First Minister's National Advisory Council on Women and Girls First Phase Two Report: Scottish Government Response

Cost of Living Crisis

Call to Action: Accessibility of anti-poverty interventions

14. Anti-poverty interventions, particularly one-off payments, need to be made more accessible for marginalised women and girls to access and need to be evaluated before implementation for unintended barriers that prevent those who need it most from accessing support. For example, an assumption of English as a first language, complex processes which are difficult to navigate, or assumptions around access to data and digital skills. The EWP highlighted the example of one in four households who had pre-payment meters not using their energy subsidy vouchers.

The Scottish Government accepts this Call to Action, given the important need to ensure that actions to tackle poverty are accessible and meet the needs of marginalised women and girls in our society.

While the energy subsidy vouchers highlighted by the EWP related to UK Government policy, this experience serves as an important reminder that well intentioned policies will not necessarily have the intended impact on marginalised and vulnerable groups if they are not appropriately designed and delivered.

Through the Scottish Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis, we sought to build on existing mechanisms and to automate support where it was possible to do so – drawing on experience and learning from our continued focus on tackling poverty. This included, for example, working in partnership with local authorities to deliver Scottish Child Payment Bridging Payments to families, with almost £170 million in direct financial support delivered to families between March 2021 and December 2022. Evaluation of COVID support for low-income households^[1] has helped to further inform our approach to the delivery of support, including one-off payments, and these lessons will continue to inform our approach into the future.

In relation to longer term delivery of social security support, Social Security Scotland was created with equality and inclusivity at its core, and was designed in collaboration with the people that it serves. The Social Security Scotland Charter, which is the guiding framework for how the organisation operates, explicitly states that it will be an organisation that designs services for the people that use them and encourages feedback.

Furthermore, in line with our statutory duty to promote the take-up of devolved social security, the Scottish Government published our second Benefit Take-Up Strategy in October 2021. The Benefit Take-Up Strategy sets out the Scottish Government’s approaches to ensuring people are encouraged and empowered to access their devolved entitlements by addressing the known barriers that people may face when taking up social security support. The next iteration of this important Strategy is due to be published by October 2026.

We understand the need to continuously improve the accessibility of our anti-poverty interventions. We know a diverse range of women engage with Social Security Scotland, many of whom will not use English as their first language; face other accessibility challenges due to ill health or a disability; don’t have access to the internet; or struggle engaging with digital technology.

Social Security Scotland’s dedicated Diversity and Inclusion Team is currently working with stakeholders to build an inclusion evidence base. This will focus on the experiences of women and girls in relation to social security, identifying challenges and opportunities during specific parts of the client journey to address these issues. The team is currently co-ordinating organisation-wide efforts to improve the service and experiences of diverse clients – one of the three equality outcomes the organisation has set. To support these efforts, a proposal paper has been developed and being discussed with senior leaders in February 2026. Social Security Scotland published its 2025 mainstreaming equality report in June 2025. Scottish Ministers are regularly monitoring progress against our equality outcomes and the 2027 mainstreaming equality report is expected to be published by June 2027. This will formally report on work done to achieve our equality outcomes.

This Call to Action recommends that the Scottish Government and associate bodies improve the accessibility of their anti-poverty interventions. Social Security Scotland is actively taking this ambition forward through the work of its User Research Team. The User Research Team has been conducting research over the last two years to better understand the experiences of seldom-heard audiences throughout their interactions with Social Security Scotland. Research explores the experiences from initial awareness and application, to changes in circumstances, receiving payments, and communication, aiming to identify what works, what doesn’t, and uncover user needs.

