through the Transport to Employment offer for low income parents - will therefore benefit minority ethnic families by helping connect them to essential services, employment centres and schools.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and target action to address the ethnicity pay gap. Continued monitoring of the Fair Work First approach and other proposals should be used to help to inform and further develop specific actions required to address disparities faced by minority ethnic communities.

Continue to encourage employers to collect, analyse and apply ethnicity pay gap data to inform actions to address barriers experienced by minority ethnic people.

Protected Characteristic: Disability

Overview of Impact:

Disabled parents should be positively impacted by the skills and employability offers of support outlined above. The plan also focuses on targeting employer engagement to promote fair and flexible working practices, which should support more disabled people into jobs which make use of their skills and experience.

We know that disabled parents are more likely to be underemployed and face additional barriers to accessing employment, including using public transport and as a result of discrimination. The actions focused on provision of affordable and accessible public transport, including free bus travel for disabled people, will be beneficial in allowing for more disabled people to access education, training and employment opportunities as well as support services.

Action focused on driving positive change in labour market and workplace conditions should have a positive impact on employment equality for disabled people. This will include working with employers to promote the Fair Work resource hub as outlined above, and amending the Scottish Specific Duties to extend the scope of pay gap reporting to include disability.

The emphasis of the plan on affordable and accessible childcare will also continue to focus on meeting the needs of disabled parents and the needs of disabled children attending. The national breakfast club offer for primary school age children outlined above will include provision in all special schools by August 2027.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and target action to address the disability pay gap. Continued monitoring of the Fair Work First approach and other proposals should be used to help to inform and further develop specific actions required to address disparities faced by disabled people.

Continue to monitor the impact of actions, including around Early Learning and Childcare offer and design of school age childcare to ensure it is accessible and meets the needs of disabled children who attend and disabled parents.

Protected Characteristic: Religion or Belief

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic, however actions in the plan that target minority ethnic communities and address structural barriers for priority families may be beneficial for some religious groups.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of the role of work and barriers faced in relation to poverty amongst faith groups.

Protected Characteristic: Pregnancy and Maternity

Overview of Impact:

The actions that target priority groups, including families with a child under 1, should have a positive impact.

Many mothers face the ‘motherhood penalty’ in that they can struggle to return to work following maternity leave if working patterns do not support their care commitments. Action focused on expanding the availability of flexible and affordable childcare for families and offering more flexible employment opportunities should help mitigate these challenges.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider further development of data to monitor policy impacts for pregnancy and maternity should be considered.

Protected Characteristic: Sexual Orientation

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified in terms of increasing earned incomes for LGBTQI+ parents. However, given the inclusive approach to many policies and services included, positive impacts may be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst LGBTQI+ people.

Protected Characteristic: Gender Reassignment

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic. However, given the inclusive approach to many policies and services included, positive impacts may be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst trans people.

Reducing the costs of living

Protected Characteristic: Age, Disability, Marriage & Civil Partnership, Pregnancy & Maternity, Race, Sex

Overview of Impact:

As part of the commitment to deliver more social and affordable homes for families, the plans sets out investment of £4.1 billion over the next four years as part of a wider investment of up to £4.9 billion in affordable homes. This is estimated to support delivery of 36,000 affordable homes and provide up to 24,000 children with a place to call home. This planned investment supports our continued commitment towards the delivery of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be for social rent and 10% in rural and island communities as well as our wider all-tenure ambition. These interventions should have a positive impact on priority families, who we know are more likely to find themselves in financial hardship as a result of rent or mortgage costs.

Similarly, there is a strong emphasis in the plan on tackling fuel poverty and making homes cheaper to heat, including through continued investment in Warmer Homes Scotland. The commitments set out will aim to improve the energy efficiency of homes, supporting families and reducing the costs they face. This should be particularly beneficial to priority families with less disposable income to meet the high costs of heating and energy.

Evidence shows that certain priority groups including single mothers or those who live in a household with a disabled person are at the greatest risk of being impacted by public debt. More generally, external factors including the cost of living crisis have placed increasing pressures on household finances, with debts rising as a result. The plan sets out action to tackle debt, particularly public sector debt, to help mitigate some of these challenges.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

To drive further progress on reducing the costs of living, we will take action focused on:

• Delivering more social and affordable homes for families
• Ending child homelessness
• Making homes cheaper to heat
• Tackling public sector debt

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions to ensure support is reaching those at greater risk of poverty, particular priority families and the corresponding protected characteristics.

A risk to the success of tackling fuel poverty is that key levers are outwith the control of the Scottish Government. We will continue to engage with stakeholders and UK Government on a strategic approach to energy market reform that will simplify the system and address energy affordability and debt sustainably.

