Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: progress report 2024-25

Section 1 - Reporting on Progress 2024-25

The following section provides updates on the implementation of actions and their impact under nine thematic areas. Broadly aligning with the programme approach taken to delivery of ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’, these focus on:

A. Strengthening our employment offer to parents

B. Transforming our economy

C. Improving access to and the availability of childcare

D. Enhancing access to and the affordability of public transport

E. Person centred support

F. Enhanced support through Social Security

G. Ensuring access to warm, affordable homes

H. Maximising income

I. Place based transformation

Brief updates on actions which are not included in these thematic areas are included in table 3.2 in the final section of this report.

A. Strengthening our employment offer to parents

Despite a challenging financial landscape, improving the employment prospects of parents continues to be a key aspect of our approach to eradicating child poverty. By protecting investment in front line services, we have continued to see the numbers of parents supported by our employability services grow in 2024-25. In September 2024, we set out our key priorities for No One Left Behind through our Employability Strategic Plan 2024-2027, reaffirming our commitment to drive further progress. This is complemented by our ongoing programme of reform for post-school education focused on ensuring that services are delivered in a way which is accessible for learners. The actions taken this year, and those we plan to take in future, will ensure that parents are aware of the support available to them and are able to engage with the services which can assist them to enter and progress in the labour market.

Impact summary

• Between April and December 2024, 6,086 parents were supported through No One Left Behind services, an increase in comparison to those accessing support over the same period in 2023-24 (5,473). In total, 23,465 parents have been supported under the No One Left Behind approach since April 2020.
• As of December 2024, 26% (6,181) of parents who had started receiving support through No One Left Behind had entered employment. Other positive destinations included entering further or higher education or training (8%), gaining a qualification (17%), starting work experience (4%) or volunteering (2%).
• Of the parents that entered employment, 59% were in employment at four weeks, 59% at 13 weeks, 52% at 26 weeks and 37% at 52 weeks.
• Lone parents continue to be the most represented family group at 56%. Additionally, 23% were parents with three or more children and 23% were parents with a disability.

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

In 2024-25, we have protected levels of investment in our No One Left Behind approach, including key elements such as Parental Employability Support, ensuring that front line services are in place across all 32 Local Authority areas. As part of this, we have continued to provide funding for Employability Child Poverty Coordinators in every Local Authority, in recognition of the importance of aligned and integrated service provision in supporting parents towards and into work. These coordinators are working with employers and local partners to enable a successful transition to employment for those accessing devolved employability services. As we look ahead to 2025-26, we will develop a programme of evaluation to better understand the experience of parents accessing our services, and the impact achieved by the coordinator posts.

In collaboration with our key partners, we published the No One Left Behind: Employability Strategic Plan 2024-2027 in September 2024. The Strategic Plan outlines our continued commitment to work together with partners within the public, third and private sectors, taking a targeted approach to engaging parents, both to help them enter work and to increase their income from employment. A key focus of the Strategic Plan is increasing awareness and uptake of employability support, and we have continued to work with partners, including in the public and third sector, to take a targeted approach to engaging parents. This includes developing understanding of where parents already engage with public services, such as through health visitors, childcare and schools, and what more can be done to raise awareness and uptake of employability support through existing engagements. Delivery partners have also been considering how we can more effectively support parents to see employability support as an offer that can benefit them, given we know parents are balancing many priorities and responsibilities, including through consideration of peer to peer approaches. Initial marketing activity has taken place on the Parent Club social media channels to raise awareness of services available to parents and families. We have also engaged with Parental Employability Support leads in Local Authorities to understand successes and challenges of delivery to date to understand where national level activity could create additionality.

As we have developed our approach to employability, we have ensured to do so in a way which aligns with our other areas of focus. We recognise that access to affordable, good quality childcare is vital to supporting parents who wish to move into work and recognise the vital role that childminders play in providing high-quality childcare for families. Launching the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future in June 2024, we have ensured the programme is also supported via Local Authority employability funding to maximise the impact of investment. Since launching, over 200 candidates have joined the programme, with over 40 new childminders already registered with the Care Inspectorate. Employability funding has been used to cover training costs for candidates, with the programme boosting availability of childcare provision to ensure parents can access the vital childcare they need to enter work.

Beyond our focus on employability, we have continued to work with key partners to reduce inequalities through the NHS Anchors Workforce Workstream. The first stage of the Anchors workforce workplan has now completed, with a range of action delivered as part of this. This includes undertaking a pilot of draft guidance for accessible job descriptions and person specifications which is intended to remove unnecessary barriers for priority groups. In addition, action has been taken to produce an Engagement Framework to strengthen engagement with Local Employability Partnerships and NHS workforce and public health partners. Funding of over £400,000 has also been committed to the partnership between the King’s Trust and NHS Scotland over the three years to March 2027, to secure outcomes for 780 disadvantaged young people, with the aim of supporting them into a positive destination such as employment, further education, training or volunteering. This funding aims to unlock NHS Boards’ potential as key anchor institutions to drive systemic change in tackling poverty and reducing health inequalities by supporting young parents to access meaningful, well-paid jobs.

Work is also continuing on our multi-year programme to reform post-school education. We are engaging across government and with key partners on skills planning to create a post-school system which is agile, efficient and simple for learners to engage with, improving their experience and providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in life and work. We are also taking forward legislation and, in February 2025, we introduced the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament. This will enable us to consolidate all post-school provision funding and allow for the Scottish Funding Council to take full responsibility for the delivery of National Training Programmes, apprenticeships and work-based learning, with the intention of enabling significant positive changes to the effectiveness of delivering this learning. The Bill aims to simplify the operating environment for colleges, universities and training providers, to deliver better services for learners and ensure best value from our public funds.

Following the publication of the independent Learning: For All. For Life report in July 2024, support for Adult Learning continues at national and local level through the provision of Community Learning and Development (CLD). Through CLD regulations, Local Authorities have the autonomy to deliver services to meet the needs of adult and young people in their areas, including through planning and arranging of CLD provision. We recognise the importance of developing new and flexible ways to deliver key services for vulnerable and marginalised learners in community, school and college settings, and in April 2024 we published guidance to support education authorities with the development of their CLD plans. In line with recommendations made in the report, the Scottish Government and COSLA have set up a joint CLD Strategic Leadership Group. The action focused group met for the first time in January 2025 and will provide clear direction as they consider the remaining recommendations from the report.

Priorities for 2025-26

• We will continue to drive forward the priorities and actions set out in the Employability Strategic Plan for 2024-27, continuing investment in employability support to ensure that parents in all Local Authority areas can access the support and services they require.
• We will implement Specialist Employability Support for disabled people across Scotland by July 2025 so that more disabled people can access fulfilling jobs.
• We will undertake evaluation activity around Parental Employability Support and Employability Child Poverty Coordinators and their impact on supporting parents.
• We will work across government and with public and third sector partners to take a targeted approach to engaging parents, exploring peer to peer approaches and utilising existing touchpoints.
• We will work to share innovative practice in relation to increasing awareness and uptake of our employability services to support wider adoption of these approaches, including the use of community-based organisations to increase the reach of services to parents in local areas.
• We will continue to support the delivery of childminder recruitment and retention, ensuring that Local Authorities continue to have the flexibility to offer support for new childminder recruitment training, with a view to increase the number of council areas of recruitment.
• We will continue to work with partners to support implementation of the NHS Anchors Workforce Workplan. This will include synthesising learning from parental employability projects across NHS Scotland and delivery of actions to improve applicant experience when applying to NHS Scotland roles.
• We will consider and prioritise delivery and actions, including for adult learning, through our broader focus on Community Learning and Development.
• We will continue to progress the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill through Parliament to simplify the post-school funding landscape.

Case study: Parental Employability Support through No One Left Behind – Fife Gingerbread

Fife Gingerbread’s Lone Parents, Poverty and Work project bridges the gap between lone parents and the workplace, recognising that income from employment is crucial in tackling child poverty and empowering families. Supported by Parental Employability Support through the No One Left Behind approach, the project is delivered in collaboration with Fife Council’s Education directorate and the Fife Jobs Contract alternative recruitment strategy (Life Chances). Fife Gingerbread identified lone parents interested in supporting local schools and a traineeship programme was co-designed to create a unique opportunity to gain training, skills and experience as Pupil Support Assistants with school friendly work patterns.

Eight lone parents were offered a six-month paid placement focused on delivering employability in the workplace which included training, peer support, team building, financial inclusion and employment. Parents were supported to build on their skills and experiences in an environment grounded in empowering them to overcome barriers such as childcare and travel, providing greater opportunity for sustainable employment and increased household incomes.

Some parents commented that, without the flexibility of training as well as working alongside other lone parents with shared lived experience, they would have struggled to complete the traineeship. Parents reported an increase in their confidence, enabling them to improve their employment prospects in a safe, supportive space focused on their strengths. Although this training was provided in a group setting, parents received person-centred support from their key worker throughout the process. The approach was holistic, offering a comprehensive support system that set parents up for long-term success. This saw seven parents sustain work on both contractual and supply basis following completion of the traineeship. Innovative partnerships with employers have not only provided opportunities for lone parents within the project but have helped to change approaches and attitudes when recruiting lone parents.

This project was shortlisted for SURF Awards Best Practice in Community Regeneration 2024 in removing barriers to employability for those within priority family groups and has been critical in securing funding to develop the ‘Lone Parent Positive Workplaces – Scotland’ initiative.

B. Transforming our economy

This year, we have maintained our focus on growing the economy and improving access to well-paid, high quality work despite the changing economic environment in which we are operating. We have continued to bolster the delivery of our ambitious Fair Work agenda across sectors, leading action through our own fair work practices and promoting flexible working, demonstrating our commitment to ensuring that parents, and future parents, are able to enter a labour market which is accessible and can allow them to support their families. We have also welcomed the Employment Rights Bill, brought forward by the UK Government, and we are supportive of the vast majority of the Bill’s proposals, which will put on a statutory footing some of the progress we have made already in Scotland with the levers available to us. We are working with the UK Government to help ensure that the Bill has a positive impact for workers in Scotland.

Impact summary

• In 2024, Scotland remained the highest real Living Wage (rLW) paying nation by rate across the UK, with 88.6% of employees over 18 earning this, compared to a UK wide figure of 84.3%.
• In 2024-25 over 7,600 employees were uplifted to payment of at least the rLW as a result of Living Wage accreditation.
• The number of accredited Living Wage employers has continued to increase to over 3,800 in 2025, from over 3,500 as reported last year, with Scotland proportionally having around five times as many accredited employers as in the rest of the UK.
• 87.3% of women (employees 18+) earned above the rLW in Scotland in 2024, more than the proportion of women in the UK overall (81.3%).
• The median Gender Pay Gap for full-time employees in Scotland was at 2.2% in 2024, compared to 7% for the UK as a whole. For all employees, both full-time and part-time, the median Gender Pay Gap in Scotland was 9.2% compared to 13.1% for the UK as a whole.
• The Disability Employment Gap in Scotland was estimated to be 31.3% in 2024 (an increase of 1.1% from 2023) but we remain on track to meet our commitment to reduce the gap to 18.7% by 2038.
• Additional investment to enable childcare staff delivering funded early learning and childcare in private and third sector services to be paid at least the real Living Wage has supported an average increase of around £2,000 in the gross salary of eligible staff working full time in 2024-25, with women accounting for 96% of day care of children staff and 98% of childminders.
• Our approach to Public Sector Pay has resulted in Scotland’s public sector workers earning around 5% more on average than UK counterparts, with the lowest paid workers earning around 10% more.

