Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund evaluation: final report

2: Core Issues CPAF Projects Seek to Address

This section looks at the core issues CPAF projects seek to address, and provides project summaries for each project. Understanding this helps us to see how national drivers of poverty can be addressed at the local level, and the innovations that CPAF has been supporting. Rather than answering research questions directly, the below gives the context for the rest of the report where these will be examined in depth.

Key Points

CPAF projects focus on three core areas: income maximisation, better use of data, and capacity-building. These reflect some of the main barriers to reducing child poverty identified in the research questions — specifically low take-up of financial entitlements, difficulties accessing support, and limits in local service capacity.

• Income maximisation projects address major causes of missed support. They aim to increase the number of families receiving the financial help they are entitled to, including disabled households and families with young children. Projects test practical ways of improving take-up, such as outreach, simpler processes, proactive checks, and embedding advice within trusted services. These examples show what can help or hinder implementation, and who can be reached through targeted approaches.
• Data-focused projects test how local areas can use information more effectively. They explore how better data-sharing, more accurate identification of families at risk, and stronger local analytical capacity can help services intervene earlier and reduce duplication. These projects speak directly to questions about evidence-based practice, innovation, and the influence of local context on implementation.
• Capacity-building projects strengthen the ability of staff, services, and communities to respond to poverty. They support frontline workers, develop local tools and training, expand the role of lived experience, and create more accessible and trusting relationships between services and families. These projects highlight what helps collaborative working, how service cultures can change, and what families say they need from local support.

Across all three spheres, projects focus on priority family groups. Many specifically target families where someone is disabled, young parents, families in rural areas, and households experiencing multiple disadvantages. This provides insight into who benefits most, who is harder to reach, and how projects try to close these gaps. The projects demonstrate that national drivers of poverty can be acted upon locally through innovation, partnership, and co-production. They also highlight systemic challenges: siloed systems, short-term funding cycles, and entrenched barriers in employability and service culture.

Taken together, these project summaries show the breadth of local approaches being tested through CPAF. They provide the foundation for later sections, which assess how well projects were implemented, what difference they made to families and services, and how they contribute to wider system change.

Core Issues CPAF Projects Address

As outlined in Section 1, projects clustered across three spheres. These are income maximisation, better use of data and capacity building. The following sections explore these spheres, and give an overview of the projects that have taken them as a primary focus. These project summaries may be skipped by any reader interested to move straight into the analysis, but can be revisited for any further clarity required around how later findings have been reached. Fuller project summaries are given in Annex A for Round 1 projects and in Annex B for Round 2 projects.

Income Maximisation

Many families entitled to financial support do not claim it. Research by the company Policy in Practice notes that there was approximately £24bn of benefits going unclaimed in the UK in 2024. Meanwhile, Social Security Scotland data shows that while take-up of Scotland’s devolved benefits is generally high, there is still money left unclaimed. Key contributing factors for this are complex application processes, stigma around state support, and lack of awareness of the support available. At the same time, some local authorities have identified that employability support may not be accessible to some families living in poverty. This could be for various reasons such as:

• lack of knowledge of what is available;
• caring responsibilities and/or health concerns that make seeking employment unviable; and / or
• mismatch between the offer and what a family requires.

By maximising income, families can achieve greater financial stability, which reduces the need for crisis-based support and improves long-term outcomes.

While it is acknowledged that significant barriers to claiming support remain, the steps taken by Social Security Scotland to reduce barriers regarding devolved benefits should be noted. This includes Adult Disability Payment, Child Disability Payment, and the Scottish Child Payment, amongst others of relevance to tackling child poverty. The steps include simplifying application processes, proactively promoting entitlements, and a strong emphasis on dignity and respect in delivery. Social Security Scotland’s examination of emerging evidence suggests these approaches may be helping to increase uptake and improve user experience.