Consideration should be given to the further development of homelessness data to better understand the links between protected characteristics and priority families and their experience/risk of homelessness and action required to address this.

Protected Characteristic: Sex

Overview of Impact:

The plan’s emphasis on protecting people from homelessness and ensuring that they are in a settled home as soon as possible should positively impact women and children who are experiencing domestic abuse and face higher risk of housing precarity and homelessness because of their circumstances. This includes investing a further £2 million in the national Fund to Leave in 2026-27, giving women more choices and more control by helping to pay for the essentials needed for them to leave an abusive partner and build a more stable future for their children and themselves. The fund will be open to women across Scotland, regardless of their housing tenure, including those in the private rented sector, social housing, or owner-occupied properties.

Furthermore, the plan strengthens support for women experiencing domestic abuse by requiring all social landlords to have a domestic abuse policy and bringing Part 2 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 into force from 1 August 2026 - giving social landlords greater control to transfer a tenancy to a victim-survivor. This will have a positive impact on women and their children by supporting them to stay in their homes and prevent homelessness.

The action set out in the plan to tackle debt owed to the public sector should be particularly beneficial to women given that evidence shows women are disproportionately more likely to be impacted by public sector debt, with women who are single parents or who live in a household with a disabled person at even greater risk. This includes allocating over £2 million to the Council Tax Debt project across Scotland in 2026-27 to ensure extra capacity for advice for those experiencing council tax and water charges debt - estimated to support up to 15,000 people. This will also support the development and sharing of good practice across Local Authorities in relation to how reminder notices, final notices, and enforcement escalation timelines operate in practice to better support fairness.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and target action to address disparities faced by women with the costs of living, particularly in relation to homelessness as a result of domestic abuse and disproportionately high levels of public sector debt faced by women.

Protected Characteristic: Age

Overview of Impact:

Action focused on delivering more social and affordable homes for families should have a positive impact on homelessness among children and young people given we know that children living in the social rented sectors and private rented sectors are at greater risk of poverty than children living in owned or mortgaged accommodation. This includes the investment in affordable homes outlined above as well as establishing More Homes Scotland to accelerate housing delivery across all tenures.

There is evidence that households headed by younger people (16-24) are among those most at risk of fuel poverty, and so they should particularly benefit from the plan’s considerable targeted action on making homes cheaper to heat. This includes action to support greater energy efficiency through Warmer Homes Scotland and Area Based Schemes (ABS) delivery programmes, with the 2026-27 budget including up to £64 million in funding for locally designed and delivered ABS projects. Heating, insulation and renewable measures installed through Warmer Homes Scotland saved households around £450 a year on average on their fuel bills in 2024-25.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions aimed at reducing the costs of living to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, including young people.

Protected Characteristic: Disability

Overview of Impact:

The range of actions set out in the plan should be beneficial to disabled people as through reducing costs for everyday items, there will be more money to cover the additional costs faced by these households for specific items they require.

As part of the continued commitment to maximising the impact of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme on child poverty, the actions set out in the plan will drive progress to ensure that this housing meets the needs of families with a disabled person.

The action set out in the plan to tackle debt owed to the public sector, should be particularly beneficial to households with a disabled person given that evidence shows women who live in a household with a disabled person are at greater risk of being impacted by public sector debt. This includes allocating the Council Tax Debt project outlined above and working with local authority partners to explore how sharing Social Security Scotland data can help target support to households, with children, that hold council tax debt.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions aimed at reducing costs of living to ensure support is reaching and meeting the needs of those at greatest risk of poverty, including disabled people. Reduction of costs will be beneficial, although there is a need to mitigate against the barriers disabled people face and provide specialist support and input to meet their needs.

Protected Characteristic: Race

Overview of Impact:

Action focused on delivering more social and affordable homes for families should benefit minority ethnic families given we know that they are overrepresented in the private rented sector and spend a higher proportion of their income on housing costs than other families. This includes the investment in affordable housing outlined above as well as investing a further £9 million in Discretionary Housing Payments to support up to an estimated 18,000 families with the ongoing freeze to Local Housing Allowance - reducing housing-related poverty and helping prevent homelessness.

We know that minority ethnic households with children are more likely to be in unmanageable debt. Targeted action to tackle debt, including public sector debt, as outlined above should therefore be of particular benefit to minority ethnic families.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions aimed at reducing costs of living to ensure support is reaching those at greater risk of poverty, including minority ethnic families. Further data collection should be considered to understand the diverse needs of minority ethnic communities.

Consideration should also be given to location of provision of affordable homes, as minority ethnic families may face discrimination and harassment which might make them avoid certain areas.