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

Across 2024-25, we have continued taking the steps needed to make Scotland a leading Fair Work Nation, where fair work drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, business, organisations and society.

To ensure we leverage the impact of public spending, we have maintained our commitment to our flagship Fair Work First approach, supporting workplaces to promote fair work and reduce workplace inequalities. Since the implementation of more stringent grant conditionality in July 2023, Fair Work First criteria was applied to over £2.6 billion worth of public sector grant funding by the end of March 2024. This ensures that our investment is helping to drive positive change by requiring public sector grant recipients to pay at least the real Living Wage and to provide appropriate channels for effective voice for their workforce. In November 2024 we published updated Fair Work First guidance in response to stakeholder feedback, which amongst other amendments provided updated wording within the Fair Work First criteria and good practice examples to better reflect priority action required to address labour market inequalities faced by women, people from racialised minorities, disabled people and workers aged over 50. We have committed to undertake an evaluation of Fair Work First in the coming year, working with the Fair Work Convention and engaging key stakeholders, to understand how effectively this policy is being delivered and what more can be done to strengthen the approach.

Aligned with our focus on fair pay and hours, we have continued action to expand the number of employers offering Living Wage and Living Hours Accreditation in partnership with Living Wage Scotland and the Poverty Alliance. As a result, over 7,600 workers have been uplifted to the rLW by the Living Wage Scotland team, well in excess of our target of 5,000, helping to increase the earnings of individuals on a low hourly rate. Between April 2024 and March 2025, 44 new employers have been accredited for Living Hours. This is more than double our target of 20, supporting workers to have greater certainty of working hours and income.

Our Public Sector Pay strategy is also working to increase income from work and earnings and reduce child poverty. During 2024-25 many employers covered by the Public Sector Pay Policy have standardised to a 35-hour working week, which can positively impact working parents and families, promote wellbeing in the workplace and encourage a healthy work-life balance. The 2025-26 Public Sector Pay policy was published in December 2024, continuing the requirement for employers to pay at least the real Living Wage across the devolved public sector in Scotland and setting out a framework for a multi-year pay uplift, providing certainty for the public sector workforce.

We remain committed to leveraging the full impact of public sector investment to deliver a Fair Work future for Scotland. We recognise the critical importance of the childcare sector, not only in improving children’s longer term outcomes but also in tackling low pay and driving gender equality. We provided an additional £16 million to Local Authorities in 2024-25 to enable childcare workers delivering funded early learning and childcare (ELC) in private and third sector services to be paid at least £12.00 an hour from April 2024. We are also providing an additional £9.7 million funding in 2025-26 to cover the new real Living Wage rate from April 2025 and published updated joint guidance with COSLA to support continued delivery of this commitment.

Following completion of the Workplace Equality Fund which supported employers to address longstanding barriers facing groups within the labour market, we will share the learning gained through the fund more widely through our new Fair Work resource. Outputs will offer practical guidance, case studies and tools to support employers in embedding equality, diversity and inclusion into their policies, practices and workplace culture, empowering employers to support marginalised groups within the workplace.

We know that businesses have a vital role in tackling child poverty as employers, providers of goods and services, and as important actors in communities across Scotland. Through the New Deal for Business Group we have engaged with businesses to inform our actions on health and work and flexible working, which will contribute to tackling economic inactivity and improving labour market participation. We have developed with business a description of what Wellbeing Economy means for business, which sets out examples of specific actions businesses can take, including implementing Fair Work practices, which can both contribute to tackling child poverty and also benefit businesses through improving productivity and staff retention. We will seek to build on this engagement with business in the coming year in the development of the next Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

In partnership with the Improvement Service and North Ayrshire Council, we have established a Community Wealth Building (CWB) Local Authority Practitioners Network to support the implementation of CWB and aid consistency and good practice sharing across areas. We have also partnered with the Economic Development Association Scotland to develop a Centre of Excellence, helping to create fairer, wealthier communities by supporting the implementation of Community Wealth Building. The partnership is working to accelerate the growth and impact of CWB across Scotland through communities of practice, open workshops, peer support and the development of materials which support anchor organisations and stakeholders to develop CWB approaches. In recognition of the importance of implementing CWB in our areas, the Community Wealth Building Bill was introduced to Parliament in March 2025, in a first step of enacting this into legislation.

Priorities for 2025-26

• We will provide an additional £9.7 million funding to Local Authorities to support an increase in the pay of childcare workers in the private and third sector delivering funded Early Learning and Childcare so that they can be paid at least the Real Living Wage from April 2025, and we will put in place a process for monitoring payment.
• We will undertake an evaluation of Fair Work First, working with the Fair Work Convention and in engagement with key stakeholders, to understand how effectively this is being delivered and what can be done to strengthen the approach.
• We will continue to assess the impact of our action on progress towards Fair Work Action Plan outcomes and will publish a Fair Work Action Plan impact report in autumn 2025.
• We will progress the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill and, subject to its passage, work with Local Authorities and public bodies to ensure the Bill supports the generation, circulation and retention of more wealth in local and regional economies.
• We will invest in the CWB Practitioners Network and the CWB Centre of Excellence to aid consistency and further embed CWB policy and practice across Scotland, supporting the retention and creation of employment opportunities and business growth.
• We will continue working with partners to expand Living Wage and Living Hours Accreditation, including by commissioning a project to investigate how we can further measure the reach of this action and impact for specific groups such as parents.
• We will fund pilot projects to 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.

Case study: Public Health Scotland – Lone Parent Project

In January 2024, Public Health Scotland (PHS) and One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) formed a partnership to co-design, deliver and evaluate a lone parent project and share learning with NHS Scotland to widen access to employment opportunities for single parents.

Following a robust period of consultation and co-design with single parents -including the “parent-proofing” of NHS Once for Scotland policies, adaptation of recruitment and employment practices to reflect their unique challenges, and the development of bespoke line manager training to support new colleagues - the partnership implemented targeted measures to create a more inclusive and supportive workplace.

Through engagement with OPFS and local employability services, 8 single parents were recruited into 18-month fixed term business administration posts within PHS by October 2024. Parents were also enrolled to complete a workplace-based SVQ qualification in Business Administration with the City of Glasgow College, undertaken flexibly within their working hours. Depending on the number of hours worked, and the number of children in their family, the participants of the project are between £135 and £170 better off per week. Parents have also reported improvements to their wellbeing because of starting work through the project.

One of the parents told us about the impact the project had on her and her daughter’s life:

“As a parent, I always wonder how I will be present in my teenage daughter's life and work effectively at the same time without mentally breaking down. PHS proved that work-life balance and parenting responsibilities can happen concurrently. Now, I am not lacking in my responsibilities as a mother, mentally I feel well because of the flexibility of work that makes it possible for me to be present in my daughter's life. I feel proud of myself and my daughter is happy.

PHS helped me to fulfil a dream, and that dream is to set a good example for my daughter to emulate and do better. I cannot thank OPFS/PHS enough for the opportunity to be part of the PHS family. I just made history. Many thanks to everybody who has been part of this journey.”

A current and timely review of the structure to the Business Services area within PHS is being used to renew focus on learning, development and staff support within the organisation. The new structure is being designed to prioritise professional growth and will see opportunities for the parents taking part in the project to apply their learning in meaningful ways and step into roles where they can continue to develop.

A formal evaluation of the project will see learning from the project captured and shared across NHS Scotland to improve employment opportunities for parents. A report will also be produced with recommendations for NHS Scotland to take steps to widen access to employment for parents and strengthen NHS contribution to tackling Child Poverty as an Anchor Institution.

C. Improving access to and the availability of childcare

Activity aligned to our Strategic early learning and school age childcare plan, and School Age Childcare Delivery Framework continued in 2024-25, with an ongoing focus on taking a people-centred and place-based approach to designing future childcare offers which will better support low income families and contribute to ending child poverty. In May 2024, the First Minister announced £16 million of funding over two years for childcare Early Adopter Communities in six Local Authority areas across Scotland. This investment is supporting the development of local childcare systems that are designed to meet families’ needs, with funding targeted at those most at risk of living in poverty. Flexible, affordable early learning and school age childcare remains central to our ambition to eradicate child poverty, ensuring that children are given the best possible start in life; parents and carers can work, train or study; and families are supported to thrive.

Impact summary

• Estimates show the 2024 take-up of funded early learning and childcare among three to five-year-olds at 95%, and among eligible two-year-olds at 59%. If families paid for this offer themselves, it would cost over £6,000 per eligible child per year.
• A full evaluation of the 1140 programme will be published later in 2025. Findings from the most recent Scottish Household Survey indicate that parental satisfaction with funded early learning and childcare remains consistently high, with 90% very or fairly satisfied with the provision they received in 2023.
• Our School Age Childcare programme is supporting the families of over 5,000 children to access funded or subsidised school age childcare services across Scotland, targeted to low income families and those at highest risk of poverty.
• The Scottish Football Association ‘Extra Time’ programme supported around 3,500 children and families with access to vital activity services, increasing their childcare options and supporting them entering and sustaining employment, training and study. Survey data suggests 1,085 parents/carers were able to maintain current employment and 175 to gain new employment as a result of being supported by the Programme across July to September 2024.
• From launching in June 2024 until March 2025, the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future supported the creation of over 40 new childminding businesses, with a further 144 potential new childminders completing their training and now being supported with Care Inspectorate registration.

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

The Scottish Government’s programme of providing 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare to eligible children aged between two and five years old is now in the fourth year of delivery, backed by continued investment of around £1 billion per year. In August 2024, we published an interim evaluation of the expansion to 1140 hours which indicates that Local Authorities and partner providers in the private, voluntary and independent sector are making good progress, with improved awareness of the funded early learning and childcare offer and high satisfaction among parents with children in these settings. The full evaluation will be published in December 2025.

Ensuring that our early learning and childcare offer can continue to reach more eligible two-year olds who need it most is an ongoing focus of activity, with work beginning on a National Improvement Project to maximise take-up in 2024-25. This joint project with the Improvement Service is providing intensive support to five Local Authorities in Aberdeenshire, Falkirk, Glasgow, North Ayrshire and North Lanarkshire to improve uptake by families with an eligible child and is also developing a programme of online content which will be available to all Local Authorities. The first phase of the intensive work was completed in April 2025, with each local area having worked through a series of activities with the Improvement Service including deep dive sessions, data analysis, design school participation and follow-up engagement to inform a local scoping report. As the project has been shaped by the Scottish Approach to Service Design, this ‘discovery’ phase has focused on understanding the context, strengths, challenges, and opportunities in each local area first before they move through subsequent phases to define, develop and deliver effective solutions. Previous work to improve data sharing and develop the capability to estimate uptake amongst eligible two-year olds at national and local level underpins this approach and has allowed for this targeting of support, with estimates continuing to show a wide variation across different Local Authority areas.

Childminders are a crucial part of our early learning and childcare sector, providing high-quality childcare in a nurturing, home-based environment, and 2024-25 saw action to make progress on our commitment to grow the childminding profession. Backed by over £1 million of Scottish Government funding in year one, the Scottish Childminding Association began delivering a new national three-year Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future, which launched on 5 June 2024. The programme offers a £750 start-up grant to new childminding businesses, alongside a package of support and training available to successful applicants, providing everything needed to establish a new childminding business from home. The programme also includes a range of measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, helping to deliver more practical support and ensure existing professionals are supported with their workloads and professional development.