CPAF projects have tested proactive approaches towards further increasing uptake of income maximisation support such as simplifying processes, improving outreach, automatic benefit checks, testing models of improved employer flexibility, codesigning specific employability supports, and integrating financial support/advice with other frontline services (e.g., health and education). While income maximisation has been part of many CPAF projects, due to the approach of some projects these are explored in the Capacity-Building Category found later in this section.

Projects with a main focus on Income Maximisation are summarised below.

Round 1: South Lanarkshire Council Project

Project title: 'Paths out of poverty' - empowering parents/carers of disabled children through an innovative, holistic, strengths-based approach.

Priority family groups targeted: Families where someone in the household is disabled. However, this category also includes other priority groups.

Project design: The South Lanarkshire project provided intensive, targeted support to eight isolated families, each with a household member with a significant disability. Through a partnership with third sector partner COVEY, the project employed a whole-family wellbeing approach, addressing emotional, social, and financial needs. The goal was to improve resilience, independence, and overall family functioning. The project included financial support through Money Matters, helping families access benefits and financial assistance.

Round 1: Inverclyde Council Project

Project title: Parent Centred Early and Intensive Intervention – supporting parents with children and babies under 5 years

Priority family groups targeted: All covered, but particularly families with a child under the age of 1 and/or have a member of the household who is disabled.

Project design: The Inverclyde project expanded Home Start Inverclyde’s support for families with children under 5. The project provided volunteer befrienders, welfare advice, and targeted support for financial stability. This provides a whole-family wellbeing approach. This includes a standing offer of weekly parent and parent and child groups to attend. Two new roles were created from the funding to oversee volunteer relationships and provide direct intervention for complex cases. The aim was to strengthen family resilience and financial wellbeing. It also involved more specific integration of an income maximisation offer than has typically been standard for Home Start.

Round 1: City of Edinburgh Council Project

Project title: Income Maximisation Outreach

Priority family groups targeted: All covered through Chill ‘n’ Chat. Income Maximisation approach targeted families where someone in the household is disabled.

Project design: The Edinburgh project focused on income maximisation and extending their Discover holiday programme through term-time Chill 'n' Chat sessions in four localities. The aim was to improve family financial stability and strengthen community support.

Round 2: NHS Fife & Citizens Advice and Rights Fife (CARF)

Project title: Embedding Income Maximisation in Children’s Health Services Priority family groups targeted: Families with a disabled child

Project design: This project builds on an established partnership between NHS Fife and CARF to embed income maximisation support within children’s health services for families raising a disabled child. This builds on an existing model of providing support for families via Maternity services. In this new model, a dedicated income maximisation worker provides tailored advice and casework for families where a child has a health issue, supported by an NHS Advisory Group, with referrals generated through NHS staff and CARF’s screening processes.

Round 2: Dumfries & Galloway Council

Project title: Accessible Financial Wellbeing Support for Families Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: Dumfries & Galloway Citizens Advice Service (DAGCAS) expanded its reach across a large rural authority by recruiting three part-time generalist advisors. Their role is to provide holistic financial wellbeing support — income maximisation, debt advice, housing and energy help — embedded within everyday community venues and family groups. The project design builds on strong partnerships through the Poverty and Inequalities Partnership, positioning the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) as the trusted local provider of financial advice.

Round 2: Scottish Borders Council

Project title: Community outreach to reach hard-to-access families in rural communities

Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: The Scottish Borders project arose from long-standing quarterly liaison meetings between the Council's Financial Inclusion lead and a consortium of three Citizens Advice Bureaux covering the dispersed geography. These meetings repeatedly returned to the question "who are we missing?" with SIMD data confirming gaps in provision for priority families in communities like Langlee, where families faced a mile-and-a-half uphill walk to reach the nearest bureau. The design is deliberately simple but strategically grounded: the funding has resourced 1.5 FTE advisor posts across the consortium to establish presence in under-served communities, embedding proactive income maximisation and holistic support. Advisors are engaging with familiar everyday venues - food pantries, early years centres, schools, and community hubs - adopting an exploratory "feel-the-way" approach as approachable first points of contact rather than adopting a casework approach on the spot.

