Programme for Government 2025 to 2026

2 Eradicating Child Poverty

To deliver for Scotland we have:

• Successfully introduced the Scottish Child Payment - forecast to keep 40,000 children out of relative poverty in 2025-26
• Increased the value of our 5 family payments which can be worth around £25,000 by the time a child turns 16
• Increased funded childcare hours to 1,140 for 3-4 year-olds and eligible 2 year-olds. If families paid for this, it would cost them more than £6,000 a year for each eligible child
• Helped deliver 34,684 affordable homes to December 2024, including 26,203 homes for social rent.
• Saved families who take up the offer of free school meals £400 per child a year
• Supported almost 28,000 parents through our devolved employability services between April 2021 and September 2024

A national mission

No child should be living in poverty in Scotland. Eradicating child poverty is this government’s national mission. We have seen the proportion of children living in relative poverty after housing cost reducing in recent years, with the rate now lower than it has been for a decade and 9 percentage points lower than the UK in 2023-24. But we must do more.

In the coming year we will develop and publish a Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-31 – outlining actions to keep us on the journey to meeting our ambitious 2030 targets – while responding immediately to the challenges faced.

Tackling the cost of living

Despite limited economic levers, the Scottish Government has a strong record on helping people with the costs of living. Combined, our interventions mean that families with children in the poorest 10% of households are estimated to be £2,600 a year better off this year as result of Scottish Government policies. While the UK Government has not heeded our calls to do more to help people facing financial challenges, we will support households hit by rising everyday costs where we can, including:

• Expanding free school meals in S1-S3 in eight local authority areas – covering pupils in urban, rural, semi-urban and island authorities in receipt of Scottish Child Payment – from August 2025.
• Helping over 94,000 households cut their housing costs through Discretionary Housing Payments, including £89 million to mitigate the bedroom tax and benefit cap.
• Ensuring over 460,000 households save on average, over £850 a year through some level of Council Tax Reduction, backed by £350 million.
• A pilot scheme for a £2 bus fare cap in one of Scotland’s transport regions, backed by £3 million in this financial year.
• Delivering a £2 million national pilot to support free bus travel for people seeking asylum.
• Providing £1m to all local authorities to deliver holiday playschemes and activity provision for disabled children.
• Helping hard pressed families with the costs of childcare, supporting more parents to get on in work, including:
  • Designing and delivering childcare services for priority families working in 23 ‘Early Adopter Communities’ across six local authority areas.
  • Expanding our ‘Extra Time’ programme, providing funded breakfast and after school and holiday clubs across Scotland, supporting 5,000 children and their families most at risk of poverty.
  • From August, delivering a £3 million ‘Bright Start Breakfasts’ Fund to create more free club places for families who need it most across Scotland.
• Helping people with advice to reduce their costs and increase their incomes from social security– with increased investment to over £15 million for free income maximisation and debt advice, including:
  • Supporting 105 organisations, in 33 partnerships, to provide financial advice for people in accessible settings like hospitals and community centres.
  • An extra £2.2 million to support the expansion of tailored advice on council tax debt – building on a pilot that has helped over 1,600 people with arrears.
• Working in partnership with COSLA to empower councils with the information they need to improve recovery of council tax debt – strengthening data sharing so they can act earlier to identify households which may be eligible for council tax reduction and wider support.

We will always protect the most vulnerable people in our society – including protecting support for disabled people and mitigating the worst aspects of UK Government welfare reform. As well as taking steps to protect people from rising costs, we are investing £6.9 billion in our social security system, to ensure people have the support they need, including by:

• Developing the systems needed to effectively scrap the impact of the two-child cap.
• Supporting all pensioners to heat their homes over winter by introducing a universal Pension Age Winter Heating Payment from Winter 2025.
• Completing the transfer of over 700,000 people’s disability and carer benefit awards from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland.
• Launching our new Carer’s Additional Person Payment, to give extra support to people receiving the Carer Support Payment who care for more than one person.

Whole-family support

Families must be able to access the support they need, where and when they need it – with services designed to respond immediately, reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, and wrapping the support around them. Our commitment to increase funding flexibility to better enable partners to deliver whole family support is being rolled out initially to a core group of local authorities, with the intention of extending to other parts of Scotland quickly thereafter. We will build on this over the coming year so more people benefit, including:

• Expanding Fairer Futures Partnerships to Shetland, North Lanarkshire and Fife – alongside eight existing partnerships – and work to identify further adopters, to maximise incomes and support people into sustained employment or education.
• Funding the Wise Group’s relational mentoring programme, providing wraparound support to an additional 2,000 low-income households.
• Recognising the importance of a thriving Third Sector in Scotland we will deliver the Fairer Funding pilot, providing multi-year funding for Third Sector organisations across Scotland and identifying the lessons from an interim evaluation by May 2026 to inform future approaches.