We’ve also continued to improve our understanding of the complex challenges communities and families face. Our Early Adopter Communities in Dundee, Clackmannanshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Fife and Shetland, supported around 600 children from over 400 priority families to access childcare, activities and wider family support services, testing a range of different service types to take account of specific circumstances and needs. This work supports the design of our future childcare policy, and alignment with Fairer Futures Partnerships areas has further enabled us to learn more about how to take an integrated approach to public services, maximising outcomes for target families by bringing childcare together with services such as employability and whole family support. In October 2024, we published our process evaluation looking at the early set-up and implementation of Early Adopter Communities, which found that the communities were well aligned with local initiatives and able to enact systems change, as well as evidence of developing relationships with partner organisations.

To support these projects, we have further commissioned two workstreams aimed at enhancing their ability to work in a people-centred and place-based way. The first, a Learning and Skills Development Programme, will support them to undertake inclusive engagement following the principles of co-design and using mixed-methods evidence gathering in their local communities. This work will inform the design of future childcare policy and services by working closely with priority families. The second is a Learning Partnership which will offer facilitated opportunities to identify and share insights and learning between project areas, including around meeting the needs of diverse communities, as well as the challenges and opportunities of test and learn approaches. Both projects will deliver support over the coming year.

In recognition of the importance of after school and holiday childcare options for families, we continued our partnership with the Scottish Football Association in 2024-25, providing £4 million of investment to fund the ‘Extra Time’ programme. The programme funds local football clubs and trusts in some of Scotland’s most deprived communities to provide sports and activity clubs around the school day and during the holidays. A key focus is to support parents and carers from low income families to access employment, training or study, and in November 2024 the Extra Time annual impact report used survey data to show how parents and carers are being supported to maintain their current employment or gain new employment as a result of this support. As well as providing much needed childcare options for families, the scheme has helped to reduce inequality for children from low income households in accessing activities to improve outcomes related to physical and mental health. The programme has also helped to improve behaviour and attendance at school in some cases.

Access to Childcare Fund projects also continued to provide affordable, accessible childcare options for parents across the reporting year, supporting them to enter or maintain employment. These settings continue to test new models of school age childcare and inform policy development towards future schemes. We have also undertaken a six-month Feasibility Study with the Care Inspectorate to consider the challenges and opportunities within the current regulatory system for school age childcare services, with options for change, which could support expansion of access to services for families, with options for change to be considered in 2025-26.

We know that a healthy breakfast at the start of a school day can improve children’s wellbeing, health, learning, attendance and behaviour, as well as helping families struggling to afford food. In December 2024, the First Minister announced the intention to establish a new Bright Start Breakfasts Fund, and the Fund launched in May 2025 with up to £3 million of funding being made available to expand access to breakfast clubs, for thousands of primary school children across Scotland, focused on supporting those most at risk of living in poverty. Expanding breakfast clubs will improve access to a healthy and nutritious breakfast for children whilst also helping parents to sustain or enter employment by providing early morning childcare options. Delivery through the fund will run across the academic year starting in August 2025, and will provide access without regard to the ability to pay – including provision of free or subsidised low-cost services.

Breaking down barriers and helping parents to access support is central to our approach, and across 2024-25 work progressed on a project to explore how a digital childcare service could improve the experience that parents, carers and childcare service providers have in finding, managing and paying for childcare. Research was focused on interventions that are likely to increase income through employment, and included user research, technical surveys, and service design elements. We will use this research to prepare a detailed business case ahead of a planned discovery phase of designing the digital service. In addition, we have been working to maximise uptake of existing UK Government schemes to ensure families access all of the childcare support they are entitled to. Families have informed us of challenges in accessing benefit support to pay for childcare, and we are working closely with colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC to consider how to address this.

Priorities for 2025-26

• We will continue to invest around £1 billion per year in delivering 1140 hours of funded Early Learning and Childcare to all eligible children, helping to give them the best start in life.
• We will publish the Final Evaluation Report of the expansion to 1140 hours of funded Early Learning and Childcare, alongside updated analysis reporting on changes in the intermediate outcomes, the sector and the workforce.
• To improve take-up of funded early learning and childcare, we will continue intensive work with five Local Authorities within the National Improvement Project focused on eligible 2 year olds. We will also continue work with the Department for Work and Pensions to make it easier, quicker and more efficient for Local Authorities to contact families with information on the local funded childcare offer.
• We will continue to work with the Early Adopter Communities, supporting delivery of funded services in communities, and making use of what we’re learning from this funding to design future childcare policy and services that meet the needs of priority families.
• We will expand our ‘Extra Time’ programme, providing funded breakfast and after school and holiday clubs across Scotland, to support 5,000 children and their families most at risk of poverty through partnership with more than 50 local football clubs and trusts.
• We will deliver a £3 million 'Bright Start Breakfasts' Fund to create more free breakfast club places for families who need it most across Scotland.
• We will provide an additional £1 million to help support holiday playschemes and activities provision for children with a disability. This funding will be distributed across all 32 Local Authorities and can be used locally to support and enhance provision of specialist holiday services.
• We will continue to support the Scottish Childminding Association’s delivery of the childminder recruitment and retention programme. Backed by a further £1.6 million in Scottish Government funding, the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future will expand in 2025-26, with the recruitment programme now available in 27 Local Authority areas.
• To address growing concerns about children’s speech and language development, we will 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.

Case study: E arly Adopter Communities

Inverclyde’s Early Adopter Community project is working to design childcare provision around the real needs of families and communities – particularly for those most likely to be living in poverty. By expanding access to childcare and family support, the project is supporting parents and carers to take up and maintain employment. In Port Glasgow, the project has also been working closely with community members to understand local needs and to co-design solutions to the childcare challenges faced by families in the area.

Parents receiving help included Lisa*, a kinship carer who faced isolation and a lack of support. Through the project, Lisa has been able to access a childcare place, enabling her to attend work. She has also been connected with a Family Wellness Worker who provided regular check-ins and monitored her family’s wellbeing. Through their regular engagement, Lisa described her family’s struggles, including that her child was experiencing behavioural issues while attending childcare.. To help resolve this issue, the Family Wellness Worker coordinated a Team Around the Child meeting with key organisations - including the childcare provider – to put appropriate support in place. As a result of cross-organisation working, a new trauma informed approach was implemented by the childcare setting to ensure her child was able to continue attending. Lisa noted the impact of this, saying: “The service has enabled me to go to work full time and knowing my child is in a well looked after environment takes pressure from me”.

Another parent, Zara*, was supported when, during a routine check-in, the Family Wellness Worker learned that she had experienced a sudden relationship breakdown, meaning she had to urgently move home and was facing increased financial strain. Being able to access childcare at this time was important for the family, enabling Zara’s children to continue accessing activities and opportunities for play, and giving her time to manage changing circumstances. Through ongoing engagement with the project, Zara continued to receive the help she needed. This included a referral to advice services, which resulted in grant funding to support the family with decorating their new home, and help with her fuel debts, which resulted in the debt being successfully written off.

Through community engagement work, the Early Adopter Community project identified a lack of childcare options for families in the Port Glasgow Area. Over the past year, partnership working with the Inverclyde Child Poverty Action Group which consists of Inverclyde Council, the Health and Social Care Partnership, third sector organisations, childcare providers, and local families, has worked to identify solutions to the challenges families face in accessing childcare and services locally. This led to an ambitious plan to create a child and family-focused hub in Port Glasgow that will offer childcare alongside family-centred services, learning, recreation, and community connection. With £500,000 capital investment from the Scottish Government, a new dedicated childcare space has been created in Boglestone Community Centre. Local parents who developed a steering group to help co-design the new hub named it The B-Hive, explaining, “Bees work alone as part of a greater good. We all have something to add here”.

*Names changed to protect identity

D. Enhancing access to and the affordability of public transport

In line with our 2020 National Transport Strategy, the last year saw a renewed focus to ensure that everyone in Scotland has access to affordable, accessible public transport which empowers people to take advantage of every opportunity available to them, with the publication of the Fair Fares Review in March 2024. This included maintaining our commitment to our concessionary travel schemes as well as taking forward policies aimed at securing the best outcomes for young people and easing the cost of living for families - whether they live in our cities, our islands, or anywhere in between. Fairness, equity, and innovation are principles which will continue to underpin our work, as we continue to build a public transport system that is fit for the future, across all of Scotland.

Impact summary

• Between January 2022 and March 2025, over 210 million free bus journeys have been made by under-22s through the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme, representing significant cost savings for children and their families.
• As of March 2025, almost 799,000 children and young people were registered for free bus travel through the scheme, a 10% increase in cardholders from March 2024.
• Children and young people made 7.9 million free bus journeys between the 1st and 31st of March 2025, a 10% increase on same period in 2024.
• The scheme continues to have significant financial benefits for young people and their families, with analysis from the Child Poverty Action Group estimating this could mean a saving of £2,836 for families by the time each child turns 18.
• Between early October 2023 and end September 2024 the ScotRail Peak Fares Removal Pilot reduced the cost of travel at peak times. The evaluation of the Pilot found an average saving across all ticket types of around 17% and significant savings reported by users, with those on the lowest household incomes and highest household incomes reporting saving the most.
• As of the start of May 2025, there were over 194,000 active users of the new Traveline site, as well as many more accessing improved data through third party software, allowing access to enhanced fare and travel information which allows people to plan their journey in the greenest, most cost-effective way.

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

Across the reporting year, we have taken a wide range of actions to progress the priorities for 2024-25 set out in last year’s report, as well as maintaining and strengthening the role of public transport in tackling child poverty.

The Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme continued to support all young people under 22 years of age with free bus travel across the year, ensuring that they could access opportunities to work, socialise and develop their skills without the cost of travel being a barrier. This formed part of over £370 million of Scottish Government investment in concessionary bus travel schemes in 2024-25 to provide free bus travel for 2.3 million cardholders in Scotland, which also includes eligible disabled people and everyone aged 60 and over.

As part of our ongoing work to ensure that we make travelling by bus attractive and affordable, policy work to consider proposals for a bus flat fares pilot, as well as other fare options, took place in 2024-25. As part of the Scottish Budget 2025-26, it was announced in January 2025 that a £2 bus fare cap pilot would be taken forward. Backed by £3 million in 2025-26, the pilot will take place across one regional transport area, beginning in January 2026. Transport Scotland are at the early stages of the fare cap pilot development and work on proposals will continue this year which will include ongoing dialogue with stakeholders, including local transport authorities and bus operators. The project will tell us more about the potential impact of fare caps on the provision of accessible, affordable public transport which supports families on low incomes. Initial steps have also been taken to develop a bus service improvement delivery framework.

While we had planned to develop policy to consider the best way to provide free bus travel to people seeking asylum, in the face of financial pressures delivery of this commitment was unable to proceed. The Scottish Government has since re-committed funding through the Scottish Budget for 2025-26 to progress a pilot in the coming year.

In relation to travel for young people on ferries, progress was made on both priorities identified last year. Free foot passenger travel on inter-island ferries for young island residents under 22 years of age within the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland Island groups commenced on 1 April 2025, while work to extend the National Ferry Concessionary Scheme to young people under 22 years of age underwent planning and governance work with a view to launching later in June 2025. Both of these schemes will help to ensure that young islanders can take advantage of opportunities to work and learn without the cost of transport between islands and to the mainland being a barrier. We also continued to develop our strategic approach to island transport through our Islands Connectivity Plan, with a consultation open from 1 February 2024 to 6 May 2024, and we published an independent report of the consultation responses on 3 September 2024. The responses to the report, and the independent analysis, will inform further updates to the plan.

