Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: progress report 2024-25

Introduction

This annual report outlines progress in the continued implementation of ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ in 2024-25, and serves as the Scottish Government’s report on the interim targets set through the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

Poverty statistics, published in March 2025, confirm that the proportion of children living in relative poverty has reduced and the 2023-24 rate is now lower than it has been since 2014-15, while the proportion in absolute poverty has also fallen with the annual figure the lowest in 30 years. However, while three measures of child poverty fell in 2023-24 compared to the previous year, rates remain above the interim targets on all measures. Further detail on the interim targets, including a summary of detailed analysis on what has driven changes in child poverty rates can be found in the second section of this report.

The Scottish Government remain unequivocal in our commitment to meeting the 2030 targets, and across 2024-25 we have continued to focus on driving forward the ambitious actions set out in ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’, and the priorities identified within our annual progress report for 2023-24. Over this period, we have had to manage Scottish public finances in the face of persistent inflation and cost of living pressures, with the block grant in 2024-25 worth around £400 million less in real terms compared to 2023-24 and the capital budget forecast to reduce in real terms by 8.7% by 2027-28 at the time the budget was set. This meant tough decisions to protect the most vulnerable in society, within our fixed budget, and to direct our limited resources to make the biggest difference possible. As a result, it was not possible to progress some of our priorities for 2024-25, whilst investment in other activity, such as our Affordable Housing Supply Programme, had to be reduced.

Despite these challenges, we invested over £2.8 billion in support targeted to low income households, with spend benefiting children rising to over £1.4 billion. This includes ongoing investment in our Five Family Payments, including the Scottish Child Payment, which was increased to £26.70 per child per week in April 2024. We have also continued to mitigate the impacts of UK Government welfare policies on low income households, with £81 million made available to Local Authorities to mitigate the likes of the Benefit Cap and ‘bedroom tax’ through Discretionary Housing Payments, protecting low income households as far as we possibly can.

The last year also saw a change of UK Government and a renewed focus on child poverty at a UK level, with the UK Government Child Poverty Taskforce launching on 17 July and Taskforce Ministers visiting Glasgow to meet with Scottish stakeholders on 21 November. The Scottish Government has welcomed this focus on child poverty and has engaged constructively in the work of the Taskforce and development of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy, with broad agreement that UK Government measures should seek to complement action taken by the Scottish Government.

However, despite this prioritisation at a UK level, no change has been made to policies, including the two-child limit. Wider cuts to disability benefits have been announced which are estimated to push more children into poverty across the UK. The UK Government’s Child Poverty Strategy is now anticipated to be published in the Autumn, with modelling from the Resolution Foundation and London School of Economics suggesting that a strategy which matches Scottish Government ambition and investment could significantly reduce child poverty levels across the UK.

Focused on delivery, we have continued to ensure that we are working collaboratively across portfolio areas to track progress of our wide-ranging child poverty actions. Through the ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ Programme we have continued to oversee the delivery of actions, ensuring that we hold ourselves to account and drive forward the leadership, focus and collaboration necessary to shift the dial on child poverty. Collective oversight of child poverty has been further enhanced through the establishment of a Cabinet Sub-Committee on Child Poverty, which met for the first time in November 2024. Chaired by the First Minister, this places an ever firmer focus on maximising the contribution each portfolio makes to ending child poverty.

Our efforts to eradicate child poverty touch on all areas of government, aligning closely with our other areas of focus through an overarching commitment to improve outcomes for children and young people. Our emphasis on early intervention, holistic support and tackling the root causes of disadvantage supports our aims to reform the care system through Keeping the Promise, and the action we are taking to deliver coordinated services delivered to children’s needs aligns with the ‘Getting it right for every child’ (GIRFEC) approach. In parallel with wider action to tackle child poverty, this is driving progress towards our collective ambition for Scotland to be the best place to grow up; where all children and young people feel loved, safe and respected.