Research has already engaged with:

• Young people aged 16-24
• People who speak English as a second language, including asylum seekers and individuals from diverse religious backgrounds
• Individuals with varied communication needs (e.g. cognitive impairment, neurodiversity, visual/hearing impairments, learning disabilities, physical/mobility impairments, mental health conditions)
• Digitally restricted individuals
• LGBTQ+ communities

Current research is focussed on:

• People experiencing homelessness
• Survivors of domestic abuse
• Individuals living in very rural areas
• Care leavers

Upcoming research will focus on:

• Veterans
• People with experience of legal detention

Across all groups, intersectionality has been a key theme, highlighting the complex and overlapping identities and needs of our clients. As part of Social Security Scotland’s efforts to continuously improve its services and reduce accessibility barriers, this research has been shared among communications teams to ensure learning about different client groups, and their needs, is fed into communication strategies. Through working with the people which it serves, via the efforts of the User Research Team, Social Security Scotland will continue to reduce accessibility barriers to the most marginalised groups which uses its services.

Call to Action: Cash-first supports

15. Cash-first supports have been emphasised as critical for those women or members of their family who use dialysis or other independent living equipment e.g. electric wheelchairs, nebulisers, mobility aids, hoists, or other such life-sustaining equipment.

The Scottish Government accepts the ambition of this Call to Action and will take forward a scoping and feasibility exercise to assess options for supporting people using independent living equipment.

Social Security Scotland provides financial support to disabled people, those who have a long-term health condition or have a terminal illness at all stages of life through Child Disability Payment, Adult Disability Payment and Pension Age Disability Payment. Disability assistance is intended to support people with the additional costs associated with being disabled. Child Winter Heating Payment, also delivered by Social Security Scotland, provides support to help mitigate the additional heating costs that the households of the most severely disabled children and young people face in the winter months. In response to a commission from the Health and Social Care Management Board, we have also developed a policy for NHS Boards to reimburse people for the cost of electricity for running home kidney dialysis equipment.

We recognise the significant challenges as set out in the NACWG’s Phase Two report that disabled women, or members of their family who are disabled, are currently experiencing following the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis coming after years of austerity.

In recognition, the Scottish Government repeatedly called on the previous UK Government to introduce a social tariff as a means of targeted support for those who need it most. We reached agreement with energy suppliers, consumer organisations, and Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) to co-design a social tariff mechanism that can demonstrate the viability of the policy and have written to the UK Government sharing the recommendations from the working group and seeking urgent delivery of this crucial policy. The powers to implement remain with the UK Government and we are committed to working closely with them, Ofgem, suppliers and consumer organisations, to advocate for the delivery of a social tariff across Great Britain.

To understand how best to target any further support for disabled people who use medical or independent living equipment, as recommended in the Call to Action, we need to fully understand the nature and extent of the additional costs they incur. To this end, we have committed to carrying out a scoping exercise to assess the implications of extending the home healthcare reimbursement scheme to cover a wider range of equipment. This exercise will help inform our future policy decisions regarding implementing the Call to Action and any financial support for energy costs. This work will form part of our Disability Equality Plan (DEP), in which we are investing an additional £٣.٥ million, subject to the passing of the Budget Bill, to advance disability equality. The enhanced support will strengthen the voice, capacity and influence of DPOs and help drive progress on the priorities set out in the DEP.

Call to Action: Prioritising marginalised women in anti-poverty strategies

16. Anti-poverty strategies and plans, such as the Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Delivery Plan needs to prioritise the needs of marginalised women and girls to meet the 2030 targets. Whilst six priority groups have been identified within the strategy who are at most risk of increasing poverty, women and girls are not visible in this work, despite evidence repeatedly highlighting that child poverty and women’s poverty is intrinsically linked. Gender equality-specific interventions are urgently needed which take an intersectional approach to tackling poverty in Scotland. Similarly, understanding must be developed, with related actions, to tackle intersecting barriers facing disabled women, women of colour and other marginalised women. An unintended consequence of current anti-poverty approaches has been the removal or reduction of support where it is perceived that interventions are not directly related to child poverty.

The Scottish Government accepts this Call to Action.

The Scottish Government remains firmly committed to tackling persistent inequality and to advancing the equality of opportunity for everyone in Scotland – supporting those who are most disadvantaged and who face the greatest barriers to realising their rights.

In ensuring that we effectively tackle poverty and inequality for all households, we are applying an approach which looks across equality characteristics and accounts for a range of factors which put individuals at increased risk. This includes, for example, investing over £53 million since 2018 to fund access to free period products across a range of settings including schools, colleges and universities, which is fundamental to equality, dignity and rights for all women and girls. We will continue to use evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, and are increasingly taking an intersectional approach, to understand the challenges and needs of particular groups and ensure effective action is taken.