We published the final evaluation of the ScotRail Peak Fares Removal Pilot in August 2024, with the pilot itself ending in September 2024 following an extension. The evaluation showed improved awareness of rail as a viable travel choice and an increased number of journeys, however in the face of severe budget pressures the decision was initially taken to end the trial of discounted fares. Subsequently, with an improved financial position and in light of continued calls from commuters, campaigners and the business community, on 6 May 2025 the First Minister announced that from 1 September 2025 peak rail fares in Scotland will end on a permanent basis. This will represent an ongoing saving for families where a member of the household commutes by rail, as well as opening up additional affordable travel options to make employment more accessible.

We also concluded our evaluation of projects to test Mobility as a Service in Scotland, with the results published on 24 February 2025. The programme of investment delivered a total of five apps and two websites, across five pilot projects which integrated multiple modes of transport including buses, community transport, trains, ferries and Demand Responsive Transport with functions such as journey planning, real-time travel information, payments and booking. This has allowed Mobility as a Service to be tested as a potential solution to a wide variety of transport issues facing Scotland today, and the lessons learned from these projects are helping to inform future legislation and policy development.

One key theme from our Mobility as a Service evaluation was the necessity of consistent and reliable real-time journey planning information to underpin multi-modal travel services. To make this a reality, we have continued our work to deliver the next generation travel system. Our new Digital Travel Data Services launched on 17 September 2024, enhancing the data system that sits behind digital journey planning applications, including the new Traveline Scotland website and app. These allow travellers to easily see, in one place, the most cost-effective journey, available tickets and fares, and where available their next bus coming (plotted on a map), as well as low-carbon travel options across all forms of public transportation, opening access to the transport network. Next phases of the project will see further improvements made to information on fares and accessibility, as well as the ability to navigate directly to ticket vendors, to support a more integrated system for all users. In March 2025, we launched our technical Bus Open Data consultation, that will inform regulations requiring bus operators to provide additional data, including the real time location of vehicles, which will underpin future improvements.

The evaluation of Mobility as a Service and introduction of new Digital Travel Data Services are two important steps within our Smart, Digital, Integrated Ticketing and Payments Strategy. The refreshed strategy was published on 21 August 2024 and sets out the journey so far and the next steps in delivering a system which supports integrated journeys, is easy and accessible to use, and keeps customers up to date and well informed about their journeys. The strategy sets out actions, for the short and long term, intended to lead to the introduction of a new national integrated ticketing system for public transport in Scotland.

In addition to this wider action, focused on strengthening our public transport network, we have also continued to make active travel more accessible for low income families. Following on from the Free Bike Partnership Fund, which has now closed, our work to support cycling as a low-cost, environmentally friendly way for people to travel has been mainstreamed through ongoing work within Transport Scotland towards creating a culture of Active Travel. This will continue to include funding to support access to cycling for young children through the People and Place Programme Schools and Young People theme, as well as Bikeability, Scotland’s national cycle training programme for school children.

Priorities for 2025-26

• Support for concessionary bus schemes will continue with £414.5 million allocated for this purpose in 2025-26.
• This includes re-introducing funding to support implementation of a pilot scheme to provide free bus travel for people seeking asylum in 2025-26.
• Beginning in January 2026, we will commence the year-long pilot of flat bus fares in one regional transport area.
• We will abolish peak rail fares permanently from 1 September 2025, to encourage more people to travel by train, reduce car journeys, and help existing peak time rail passengers with the cost of living.
• Following the launch of free inter-island travel for young people under 22 years of age on 1 April 2025, from 23 June 2025 young people aged 19 to 21 will be eligible for concessionary travel vouchers for travel between their home island and the Scottish mainland.
• Improvements will continue to be made to Digital Travel Data Services to support further integration of transport information and improved user experience, with work also progressing on bus open data legislation to support these changes.

Case study: On-Demand Transport Apps in Rural Areas

Child poverty remains a significant challenge in rural Scotland, and limited access to transport can prevent young people from easily reaching vital services, education, and employment. In 2021, Scottish Government Islands Team funding helped allow the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS) to introduce the Moove Flexi platform, which provides app-based access to participating Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services across the region. This allows users to book and amend journeys, pay or use concession passes directly via smartphone, and track vehicles in real-time, increasing confidence and independence among younger users.

The first service to use the platform was the Wee Bus in Ferintosh, situated on the Black Isle. Introducing a digital platform increased the number of users significantly and feedback from the parents of school pupils highlighted the benefits of the service for young people in the community. One parent said “the service is really great… enabling teenagers to be involved with after school activities that wouldn’t be possible otherwise”. Another parent highlighted how the app-based booking fosters independence and social inclusion and makes planning easier for families on budgets due to the ability to pay in advance.

Moray Council have also been using the system under their own branded app, m.connect, which launched in May 2023. In its first year, m.connect recorded 55,644 journeys, a 22% increase from the previous year, which can be largely attributed to the introduction of app-based booking. Notably, there was a rise in passengers under the age of 22 indicating that, in conjunction with Scotland’s Under-22 Free Travel Scheme, the service is effectively supporting younger individuals in accessing education, employment, and recreational activities.

Work took place in 2024-25 to consider a potential deployment in Uist for the Moove Flexi app, with a focus on enabling schools to offer transport for pupils to access leisure activities. In addition, several services across the Orkney Islands will be launching over summer 2025, expanding the platform to young people living in some of the country’s most remote communities. Plans are also underway to expand the app to include the Ring and Ride services operated by West Coast Motors in the Cowal and Kintyre areas of Argyll and Bute, further extending access to flexible, on-demand transport for rural youth.

The rollout of these platforms represents a significant step towards addressing transport barriers that contribute to child poverty in rural Scotland, benefitting parents and families in these areas. By providing flexible, app-based access to transportation, young people in particular can experience enhanced mobility, independence and access to essential services.

E. Person centred support

This year we have continued to focus on improving the delivery of holistic support for families, to ensure that people have access to the support they need, when and where they need it. To deliver better outcomes for people accessing key services, we have committed to strengthening certainty of funding where possible to our third sector partners, particularly for projects contributing directly to eradicating child poverty. We have also set out how we will invest in our Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme to build on progress to date and to continue our support for the transformation of holistic family support in the longer term – by extending our timeframe for investment. Our focus on ensuring lasting change has also guided our approach to mental health, with the Mental Health in Primary and Community Care Report committing to a range of action which aims increase access to support from general practice. Across all of our actions, we are continuing to place emphasis on ensuring that the views and voices of service users are helping to shape service design and delivery, improving the support we provide for people and families.

Impact Summary

• Our Year 2 evaluation of the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme, published in February 2025 and covering 2023-24, shows that Children’s Services Planning Partnerships have improved their delivery of early family support, with more families benefitting. Local areas have utilised feedback from families to develop the quality and delivery of services provided.
• Monitoring and reporting data from year three (2023-24) of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults, published in September 2024, shows that 59% of projects were supporting people at least one of the six priority family types at greatest risk of poverty, an increase from 24% the previous year.
• Over 5,400 young people across 80 schools have been engaged by the MCR Pathways’ school-based mentoring programme during 2024-25, with 16 schools newly engaged in the past year.
• MCR Pathways participants are supported by a pool of approximately 4500 volunteers which contributes to positive outcomes for the young people involved in the programme.
• In 2024-25, 66 general practices in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area continued to receive funding to participate in Inclusion Health Action in General Practice (IHAGP).

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

This year we have maintained our commitment to the transformation of holistic whole family support through continued investment in our Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) Programme. In doing so we have distributed £32 million to Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs) across Scotland to support them to plan and deliver work in local communities. The Year 2 evaluation of WFWF, covering 2023-24, shows that many CSPPs have focused on refining their activity following feedback and monitoring data from Year 1. This includes refining referral criteria to ensure children, young people and families are signposted to the most relevant support for their needs. In some instances, CSPPs have also realigned their focus to ensure they are funding additional activities which target specific groups, including the six priority family types at greatest risk of poverty. In demonstration of the ongoing commitment to continuous improvement in providing holistic family support, CSPPs have utilised our Learning into Action network, co-designed and co-delivered with stakeholders, and covering a wide range of topics and activities to enable the sharing of learning and experiences from across areas.

In recognition of the important contribution of the WFWF Programme and CSPPs towards ensuring families are accessing the support that is right for them, in September 2024 we published our investment approach. This sets out our intention to elongate the timeframe of the WFWF programme beyond 2025-26 and to extend funding for CSPPs into 2026-27. We subsequently announced an increase of this funding to £38.2 million per year. Through evaluation and engagement with partners it is clear that the delivery of holistic whole family support takes time, and extending our timeframe beyond the programme’s current end point demonstrates our commitment to delivering this transformational change.

Further building on our action to create holistic, joined-up support across services, we have continued developing our Getting It Right For Everyone (GIRFE) approach. In summer 2024 we tested the GIRFE practice model in local areas, working to develop this with our GIRFE pathfinders and partners, who worked collaboratively with people who access services in order to ensure models of practice are developed and implemented in a way which works for service users. The insights from our testing phase, including direct feedback from people accessing services, supported the development of the GIRFE toolkit, which was shared with NHS Boards in December 2024. This will assist with positive, early conversations to support individuals with transitioning from children to adult services, with a focus on early planning, accessible information, and the co-ordination of professionals around the person. Going forward, health boards will be required to set out how they will embed the GIRFE principles and toolkit in NHS Annual Delivery Plans, ensuring these are reflected across the delivery of public health services.

The Inclusion Health Action in General Practice (IHAGP) project is now well-established in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area and provides additional funding for general practices in highly disadvantaged areas to undertake activities to address health and healthcare inequalities, including barriers to engagement with services. IHAGP funds practice activity under three themes – developing local community connections, enhancing workforce knowledge and skills on inequality issues, and proactive outreach and extended consultations with patients. These themes span areas considered critical by general practices, whilst offering sufficient flexibility for practices adapt to their individual needs. IHAGP has generated positive outcomes for staff who report improved understanding of health inequalities, patient populations and their needs, which enables them to provide more compassionate and person-centred support.

We have provided a further £15 million to the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults, bringing the total investment in the Fund since its establishment to £66 million and working to improve families’ access to the support they need. We are developing our evidence base for the Fund’s impact through impact reporting and monitoring, and evaluation data shows that the Fund is providing reach across the wide range of target groups including those facing socio-economic disadvantage, indicating good progress in the Fund's aims to address mental health inequalities. Like previous years, the National Fund Guidance for Year Four, which is issued to Third Sector Interface organisations, highlighted the importance of considering the six priority family types at greatest risk of poverty, and we have placed a requirement on organisations to provide details of this target group in their end of year monitoring reports going forward in order to strengthen the information we have on how priority families interact with vital services.

Continuing our commitment to work collaboratively to improve access to support, assessment and treatment in mental health and wellbeing services, we published the Mental Health in Primary and Community Care Report in December 2024. This contains a wide range of actions which we will undertake, including increasing access to community and out of hours support and national pathways to maximise existing resources and improve access to mental health and wellbeing support.

Through our commitment to scale up approaches focused on improving the outcomes of disadvantaged children and young people, we have continued to support MCR Pathways in delivering their school-based mentoring programme. This year we have invested over £2.4 million in the Programme which is aimed at supporting young people on the edges of care, to enhance their confidence and wellbeing and improve attainment and positive destinations. The Programme has been subject to evaluation, the next phase of which is due to be published in summer 2025, and we anticipate that this evaluation will demonstrate that care experienced young people in MCR linked schools exceed outcomes for those in non-MCR schools. In order to strengthen the Programme, MCR Pathways have commenced discussions with local councils across Scotland with a view to expanding into new areas.