Improving the Use of Data

Effective use of data allows services to target support more accurately for income maximisation and identify families at risk before they seek help. Aligning data systems also means that more effective use can be made of what is collected, and unnecessary duplication can be removed from frontline workers. CPAF projects focused on data use aim to:

• Improve data-sharing across local authority, health, and third-sector services
• Explore interventions that facilitate cross-system integration
• Build local capacity to analyse and use data more effectively
• Identify unmet needs and gaps in service provision
• Integrate qualitative data from families ethically and meaningfully into support and service planning
• Streamline data collection and service coordination

Projects focused on data are summarised below.

Round 1: Aberdeen City Council Project

Project title: Data-driven identification of households experiencing child poverty, to inform and direct intervention and support

Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: The Aberdeen City Council project focused on transforming service delivery from a reactive to a proactive model using The Low Income Family Tracker platform, developed by Policy in Practice. The platform aimed to identify and engage people eligible for, but not accessing, benefits and other forms of assistance. The goal was to ensure residents received support before reaching a crisis point. A key challenge was data-sharing constraints, which Policy in Practice were able to support in overcoming as it is part of the service they offer with development of the Low Income Family Tracker platform across the UK. The data used was data within the control of the council, and that shared from the DWP. This approach aligned with the council’s broader ambition to improve social outcomes and reduce unclaimed benefits.

Round 1: Argyll & Bute Council Project

Summary of approach: Evaluating the usefulness of third-party datasets for identifying communities in need of financial support

Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: Argyll & Bute council aimed to assess the accuracy and utility of third-party datasets — CACI’s Acorn Household and Paycheck Disposable Income — for targeting child poverty interventions. The goal was to determine whether CACI data could provide reliable, household-level insights to inform welfare rights referrals and local policy decisions.

Round 1: North Ayrshire Council Project

Project title: Exploring the viability of a Single Shared Assessment data framework - towards streamlining referral processes, access to support, and administrative efficiency within and between multiple council departments and services.

Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: The North Ayrshire project aimed to improve access to financial support through a Single Shared Assessment (SSA) model. The core objectives were to:

• Simplify applications through a single point of access for multiple services.
• Enhance service coordination through improved information management and consent-based data used
• Develop a more streamlined and consent-based approach to accessing support.

The project tested an integrated service delivery model combining financial inclusion, employability, and support services under a single corporate referral process.

Round 2: East Lothian Council

Project title: “What Matters?” – building the foundations for family-centred data use

Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: The project’s core idea is to reduce the burden on families by moving toward a “tell us once” approach when seeking support, and collecting only the information that helps at the moments it matters. Design elements include a Lived Experience Coordinator role, conversational data capture using the data platform Signal, and a three-way partnership between East Lothian Council (lead), NHS Lothian and Volunteer Centre East Lothian (VCEL).

Round 2: West Lothian Council and The Improvement Service

Project title: Data-driven identification of unmet need through interactive dashboard development, and targeted community engagement

Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: The West Lothian Council project is aiming to improve identification and response to child poverty at local level by moving beyond reliance on SIMD. The central innovation is an interactive dashboard developed by The Improvement Service that detects "unmet need" by comparing demand indicators (children in low-income households) with uptake of entitlements such as free school meals, clothing grants, and Education Maintenance Allowance. The project is integrating data sources with practical frontline interventions, with input from an Experts by Experience panel of 25 volunteers with lived poverty experience.

Capacity-Building

Capacity-building projects aim to strengthen local services and empower families to engage with support systems. They focus on:

• Enhancing staff skills and knowledge.
• Strengthening collaboration between local services and third-sector partners.
• Creating more accessible and dignified support processes for families.
• Reducing isolation and improving social networks for vulnerable families.
• Expanding the pool of people who know how to make effective referrals to include other frontline workers (e.g. health workers and teachers).

