Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund: round 3 funding recipients

Aberdeen City Council 

Project: Development of Low-Income Family Tracker (LIFT) 
Funding: £97,500 

This funding will keep the Low-Income Family Tracker running in Aberdeen, providing financial insights and targeted support for low-income families. It will also help families with children who have additional support needs get better access to support. 

Angus Council 

Project: Families First Arbroath 
Funding: £100,000 

This funding will bring together local and national partners to: 

• build services that work better together and respond faster 
• understand what local families need 
• improve how partners work together 
• find new ways to engage families experiencing or at risk of poverty 

Argyll and Bute Council 

Project: Thriving Families on Argyll and Bute's Islands 
Funding: £99,880 

This funding will provide energy bill vouchers and energy advice to island households whose children get free school meals. Households will be invited to contact ALIenergy for their electricity voucher. ALIenergy will also offer wider support, including through their Affordable Warmth Service. 

City of Edinburgh Council 

Project: Understanding and Addressing Unmet Need within Priority Groups 
Funding: £55,000 

This funding will help the council understand the needs of priority families better, with a focus on families from black and minority ethnic communities. The project will: 

• improve data collection and analysis 
• increase community engagement to identify specific needs and barriers 
• design tailored actions based on evidence to improve access to social security and community support 

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar 

Project: Whole Family Support Hub 
Funding: £100,000 

This funding will open a hub in Stornoway to help people develop new skills and increase their incomes. The hub will have support workers who will provide early help, including: 

• social enterprise opportunities 
• skills development 
• accredited learning 
• referrals to employability services to help people find lasting work 

Falkirk Council 

Project: Falkirk North Family First Response 
Funding: £100,000 

This funding will provide quick support for families in crisis caused by poverty. Partners from education, housing, social work, police, health and other services will work together to support family support workers. This includes financial health checks, employability support and parenting programmes. 

Fife Council 

Project: Transforming Child Maintenance 
Funding: £99,215 

This funding will help Fife embed learnings from their Child Maintenance Test and Demonstration to be embedded locally to create a sustainable project legacy with lasting change. It will also help Edinburgh introduce a similar approach. The project will: 

• include child maintenance in tackling poverty plans 
• train financial inclusion and family support workers to have confident conversations about child maintenance 

Highland Council  

Project: Single Care Model in rural areas 
Funding: £111,625 

This funding will develop and test a new way to provide care in the communities of Ullapool, Lochbroom, Strontian and the wider Ardnamurchan peninsula. The Single Care Model will combine child and adult care services, delivered by multi-skilled care workers employed by a single organisation. 

Highland Council and NHS Highland 

Project: Lived Experience Partnership 
Funding: £100,000 

This funding will help the Highland Poverty Reduction Delivery Group and Community Planning Partnership set up a Lived Experience Partnership. The pilot will develop and test ways of working that meet Highland's needs. 

Midlothian Council 

Project: Midlothian Community Diners 
Funding: £99,118 

This funding will support community diners across Midlothian. The diners will target families who do not currently access cost of living support. Staff from different agencies will provide advice on income, employment and benefits. The diners will also offer family learning and health advice. 

Poverty peer researchers and local residents will help shape dignified, affordable and sustainable dining opportunities, including family-friendly venues and pop-up diners. 

Moray Council 

Project: Building family confidence and community connections 
Funding: £102,676 

This funding will create spaces for families with young children aged 13 to 27 months to connect, access support and shape services. 

The project will host social gatherings over 18 months, followed by 6 to 8 structured sessions to: 

• build relationships and reduce isolation 
• share practical guidance on child development, cost of living and income maximisation 
• offer pathways into employability programmes 

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 

Project: Poverty Our Hidden Shame – 10 years on 
Funding: £100,000 

This funding will pair storytelling with practical support for young people. The project will create a community-led sequel to the documentary 'Poverty: Our Hidden Shame'. It will reconnect with the young people originally featured and engage with young people currently living in these communities. 

The project will also create a Young Person's Financial Wellbeing adviser to help young people who rarely engage with financial advice services. 

North Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire 

Project: Pharmacy Teams 'Maximising Incomes to Maximise Outcomes' 
Funding: £100,608 

This funding will test how pharmacy teams can help families in Bellshill meet their basic needs through income maximisation. The project will fund a dedicated Tackling Poverty Income Maximiser post within pharmacy teams, supported by a paediatric pharmacist. 

Perth and Kinross Council  

Project: Support for Families – Access to Advice 
Funding: £49,000 

This funding will pilot embedding advice services in 11 primary schools to help families maximise their income. The project will provide one-to-one advice on welfare rights and debt management, with referrals to energy advice and employability services. Staff in schools will also receive training to provide initial support and make referrals. 

Project: Family Voices at the Heart of our Decision Making 
Funding: £83,808 

This funding will pay for a Lived Experience Officer to: 

• run sessions with priority families to gather insights and ideas 
• train and support people with lived experience to influence services and participate in decision making 
• help decision-makers share power and adopt inclusive approaches 
• pilot changes to service delivery informed by lived experience 

Renfrewshire Council 

Project: Family Poverty Insight Partnership 
Funding: £115,747 

This funding will create a locally governed 'Insight Partnership' that uses existing data to identify families showing early signs of child poverty risk. The partnership will connect these families quickly to the right support, including income maximisation, employability help, cost of living advice and family wellbeing services. 

Shetland Islands Council 

Project: Refocus of Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) 
Funding: £100,000 

This funding will refocus how Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) works in Shetland, with a focus on families affected by poverty. The aim is to make local practice more proactive and inclusive.

South Ayrshire Council, HSCP and NHS Ayrshire and Arran 

Project: Dad's Barber 
Funding: £93,500 

This funding will create a new way to engage dads through a trained mobile 'dad's barber'. The barber will provide free haircuts, coffee and connection. Through this relationship, dads can be connected to a 'dads wellbeing support worker' for more structured support, including parenting advice. 

South Lanarkshire Council 

Project: Increasing Disability Benefit Take-Up for Neurodivergent Children 
Funding: £46,031 

This funding will improve early take-up of benefits for families with neurodivergent children, including those with autism, Asperger's and other conditions. This includes families who have not yet received a formal diagnosis. 

The project will place a specialist welfare rights officer within The Autism Resources Co-ordination Hub (ARCH), providing dedicated support to its community of over 2,000 parents and carers. 

West Dunbartonshire Council 

Project: Family Prosperity Network 
Funding: £104,960 

This funding will support the Family Opportunity and Wellbeing Partnership Model across West Dunbartonshire's Family Opportunity Hubs and Whole Family Wellbeing Hubs. The model brings together: 

• income maximisation 
• welfare rights advice 
• childcare navigation 
• parental employability pathways 
• wellbeing support 

The project will particularly support families with children with additional support needs. 

West Lothian Council 

Project: Bridging the Gap: Turning Unmet Need into Real Access 
Funding: £27,211 

This funding will improve community engagement by understanding why some families do not currently access support. The project will use data to identify areas where families on low incomes are not claiming their full benefit entitlements. 

A Campaign Development Officer will coordinate engagement activities in these communities to understand barriers to accessing support.