In relation to child poverty, the First Minister has been clear that this is a national mission and the top priority of the Scottish Government. We remain firmly committed to reaching the ambitious targets set in statute by the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017. We know that child poverty and women’s poverty are inextricably linked, with women-headed households and women within households at particular risk.

Our Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for the period 2022-26, Best Start, Bright Futures, places a strong focus on ensuring that policies address the challenges and barriers faced by the family types identified as being at greatest risk of poverty and are ultimately more effective in tackling wider societal inequality. The six family types identified within the Plan account for 90% of children in poverty and are intrinsically linked with gender inequality. Women account for around 90% of lone parents, and young mothers under 25 are another specific priority family type. Other family types similarly intersect with barriers facing disabled women, women from a minority ethnic background and other marginalised women. By taking this approach, we are prioritising women through the lens of child poverty and low-income families.

Since the first Plan, Every Child, Every Chance, was published in 2018, we have continued to deepen our understanding of the priority family types around the drivers of poverty and what works for them. A detailed focus report for each priority family type has been published to date. These reports look at child poverty rates, progress in each of the three drivers of poverty alongside wider evidence. This was further complemented in June 2023 by a focus report looking specifically at the impact of the cost of living crisis on low income families, and a report in June 2024 focused on other marginalised groups at risk. We have since published a report focused on child poverty and gender, in June 2025, to further strengthen our understanding, as recommended in the Call to Action, to help tackle intersecting barriers.

As we continue to drive forward action to tackle poverty and inequality, we are aware of the NACWG’s view that more gender specific interventions, which are intersectional in their approach, are needed. We also recognise the importance of directly addressing gender inequality within our strategies and action plans, as outlined by the Call to Action, and highlighting the substantial evidence which underpins the need for change, as was the case within our first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2018-22, Every Child, Every Chance

Building on the Call to Action, we have committed to working with the NACWG and gender equality stakeholders in the development of our next Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2026-31. Established in February 2025, engagement through the External Reference Group has enabled us to leverage the expertise of these vital stakeholders as critical friends; supporting and challenging our thinking. By working together, we will strengthen the focus on gender in the next Delivery Plan and inform the actions it commits – ensuring that the next Delivery Plan, to be published by the end of March 2026, is effective in tackling child poverty and addressing the inequality faced by women and girls that helps drive progress on these critical and related issues.

Call to Action: Ending care charges

17. Scottish Government, COSLA and local authorities should work together to progress the commitment to ending care charges for disabled women and to halt approaches to recover social care debt.

The Scottish Government accepts the ambition of this Call to Action.

The Scottish Government and COSLA are jointly committed to reforming non-residential social care charging in a way that is fair, consistent, and supports independent living. We welcome ongoing dialogue around this important topic.

The Independent Review of Adult Social Care in Scotland recommended that no one should be charged for non residential social care support, such as care, support at home and day care. As set out in the Joint statement of intent between Scottish Government and COSLA we continue to work together and with stakeholders to progress work in this important area.

While it is our commitment to remove non-residential social care charges there are a number of steps required to understand the current charging landscape as local authorities plan and implement services to meet the needs of their population. Currently this means different approaches to charging, and work to capture this data and analyse it is underway. COSLA produces guidance on non-residential care charges which is updated annually: COSLA Charging Guidance. The guidance acknowledges the need for local authorities to have flexibility in their policies and priorities, while also promoting greater consistency in non-residential care charges.

We recognise the impact of social care debt on people, and we know that different local authorities have different processes for recovering social care debt, we will continue to engage with COSLA on this important issue.

Call to Action: Funding to grassroots organisations

18. The Empowering Women Panel emphasised the importance of support from community and local groups. However, it was also noted that such groups were increasingly unable to meet demand, and manage the increasing costs associated with service delivery. As such many had closed down or were at risk of closing down. There is a need for the Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities, to provide further financial support to grassroots organisations which provide a lifeline to marginalised women and girls. In particular the Empowering Women Panel highlighted the need for free access and support in local areas to use the internet via community organisations to address digital exclusion caused by financial barriers.

