Tackling child poverty delivery plan - progress report 2022-23: annex c - priority family types - approach to reporting evidence

Conclusion: future analysis and reporting

The current evaluation approach considers a careful balance of available data and evidence at priority family type level, combining both qualitative evidence and quantitative statistics. Overall, the approach appears to maximise utilisation of current resources.

There are some limitations, however, on the ability to produce detail sub-group analysis at priority family type level, which are becoming more challenging as survey response rates are depressed compared to historic levels. These limitations impact the frequency of reporting possible for the child poverty targets, as well as for the measurement framework indicators.

To improve on our ability to assess progress and understand challenges faced by priority family groups, Scottish Government will keep the efficacy of quantitative data under review to identify solutions for delivering the most-effective assessment ahead of the 2030-31 target reporting. Quantitative data will remain one part of the suite of evidence that we will use to identify and explain outcomes among priority groups.

From our overview of the issues facing the priority groups, there is already a good understanding of the structural barriers experienced by these groups, and what needs to be done to mitigate those barriers. The challenge going forward will be to evidence how this knowledge is being implemented in practice at national and local level, and what impact that is having.

In the short term, the overarching evaluation approach will continue to focus on assessing and tracking priority family types via:

• monitoring child poverty levels annually both for all, and for each of the priority family types most at risk of poverty
• annually monitoring the drivers of child poverty through the framework
• evaluating the impact of policies on child poverty, both individually and in combination
• gathering and analysing evidence on the priority household groups through annual focus reports that present evidence and commentary on key areas of interest including the measurement framework.

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this social research publication:

☐ are available in more detail through Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics

☒ are available in direct links within this publication

☐ may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors. Please contact <email address> for further information.

☐ cannot be made available by Scottish Government for further analysis as Scottish Government is not the data controller.