Cash-First Programme: final evaluation report

1. Background and policy context

The Cash-First approach

The ‘Cash-First: Towards Ending the Need for Food Banks in Scotland’ Plan (the Plan hereafter), published in June 2023, sets out the Scottish Government’s ambition for a Scotland without the need for food banks. The Plan contains nine actions over three years (2023-2026) to improve the response to food crisis, using a Cash-First approach so that fewer people need to use food parcels. It is underpinned by a human rights approach that considers physical, social and cultural needs. It takes a twofold approach to tackling food insecurity:

• Prevention, by strengthening incomes through fair work, social security and reduced costs of living; and
• Response, which seeks to provide emergency financial assistance aligned with income maximisation advice and holistic support, with the aim of making food banks the last port of call in a crisis, maximising choice and dignity for individuals.

Action 1 in the Plan is to ‘Support new local partnership work to deliver Cash-First.’ This Cash-First Programme (the Programme hereafter) committed a three-year fund of up to £1.8 million to support eight local Delivery Partners to collaborate and deliver activities aimed at strengthening ready access to emergency income when someone has no money for food. To prevent future hardship this should be delivered alongside welfare rights and income maximisation advice and support. This approach prioritises service users’ dignity and autonomy, enabling people to make their own choices to meet their essential needs.

Cash-First approaches are not the sole solution to addressing reliance on food banks. However, they can play a crucial role in making progress towards this and work alongside a range of other social welfare and anti-poverty policies.

To create the Programme, using a competitive process, the Scottish Government selected eight area-based projects to test a range of Cash-First approaches targeting people with different characteristics and addressing different local challenges.

Each area had a Delivery Partner, who worked with a range of organisations from across the public and third sectors, known as local core partners. The Delivery Partner coordinated activity. The areas and Delivery Partners are:

• Aberdeen City; Delivery Partner Aberdeen Council of Voluntary Organisations (ACVO)
• Aberdeenshire; Delivery Partner Aberdeenshire Council
• City of Edinburgh; Delivery Partner Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership
• Fife; Delivery Partner Fife Council
• Glasgow City; Delivery Partner Glasgow Centre for Population Health
• North Lanarkshire; Delivery Partner North Lanarkshire Council
• Orkney; Delivery Partner Voluntary Action Orkney
• West Dunbartonshire; Delivery Partner West Dunbartonshire Council

A Programme Learning Partner was appointed by the Scottish Government to support the eight Delivery Partners to develop and tailor Cash-First services in their area and share learning across the Delivery Partners.

A note on terminology

For the purposes of this evaluation, ‘Delivery Partner’ refers to the key local body leading the Programme in the local area; ‘local core partners’ refers to those organisations working in formal arrangements with the Delivery Partners; ‘referral partners’ refers to local organisations who refer individuals to the Delivery Partner and their local core partners for Cash-First support; ‘Trusted Partners’ refers to organisations and services with demonstrable understanding and compliance with public sector requirements who work with the public sector to deliver services; and ‘local stakeholders’ is used to refer to wider organisations many of whom provide holistic support to people accessing Cash-First.

Year 1 of the Programme ran from April 2024 to March 2025 and Year 2 from April 2025 to March 2026. Where Year 1 and Year 2 are used in this report, this relates to these dates.

The interim evaluation reported on activity from April 2024 to December 2024. In this report, this is referred to as stage 1 of the evaluation. Stage 2, or the second stage of the evaluation, covers the period January 2025 to December 2025.

The term ‘the evaluation’ is used to refer to the entirety of the Programme evaluation across Stages 1 and 2. The term ‘this evaluation’ refers to this current report which reflects Stage 2 activity and how learning has developed and evolved since Stage 1.

This is also noted in Acronyms and Key Concepts/Definitions at Appendix A.

The Cash-First Programme evaluation

The delivery periods for the eight Delivery Partners were as follows:

• Aberdeen City: 1 March 2024 – 31 March 2026
• Aberdeenshire: 7 February 2024 – 20 March 2026
• City of Edinburgh: 1 January 2024 – 31 October 2025
• Fife: 6 July 2024 – 31 March 2026
• Glasgow City: 1 February 2024 – 31 January 2026
• North Lanarkshire: 3 November 2023 – 2 November 2025
• Orkney: 1 May 2024 – 31 October 2025
• West Dunbartonshire: 30 October 2023 – 29 October 2025

Some preliminary activity was underway in some areas as early as October 2023; and all eight areas were operational by May 2024. In some cases, the Programme enhanced existing activity, for example in North Lanarkshire where Cash-First approaches have been in place for a number of years. This meant that local delivery could commence at a very early stage with no need to develop new structures or processes. In other instances, local delivery of the Programme required significant preparation time, including for staff recruitment.

The interim evaluation report, published in July 2025, focused more narrowly on processes and included some examination of outcomes achieved within the time period. This evaluation report includes a fuller assessment of outcomes and impacts achieved over the Programme duration.

This evaluation report will highlight progress made since the interim evaluation and reflect how the Programme built on learning. The report is structured as follows:

• Chapter 2 – Research approach: Summarises the aims of the research and the methodology.
• Chapter 3 - Has the Programme been implemented and delivered as intended? This chapter outlines the approach and interventions taken by each Delivery Partner, targeting and engagement with participants and stakeholders, and the use of data and knowledge in the Programme, noting any changes from the first to the second stage of the evaluation.
• Chapter 4 - What has been produced as a result of the Programme? This chapter explores the initiatives and activities delivered by the Programme since Stage 1 of the evaluation.
• Chapter 5 - What difference has the Programme made and for whom? This chapter outlines the impacts of the Programme.
• Chapter 6 – Conclusions. This chapter highlights key learning, drawing from across the Programme.
• Appendices include a list of acronyms and definitions, details on the methodology employed, an overview of the specific activity undertaken, and four case studies.