To support care experienced people, we continued investment in programmes through The Promise Partnership Fund. Following feedback from participating organisations, the last funding round covered a longer period of 18 months, with 42 projects receiving funding in 2023-24 and 2024-25 with a specific focus on workforce, supportive school structures and youth justice rights. In April 2024, we established The Promise Partnership Youth-Led Grant Programme. This was open to applications from Local Authorities and third sector organisations, with applicants to the Programme required to show a commitment to embedding The Promise, and demonstrate how they listen and respond to children and young people with care experience. The Programme also provided children and young people with care experience the opportunity to have a say in what changes need to happen in their community, placing them firmly at the heart of the decision-making process for funding projects which would impact them. Over the period from 2021-2025 The Promise Partnership Fund invested £20 million to support over 100 local projects that all contributed to Scotland’s work to keep The Promise.

We have also continued our commitment to delivering focused services to support families through recovery providing Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), investing £3.5 million this year to further implement our whole family approach framework. We are also supporting vital front-line and third sector organisations who support children and families affected by drug use through our Children and Families Fund, in addition to our ongoing annual funding to support services which are available to anyone in Scotland. Our Family Inclusive Practice development programme has continued to support and engage with ADPs and local services, working in partnership to develop high-quality holistic support for families. The importance of ensuring that the services available to families meet their needs is recognised across ADPs. Findings from a Public Health Evaluation Annual Survey for 2023-24 showed that all ADPs had implemented formal mechanisms to gather feedback from people with lived experience of using their services, providing service users the opportunity to contribute to service design and improvements.

Through our Fairer Funding approach we have increased grant certainty for many of our key third sector partners. In February 2025 we announced the Fairer Funding Pilot, prioritising two-year funding for 52 third sector organisations delivering across Scotland. Of these, 27 grantees directly contribute to eradicating child poverty, with work focused on families and young children, carers, mentoring and employment for young people, and offender rehabilitation and support. The key objectives of this Pilot are to understand the value and impact of a multi-year funding approach on the third sector and Scottish Government, inform further development, and improve outcomes for service users by strengthening certainty of funding and confidence for organisations delivering vital work.

Priorities for 2025-26

• We will continue to develop our package of activity to support CSPPs in delivering WFWF programme work at local level, based on evidence from evaluation and wider stakeholder engagement.
• We will continue to evaluate the WFWF programme and will commission a year 3-4 evaluation to cover the period April 2024 to March 2025.
• The WFWF Programme will continue to be part of the work exploring opportunities for practical alignment of funding and reporting streams in services delivering whole family support for families in or at risk of poverty, as part of a PfG commitment to a ‘whole family approach’.
• We will engage with national third sector and not-for-profit organisations to increase awareness of GIRFE and encourage alignment across the sector and will undertake work to understand how Health Boards have incorporated GIRFE into their Annual Delivery Plans and provide feedback to support this.
• We will continue to develop our evaluation of the MCR Pathways programme and publish this in summer 2025.
• We will commence the actions identified in the Mental Health in Primary and Community Care report.
• We will share the Family Inclusive Practice development programme with Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to ensure understanding across partnerships and develop standards to provide consistency in reporting.
• Through the Fairer Funding Pilot, we will commit two-year funding to a number of third sector organisations, including through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults.
• We will consider ways to capture the learning and the impact from projects funded through The Promise Partnership Fund.
• We will commence evaluation of Year 2 of Inclusion Health Action in General Practice, with a focus on patient experience and themes of extended consultations and proactive outreach.

Case study: Chryston Community Hub

Chryston Community Hub is an innovative integrated project, developed by North Lanarkshire Council in partnership with NHS Lanarkshire. An essential part of the community, the Hub houses Chryston Primary School and provides a Community Health Clinic, offering residents access to modern education and learning facilities, indoor and outdoor activity spaces, flexible social areas and health services including midwifery and breastfeeding support – all in one place.

The Hub’s operating model sees partners including the community and voluntary sector co-locating, integrating support and services and collaborating to co-design and develop delivery models which are responsive to local needs with a particular focus on financial inclusion and addressing health inequalities. This proactive approach maximises the use of hub spaces to improve access and community wellbeing for all who use it.

For families, this means that they can access support directly from a range of services to suit their specific needs. This includes the Families Here and Now Service, offering early intervention support, and the neurodevelopmental family support service, which are working alongside Council services including family learning, housing, employability and financial advice including income maximisation, debt advice and support with numeracy and money management through the innovative ‘Sum it Up’ programme – a programme of free courses to support people to improve their number skills, or who require a maths qualification.

The Hub’s impact has been positive for its users, with family feedback showing that the services provided have provided them the right support, increasing the accessibility of services and, in some instances, preventing escalation of issues. One parent said it “helped us to see what was out there for our family”.

With the evolution of the hub operating model across North Lanarkshire, services, partners and third sector organisations are increasingly aligning resources to enhance family support by investing in preventative measures and leveraging local community assets. Early results are positive, showing this holistic approach is strengthening North Lanarkshire’s ability to deliver whole family support locally, addressing poverty, reducing inequality, and enhancing opportunities for individuals and families to improve their learning, health, wellbeing, and social and economic activities.

Case study: Whole Family Wellbeing Funding – East Lothian Revisited

The collaborative partnership between East Lothian Children’s Services Planning Partnership and the WFWF National Support Team, including CELCIS and the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative, continues to apply the principles of Quality Improvement to deliver real change for families and communities in East Lothian.

This work is driving East Lothian’s Whole Family Wellbeing programme, which includes a Families Together East Lothian (FTEL) team of family outreach workers, who are supporting families that need additional early help across the Local Authority area, built around the family's needs and strengths. An essential part of this work has been the engagement with children and families to hear from them first-hand about what works or what could be improved. Feedback highlighted a need to offer a space for people to drop by to access support and to ask questions. The FTEL team have therefore worked in partnership with Dunbar and Tranent Libraries to offer a weekly drop-in for families.

Through this offer, outreach workers are working directly with families, fostering positive relationships and understanding individual experience in order to provide tailored support which is delivered collaboratively across services. The service is completely voluntary, and families can access 1:1, group or drop-in support and advice directly, or through requests made from other services. Over 300 families have received one-to-one support from the service since January 2024, with 84% of families supported having one or more priority family characteristic.

When analysing data from requests for support, the Families Together team identified three key themes that are frequently raised: poverty and housing, children and young people with Additional Support Needs, and support for children with emotional and social behavioural regulation needs. The team, recognising that these support needs can overlap, has therefore continued to draw on and connect with partners through multiple avenues to provide practical and emotional support to help families. This includes, for example, supporting a family by working collaboratively with colleagues from the Housing team to successfully secure a larger property which better met their needs.

A key point of learning from this Quality Improvement focused work has been that expanding services takes more than funding. It is essential that people working in these services have the right support to develop their knowledge and skills around leading and implementing change, with empowerment from leaders and strong relationships with partners and decision-makers to help drive this. By building their skills and knowledge locally and capturing and analysing family data and voice, the team in East Lothian know that the action they are taking is leading to real change for families in their community.

F. Enhanced support through Social Security

We have deliberately built our unique devolved social security system to invest in improved outcomes for the people of Scotland, and it is a key pillar of our approach to eradicating child poverty. In 2024-25, we invested more than £600 million in our package of seven benefits and payments only available in Scotland, including the Scottish Child Payment, providing lifeline support for children and parents which is unparalleled across the UK. As we move closer to completing the transfer of devolved benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions, we remain as committed as ever to delivering social security support in accordance with the core values of dignity, fairness and respect, alongside value for money and efficiency, all principles enshrined in the unanimously passed Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

Impact Summary

• As of 31 March 2025, the families of 326,225 children were in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, with over £455 million paid to families in the financial year 2024-25. An estimated 40,000 children will be kept out of relative poverty in 2025-26 due to this support, with take-up estimated to be 89% in 2023-24.
• Over £35 million has been paid to clients for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods in the financial year 2024-25.
• As of 31 March 2025, it is estimated that 89,400 children and young people were in receipt of Child Disability Payment and over £500 million in payments had been issued in 2024-25.
• As of 31 January 2025, 433,050 people were in receipt of Adult Disability Payment and over £1.9 billion in payments had been issued in 2024-25.
• As of 8 April 2025, a total of 39,590 Child Winter Heating Payments had been issued for Winter 2024-25 with a total value of £10 million. In the same period, 465,510 Winter Heating Payments, totalling value of £27.3 million, were issued.
• As of 31 March 2025, 81,175 people were in receipt of Carer Support Payment and 30,560 had underlying entitlement. Between 20 November 2023 and 31 March 2025, £89.5 million was paid to households.
• In 2024-25, 4,135 Young Carer Grant payments were made to young carers aged 16, 17 and 18 worth £1.6 million.
• In 2024-25, over 180,000 Carer’s Allowance Supplement payments were made, an investment of over £53 million supporting over 91,000 carers.
• In 2024-25 we made £7.8 million available to Local Authorities to mitigate the UK Government’s benefit cap as fully as possible within devolved powers through Discretionary Housing Payments, supporting around 3,000 households with almost 10,000 children. In Scotland, 98% of all households impacted by the benefit cap are families, and around 74% are lone parent families.
• In 2024-25 the Social Security Independent Advocacy Service, supported disabled people with over 6,000 applications to Social Security Scotland.
• Between 1 April 2024 and end December 2024, Local Authorities spent £33.4 million on Scottish Welfare Fund grants. Around one third of households receiving an award have children.
• Free school meals were provided to all 273,384 children in primaries 1-5 and in special schools, as well as eligible pupils from P6 through to S6, saving parents who take them up an estimated £450 per eligible child per year.

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

From 1 April 2024, all Scottish benefits were increased in value by 6.7% in Iine with inflation, at an estimated cost of £370 million, to ensure that families are able to depend on the social security assistance they receive retaining its purchasing power as prices rise. This brought the value of the Scottish Child Payment to £26.70 per child per week in 2024-25. Through the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025, we have extended the legal obligation to annually increase all benefits delivered under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 in line with inflation, reflecting how crucial this financial support is for the people who receive it.

Our five family payments, comprising Best Start Foods, the three Best Start Grants and the Scottish Child Payment, continue to deliver essential support to families with children on low incomes. In total, this package, which mixes ongoing support with payments at key milestones, could be worth over £10,000 by the time an eligible child turns six and around £25,000 by the time an eligible child turns 16. Parents continue to tell us how this support has had a positive impact, allowing them to buy essentials they would otherwise have gone without.

Building on the key financial support provided by our five family payments, the Scottish Government announced in December 2024 that it would take steps to mitigate the two-child limit in Scotland, backed by up to £3 million of investment in 2025-26. Work to deliver this began immediately, with the Scottish Government engaging with the UK Department for Work and Pensions to ensure the necessary data sharing and legislation can be in place, as well as launching a consultation on 21 February 2025 seeking views on the Scottish Government’s proposed approach to mitigation. The Scottish Government estimates that mitigating the cap will result in 20,000 fewer children living in relative poverty in 2026-27, and the First Minister has committed that if the UK Government abolishes the two-child limit across the UK, resources committed to this policy will continue to be used on measures to eradicate child poverty in Scotland.

The roll-out of Carer Support Payment continued throughout 2024 and became available for new applications across all of Scotland in November. Replacing Carer’s Allowance, it extends eligibility to many more carers in full-time education and has been designed to work better for carers who are in paid work alongside their caring role, providing more stable support. Carers receiving Carer Support Payment will continue to get the extra support from Carer’s Allowance Supplement. Further activity took place to increase the earnings threshold for Carer Support Payment from £151 to £196 per week, after certain deductions, from April 2025. This mirrors changes to Carer’s Allowance announced by the UK Government, supporting more carers to continue to work, or take up work, alongside their caring role where they wish and are able to do so.

