Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund (CPAF): evaluation - interim report

Annex B: Overview of CPAF Round 2 Projects

This annex features a general overview of what we know so far about each project funded by Round 2 of CPAF. These projects officially began in October 2024, and officially end in March 2026. Insights so far come from initial meetings with each project lead, and more information will become available later in their implementation.

Aberdeen City Council

Evaluation and design of lone parent employability support to inform and direct future provision

The project aims to support young parents in Aberdeen, specifically mothers and fathers under the age of 25, by understanding their barriers to employability and co-designing services that meet their needs. Through co-design, it seeks to engage at least 25 young parents, leading to a service that increases their confidence, employability, and access to essential support. The ultimate objective is to create a long-term, sustainable service embedded within Aberdeen City Council’s employability provision.

Dumfries and Galloway Council

Accessible Financial Wellbeing Support for Priority Families Project

This project aims to enhance financial wellbeing for families by embedding income maximisation, debt advice, and financial guidance directly within existing family groups and spaces. This will be facilitated through the employment of three new part-time Dumfries and Galloway Citizen Advice Services (DAGCAS) advisors, one for three of the main regional offices. These will seek to identify and connect with groups, and provide holistic support in rural and small-town locations, reaching families where access to in-person advice is otherwise limited. Working with Dumfries and Galloway Council, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, and relevant third-sector partners, the goal is to ensure hard-to-reach families receive tailored, accessible financial support via groups and spaces they already visit, reducing barriers to engagement and improving long-term financial stability.

East Lothian Council

What Matters? Collecting, measuring and using data that is meaningful to families in East Lothian

The project aims to reduce barriers for families experiencing poverty by embedding qualitative lived experience data into East Lothian Council’s services. The idea is that the information that matters to families is collected and stored, to support them when it matters while feeling respectful of their boundaries and dignity. At the same time, data that does not need to be continuously gathered is identified and removed from the process. This initiative supports the eventual creation of a “No Wrong Door” approach, ensuring that families can access the services they need without repeatedly recounting their stories.

NHS Fife

Embedding income maximisation across children’s health services aligning with a preventative and proactive care programme

This project aims to increase access to income maximisation support for families with children with disabilities who are already engaging with NHS Fife and Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) services. This will be facilitated via a dedicated income maximisation worker within Citizens Advice and Rights Fife (CARF) who can provide financial guidance, while on the frontline, health professionals receive tailored training on engaging families around financial inclusion and poverty-related issues. The goal is to broaden referral pathways via routine interactions within the health system, while specifically targeting a priority family group strongly linked to multiple and / or unmet needs that are eligible for financial support.

NHS Grampian and Aberdeenshire Council

Health Equity & Learning Project (HELP), identifying and addressing barriers for families accessing NHS services

The project aims to empower families experiencing financial hardship and accessing health services by co-designing and implementing systemic improvements. It seeks to enhance their experiences while building staff capacity to support them effectively. It will therefore take place across two phases. Firstly, a lived experience group will come together to codesign the test of change. Secondly, the test of change will be put in place, and the impact monitored and reported.

NHS Tayside

Dundee Dads Rock

This project seeks to identify and address unmet needs among low-income families by engaging fathers in a deprived Dundee community (Lochee). Led in practice by a local organiser setting up a new Dads Rock group, the initiative will provide peer support, financial guidance, and community connections to fathers who may face barriers to accessing traditional family services. NHS Tayside is the named project lead, with Dads Rock leading on-the-ground implementation, with support from Fathers Network Scotland. The project will explore ways to embed financial and wellbeing support into trusted father-focused networks, ensuring more effective engagement with families experiencing poverty.

West Lothian Council and The Improvement Service

Identifying and addressing unmet need among low-income families

This project seeks to address unmet needs and improve outcomes for vulnerable communities by developing and implementing a Child Poverty Data Dashboard. The dashboard will identify areas of greatest need, inform targeted interventions, and facilitate scalable and sustainable approaches to reducing child poverty across West Lothian and beyond. The project involves wider stakeholders beyond West Lothian Council to ensure that best practice and innovations are incorporated as part of the work.

South Ayrshire Council

Exploring interconnection between child poverty and additional support needs: enhancing neurodiverse parenting support in South Ayrshire through preventative family wellbeing approaches

This project aims to explore the interconnection between child poverty and additional support needs (ASN), focusing on supporting speech, language, and communication challenges among children in Wallacetown, a community with high deprivation. A new Research and Implementation Officer, recently recruited, will lead engagement efforts, working with Wallacetown Nursery and Primary Schools, the local Alcohol and Drug Partnership, and health professionals to engage with families around co-enabling a holistic and accessible support model, while promoting income maximisation and parental wellbeing. Findings and insights could inform preventative early intervention strategies, while potentially influencing local and national policy on ASN and poverty-related challenges.

Edinburgh

Challenging poverty related stigma

This project aims to produce ten animated training resources that build understanding, capacity and confidence of both statutory and third sector colleagues in Edinburgh to address child poverty and poverty related stigma. The animations aim to improve staff awareness of the different impacts of poverty and develop awareness and confidence to signpost to support services where appropriate. Based on ongoing work with the Poverty Alliance, and a staff reference group, a list of messages and topics to cover have been established, alongside key principles to be adhered to as part of the development process. The project is now out to tender for a producer, with the first films expected to be produced in the summer for distribution later in the year. The films will be integrated into the Council’s training programmes, with all employees expected to watch the films as part of their standard training pack when they begin employment, with regular reviews as required.

East Renfrewshire

Flexible for families employer scheme

This project aims to support local employers to offer more flexible working opportunities which meet the needs of parents and carers. The project will work with Flexibility Works to provide support for Employability Workers to give them additional tools and resources to help them advocate for flexible working hours with local employers. The Council acknowledges that there are relatively low rates of child poverty in the area, however there are local employment market challenges for care-givers seeking job options which can fit with their schedules and responsibilities.

Stirling

Early intervention family engagement

The project seeks to expand a pre-existing programme aimed at children and teenagers who have a lower than 50% attendance rate at school and live in an area of deprivation. The target age group is Primary 1-5. The rationale behind the expansion of the programme is that through improving the attendance of younger children in school, the employability prospects for their caregivers increases and the educational, health and wellbeing outcomes for the child are improved. This project will be delivered through the expansion of the pre-existing, Engaging Learning Service. The funding will see the recruitment of an additional employee to deliver the Engaging in Learning Service, and will offer a whole family approach package of support to the families of children experiencing absenteeism, with focuses including employability skills for caregivers.

Scottish Borders

Money advice and budgeting support for families in the Scottish Borders

This project aims to enhance financial wellbeing for families through providing a holistic approach to financial advice relating to budgeting. Local partners have observed that many families falling into the priority groups receiving Universal Credit are struggling with budgeting their payments each month. The project will focus the delivery of financial advice via the Central Border Citizens Advice Bureau, to priority family groups through locating trained advisors across the authority in strategic locations (Walkerburn, Hawick, Selkirk, Eyemouth and Galashiels). The idea is to support the referral process and promote drop-in opportunities in rural and small-town locations, reaching families where access to in-person advice is otherwise limited. The goal is to ensure more families receive accessible financial support in places which they already have access to, thus reducing barriers to engagement and improving long-term financial stability.