Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-2031 External Reference Group Minutes 16 December 2025

Attendees and apologies

 

Members

• Julie Humphreys, Director, Tackling Child Poverty and Social Justice, SG (Chair)
• Alice Hall, Deputy Director, Tackling Child Poverty, SG
• Alexis Camble, COSLA
• Andrea Calder, Dundee City Council for SOLACE
• Anna Ritchie Allan, National Advisory Council on Women and Girls/Close the Gap
• Charlotte Gorman, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
• Claire Telfer, Save the Children
• John Dickie, Child Poverty Action Group
• Peter Kelly, Poverty Alliance
• Pui-Kei Wong, CEMVO
• Rachel McAdams, Public Health Scotland
• Satwat Rehman, One Parent Families Scotland

Attendees

• Andrew Drought, Deputy Director, Place-Based Social Justice, SG
• Simon Mair, Deputy Director, Public Service Reform, SG
• Laura Holton, Head of Whole Family Wellbeing Programme Unit, SG
• Dr Tom Wilkinson, Chief Data Officer, SG

Secretariat

• Tackling Child Poverty Policy Unit

Apologies

• Justina Murray, Aberlour Children’s Charity
• Gregory Colgan, Chief Executive, Dundee City Council representing SOLACE
• Colin Lee, CEMVO
• Chris Birt, JRF
• Professor Stephen Sinclair, Poverty & Inequality Commission (observer status)

 

Items and actions

Item 1: Welcome, Introductions and review of actions from previous meeting

The Chair welcomed attendees to the fifth External Reference Group (ERG) meeting providing an overview of the agenda.   The actions were reviewed from the previous meeting.

Minutes from the previous meeting were agreed.

The Chair highlighted the published ERG page on gov.scot which has all meeting minutes, as well as the Terms of Reference: https://www.gov.scot/groups/tackling-child-poverty-delivery-plan-2026-2031-external-reference-group/

Item 2: UKG Budget and Child Poverty Strategy

An update on key points from the UKG budget and their Child Poverty Strategy was provided.  SG  will continue to engage with UKG on areas of shared interest.

In discussion the group noted

• There were a number of areas which stakeholder felt were missing from the strategy including the role of fair and flexible work; support for single parents; sufficient gender analysis and corresponding policies; the role of the ‘Pride of Place’ to support poverty reduction; how the UKG’s strategy would interact with the SG’s devolved powers and confirmation of additional Barnett consequentials for the SG  
• The potential offered by the funding SG has set aside for Two Child Limit mitigation and opportunity to use that to support other anti-poverty measures as the First Minister had first committed to in January 2025
• The opportunity now the strategy was published to strengthen collaboration with UKG and ensure the strategy worked for Scotland

Item 3: SG update on delivery plan development and next steps

An update on the work underway to support the development of the next Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan was provided:

• The SG’s fiscal environment remains challenging, but child poverty remains the Government’s top priority
• The efficacy of spend on eradicating child poverty across portfolios will be maximised

In discussion the group noted

• Investment in Social Security remains key to keeping people out of poverty

Item 4: Whole Family and Data Exchange presentation

An update was provided on Whole Family Support and a Data Exchange programme

In discussion the group noted

• The need to ensure action in the next Delivery Plan is clearly aligned to the income-based targets
• The importance of blended action, recognising that each family is unique and some will require more intensive support to engage with services like employability
• Prevention remains key and by using short, medium and long-term actions to put in place sustainable solutions and break the cycle of poverty

Item 5: Conclusions and Any Other Business

Members were thanked for their contributions to the meeting and actions would be taken forward accordingly. The next meeting will be in the New Year with a mutually convenient date to be agreed.