Increasing take-up to the highest level possible for all Scottish benefits is a key focus for Social Security Scotland, with work ongoing to raise awareness in line with the Scottish Government’s Benefit Take-up Strategy. In 2024-25, this included a marketing campaign for the Scottish Child Payment spanning radio and digital advertising, with a focus on rural areas where data showed take-up was lower. Further campaigns supported the roll-out of Carer Support Payment and the pilot of Pension Age Disability Payment to build public awareness of our newest devolved benefits. Other work to support take-up included looking at steps to make benefits more accessible and, as a result of this activity, a single form can now be used to apply for all of the five family payments. The Scottish Government also published independent research in May 2024 aimed at understanding the barriers faced by seldom-heard in groups in accessing their entitlements. This research has directly informed the engagement approach for these groups over the last year and will enable the development of continued targeted support going forward.

Social Security Scotland has further driven access to social security support by continuing to deliver automated payments in 2024-25. Improvements to Child Winter Heating Payment mean that enhanced systems now regularly scan for newly eligible clients following a determination of a Child Disability Payment or Adult Disability Payment award at the relevant care or daily living component rate. Those awards are backdated to the qualifying week, ensuring payments are made automatically without the need for the client to apply.

Alongside this, the automatic transfer for those in Scotland from disability and carer benefits administered by the Department for Work and Pensions to the equivalent assistance paid by Social Security Scotland has continued. This safe and secure transfer process means people continue to get paid the right amount at the right time without the need to make a new application. The transfer of cases from Personal Independence Payment to Adult Disability Payment continued throughout 2024-25, and the transfer from Attendance Allowance to Pension Age Disability Payment, Carer’s Allowance to Carer Support Payment, and remaining Disability Living Allowance cases to Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance began and are going well. The Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment commenced in early 2024 and will be completed by the end of July 2025, with recommendations to follow for improvements to ensure the benefit continues to meet the needs of disabled people, in accordance with the principles set out in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

We continued development of the Care Leaver Payment, with an analysis of the consultation carried out between 3 November 2023 and 26 January 2024 published on 18 June 2024. Respondents largely supported the proposal to establish a payment to reduce the financial barriers care leavers may face and gave a range of feedback to inform the eligibility, purpose and application process of the new payment. The Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 gave Scottish Ministers a new power to draft regulations in order to create a scheme providing for a new kind of social security assistance for people with experience of being in the care system, known as “care experience assistance”. We will now carry out safeguarding workshops with key stakeholders and care experienced young people in order to help promote safe receipt of the payment, as well as drafting the regulations for the scheme.

Work has also continued on the next phase of expansion for Free School Meals, which will see support delivered to those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in P6 and P7. A data collection exercise, undertaken jointly by the Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust, was used to identify the capital and resource budget requirements to ensure this work is fully funded, resulting in £48 million in capital and £22 million in resource funding being allocated by the Scottish Government to fund the expansion in 2024-25. Alongside this, draft legislation essential to establish data sharing between Social Security Scotland and Local Authorities to facilitate this support was introduced. Delivery of this phase of the programme, which will include capital works in 609 schools, began in February 2025 and will ultimately benefit around 25,000 children from families on low incomes. In addition, £21.75 million was allocated to provide free school meals to eligible families on low incomes during the school holidays, as in previous years.

In 2024-25, the Scottish Government also took action on School Meal Debt, allocating an initial £1.5 million to support Local Authorities to clear these debts. Following applications from 30 Local Authorities across Scotland, this funding was increased to £2.8 million to clear all of the historic school meal debt identified as owed during this process, with guidance from COSLA to support the appropriate management of school meal debt in going forwards.

Following the publication in March 2023 of the Independent Review into the Scottish Welfare Fund, improvement activity continued across 2024-25 with 19 of the 22 points in the action plan completed by the end of March 2025. These actions have improved the administration and accessibility of the Fund, as well as activity to update our approach to data monitoring and work towards the publication of revised statutory guidance on 1 April 2025. The Fund continues to provide Community Care Grants – which help people to live independently – and Crisis Grants – which provide a safety net in a disaster or emergency – with the Scottish Government investing an additional £20 million into the Fund in Winter 2024-25 to allow councils to provide more vital support to people in crisis.

Priorities for 2025-26

• It is forecast we will invest £467 million on the Scottish Child Payment, which we further increased in value to £27.15 per eligible child, per week on 1 April 2025.
• Work will continue at pace on the legislation and systems necessary to deliver the first payments to mitigate the two-child limit in 2026.
• We will continue to prioritise take-up of all Scottish benefits and will publish an action plan to address barriers specific to marginalised communities, as well as continuing to raise awareness through our marketing and communications.
• We will complete our programme of transferring of all relevant disability and carer benefit awards by the end of 2025.
• We will continue our programme of delivery to expand Free School Meals to those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in P6 and P7, as well taking forward work to develop a new Test of Change phase to support those in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in S1 to S3, backed by £3 million of new investment.
• We will continue work to develop and introduce the Care Leaver Payment.
• In 2025-26, more than £97 million will be made available to Local Authorities to spend on Discretionary Housing Payments. We will also continue to work with Local Authorities to share best practice and drive increased uptake.
• We will extend the Young Carer Grant to 19 year olds and launch our new Carer Additional Person Payment, to give extra support worth £10 per week to unpaid carers getting Carer Support Payment and caring for more than one person.

Spotlight: Changing Realities

The Scottish Government is working with Changing Realities, a participatory project involving parents and carers living on a low income, to inform development of the next Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2026-31.

Through this engagement we are hearing directly from parents on the issues that matter most to them. Vongayi, a parent participating in Changing Realities, told us of her experience with the social security system:

“I am a single parent to three children aged 16, 14, and 4. I currently work part-time, 16 hours a week spread across three days to balance my employment with caring responsibilities, especially for my youngest son, who is autistic. While my older two children are usually at school, my youngest attends nursery from 9-2pm for 4 days each week.

Since I work part-time, I rely on various forms of social security support, including Universal Credit and the Scottish Child Payment. My son also receives the Child Disability Payment which helps cover essential expenses from food to clothing, and access to safe play and sensory spaces, relieving some financial pressure. I can’t imagine what we’d do without it.

However, I am one of many parents affected by the two-child cap, which means Universal Credit only covers two of my three children. Scotland has promised to mitigate the cap from next April and this will go a long way in providing more financial support for larger families like mine.

The Scottish Child Payment and Child Benefit help sustain us from week to week. These payments cover basic needs, like fresh food and occasional outings for the children. Without these supports, it would be extremely difficult to manage on a part-time income alone. Despite this, families like mine – especially those with disabled children or from minority ethnic backgrounds – continue to face significant financial hardship. Many are not accessing the benefits they are entitled to due to a lack of information, adequate support, or fear of stigma.”

Professor Ruth Patrick who leads Changing Realities, reflected on the value of the joint work being done with the Scottish Government:

“We know that policy that works with and draws on the expertise that comes with experience is better policy, and is more likely to work with, rather than against, the grain of people's everyday lives and the challenges faced. By working together on the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2026-31, the Scottish Government and the parents and carers who take part in Changing Realities can engage in frank discussion about how best to drive child poverty rates down, and make sure all children have the support they need to thrive and enjoy happy childhoods. This collaboration is both innovative and has the potential to make a real difference to the lives of all those still affected by poverty in Scotland.”

G. Ensuring access to warm, affordable homes

Ensuring every child has access to a warm, safe, and affordable home is essential to effectively addressing child poverty in Scotland. Since declaring a national housing emergency in May 2024, we have been working at pace with stakeholders across the housing system to take urgent action and make the most of investment, including working in close collaboration with those Local Authorities experiencing sustained temporary accommodation pressures. To ensure families remain supported during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the face of increasing energy costs and rents, we have continued to implement our Warmer Homes Scotland scheme as well as progressing the Housing (Scotland) Bill that will support the introduction of long-term rent control to help improve affordability of homes in the private rented sector. We have also taken action to reduce the number households in temporary accommodation, particularly those with children, and to tackle homelessness more generally.

Impact Summary

• Between April and December 2024, an estimated 1,647 households with children were supported into affordable housing through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.
• In the same period, we delivered 4,947 affordable homes across Scotland of which 3,981 were for social rent. We also approved 2,617, and started 3,311, affordable homes.
• It is estimated that keeping social rents substantially lower than market rents benefits approximately 140,000 children in poverty each year.
• Across 2024-25, Warmer Homes Scotland supported 7,334 households with 14,778 heating, insulation and renewable measures installed. On average, households saved around £450 a year on their fuel bills as a result of measures installed.
• Around 460,000 households received support through Council Tax Reduction (CTR), saving recipients on average over £850 a year. Latest estimates suggest 102,000 households with children received CTR as of March 2024.

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

We continued to make progress on our commitment to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be for social rent and 10% in our rural and island communities. In 2024-25, despite the fiscal pressures faced, we made available over £595.8 million for affordable housing and, by the end of December 2024, delivered 26,039 homes towards the 2032 target of 110,000, with 19,945 (77%) of these being for social rent. We also continued to work closely with partners to progress as many approvals and starts as quickly as was practically possible to ensure identified housing priorities were met.

In addition, almost £13.5 million of charitable bond donations were issued in 2024-25 to augment the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) budget and deliver social rented homes through housing associations. To support delivery of homes for mid-market rent in the longer term, in September 2024, we announced a commitment to provide £100 million to create a new fund spanning several financial years that, with institutional investment, will grow to at least £500 million to deliver around 2,800 mid-market rent homes. We will publish further analysis on the delivery of affordable homes in rural and island communities in due course.

As well as continuing to provide suitable and affordable homes for families, we are advancing vital reforms to the Private Rented Sector, including a national system of rent controls to provide certainty for tenants while supporting continued investment to maintain quality and supply of new homes for rent. These changes are being progressed through the Housing (Scotland) Bill. Introduced in March 2024, the Bill successfully completed Stage 1 of Parliamentary consideration on 28 November. Stage 2 completed on 3 June 2025, and work is ongoing to support the delivery of the Bill.

To enhance suitable accommodation options for the Gypsy/Traveller community, almost £15 million has been committed or spent under the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund between 2021-22 and 2024-25 to allow six councils to progress projects for more and better accommodation. Work funded has completed or part completed in three Local Authority areas, allowing residents in Aberdeen City, South Lanarkshire and Highland to live in their new homes. The redevelopment of one site in Fife is due to complete in spring 2025 and will replace poor quality amenity blocks with 16 energy efficient residential mobile homes, while in Perth and Kinross work to complete the replacement of existing chalets with 20 high quality residential mobile homes is due to complete in summer 2025. Work on the remaining projects in Clackmannanshire and Highland is expected to complete in 2026.

We also continued to invest in support to help families ensure their homes are warm and to reduce their bills, despite the increasing cost of energy. In 2024-25, we allocated £85 million to Warmer Homes Scotland. This included an additional £20 million, announced in December 2024, for energy efficiency measures, as part of an overall £41 million package of winter support in recognition of the ongoing cost of living crisis. Supported by our continued investment, Warmer Homes Scotland is expected to reach the milestone of supporting 50,000 Scottish households as of summer 2025.

As we work to increase the availability of warm and affordable homes, we are also taking action to address the concerning number of families living in temporary accommodation in Scotland, particularly those with children. We targeted £40 million of investment from our Affordable Housing Supply Programme towards acquisitions and bringing long term voids back into use to support those Local Authorities facing sustained temporary accommodation pressures. This was further enhanced by £2 million from our Ending Homelessness Together Fund to support the acquisition of larger homes more suitable for families.

