Scottish Welfare Fund - statutory guidance amendments April 2026: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment

Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment Template

1. Brief Summary

Type of proposal:

Decision of a strategic nature relating to the rights and wellbeing of children

Name the proposal, and describe its overall aims and intended purpose.

Revision of Scottish Welfare Fund Statutory Guidance – April 2026

The Scottish Government commissioned an Independent Review of the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) to ensure that it works as well as possible in all parts of the country and is safeguarded for the future.

The Review was published at the end of March 2023 and it highlighted that the SWF continues to provide an essential source of crisis support and helps people with independent living. In response to the review, Scottish Ministers committed to deliver an Action Plan to make improvements to the SWF after a decade in place.^[1]

The SWF Action Plan was published on 30 June 2023.^[2] Informed by the evidence within the Independent Review, this Action Plan was developed collaboratively with a Policy Advisory Group. Members of the Group included representatives from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), local authority delivery partners, third sector groups and public body organisations. The Group’s input ensured robust and expert oversight of the 22 actions featured within the Plan.

Following the completion of the Action Plan, the Scottish Government committed to review and update the SWF Statutory Guidance on an annual basis. As set out in the Action Plan, updates and improvements to the statutory guidance in April 2025 were focused on making the guidance clearer and improving its accessibility. Changes made also related to reviewing key areas of the guidance, such as the income thresholds used to determine eligibility, the process for supporting information gathering and the methodology to calculate the cost of living award rate for Crisis Grants.

Continuing the process to ensure that the statutory guidance is clearer and more accessible to those who use it, we are making some further improvements, and this CRWIA assesses those changes. These changes will include key areas of the guidance such as the revision of the low-income threshold tables for 2026/27 to include a rate for those without housing costs, and also clarifying the guidance regarding applications received from people who are homeless. The proposed changes follow conversations with local authorities through our regular Practitioners’ Forum and meetings with stakeholders including the British Red Cross, Royal British Legion, Poppyscotland and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO).

Additional text has also been added to the statutory guidance that ensures a child’s best interests are taken into consideration and reinforces that the circumstances of the immediate family should be considered in applications.

The Care Leaver Payment (CLP) is intended to help reduce some of the financial barriers faced whilst leaving care and transitioning into adulthood and more independent living. It is well-evidenced that care leavers experience poorer outcomes than their non-care experienced peers and research shows that the transition to adulthood may be especially difficult for care leavers who may not have the same informal support networks as their non-care leaver peers. One of the measures that the Scottish Government is taking to address this issue is to introduce the CLP. As such, following consultation with stakeholders, the new CLP will be listed in the guidance as a payment that should be disregarded when calculating income for the SWF.

Additional wording highlights that holding a family reunion visa status should be considered a factor that may increase an applicant’s vulnerability and may also positively impact children.

Our standing Statutory Guidance Review Committee was established in 2024 to guide and develop proposals around the updates for the April 2025 revision and has continued to look at this next revision due for April 2026. The Committee is made up of multiple stakeholders such as the SPSO, COSLA, local authority representatives, Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and third sector representatives from Citizens Advice Scotland and the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

The updated statutory guidance is due to be published on 25 March 2026 and will take effect from 1 April 2026.

Start date of proposal’s development: 19/09/2025

Start date of CRWIA process: 03/11/2025

2. With reference given to the requirements of the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which aspects of the proposal are relevant to/impact upon children’s rights?

There are some elements of the proposal to update the SWF Statutory Guidance that are relevant to children’s rights. We believe that our proposals will have a positive impact in relation to Articles 3, 6, 10, 18, 22, 23, 24, 26 and 27 of the convention and an overall neutral impact for the other requirements.

The changes that are being made to the Statutory Guidance are to ensure that it is clearer, easier to understand and more accessible for everyone; including local authority decision makers and members of the public.

3. Please provide a summary of the evidence gathered which will be used to inform your decision-making and the content of the proposal

Evidence from:

Existing research/reports/policy expertise

1. The Scottish Government commissioned Ipsos Scotland to undertake an Independent Review of the SWF. The Review published at the end of March 2023^[3] and highlighted that the SWF continues to provide an essential source of crisis support and helps people with independent living.

2. The SWF Action Plan was published on 30 June 2023.^[4] Informed by the evidence within the Independent Review, this Action Plan was developed collaboratively with a Policy Advisory Group and provided the framework for the updates to the statutory guidance in April 2025. The Scottish Government has committed to updating the guidance on an annual basis.

3. Group members consisted of representatives from Child Poverty Action Group, Citizen’s Advice Scotland, COSLA, local authorities, the Scottish Government, Scottish Prison Service, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) and the Trussell Trust/Independent Food Aid Network.

4. During 2024-25, £46.6 million in SWF grants were awarded by local authorities, with more than a third of these going to households with children, while more than half were single person households without children.^[5]

5. As outlined in The Welfare Funds (Scotland) Regulations 2016, no fund application may be made by or on behalf of a person who is aged under 16.

6. In the majority of local authorities, most applicants to the SWF are in the 30-39 age group. This has been consistent since 2013.^[6]

7. The third SWF Equalities Summary was published alongside the annual statistics in July 2025 and will help inform our impact assessments.^[7]

8. Just less than half (47%) of children from a minority ethnic family are living in poverty according to a 2025 Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) report.^[8]

9. Scottish Government poverty and inequality data published in March 2024 shows that nearly a quarter of children in Scotland were living in relative poverty after housing costs between 2021 and 2024.^[9]

10. While 78% of children lived in homes with high food security between 2021 and 2024, 22% lived in households with marginal, low or very low food security.^[10]

11. Estimations show that 9% of children in Scotland were living in combined low income and material deprivation between 2021 and 2024.^[11]

12. 1 in 10 people in Scotland are currently living in very deep poverty. In Scotland 1 in 4 children are in poverty, with children continuing to be at greater risk of poverty than the rest of the population.

13. The JRF highlight that 1 in 3 (33%) children in single-parent families were in poverty, 35% of families with a baby were in poverty and in a large family, 38% of children are living in poverty.^[12]

14. 73% of children in poverty live in a household where someone is in work.^[13]

15. Half of children in a large family are in a household in receipt of low income benefits. This rises to 72% for children living in poverty in a large family.^[14]

16. Analysts in the Scottish Government recently produced a report focusing on child poverty and how SWF funding relates to households with children since April 2021.^[15]

17. This summary highlighted that around 486,000 applications were received from households with children since April 2021 making up 33% of total applications. 955,000 children were living in these households.^[16]

18. The composition of these households were 51% single child, 32% with 2 children, 13% with 3 children, 4% with 4 children and 1% with 5.^[17]

19. Around a third of awards, totalling over £88 million, were made to households with children. With around 517,000 children living in those households.^[18]

20. It is not known which households were in poverty according to any standard definition, however, 99% reported to be in receipt of benefits.^[19]

21. The most common reason for Community Care Grant applications was ‘Families facing exceptional pressure’ (46% of applications), while for Crisis Grants this was ‘Emergency – benefit/income spent’ (44% of applications).^[20]

22. Since April 2021, 903,000 Scottish Welfare Fund awards have been made with 299,000 (33%) of these going to households with children.^[21]

23. In July 2024 our annual statistics showed that the percentage of applications since April 2013 when the age of the main applicant is 16 to 17 was 1.2%, at 18 to 24 this was 18.4%. The highest rate was for those aged 30 to 39 at 31.8% while the lowest rate was for those aged 75 plus at 0.1%.^[22]

Consultation/feedback from stakeholders

24. A Statutory Guidance Review Committee and Practitioners’ Forum operates so that views and opinions of local authorities, third sector organisations, COSLA and SPSO were taken into account when drafting and amending the statutory guidance.

25. Scottish Government officials continue to liaise with the Poverty Alliance regarding their ‘Get Heard Scotland’ campaign. Experience panel sessions have been set up to receive feedback from those with lived experience of the SWF and the social security system in Scotland. The reports from these sessions have been provided to the Scottish Government by the Poverty Alliance, and have helped inform our proposals, including updates to the statutory guidance. We have also worked with the Panel over 2025/26 on additional themes that were raised in their report as well as ensuring that implementation of the changes meet the policy intent.

26. A report published in November 2024 by the SPSO highlighted their concerns that the ‘High (most compelling)’ priority rating for awards could create inequality for families, including children already living in poverty.^[23]

27. The SPSO also wrote to the Scottish Government regarding areas of the statutory guidance they have identified that could more fully support the requirements in the UNCRC. The Scottish Government have taken these suggestions on board and have updated the statutory guidance accordingly.

Changes include:

• Additional wording to create a more flexible approach that takes into account the increased costs homeless applicants may face, for example, due to the lack of access to cooking facilities in temporary accommodation.
• Clarification of wording to ensure that where someone has funds saved for a specific purpose, such as family reunion or essential repairs, this is not considered within their capital assets when determining eligibility.
• Greater clarity around which local authority is responsible for SWF awards when an applicant is homeless.
• We have further strengthened the guidance with additional wording to ensure that the rights and the interests of children are taken into account. This will make it clearer that it should not just be the applicant’s circumstances, but also their family circumstances that should be considered.

Consultation/feedback directly from children and young people

28. To gather information that informs the language and content of the guidance, we have engaged with organisations who represent the views of children and young people through their work with them such as the Poverty Alliance ‘Get Heard Scotland’ Citizen Panel. This is to ensure the guidance is accessible and understandable for users, including children and young people. This also ensured that the key principles around dignity and respect were included. Members of the panel included someone in the 16-25 age range, although it is not possible to determine if they were within the 16-18 age range, further work can be carried out with young people post-implementation. We can also engage with specific organisations such as the Children’s Parliament and the Scottish Youth Parliament during the implementation of these changes and through the SWF Practitioners’ Forum, to ensure we receive additional feedback.

29. The statutory guidance will be revised on an annual basis, and a standing Statutory Guidance Review Committee was established in March 2024. The Statutory Guidance Review Committee have also agreed to roll out a Scottish Government-led client survey, which could help identify trends and issues and where further work may need to be done, particularly being cognisant of issues for applicants in the 16-18 age range. We are working in partnership with SPSO to trial a client survey during 2026/27 on our ongoing work focused on a long term action plan commitment around learning and improvement.

4. Further to the evidence described at ‘3’ have you identified any 'gaps' in evidence which may prevent determination of impact?

• If yes, please provide an explanation of how they will be addressed

The Statutory Guidance Review Committee is made up of representatives from local and public authorities and the third sector. It is a space to discuss any changes to the guidance and analyse the impact and potential of these changes on various groups, including children and their families. As such, we believe there are no gaps in our evidence to make these changes and we will keep this in review in case any new evidence arises. Although our proposed changes will come into effect from April 2026, the statutory guidance will continue to be reviewed and looked at on an ongoing basis to make sure that it is meeting its objectives. As well as the committee that reviews this being a standing committee, last year we added an introductory section to the guidance with Scottish Government contact details to gather any suggestions on further improvements that can be made. We also consult and engage regularly with the SWF Practitioners’ Forum and other organisations as required. The Practitioners Forum was re-established in February 2024 and has met regularly since that time.

5. Analysis of Evidence

The above evidence and research indicates that many of Scotland’s children are growing up in poverty, in households where material deprivation is present and income is not great enough to provide high food security. It further highlights the need for and importance of the SWF and for the guidance around the fund to be more accessible to help the families of children who apply.

It is expected that the changes that have been made will have a positive impact on children/young people. This is because making the guidance clearer for people who apply and for decision makers could lead to fairer awards and give people a better understanding on if they may be eligible for a SWF grant. For example, sections have been updated to ensure local authority decision makers are taking children into account during the application process. This has been strengthened further following the previous updates in April 2025.

Update to the factors that might increase the vulnerability of an applicant

Following discussion with the British Red Cross, we have also added further wording to the statutory guidance to highlight that having a family reunion visa status should be considered a factor that may increase an applicant’s vulnerability.

Additional wording to strengthen UNCRC requirements

Following discussions with the SPSO, we have updated elements of the statutory guidance with wording that strengthens protections for children. This includes wording to ensure a child’s best interests are taken into consideration and further wording that emphasises that the circumstances of the immediate family are considered in decision making.

6. What changes (if any) have been made to the proposal as a result of this assessment?

No changes have been made to our proposals as a result of this impact assessment, the impact on children/young people have been considered throughout the development of the guidance. We will continue to keep this under review ahead of implementation.