This focus on creating joined-up services which work for those who need them, where and when they need them, is a commitment also shared with our partners including Local Authorities and third sector organisations. Eradicating child poverty is a mission for us all, and this report outlines a wide range of ways in which we have come together with partners across Scotland to promote best practice, share learning and work to design and implement the support people need.

Building on action to date, we also commenced consultation and engagement to inform development of the next Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2026-31, which will be published by the end of March 2026 – shortly ahead of the next Scottish Parliament elections. In February 2025, guided by a new External Reference Group, we issued a call for evidence to stakeholders and sought the views of Parliamentary Committees to ensure we understand the challenges and opportunities ahead. In the coming year, we will continue our engagement, including with children and young people, and people with lived experience of poverty, to build consensus around key areas of action as we work to meet the 2030 targets.

We know that we must be ambitious in our action to end child poverty and we will draw on the findings and recommendations of experts in the plan’s development. This includes the findings from our international research, published alongside this report, the findings and recommendations of the Minimum Income Guarantee Expert Group who will publish their final report this month, and further advice from the Poverty and Inequality Commission focused on the next Delivery Plan.

Working closely with partners, we will not only focus on delivering the priorities set out in this progress report, including developing the systems necessary to mitigate the two-child cap, but will also focus on developing proposals for the longer term to deliver on the ambitious 2030 targets unanimously agreed by the Scottish Parliament.

The first section of this report details key progress in implementing the actions set out in ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ during the reporting year, as well as updates on any additional or new actions that form part of our efforts to eradicate child poverty.

These are organised by thematic area, with a focus on the impact of actions taken over the reporting period. Updates on actions within the Plan which have not been incorporated within this section can be found within table 3.2.

The second section provides the latest assessment of overall progress toward the targets set in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017. It also provides updated data for each of the six priority family types at greatest risk of poverty and provides summary analysis of trends in the drivers of child poverty reduction.

This section details the progress made towards the interim child poverty targets for 2023-24. Whereas the rest of this report covers actions taken across 2024-25, this section draws upon data up to March 2024.

This outlines the child poverty rates in relation to all measures and sets out the factors which have led to rates remaining above the interim targets. Our analysis also focuses on assessing the future impact of our action, with modelling published in March 2025 estimating that, in 2025-26, the relative child poverty rate will be seven percentage points lower than it would have been without these policies in place.

The third section of this report provides a series of ‘at a glance summaries’ which are intended as a quick reference to key information about the actions we have taken.

This includes the status of each action committed in ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’; an update on additional actions not included within the first section of this report; an overview of Tackling Child Poverty Fund investment; the latest estimates of spend targeted toward low income households and children; and information of how this report meets requirements set out in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

Our robust governance arrangements are complemented by the independent scrutiny provided by the Poverty and Inequality Commission, with the recommendations made by the Commission and our responses, included in this section.

The following has been published alongside this report to provide additional information:

Annex A, the Child Poverty Measurement Framework, provides the latest data and trends in relation to key indicators across all three drivers of poverty.

Annex B includes a focus report looking at the gendered experience of poverty. The report covers an evidence review across the three drivers of poverty, through a gender lens. In addition, it provides a review of the extent to which key polices seeking to eradicate child poverty are considering gender and what approaches are taken to gender sensitivity when designing, implementing and learning from policies.

Annex C provides decomposition analysis of Scottish child poverty data to better understand what has driven changes in the relative child poverty rate since the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 came into force. This analysis focuses on four main characteristics including housing tenure type, family working status, whether households are headed by a lone parent or couple, and the number of children in the family.

Separate to the annual progress report, we continue to build our evidence base to support development of the third Delivery Plan. We have published several outputs from an international review of approaches to tackling child poverty. It focused on European countries that have poverty rates close to our targets, or that have significantly reduced their child poverty rates in recent years.

This includes four case studies focused on Croatia, Denmark, Finland, and Slovenia, and a summary report of key findings relevant to Scotland and the UK. Additionally, it includes economic modelling which seeks to better understand how economic and demographic factors influence child poverty rates in these countries.