In addition to this capital investment, and funding provided to councils through the Local Government settlement, we also invested over £90 million in Discretionary Housing Payments to reduce poverty, safeguard tenancies and prevent homelessness. We amended the law in April 2024 to bring the Discretionary Housing Payment scheme under full Scottish Government control, which allows us to make different choices and provide greater support for low-income households.

Priorities for 2025-26

• The Affordable Housing Supply Programme budget is £768 million in 2025-26, enabling the delivery of more than 8,000 homes. This includes targeted funding of £40 million to the Local Authorities with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures.
• We will extend the Rural and Island Housing Fund to March 2028, delivering more affordable homes in rural and island communities. The fund is now widely recognised as a route for delivery of additional homes to our mainstream Affordable Housing Supply Programme, in some of the most rural and sparsely populated island communities.
• Work will continue to secure the successful passage of the Housing (Scotland) Bill to boost tenants’ rights and support delivery of long-term rent controls.
• We will take the necessary steps so that funding for Gypsy/Traveller accommodation can be accessed alongside housing under the Affordable Housing Supply Programme from 2026-27 onwards, demonstrating a long-term Scottish Government commitment to supporting Local Authorities to meet their duties in relation to Gypsy/Traveller homes.
• In 2025-26 we will make over £97 million available for discretionary housing payments, mitigating the impact of UK Government welfare reforms such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap.
• We will also make £39 million available for specific activity to end homelessness. This includes £4 million to help Local Authorities, frontline services and relevant partners to prepare for the new homelessness prevention duties within the Housing (Scotland) Bill and to help them respond to the housing emergency by preventing homelessness before it occurs.
• We will continue to run our Warmer Homes Scotland scheme, helping eligible households install heating, insulation and renewable measures to make their homes more comfortable and affordable to run.

Case study: Relational Mentoring

Funded by the Scottish Government, the Wise Group provides Relational Mentoring support to vulnerable families to improve their outcomes and finances.

Sarah, a full-time carer for her three disabled children, was referred to the Wise Group by her housing association in 2023 as they noticed that she was struggling financially. The Housing Association recognised that she needed some additional support due to her long history of poor mental health stemming from past abuse.

Sarah was matched with her Relational Mentor, Liz, and since their first meeting they have developed a relationship which has allowed for support to address Sarah and her family’s needs. This includes support with their mental and physical health, accessing services and with energy costs.

Once a trusting relationship was built, Sarah shared that she was struggling with costs associated with having a pay-as-you-go meter in her home and that she was in recurrent arrears as a result. Liz supported Sarah to engage with HEAT, the Wise Group’s Home Energy Advice Team, who provided advice on how to optimise energy usage and how to create a more efficient home temperature through low but consistent heating. Alongside this, Liz proactively assisted with reorganising Sarah’s personal finances to support her to manage her outgoings.

As Sarah’s electricity usage was increased as a result of requiring medical equipment for her disabled children, the HEAT team also worked directly with Sarah’s energy provider on her behalf and explained her circumstances. As a result of the HEAT team’s intervention, Sarah’s energy provider agreed to write off her outstanding arrears before working together with the team to find the best tariff available. Following this, Sarah’s energy provider gave her a direct number to call if any additional support was required.

The advice and support offered by her Relational Mentor has been transformational for Sarah and her family, improving her mental wellbeing and building her confidence and resilience. This has allowed Sarah to focus on the welfare of her children without worrying about increasing energy arrears.

In the coming year, the Scottish Government will continue to work in partnership with the Wise Group, investing £2.185 million to support the continued delivery of peer mentoring approaches to 2,000 households. This will ensure that the programme continues to support parents already engaging, and more parents are able to benefit from the support available.

H. Maximising income

Across 2024-25, we have continued to work with partners, across a range of different settings, to ensure people can access appropriate support and advice when and where they need it. This includes taking action to tackle Council Tax debt in more Local Authority areas, supporting cash-first programmes to improve the response to food insecurity, and a continued focus on making advice services more accessible and effective through our Advice in Accessible Settings Fund and continued funding for Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships. We have also taken action to support trusted health professionals to have more meaningful conversations around financial inclusion and met our commitment for 500 additional families to receive the Family Nurse Programme. These actions have been supported by our strategic communications activity, helping increase awareness of the support available and how to access it.

Impact Summary

• Overall, through all Scottish Government funded advice services in 2024-25, it is estimated that at least 87,771 clients have been supported and an estimated £64.5 million of client financial gains have been achieved.
• In 2024-25 the Money Talk Team supported almost 61,400 clients, of which over 12,500 belonged to one or more of the priority family groups. Overall, the service helped to achieve financial gains of over £48 million, of which £11.5 million was achieved for those belonging to the priority family groups.
• Over 57,000 people were helped to manage over £410 million of debt through our funding, with nearly £17 million in debt written off.
• From October to December 2024, 974 people were helped by the Council Tax Debt project, with nearly £140,000 of council tax related gains and almost £2.2 million worth of other gains achieved. Of other gains, the majority related to welfare benefits (85%).
• In 2024-25 the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund supported 6,137 clients with 3,815 belonging to one or more of the priority family groups. Nearly £14.5 million of client financial gains have been achieved to the end of February 2025 and over £3 million of debt is being managed.
• Evaluation of Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships (WAHPs) found over 16,000 people accessed advice through the initiative, with 89% of those reached not having previously engaged advice services. WAHP services predominantly reached low income households, with over 50% of individuals having a household income under £20,000, and around a quarter of those reached having children.
• The Citizens Advice Scotland “Routes Out of Crisis” project supported 125 people in need of long-term food related support between September 2024 and February 2025, securing over £92,500 in financial gains. Almost a third of those supported were families with children.
• Between March 2024 and March 2025, over 900 young parents aged 20 and over received support through the Family Nurse Partnership programme as a result of expansion, strengthening the support they received.

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

In 2024-25, the Scottish Government allocated over £12 million for the provision of free income maximisation support, welfare and debt advice. This investment helped to support a range of advice providers delivering telephone, web-based and face to face advice, including the nationwide Money Talk Team service delivered by Citizens Advice Scotland. £7.3 million of this overall investment supported free specialist debt advice services.

Following the success of an initial Council Tax Debt advice pilot project in 2023, which was delivered in three Local Authority areas, we increased funding in 2024-25 to £400,000 to expand the project into six other Local Authority areas from October 2024. The project gives targeted advice on Council Tax debt within overall holistic support and trials initiatives to support best practice principles of Council Tax debt collection in collaboration with Local Authorities.

As part of our commitment of improving access to sources of advice and support, the Scottish Government funded a ‘test-and-learn' pilot for Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships, which concluded in urban areas with high levels of deprivation in March 2024, and concluded in remote and rural areas in March 2025. The purpose of this funded ‘test-and-learn’ initiative was to build a robust evidence base to encourage local delivery partners to embed this model of advice provision within local welfare rights and income maximisation services.

In recognition of the positive impacts of the WAHPs model, supported by evaluation and reporting from the Improvement Service, the Scottish Government is continuing to provide funding, in line with a tapered model, through to the end of 2026-27. This approach, reached in collaboration with delivery partners, sees a gradual tapering of Scottish Government investment each year, support by local contributions, to ensure sustainable delivery of this initiative over the longer term.

We also continued and expanded the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund in 2024-25 with £1.5 million of funding to support advice providers to form partnerships with other services to increase the availability and accessibility of advice in a range of settings. Families receiving support from these services include lone parents, minority ethnic families and families with disabled children. The fund is supporting and encouraging partnerships between advice providers and a range of other community based services including youth charities, housing and homelessness services, faith-based charities, specialist mental health services and carers support services.

Following the successful pilot of the Money and Pensions Service Money Guiders professional development programme, we have provided all of Scotland’s Health Boards with the opportunity to roll out the learning programme to their Health Visitors and Family Nurses via their Child Poverty Leads.

We also continued to work with NHS Boards on their expansion plans for the Family Nurse Programme (FNP) prioritising those most in need, including younger mothers and Care Experienced mothers up to the age of 25. As a result, all Boards have extended the programme to Care Experienced mothers up to the age of 25, meeting the commitment for 500 additional families – who would not have otherwise been eligible – to receive the programme by the end of 2025.

Ensuring that families are maximising their incomes can help them meet the cost of essentials like food but sometimes additional support is required. In 2024-25, we continued to deliver on the nine collaborative actions set out in “Cash First: Towards Ending the Need for Food Banks in Scotland”. We provided funding to support a range of activity including the Cash-First Programme, which provides ready access to emergency income when someone has no money for food alongside wraparound welfare rights and income maximisation advice and support to prevent future hardship. Additionally, we have sought to make it easier for people to be referred to Cash-First support. Alongside this, we also funded the testing of new models that provide immediate assistance; support wellbeing through community food approaches; and to continue to listen to the direct experience of people.

It is important that people know what type of support is available and where to find it. Throughout 2024-25 we have continued to raise awareness of the support families can access through no and low cost communications activity. This includes through social media, news and partnership activity to drive parents to access our cost of living portal and Parent Club website, which support parents to boost their income, save money and access work, and includes information on benefits and payments, saving money, budgeting, debt, childcare and help with work. Communications worked closely with partners and the third sector, and via Parent Club social media channels, to target the six priority family groups.

Statistics show that 86,637 people visited the Scottish Government’s cost of living portal, with over 9,000 visits to information on family benefits – helping people find the support they need – while 549,205 people visited the Parent Club website, with 43,597 views of the Money and Work pages. Parent Club social media posts were seen more than 5 million times, directing parents and carers to additional support.

Priorities for 2025-26

• We will allocate over £15 million to income maximisation, welfare and debt advice services in 2025-26, with increased investment continuing to support a range of stakeholders providing advice across the whole of Scotland.
• This includes £2.22 million to roll-out the Council Tax Debt project to deliver debt advice, specifically aimed at those experiencing Council Tax arrears across all areas in Scotland. It also includes investment of a further £1.73 million in the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund to continue and increase the provision of advice within a wide range of community, health and education settings, with additional funding targeted towards supporting disabled people.
• The WAHPs programme will continue to be delivered, supported by Scottish Government and local delivery partner funding.
• Through the Improvement Service, we will continue to work with delivery partners to ensure local contributions to WAHPs funding are provided in 2025-26 and beyond, and to understand the impact of services through continued monitoring of the programme.
• We will continue to monitor the reach of the FNP programme to the expanded age groups. Some Boards have set out their plans to reach 20 year olds universally and we will monitor progress towards this. We will seek an updated position by all Boards in relation to employability pathways and supports for young parents, and whether local FNP services are integrated into that.
• We will continue to work with partners to ensure that the Money Guiders learning is embedded at an organisational level and that it complements the current national resources to support practitioner understanding of money worries.
• We will continue to deliver the actions outlined in our Cash-First Plan, with £465,000 being invested in community organisations to strengthen access to Cash-First supports and tools, and dignified access to food.
• We will continue to raise awareness of the support families can access and work closely with partners and third sector to target low income families and priority family groups.

Case study: Advice in Accessible Settings Fund

The Advice in Accessible Settings Fund was established to increase the availability and accessibility of advice services within the places that people already go. Managed by Advice UK, the Fund supports advice providers to establish partnerships with a range of other services and organisations. Crucially, the Fund supports advice provision directly to clients who may not otherwise have sought advice from a specific advice provider. One project supported by the Fund is a partnership between Action for Children, Barnardo’s and GEMAP, an established advice organisation in Glasgow.