Helping people into work

While our commitment to the social safety net is unwavering, good quality, well-paid work provides an enduring route out of poverty. Our devolved employability programmes have supported tens of thousands of people to enter, and progress in, work – keeping people out of poverty and contributing to economic success. We will help people remain in work and strengthen pathways into employment for those furthest from the labour market by:

• Reviewing the delivery of employability programmes to maximise their effectiveness and bring forward proposals ahead of the Budget 26-27, including consideration of a national model.
• Supporting disabled people to move into sustainable employment through Specialist Employability Support from summer 2025. This will ensure “place and train” models are in place across all 32 local authority areas, supporting closer working between employability provision and employers.
• Investing in Parental Employability Support in every local authority area, with over £40 million made available to Local Employability Partnerships in 2025/26.
• Funding pilot projects that will develop actions employers can take to implement inclusive recruitment practices – including flexible working, support for disabled employees, and supporting people at risk of economic inactivity.
• Working with schools during academic year 25/26 to amplify good practice that supports school leavers to enter positive destinations, piloting with local authorities that have the lowest rates of school leavers entering positive destinations.
• Evaluating the impact of improved health and work services committed to in Programme for Government 2024, which will support up to 1,000 additional people in 2025-26 and beyond, and work with Public Health Scotland to galvanise employer action towards healthy workplaces.

Safe, warm homes

Good quality, affordable housing is vital. We will deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, leveraging in further private and social sector investment to create a total package of around £20 billion, supporting between 12,000 and 14,000 jobs each year. In response to the housing emergency, we worked intensively to increase supply, including bringing more than 1,000 additional properties into use as affordable homes - helping reduce the number of homeless households spending long periods in temporary accommodation.

Backed by increased investment of £768 million, and implementing the recommendations of the Housing Investment Taskforce to unlock new investment opportunities across all tenures, we will ensure more people can access good, affordable, homes, including:

• Delivering over 8,000 affordable homes for social rent, mid-market rent and low-cost home ownership, with a focus on acquisitions and family sized homes.
• Removing barriers on stalled housing sites to deliver up to 20,000 new homes.
• Driving down numbers of privately owned long-term empty homes, by investing £2 million through the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership.
• More than doubling the budget – from £8.25 million to almost £21 million – to deliver around 8,500 general housing adaptations to disabled tenants, so they can live independently in their home.
• Supporting the completion of the 6 Gypsy/Traveller site demonstration projects funded by the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund.
• Delivering more affordable homes in rural and island communities by extending the Rural and Island Housing Fund to new applications to March 2028.
• Delivering an equivalent of Awaab’s law in Scotland – ensuring landlords promptly address issues that are hazardous to tenants’ health. Subject to the passage of the new Housing (Scotland) Bill, we will bring forward secondary legislation to develop timescales for investigation and commencement of repairs that are hazardous to tenants’ enjoyment of their homes, starting with damp and mould.
• Tackling homelessness by implementing the new Housing (Scotland) Bill which, if passed, will improve outcomes for those at risk of homelessness and strengthen tenants’ rights, including through the introduction of a system for longer term rent controls, and removing the legislative constraint on the level of council tax premium that can be applied to second and long-term empty homes.
• Investing £1 million in a fund administered by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Homeless Network Scotland, bringing together registered social landlords, third sector organisations and community partners to prevent homelessness and protect tenants’ rights.
• Investing £4 million in homelessness prevention pilots in 2025-26, helping duty bearers to prepare for the new legislation and to implement the ‘ask and act’ duties effectively.

Early child development

Any efforts to tackle poverty must be underpinned by giving every child born in Scotland the best start in life. We are committed to reducing developmental concerns at 27-30 months by a quarter by 2030 – resulting in the lowest levels recorded – and supporting babies, children, and young people through the early, formative years of their life, including:

• Embedding early conversations on preparing for pregnancy into routine health care, to optimise preconception health and care.
• By the end of March 2026, ensuring all pregnant women in Scotland are allocated a primary midwife and receive at least 75% of their antenatal care from them or another from the same team.
• By the end of 2025, meeting our breastfeeding stretch aim to reduce drop off at 6-8 weeks, with babies in Scotland now being breastfed for longer, and inequalities reducing.
• Improving take-up of Child Health Reviews and developing a health visitor learning site.
• Enhancing the contents of the Baby Box by March 2026, building on feedback from parents and frontline practitioners.
• To address growing concerns about children’s speech and language development, publish an Early Years Speech and Language action plan by autumn 2025, setting out practical steps to support children’s early speech and language development.
• Building on initiatives which supported the creation of over 40 new childminding businesses in 2024-25 – expanding this across 28 local authorities, backed by £1.6 million.