The Scottish Government accepts this Call to Action.

The Scottish Government values and supports the hugely diverse work of the third sector, and the support provided by grassroots organisations and local community groups to women and girls. This invaluable support complements and helps us achieve our commitments and actions across our wide range of policies.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations’ latest estimate is that the public sector as a whole invested £3.3 billion in 2023 to support the work of charities and social enterprises. Of that, around £1 billion came from the Scottish Government via a broad range of programmes including those supporting community empowerment, mental health and wellbeing, children and families and health and social care.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone in Scotland has the skills, confidence, and access they need to participate fully in the digital world. Since August 2023, we have provided grant funding of over £389,000, via Connecting Scotland, to support locally delivered digital inclusion projects, including device-lending libraries, social housing initiatives, and place-based schemes. In October 2025, we launched the Connecting Scotland Digital Inclusion Fund with a further £484,000 made available to support targeted digital inclusion activity within local communities.

However, we are also aware of financial challenges faced by the third sector, as noted in the Call to Action, and the need to provide greater financial stability for third sector and grassroots organisations, through long-term planning and development.

We are therefore committed to developing a Fairer Funding approach for the third sector, and we are increasing the number of two-year funding agreements for third sector organisations delivering across Scotland. We have already begun work to deliver on multi-year funding through our Fairer Funding Pilot. The Pilot’s focus on grants connected to tackling child poverty and the delivery of frontline services to our communities will maximise the impact of longer-term funding and support the delivery of our number one priority, eradicating child poverty, which is intrinsically linked to women’s poverty.

We will also ensure that the issue of digital exclusion, and the importance of community groups in addressing this, is raised as part of the strategic engagement programme of meetings between the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government and the COSLA Presidential Team when focusing on women’s and girls’ inequality.

Call to Action: Accessible welfare rights and debt services

19. It has been highlighted that accessible welfare rights and debt services are needed for disabled women: an important distinction has been made between available services and accessible services.

The Scottish Government accepts this Call to Action.

The Scottish Government is committed to dismantling accessibility barriers for disabled people. The Disability Equality Plan (DEP) takes a human rights-based and systems change approach to welfare accessibility, recognising that barriers to welfare rights are not only technical but structural and systemic. We are committed to improving access to vital support services through the DEP through our flagship disability competence programme – ensuring policies and systems are designed with disabled people central to decision making. Furthermore, the Improving Access Fund, a cornerstone of the DEP is deliberately designed to tackle structural and lived experience barriers that prevent disabled people from accessing their welfare rights. A central priority of the Fund is accessible financial advice and support, including help to access welfare rights.

Our approach to the funding of advice services is mainly to support organisations with a national reach or remit. We provide funding for a range of income maximisation, welfare and debt advice services, including the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund.

It is important to note that local authorities remain the primary funder of locally based advice services, and it is for local authorities to decide how best to meet the needs of their local communities through funding for services within their area. In addition, individual advice providers, charities and services are responsible for ensuring their own services are accessible under the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.

However, in recognition of the issue raised in the Call to Action, an additional £250,000 was made available to the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund in 2025-26 to increase the number of projects supporting disabled people, and this additional funding will continue in 2026/27. This additional capacity, coupled with the work supported through the Disability Equality Action Plan, should increase both the availability and accessibility of advice for all disabled people.

Call to Action: Investment in mental health support

20. Rising poverty and inequality has also increased stress and anxiety for women and girls across Scotland. The Empowering Women Panel and NACWG believe strongly that significant further investment is needed in providing timely, local and appropriate mental health support including support to maintain wellbeing.

The Scottish Government accepts the ambition of this Call to Action.

As highlighted in the surveys included in the Phase Two report, the cost of living crisis has had a detrimental impact on women’s and girls’ mental health and wellbeing.^[2] This is particularly true for disabled women and women heading one parent households, with the cost of living crisis having an acute effect on their mental health and wellbeing.[3] The Women’s Health Plan 2021-24: Data Landscape Review, found that women consistently experience a greater burden of mental health issues than men. In 2021, the biggest difference was amongst 16–24-year-olds where the percentage of females (20%) reporting a mental health condition was nearly twice as high as males (11%).[4]

Mental health remains an absolute priority for the Scottish Government. The vast majority of spending on Mental Health continues to be delivered through NHS Board budgets. Between the Scottish Government and NHS Boards, we expect spending on Mental Health to exceed £1.5 billion in 2026-27 based on the most recent cost book data.

We are also implementing the Core Mental Health Quality Standards and the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions, published in September 2023. Through the implementation of the standards and specification, we aim to ensure a consistently high quality of service is provided to everyone who needs it, and to reduce any unwarranted variation of quality of care and inequality in experiences and outcomes.

Equality and human rights considerations remain central to this work and the standards and specifications should ensure that services provide mental health care, treatment and support and psychological therapies that are person-centred and free from discrimination or stigma, meeting the needs of all individuals, including those of women. Work on the Core Standards is being actively supported by Health Improvement Scotland, which is providing targeted improvement support to help Boards embed the standards and drive continuous quality improvement. The Scottish Government continues to work closely with psychology teams in NHS Boards to support improvements in the delivery of psychological therapies.

To meet the ambition of the Call to Action, we will continue to invest to ensure everyone’s right to access appropriate mental health care is realised. We now have record numbers of staff, providing more varied mental health support and services to a larger number of people than ever before. In the last year national performance against the 18-week Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services standard has been met, with 91.5% of children and young people starting treatment within 18 weeks of referral.

There has been significant focus and investment in specialist services which particularly benefit women. These include eating disorder provision, with the National Specification for the Care and Treatment of Eating Disorders in Scotland now outlining national standards which will support local services to deliver person-centred, safe and effective care. Another important example is perinatal mental health services. As well as significant expansion of statutory provision, the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Third Sector Fund has provided peer support, counselling and befriending to over 16,200 parents, expectant parents and infants since 2020.

Another area where improved provision has particularly benefitted girls and young women is school counselling. Access to school counselling support through secondary schools is now available to pupils over 10 across Scotland. We provide £16 million of baseline funding to local authorities each year to support this, with authorities reporting take-up by 21,972 pupils in 2024/25 (64% female).

Self-harm can affect anyone of any age, gender or background, however evidence suggests that it is more prevalent amongst young women and other marginalised groups, with girls over three times more likely to report self-harm than boys. Our Self-Harm Strategy and Action Plan (2023–27) places a strong emphasis on early intervention, including work to embed self-harm awareness, training and resources in schools, colleges, and universities, and within national parenting programmes.

We have also invested significantly in community-based mental health supports for adults and children: £164 million since 2020. This will continue with £15 million baseline funding going to local authorities every year for children and young people’s services. Local authorities have reported that almost 80,000 people used the supports and services in 2024-25, including nearly 10,000 family members and carers.

We have also provided £84 million for grassroots projects through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing for Adults Fund since 2021 to help tackle mental health inequality faced by a range of ‘at risk’ groups including women ( particularly those affected by gender based sexual violence), disabled people, people facing socio-economic disadvantage and others. Since the Fund was established in 2021, over 6,100 awards have been made to a wide range of grassroots community projects including those based around peer support, physical activity, arts and crafts activities, social interaction and befriending, with a strong emphasis on the key themes of prevention and early intervention, suicide prevention and addressing social isolation. In year 2024-25, 206 projects had a sole focus on women.

We know there is still work to do. That is why our Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan highlights that women and girls (particularly those who are heading one parent households) face higher levels of poverty and deprivation, and that this should be considered when implementing its actions.

We recognise a new approach is needed to deliver consistently high quality and sustainable mental health services across Scotland. In June last year, the Scottish Government and COSLA set this direction through the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework and Population Health Framework.

A key element of this renewal is taking a strategic, detailed approach to planning services – including mental health services – based on current and future population need, with a clear focus on narrowing health inequalities and ensuring sustainability of services. As part of this work, we will consider how we meet the needs of specific groups, including of women and girls.

