Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026-2031

Ministerial foreword – Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice

This is the final Delivery Plan the Scottish Government will publish under the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 and it represents far more than a statutory milestone. It reaffirms our commitment to eradicating child poverty and transforming the lives of children and families across Scotland.

Scotland remains the only part of the UK to have set in statute targets to significantly reduce child poverty. This reflects the scale of our ambition, and I am proud of the difference our actions since 2018 have made. Our offer of free bus travel for everyone under the age of 22 in Scotland is estimated to save families over £3,000 across their child’s life. We have expanded our Free School Meal offer to all children in Primary 1-5, and we have delivered 65,044 affordable homes through our continued investment in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

This progress has been achieved through bold, coordinated action at every level – nationally and locally, across the third sector, local government, public sector, and the private sector – and I am deeply grateful to the many stakeholders, partners and communities whose commitment has driven this work.

Yet despite this progress, there are still too many children living in poverty in Scotland. Too many children who are not able to reach their full potential because of a lack of resources. This cannot continue. Many families are struggling as the cost of everyday essentials remains high – and this hits hardest for priority family groups, who tend to spend more of their income on these essentials.

While we are determined to do everything we can, our ability to respond at the pace families need is constrained by the UK Government’s continued control over key levers such as the minimum wage, living hours, and Universal Credit. These limits make an already difficult situation even harder.

That is why our commitment is unwavering. We need to go further and move faster. This plan is not just a programme of work – it is a catalyst for the progress we must make to reach our 2030 targets. It sets out 15 areas where focused action is needed in the life of the next Parliament, alongside specific actions that will be taken in the year ahead to deliver real, tangible change for families.

Our vision is clear: every family should be able to get the support they need, when and where they need it, to progress out of poverty. The Plan sets out a mixture of national offers – such as breakfast clubs for primary school aged children, and our funded childcare offer for all three and four year olds and eligible two year olds – alongside more tailored, place-based support that will make it easier for families to get help in a way that works for them.

By reinvesting funds that were previously committed to mitigating the UK Government’s two-child limit, we have been able to significantly enhance our overall support for families, creating the strongest package of financial support available anywhere in the UK. We are continuing to deliver the initiatives that are already making a real difference, including uprating our Five Family Payments in line with inflation and mitigating the UK Government’s bedroom tax, while at the same time taking new action to respond to the emerging challenges families are facing. Taken together, our action is estimated to keep 100,000 children out of relative poverty next year.

We have kept priority family groups at the centre of our approach. I hear too often from people who are doing everything they can but still face a system that puts barriers in their way – and these challenges are often exacerbated for women, especially disabled women, and those within our ethnic minority communities. Women’s poverty is children’s poverty, and that is why we have taken a gendered approach to this plan. We cannot accept a Scotland where a person’s opportunities, security, or dignity are constrained simply because the system is stacked against them.

We know that the targets set for 2030 are ambitious – never more so than now, when families across Scotland are facing real and growing pressures. But we need to be ambitious. To break the cycle of child poverty, we must hold ourselves to account, stay focused, and bring the full force of our collective effort to this mission.

Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice