Child Poverty Bill: consultation

Delivering the Ambition to Eradicate Child Poverty

Section 9: Child Poverty Delivery Plan and annual reporting

The Scottish Government is committed to continuing to report annually on progress towards tackling child poverty, and to producing a Delivery Plan at regular intervals. However, we recognise that poverty is a deep-rooted problem in Scotland, and that no short-term options address its underlying causes. Tackling the issue comprehensively will require serious long-term commitment and clear and stretching goals. We believe that a more strategic vision, and greater progress and accountability, would be achieved by publishing robust Delivery Plans at five year intervals, covering each parliamentary term ^[10] , and to continue with annual reporting on progress against the Plan.

QUESTION 9

What are your views on the proposal that Scottish Ministers will be required by the Bill to produce a Child Poverty Delivery Plan every five years, and to report on this Plan annually?

Section 10: Child Poverty measurement framework

The current Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland 2014-2017 contains a comprehensive measurement framework which addresses both the wide range of drivers of poverty and the impacts poverty has on the lives of children and their families. A one-page 'map' setting out the framework appears below, and you can find more information about the framework here: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/03/5304/0. It includes a range of indicators under three key themes:

• POCKETS - maximising household resources.
• PROSPECTS - improving children's wellbeing and life chances.
• PLACES - provision of well-designed, sustainable places.

This innovative and robust measurement framework was widely welcomed and continues to be supported by stakeholders, and we therefore propose to retain the framework and build on it as part of any new approach. Measuring against key indicators in this way will allow us to see where Scottish Government policies are having an impact, and we will use the annual reports to inform our approach and actions.

However, we recognise that the landscape has changed since the framework was developed in 2014, and we are therefore considering ways in which we could refine, or build on, the current set of indicators. Obviously, the new targets would need to be added in.

We have had initial discussions with a number of stakeholders about this. Given our consultation on child poverty, for 2016 we intend to produce a more concise version of the annual report, although this will of course detail progress against each of the indicators in the existing measurement framework.

QUESTION 10

Do you have any suggestions for how the measurement framework could usefully be improved? For example, are there any influencing factors that are not covered by the measurement framework? Or are there any additional indicators that could be added?