Capacity-building projects often combine income maximisation with wider social and personalised support, creating a more holistic response to child poverty. Projects focused on capacity-building are summarised below.

Round 1: Midlothian Council Project

Project title: Midlothian Peer Research – A Case for Change through a Place Based Approach Building Skills and Influencing

Priority family groups targeted: All covered through the research and by the Lived Experience Researchers themselves.

Project design: The Midlothian project was created to address a critical gap in understanding: while existing poverty initiatives collected data about families experiencing hardship, these typically relied on external interpretation and analysis. The community research approach was designed to centre lived experience, with parents themselves becoming researchers who shape the narrative around their own stories. It was facilitated by project partner, Sure Start. The remit extends beyond data collection to creative engagement and collective sense-making, with researchers involved in analysing and interpreting the stories they gather. By connecting authentic voice with creative expression - as demonstrated through successful community events during Challenge Poverty Week - the project aimed to transform how poverty is understood and addressed, ensuring that those with direct experience lead the conversation about what matters most in their lives and what changes are needed.

Round 1: Perth and Kinross Council Project

Project title: Beyond Emergency Support to Sustainable Livelihoods – Capacity Building Programme for Local Communities

Priority family groups targeted: All.

Project design: The Perth and Kinross Council project had three key components:

1. Social Needs Screening Tool (SNS): A person-centred tool designed to assess unmet needs, support financial conversations, and guide referrals. The tool was informed by codesign workshops with input from families and frontline staff to ensure it was adaptable to local needs.
2. Support and Connect Training: Delivered by Perth Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), this programme trained over 150 frontline workers in using the SNS.
3. Building Resilient Families (BRF): The aim was to set up groups which might provide direct peer-led support for priority families. However, the programme faced implementation challenges that led to a shift in lead partners. This component will be delivered through Early Learning Centres (ELC) after the conclusion of the CPAF funded element.

Round 1: Moray Council Project

Project title: Improved identification of families affected by disability and delivery of support to maximise income

Priority family groups targeted: Families where someone in the household is disabled. However, this category also includes other priority groups

Project design: The Moray project targeted families with additional support needs, focusing on financial barriers. This involved initial open-ended conversations with families across Moray, and later the parent-run Moray ASN Parent Carer Action Group (supporting parents with children who have Additional Support Needs) provided insights into family challenges, informing project design and implementation. The aim was to improve income maximisation and support access to services. However, the project became as much about a capacity building approach for engagement with families to understand and support the needs they see as most important to them.

Round 2: Aberdeen City Council

Project title: Participant-led co-design of employability services for young parents

Priority family groups targeted: Young parents (under-25s when they have children), expanded to include older participants with lived experience of being young parents

Project design: The project arose from Aberdeen City Council's recognition that young parents represented an unmet need in local employability provision - their employability team had supported no young parents since 2020 despite available funding. The core problem was systemic: existing services were designed based on what providers thought would be engaging rather than being shaped by lived experiences and needs. CPAF funding enabled genuine participant-led service co-design, with young parents designing employability services that work for them.

The design incorporated data-driven targeting using the Low Income Family Tracker from CPAF Round 1, independent facilitation by Rocket Science, a whole-family approach linking employability with financial inclusion, and inclusive safeguards including financial incentives, childcare accommodation, and flexible formats.

Round 2: East Renfrewshire Council

Project title: Reshaping the local labour market through workplace flexibility to tackle child poverty

Priority family groups targeted: All, with particular focus on parents facing workplace inflexibility barriers

Project design: The East Renfrewshire Council’s project is testing whether reshaping the local labour market could directly tackle child poverty, responding to parents' identification of workplace flexibility as a decisive barrier through the Council's Lived Experience Group. East Renfrewshire Council is partnering with Flexibility Works to design a dual-sided intervention: working with employers to adapt practice, policies, and culture, and working with parents to build awareness, skills, and confidence in negotiating flexibility. This approach aims to address both supply and demand, recognising that families' barriers are matched by employers' reluctance or lack of capacity to change.