Protected Characteristic: Religion or Belief

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic, however actions in the plan that target minority ethnic communities and address structural barriers for priority families may be beneficial for some religious groups.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of specific cost of living challenges faced by different religious groups.

Protected Characteristic: Pregnancy and Maternity

Overview of Impact:

Actions set out in the plan that target priority families, including families with a child under 1, will be beneficial.

The wide range of actions focused on reducing costs of living as outlined above should be particularly beneficial to people covered by this characteristic given we know that there are high additional costs faced during the pregnancy and maternity period.

Pregnant young women and the youngest mothers are overrepresented in applications for homeless assessments in Scotland. Some of them will likely be domestic abuse survivors with very limited support networks. The targeting of actions to end homelessness and that support safe settlement and housing for young mothers in particular will be beneficial.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, including women and young mothers in particular.

Protected Characteristic: Sexual Orientation

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified in terms of reducing the costs of living for LGBTQI+ people. However, given the inclusive approach to many policies and services included, positive impacts may be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst LGBTQI+ people.

Protected Characteristic: Gender Reassignment

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic. However, given the inclusive approach to many policies and services included, positive impacts may be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst trans people.

Maximising incomes from social security

Protected Characteristic: Age, Disability, Marriage & Civil Partnership, Pregnancy & Maternity, Race, Sex

Overview of Impact:

Children from priority groups facing the highest levels of poverty will be positively impacted through the work to introduce a Scottish Child Payment Premium for children under 1, which will increase the total payment amount to £40 per week during 2027-28 benefitting an estimated 12,000 children. With families with a baby more likely to live in poverty or deep poverty, this will provide vital additional support in the first year of a child’s life.

Maximising uptake of benefits will benefit priority families who are most reliant on this support. To help families access available support, including benefits, the plan commits to delivering a national, multi-channel Parental Employability and Financial Support campaign to help families access available support. This will include locally targeted and tailored signposting to information, advice and support to apply for benefits they are entitled to - including reserved benefits such as Universal Credit. Publishing the next Benefit Take-up Strategy for Scottish Government benefits, setting out how we will support take up of devolved benefits over 2026-2031. The plan also sets out a range of other actions to help maximise benefit uptake.

The plan also commits to providing more stability and certainty for the advice services sector, improving staff retention and the quality of services provided to families. This should have a positive impact on priority families through increasing accessibility of high-quality advice to help minimise debt and improve their financial wellbeing.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

To drive further progress on maximising incomes form social security, we will take action focused on:

• Strengthening support through social security
• Maximising take-up of Scottish and UK Government benefits to ensure all families receive the support they are entitled to
• Increasing accessibility of money and debt advice for families

A risk to achieving social security policy objectives is that eligible families will not be aware of the schemes so will not apply. Social Security Scotland takes a proactive approach to promoting benefits and maximising uptake. To increase uptake of targeted support, there is a continued need to work with local authorities, DWP and HMRC to improve data sharing and processes for identifying eligible households and getting payment to them. Consideration should also be given to the feasibility of improving data reporting.

To enable better targeting of support locally and to improve the reach of engagement of services, there is a need to work with local partners and grassroots, community-led organisations to reach those most excluded groups.

Protected Characteristic: Sex

Overview of Impact:

We know that women are more reliant on income from social security and, therefore, more vulnerable to changes to the social security system. Intersecting protected characteristics can also further negatively impact women, with those from minority ethnic backgrounds, with a lone parent status and with a disability more likely to be impacted by cuts to benefits.

Strengthening support through social security should therefore be of particular benefit to women, and the plan aims to drive progress in this area through a range of action including uprating our Five Family Payments, including our Best Start Grants, Best Start Foods and Scottish Child Payment, in line with inflation. Backed by £524 million in 2026-27, this will see our Scottish Child Payment increase to £28.20 per week, forecast to benefit over 330,000 children. Investment in our Scottish Child Payment alone is estimated to keep 50,000 children out of poverty in 2026-27.

Similarly, evidence including from our consultation has highlighted the importance of access to advice and advocacy services for families. There is wide ranging action in the plan to support these services, including providing up to £275,000 to One Parent Families Scotland and Fife Gingerbread to help more separated families access regular and reliable child maintenance payments. This will particularly benefit lone mothers (and lone parents more generally) and will improve the quality of information available to parents, help to upskill advice workers across Scotland to feel more confident in speaking to parents about child maintenance and ensure expert support is available for the most complex cases.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and target action to address the vulnerability faced by women as a result of reliance on social security and potential cuts to benefits.

Continue to monitor uptake of benefits and support by sex.