Keeping the Promise

We have made good progress on Keeping the Promise, including a 18.1% reduction in the number of children identified as ‘looked after’ since 2020. By the end of the Parliament, we will have invested over £148 million through Whole Family Wellbeing Funding to transform family support. We will ensure that we meet the ambitious outcomes set out in The Promise Progress Framework, including:

• Introducing a new Care Leavers payment from 1st April 2026 – a one-off £2,000 payment to help improve the financial security of young people leaving care.
• Bringing forward the Children and Young People (Care) (Scotland) Bill that will support delivery of The Promise.
• Progressing measures for delivering the recommendation in the Independent Care Review to reduce or remove profit made from the care of children in Scotland.
• Publishing a new vision for kinship care by the end of 2025.
• Uprating of the Scottish Recommended Allowance for eligible foster and kinship carers, providing an extra £1.9 million, which is expected to benefit more than 9,000 children.
• Responding to the Reimagining Secure Care report by June 2025 - setting out the Scottish Government’s future vision for secure care.
• Testing our approach to Bairns’ Hoose across ten areas – providing safe, trauma-informed environments for child victims and witnesses to get the support and recovery services they need – ahead of incremental national rollout from 2027.
• Establishing a National Social Work Agency by Spring 2026, as well as supporting the social work profession by introducing improvements to systems which support social work professional learning and development.

Ensuring equality

While the impacts of poverty are felt widely, they are also felt disproportionately– minority ethnic communities, predominantly women single parents, and disabled people all face far higher levels of poverty. Policies that value diversity and advance equality and inclusion are under threat around the world. This government remains dedicated to protecting, respecting and fulfilling the rights of all in Scotland, while guarding against the spread of hate and prejudice. We will take action to make Scotland a fairer and more equal country for everyone, including:

• Creating safe spaces for the LGBTQI+ community - funding work that tackles discrimination and upholds the human rights of this group, including through the Equality and Human Rights Fund, and progressing actions within the Non-Binary Equality Action Plan.
• Developing draft legislation and policy towards ending conversion practices in Scotland. Engagement will continue with the UK government for a Bill covering England, Wales and Scotland. However, if this approach cannot be agreed, then we commit to publishing our own Bill in Year 1 of the next Parliamentary session.
• Developing legislation to incorporate certain international human rights treaties into Scots law, working with stakeholders to refine proposals, and laying the groundwork for effective implementation.
• Applying fair work principles – including provision of flexible and family friendly working practices and actions to address workplace inequalities – to public sector funding.
• In response to the recommendations from the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG), to prioritise the needs of marginalised women and girls, we will work with NACWG and gender equality stakeholders in the development of our next Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan to strengthen the focus on gender in the Plan and to inform the actions it commits to.
• Improving disability competence across government, holding a Cabinet takeover to ensure accountability at the highest levels of government, while improving access to support and services through our Disability Equality Plan – backed by of £2.5 million.
• Ensuring a whole government programmatic approach to tackling gender inequality through development and delivery of an Equality Strategy for Women and Girls.
• Launching the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland which will work with Government, public bodies and communities to deliver on our vision to tackle systemic racism in Scotland.
• Establishing, through a multi-year procurement, a new Integration Support Service, ensuring refugees, people seeking asylum and other forced migrants living in our communities can access the support they need when they need it, within the scope of devolved competence.
• Accepting the recent UK Supreme Court judgment, a Scottish Government working group is considering its impact on policies, guidance and legislation to ensure we are ready to take all necessary steps when the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) publishes its revised Code of Practice and updated guidance.
• Legislating to add the characteristic of sex to the Hate Crime Act to ensure that women and girls have the same protections in law as other groups covered by the Act.
• Taking forward the actions in the Hate Crime Strategy Delivery Plan until May 2026, protecting against the spread of hatred and prejudice.
• Having guaranteed the Access to Elected Office Fund in law, supporting people with disabilities to stand for election, we will work with electoral administrators to deliver improvements in accessibility for those with sight loss voting in elections, in time for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections.
• Continuing our commitment to embed equality and human rights across the Scottish Government and the wider public sector we will publish our mainstreaming framework which will include an action plan and toolkit, setting out practical steps to achieve this ambition. This will be complemented by enhancing the effectiveness of the Public Sector Equality Duty as it operates in Scotland.

Our commitment to upholding and promoting rights does not stop at a border. In recent years we’ve witnessed heightened violence and humanitarian crises across the world. We have resolutely condemned Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine, remaining steadfast in our support for the people of Ukraine and for a strong and durable peace that respects Ukraine’s sovereignty. Scottish Ministers have been consistent in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, urgent access for humanitarian aid, and repeatedly called on the UK Government to end all licenced arms exports to Israel. We will not turn our backs on those overseas who need assistance – keeping our promise to countries across the Global South to grow our international development budget to £15 million per annum and providing £1 million for humanitarian crises.

However, as the foundations of democracy come under threat around the world, we must double down on our efforts to protect them here in Scotland – guarding against the threat of polarising internal and external forces, and ensure we empower people who feel distant from politics or on the margins of society.

The First Minister’s Gathering on strengthening and protecting democracy was an important starting point. It secured a shared commitment, across civic, faith, and political leaders, to foundational principles which will guide our collective response and to working in a shared endeavour to give life to these principles. We will work with partners on specific, targeted actions to:

• Develop counter interventions to the threats to our democratic system.
• Create positive relationships and engage people across society on the issues.
• Work with partners to engage their own networks to strengthen democratic.
• Use the Scottish Government’s convening power to advance the dialogue around, and progress the solutions to, the issues identified.

Most immediately, we will support the STUC to pilot and develop activity designed to promote equality and diversity in the workplace and tackle discrimination at work.