Round 2: City of Edinburgh Council

Project title: Challenging Poverty-Related Stigma Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: Led by City of Edinburgh Council with support from The Poverty Alliance, this project addresses poverty-related stigma by producing ten short animated videos for staff training and wider use. The design emerged from recommendations of End Poverty Edinburgh and a Scotland-wide lived experience panel, who stressed that interactions with staff can feel stigmatising and deter future help-seeking. The project co-produces content through lived experience workshops, a Staff Reference Group, and an appointed animator, with an intentional focus on positive framing and non-Edinburgh-specific outputs to maximise Scotland-wide relevance.

Round 2: NHS Tayside / Dads Rock

Project title: Support for Fathers

Priority family groups targeted: All (access via fathers)

Project design: This project extends Dads Rock into NHS Tayside to fill a longstanding service gap for fathers. A Dads Rock support worker is linked with maternity services to provide one-to-one and group support, to improve the mental health and income maximisation opportunities for vulnerable new fathers, while raising awareness among NHS staff of the need to offer bespoke support for Dads.

Round 2: Aberdeenshire Council & NHS Grampian

Project title: Health Equity & Learning Project (HELP): Understanding financial barriers to accessing healthcare and developing solutions with Families

Priority family groups targeted: Families with children who require hospital appointments

Project design: The Health Equity & Learning Project (HELP) brought together a lived experience panel of families from rural Aberdeenshire who regularly use Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital. With support from NHS staff and community connectors, families were asked not only to share experiences but to identify priorities and shape practical changes. The project deliberately positioned families as equal partners in decision-making, with resources available for testing the solutions they proposed.

Round 2: South Ayrshire Council

Project title: Wallacetown Developmental Needs & Additional Support Needs

Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: The South Ayrshire Council project emerged from a longstanding recognition that children’s outcomes cannot be improved in isolation from the circumstances of their families. While traditional services centred support around the individual child — often intensifying efforts only once difficulties became visible in school — this project responds to the deeper reality such as poor attendance, fatigue, and distress that often originate in the home environment. Drawing on lived experience and participatory action research, the project places parental wellbeing at its core, recognising that poverty, additional support needs, and daily caregiving pressures can limit a parent’s capacity to support their child’s learning. By engaging whole families, understanding what life feels like behind the front door, and assessing not only children’s wellbeing but also the needs of parents, the work aims to break recurring cycles of stress and disengagement. In doing so, it supports earlier, more holistic intervention and strengthens the foundations for sustained wellbeing across the family and more consistent participation in education.

Round 2: Stirling Council

Project title: Early Intervention Family Engagement

Priority family groups targeted: All

Project design: The Stirling CPAF project was created to address a critical gap in provision: while existing services supported young people with barriers to education, these typically focused on the individual child, and often at secondary level. The CPAF role of Family Engagement Worker was designed to intervene earlier, working holistically with families from Primary 1 upwards where poor attendance can begin to emerge. The remit extends beyond the child to parents and siblings, tackling root causes such as poverty, parental mental health, unemployment, and caring responsibilities. By connecting the dots between education, family wellbeing, and employability, the project aims to create sustainable conditions for school attendance and improved family wellbeing.

Summary

Across the CPAF portfolio, projects have taken on some of the most persistent barriers to tackling child poverty: low uptake of financial entitlements, fragmented data and service pathways, and the need for greater capacity and trust at the frontline. While the routes differ — from embedding income maximisation in health settings, to reshaping data use, to creating relational capacity in schools and communities — all share a common goal of making support more accessible, responsive, and effective for families.

The projects demonstrate that national drivers of poverty can be acted upon locally through innovation, partnership, and co-production. They also highlight systemic challenges: siloed systems, short-term funding cycles, and entrenched barriers in employability and service culture. By surfacing these issues, CPAF projects not only provide immediate benefit to families but also generate practical intelligence for long-term system change. These will be drawn out across projects and explored in more depth in the following sections.