Protected Characteristic: Age

Overview of Impact:

We know that, due to circumstances beyond their control, some families are more reliant on social security, including those which have young children.

The actions set out in the plan to strengthen support through social security - including the introduction of a Scottish Child Payment Premium for children under 1 outlined above – should particularly help families with a baby, who we know are more likely to live in poverty or deep poverty.

The plan also sets out action to deliver, from April 2026, a one-off £2,000 payment for care leavers as they move out of the care system and into independent living, estimated to benefit around 1,300 care leavers each year.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions aimed at maximising income from social security (including the Scottish Child Payment Premium) to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, including young people.

Continue to monitor uptake of benefits and support by age.

Protected Characteristic: Disability

Overview of Impact:

We know that, due to circumstances beyond their control, some families are more reliant on social security, particularly where they have a disability which limits their ability to work. The plan sets out action to promote the take-up of benefits and to tackle the fear, stigma, and shame which some people experience in taking up support to they are rightly entitled to.

The action under this strategic driver should be particularly beneficial to disabled people, through strengthening the accessibility and availability of key advice services and maximising uptake of benefits, some of which are targeted specifically at disabled people. Action to funding make money advice more accessible includes providing funding of £6 million for the Advice in Accessible settings Fund by the end of 2028-29, which we expect will support over 7,500 people each year. Action to maximise uptake of both Scottish and UK Government benefits includes the Parental Employability and Financial Support campaign outlined above.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions aimed at maximising income from social security to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, including young people.

Continue to monitor uptake of benefits and support by disability status.

Protected Characteristic: Race

Overview of Impact:

The plan sets out action aimed at ensuring families are maximising the support to which they are entitled. Through our consultation, we know about the importance of putting money into people’s pockets, tackling the stigma and shame people can feel when accessing social security, and addressing barriers to take-up – particularly for certain groups including minority ethnic families. We will continue to seek to address stigma through our work on income maximisation.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

To address the structural barriers and gain a better understanding of cultural barriers to benefit uptake, it is important to continue working with minority ethnic communities to monitor and adapt action as required.

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions aimed at maximising income from social security to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, including minority ethnic families.

Continue to monitor uptake of benefits and support by ethnicity.

Protected Characteristic: Religion or Belief

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic, however actions in the plan that target minority ethnic communities and address structural barriers for priority families may be beneficial for some religious groups.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of specific cost of living challenges faced by different religious groups.

Protected Characteristic: Pregnancy and Maternity

Overview of Impact:

Actions set out in the plan that target priority families, including families with a child under 1, will be beneficial.

This includes the work outlined above to introduce the Scottish Child Payment Premium, which will provide vital additional support in the first year of a child’s life.

We know that the change in circumstance for families with a baby can affect their financial wellbeing, and the plan sets out action to support low-income households, including families, to deal with emergencies through the Scottish Welfare Fund. Backed by investment of £41 million in 2026-27, more than a third of awards are made to families with children with awards tending to go to applicants living in more deprived areas of Scotland.

The action under this strategic driver should be particularly beneficial to families expecting or with a new born baby, through strengthening the accessibility and availability of key advice services and maximising uptake of benefits, some of which are targeted specifically at babies and young children.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions (including the Scottish Child Payment Premium) to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, including women and young mothers in particular.

Protected Characteristic: Sexual Orientation

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified in terms of maximising incomes from social security for LGBTQI+ people. However, given the inclusive approach to many policies and services included, positive impacts may be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst LGBTQI+ people.

Protected Characteristic: Gender Reassignment

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic. However, given the inclusive approach to many policies and services included, positive impacts may be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst trans people.

Supporting children and families to thrive

Protected Characteristic: Age, Disability, Marriage & Civil Partnership, Pregnancy & Maternity, Race, Sex

Overview of Impact:

The plan sets out various actions aimed at ensuring families and children have access to the support they need, when they need it, for as long as they need it. This support will be person-centred, holistic, and will meet families where they are. This should be of particular benefit to priority families, who we know may encounter multiple and overlapping challenges that require bespoke and nuanced responses.

All families will be supported from the early stages of child development, including through investing an additional £1.1 million to expand the Family Nurse programme to support up to an additional 500 young parents in 2026-27 through this person-centred, evidence-based intervention to address the core drivers of child poverty and to improve early child development.

We know that care experienced and disadvantaged young people are represented across the priority family groups. The plan will look to positively impact these groups through action including expanding the MCR Pathways school-based mentoring programme to reach up to 5,500 young people in schools across Scotland.