Delivering this change will require strong system-wide collaboration and accountability. We have begun engaging partners, professionals, stakeholders, and people with lived experience, and we are committed to progressing this work throughout 2026.

Call to Action: Investment in social isolation and loneliness interventions

21. It is widely understood through research as well as insight and expertise from women’s organisations and equality organisations that social isolation and loneliness has increased exponentially to the point that it is a recognised public health problem requiring urgent focus. NACWG and the Empowering Women Panel firmly recommend increased investment to tackle this, for example, peer support for women and girls affected. This will benefit women and the wider populations by increasing participation.

The Scottish Government accepts this Call to Action.

As the NACWG notes in the Phase Two report the cost of living crisis has had an increasing impact on social isolation among women and girls, the lack of disposable income has led to a rise in more women than men choosing to spend less time with family and friends, according to one Public Health Scotland survey.^[5] The report also highlights that cost of living crisis related social isolation is more pronounced for women-led one parent households and disabled women.[6]

The Scottish Government understands the need to address social isolation, as we know this has detrimental effects on individuals’ physical and mental health and impacts on wider public health in Scotland.

That is why we are committed to delivering our Social Isolation and Loneliness Strategy, A Connected Scotland 2018, and its associated Delivery Plan, Recovering our Connections 2023. Both recognise social isolation and loneliness as a public health issue and an issue of inequality, affecting multiple and intersecting groups of people, including women, who have historically experienced more discrimination than others.

The Strategy and Plan are complimented by our Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund to support community organisations to provide opportunities for people to connect. This Fund will provide £٣.٨ million from 2023-26 to 53 community projects that are providing opportunities for people to connect. This is a three-year Fund, providing the longer-term, more sustainable funding that our third-sector partner organisations have been asking for. This funding will help organisations to create opportunities for people to connect with one another in our communities and are responding to local needs. In recognition of the ongoing impact of social isolation and loneliness, this fund will be extended for a further 8 months, ending in March 2027.

In Year 2 this Fund has benefited 10,818 people and combined figures for Years 1 and 2 equate to a reach of 22,111 beneficiaries. The Fund is focused on five priority groups who report higher levels of social isolation and loneliness, and women are included in these groups.

These are:

• Young people (age 16-24)
• Disabled people
• People with a mental health condition
• Older people (aged 75+)
• People living in areas of deprivation or on a low income

Whilst women can and will attend funded activity across the Fund, a number of the funded projects have activity aimed specifically at tackling social isolation and loneliness for women such as women’s choirs, craft and chat for women (including Minority Ethnic women and asylum seekers and refugees) and support indoor and outdoor activities.

As part of their regular reporting on the Fund, Impact Funding Partners collect data on these given priority groups, noting that most organisations that are funded confirm they are supporting more than one priority group and some of the individuals supported fall into more than one group. In addition, where organisations have selected the ‘other’ category in relation to people they support they note this included unpaid young and adult carers, minority ethnic people, people with dementia, parents of children with additional support needs, people with chronic health conditions, people who have had or are experiencing addiction issues, asylum seekers, refugees the LGBTQI+ community and Deaf BSL users.

In addition to our Social Isolation and Loneliness Fund, and as part of our emergency response to the cost of living crisis, we supported organisations to tackle loneliness over the winter period in 2023 with £970,000 in funding. This included funding activity such as helplines, advice, in person support and social connection, meals and warm spaces and emergency food, clothing, and fuel payments.

We also know that social isolation and loneliness can have huge impacts on individual’s mental health. As highlighted in our response to Call to Action 20, despite the continuing fiscal challenges, mental health remains an absolute priority for the Scottish Government.

We recognise the benefits of peer support in improving mental health and wellbeing and to help people to feel less isolated. This is why we have continued to fund Scottish Recovery Network (SRN), with £500,000 provided in 2025-26, to support its work to promote peer support across Scotland. SRN works to ensure that people with lived experience and organisations have the knowledge, tools and opportunity to develop and deliver peer support approaches and services.