We also know the importance of Third Sector partners in supporting families and children across Scotland. The plan aims to strengthen this positive impact, including through establishing a £20 million Third Sector Delivery Fund. The Fund will support third sector organisations to provide more support that wraps around families in their communities, making connections to public services and helping to break the cycle of poverty.

There is also a wide range of actions in the plan focused on delivering Whole Family Support. This includes providing investment of £50 million through the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme to enable local areas to respond to the needs of their communities and shift towards a sustainable approach to investment in early, preventative support for all families.

The plan also contains a commitment to developing and implementing a ‘once for Scotland’ Data Exchange programme to raise capacity and technical expertise across the public sector in Scotland. This will help make the Scottish public sector more confident to unlock the potential of data, ensuring families get the services and support they need.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

To support children and families to thrive, we will take action focused on:

• Supporting young families: investing in early child development
• Ensuring children and young people can reach their full potential
• Delivering Whole Family Support
• Making best use of data to support children and families and improve public services

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, particular priority families and the corresponding protected characteristics.

Protected Characteristic: Age

Overview of Impact:

The actions under this theme aim to improve the wellbeing and future prospects for all children living in poverty. Therefore they should all have positive impacts for children. Alongside other activity set out above, we will support an expansion of Bookbug with £500,000 funding across 2026-28 to increase the provision of Bookbug sessions in SIMD 1 and 2 areas, provide additional books and resources for Bookbug for the Home families, support parental literacy development and work with national partners such as Home Start to further embed Bookbug practice to support low income families.

The plan also contains a wide range of action to positively impact children and young people’s educational journeys and participation in school life, for example through:

• Investing up to £200 million and reviewing the evidence of the impact of the Scottish Attainment Challenge to support the improved attainment and outcomes of children and young people impacted by poverty. This includes Pupil Equity Funding allocated to schools for headteachers to implement local approaches to meet the needs of their children, young people and families.
• Funding the provision of Free School Meals for all pupils in primary 1-5, pupils in primary 6 & 7 whose families are in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment and eligible pupils from S1-S6.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions aimed to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, including young people.

Protected Characteristic: Disability

Overview of Impact:

Action in the plan should also have positive impacts for specifically for disabled children and their families.

Investing in early child development to tackle child poverty has been endorsed by those working with children and families, and through our consultation we heard about the importance of utilising dedicated professionals such as Midwives, Health Visitors and Family Nurses as key trusted points of contact with families with young children facing adversity. The plan sets out action to strengthen the role of health services to maximise incomes.

Action to make best use of data to support children and families should be particularly beneficial to families with a disabled member given the importance of social security for these families. Action to strengthen this includes working with local authorities and other partners to support the implementation of data sharing intended to enable proactive support to be put in place for families and improve public service delivery.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions to ensure support is reaching and meeting the needs of those at greatest risk of poverty, including disabled people.

Protected Characteristic: Sex

Overview of Impact:

The policies and actions under this strategic aim to improve the wellbeing and future prospects for all children living in poverty. There are no specific actions in this section that have a particular focus on individuals’ sex, though there is action which should have positive impacts on women who are pregnant or recently had a baby, as outlined in the Pregnancy and Maternity section.

Given the inclusive, person-centred approach to many actions, positive impacts should be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions to ensure support is reaching and meeting the needs of those at greatest risk of poverty, including women and young mothers in particular.

Protected Characteristic: Race

Overview of Impact:

The policies and actions under this strategic aim to improve the wellbeing and future prospects for all children living in poverty. There are no specific actions in this section that have a particular focus on individuals’ race. However, the inclusive, person-centred approach to policies, particularly those noted above, will likely have a positive impact for minority ethnic children.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions to ensure support is reaching those at greater risk of poverty, including minority ethnic families.

Protected Characteristic: Religion or Belief

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic, however actions in the plan that target minority ethnic communities and address structural barriers for priority families may be beneficial for some religious groups.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of specific challenges faced by different religious groups.

Protected Characteristic: Pregnancy and Maternity

Overview of Impact:

This strategic driver has a particular emphasis on improving early child development.

In addition to the actions set out above, the plan commits to further strengthen the role of universal and specialist health services, including health visitors and maternity services to maximise incomes focussing on prevention and early intervention as part of person-centred care before, during and after pregnancy.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Continue to monitor and evaluate policies and actions to ensure support is reaching those at greatest risk of poverty, including women and young mothers in particular.

Protected Characteristic: Sexual Orientation

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for LGBTQI+ people. However, given the inclusive approach to many policies and services included, positive impacts may be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst LGBTQI+ people.

Protected Characteristic: Gender Reassignment

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic. However, given the inclusive approach to many policies and services included, positive impacts may be possible.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst trans people.