Angela* is a lone parent living in rented accommodation who was referred to the project by her support worker. Due to health conditions, she had to reduce her working hours which directly impacted her take home pay. This made it increasingly difficult for her to cover essential living costs, in particular housing expenses.

GEMAP supported Angela to complete a benefit check, during which it was discovered that she was not in receipt of Universal Credit, which she was entitled to, or help with the costs of her disability. GEMAP successfully applied for Universal Credit on her behalf, which provided her with a monthly payment on top of her salary, helping to cover living costs, including rent and bills which she had struggled with following her reduced income from work. She was also advised that once Universal Credit was in place, she would also be eligible to apply for Scottish Child Payment, which she was supported to apply for.

Given her health conditions, GEMAP also assisted Angela to successfully apply for Adult Disability Payment. This additional income helped alleviate some of the financial burdens faced by being unable to work full time due to her health conditions. By receiving Adult Disability Payment, Angela now has a regular income stream which can contribute to her health-related expenses.

As a result of the help and advice received from a qualified advice worker, Angela now receives financial support worth an additional £19,000 per year. This has significantly improved her financial situation, helping to meet the cost of living for both her and her child, and reducing stress which was exacerbating her health issues. As Advice services generally are under a lot of pressure and often have capacity issues, this Scottish Government funded partnership allowed Angela to access timely advice from a recognised partner agency.

*name changed to protect identity

I. Place based transformation

Across 2024-25, we have continued to support the work of the three original place based collaborations, now called Fairer Futures Partnerships (FFPs), in Clackmannanshire, Dundee and Glasgow. We have placed greater focus on embedding and building on success to date through system change and have expanded our FFPs into five more Local Authority areas - bringing the total to eight partnerships. Alongside this we have continued to strengthen local approaches, supporting Local Authorities and Health Boards across Scotland to deliver support in the way their communities need through our Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund and action focused on rural priorities. This is complementing our broader commitment to embed a Whole Family Support approach through which we are working to build the flexible provision of services in alignment with our partners. These actions have continued to provide direct and immediate support for families by delivering support which is person-centred, whilst also informing our understanding of what it takes to drive sustainable systems change in the longer term.

Impact Summary

• In Glasgow, from October 2023 to February 2025, over 500 individuals have participated in intensive, whole person case management with Glasgow Helps and over 6,000 outcomes have been generated for these clients, including reduced stress and anxiety, improvements in confidence and wellbeing, increased financial knowledge and support to access housing. This is in addition to over 10,000 smaller enquiries which have been supported.
• In Dundee, since October 2022, over 1,500 households have benefitted from the support of the Fairer Futures Partnerships programme – an increase of 700 in the past year. Through a combination of targeted intervention and self-referral, this has led to 103 employment outcomes, 42 college starts and over £1.2 million of financial gains for families through income maximisation support.
• In Clackmannanshire, the Family Wellbeing Partnership has engaged with approximately 1,500 families and individuals in the last year, an increase of 1,200 from the previous year, with a range of interventions and a strong focus on supporting young people towards positive school and post-school outcomes that allowed the partnership to significantly increase their contribution to local outcomes.
• Social Innovation Partnership (SIP) partners have engaged and supported over 3,000 people in 2024-25 across 27 local council areas to deliver innovative, holistic support to families in or at risk of poverty. The SIP currently invests in eight third sector organisations working in communities where there are significant levels of poverty and related forms of disadvantage and work across a range of themes, including family support, employability and homelessness.
• Evaluation of the first round of the Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund, delivered between late 2023 and March 2025, shows that projects engaging directly with families have demonstrated improvements across outcomes, including financial stability, wellbeing and social integration.
• Our co-produced evaluation of the Anchor Project in Shetland, published in September 2024 and employing a whole family wellbeing approach, reflected the positive impact of Anchor on families, with findings showing that workers are building a relationship-based service which is supportive and free from stigma.

Summary of action undertaken in 2024-25

Across 2024-25, we have invested around £3.3 million from the Tackling Child Poverty Fund to support our Fairer Futures Partnership (FFP) place based collaborations and third sector delivery partners in the Social Innovation Partnership (SIP). Our three original partnerships in Glasgow, Dundee and Clackmannanshire continue to have positive impacts on families and individuals living in, or at risk of, poverty, delivering support across holistic, person-centred approaches.

In Glasgow, progress has been made across a number of linked workstreams. Child poverty has been embedded within community planning structures and work is underway to shape a shared accountability framework for the Community Planning Partnership which is entering a six month testing phase. The aim of this is to create a singular, shared focus on tackling child poverty and measuring the systems change required to make meaningful progress. Demonstrations of change have also begun across the Southside Central, Govan and Calton areas of the city, bringing together partners and families to develop holistic support offers and test what works to support a sustainable exit from poverty and inform system change. In 2024, the transition from ‘pathfinder’ to ’programme’ was agreed, with the next stage incorporating city-wide systemic public service reform work to reframe governance, accountability, policy and funding alignment and the associated culture shifts.

In Dundee, there is continuing strength of partnership and engagement at leadership and delivery level across key partners, including the Scottish Government, Dundee City Council, Social Security Scotland and DWP. The flexibility afforded by this partnership has supported deeper engagement with services such as health, childcare and housing as families’ needs have become clearer. As a result, the Public Health nursing team now engage with the community drop-in centre that forms a key part of the initiative, attending to provide informal support and signposting to more specialist services to ensure holistic service provision for families and individuals. The Dundee initiative has engaged with priority groups, including lone parent families, those with health conditions and disabilities, and larger families with three or more children. Learning from the partnership has fed into decisions to reorganise Dundee City Council employability services towards a more locality-based focus, directly impacting the way services are delivered for those who need them. The relational key worker approach in Linlathen has engaged almost all identified families and is now beginning to adapt from reactive crisis support towards skills-based learning support, demonstrating the ability of the service to flex and paving the way for long term sustainable change in the community. Learning and data from Linlathen has also been used to support the adaptation of the relational key worker support model to fit another area of the city.

In Clackmannanshire, the Family Wellbeing Partnership (FWP) is continuing to evolve and expand to address issues which have an impact on children, young people and families experiencing poverty. Clackmannanshire have continued their approach to flexible funding and the ongoing implementation of the One Fund, One Plan, One Report model in order to enable more effective and streamlined reporting to better support delivery of services.

Over the course of this year, evaluations of the Clackmannanshire FWP, in addition to the Dundee and Glasgow programmes, have been ongoing, with final evaluation findings to be published later this year. Across the programme, the emerging learning from the evaluations indicates that individualised place-based, holistic support can and is improving short-term outcomes quickly, including for families who have previously been reluctant to engage with support. This has addressed immediate financial needs and has supported some families onto a sustainable pathway out of poverty in the future. This could potentially result in future cost savings through a reduction in multiple interventions. Further analysis will be required to understand the level and nature of any such cost savings.

This year we have also maintained our investment in the Social Innovation Partnership (SIP), awarding £1.3 million to eight third sector partners. These organisations are engaging and supporting individuals and families, delivering a wide range of support activities which contribute towards eradicating child poverty. SIP partners are also engaging with existing and new FFP Local Authority areas to explore what they can deliver to enhance provision in specific areas, seeking to transfer and embed learning across Scotland. The place based proposals include supporting young people in deprived communities, exploring flexible work practices and one-to-one and group based mentoring services for young people.

Building on the three existing successful partnerships, the SIP and the learning gained to date, we announced investment to expand the FFPs into Aberdeen City, East Ayrshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and Perth & Kinross Councils in 2024-25. Since announcement, these areas have recruited project teams and developed milestones for delivery from 2025-26, including engagement with local families and communities to inform delivery plans. This growing network of partnerships is helping us sustain momentum and to actively learn, evaluate and share good practice. We have also established a learning workstream to synthesise and share learning from the FFPs and the innovative work already underway across Scotland. Through this we aim to facilitate the spread of system change ideas, helping to bring about sustainable longer-term change to support people and families.

Through our Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund (CPAF) we are also continuing to strengthen our whole-systems and person-centred approaches. We have continued to fund eight Round 1 projects over 2024-25, with projects receiving over £350,000 in grant funding during this time. Applications for CPAF Round 2 opened to Local Authorities and Health Boards in May 2024, with twelve proposals awarded funding, several of which are working with third sector delivery partners. These projects commenced activity in October 2024, with over £160,000 in grant funding issued this year, with focus centred on a range of activities, including using data to better identify families and target support and improving accessibility and uptake of financial wellbeing advice and income maximisation support. Projects funded through CPAF are also undertaking work to support priority families to reengage with employability services, exploring the interconnection between child poverty and additional support needs and challenging poverty related stigma.

In order to assess the impact of the fund as a whole, we have worked with the projects and partners to seek to generate lessons from CPAF that can be shared more widely and, where appropriate, sustained or scaled up locally. Early evaluation notes that CPAF Round 1 has successfully demonstrated how targeted local innovation, proactive intervention, and meaningful collaboration can effectively address child poverty. In November 2024 we contracted A Place in Childhood to undertake a robust and independent evaluation of CPAF across both rounds, in addition to providing tailored support to the Round 2 projects for their monitoring and evaluation practices. Assessments such as this are key to supporting our understanding of how small-scale place-based and system change initiatives can contribute to tackling child poverty.

These approaches complement our commitment to providing Whole Family Support, where and when its needed. We are working to expand and deepen this approach, including through increasing flexibility and reducing the burden of reporting in order to support partners to redesign and deliver better services. We are currently working across portfolios in recognition of the cross-government nature of this action, and we are undertaking discussions with a core group of Local Authority partners to agree scope and approach, before extending across Scotland.

We are also continuing to take action focused directly on our rural and islands communities, building on the findings of our Rural and Islands Child Poverty Research. The Remote Rural Child Poverty Network has been extended, enabling a wider range of Local Authorities and partners to benefit. Funding has been provided to the Improvement Service to establish a dedicated Rural and Island Child Poverty Network Officer who has engaged extensively with members to identify priority areas of focus, increase the impact of network engagement and strengthen Local Authority capacity in relation to tackling child poverty.

In 2024-25 we distributed £1 million through our Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund, with a renewed focus on child poverty, to help our island Local Authority areas support those most impacted by the cost of living crisis. We have also distributed £11.2 million of Community Led Local Development funding to rural and island communities which delivers on rural priorities, including addressing poverty. This funding is distributed in partnership with 20 rural and island Local Action Groups (LAGs), who award funding to local projects based on their communities’ needs. In 2024-25 this included funding to support the extension of services to support families with young children and to develop targeted financial advice services aimed at reducing child poverty.

Priorities for 2025-26

• We will continue to support the development, work and delivery of the eight Fairer Futures Partnership areas, contributing to the significant number of individuals and family groups that have been offered holistic, person-centred support to date.
• We will further expand the Fairer Futures Partnerships to Shetland, North Lanarkshire and Fife, and explore the potential for more, enabling more local areas to test and improve delivery of joined-up services, maximise incomes and support people towards education and into sustained employment.
• In partnership with the Improvement Service, we will continue to develop and strengthen the learning outputs from the Fairer Futures Partnerships by engaging with officials across different policy areas, and working with cross-sector delivery colleagues across Scotland. We will also commission independent evaluation of the expanded partnerships.
• We will continue to fund the Improvement Service to increase awareness and the improvement of data on local child poverty, also supporting better understanding of information governance, and how local support services can proactively and safely share information in a way that promotes more targeted support.
• We will continue to support projects funded through Round 2 of the Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund in working towards their desired outcomes and will explore options to undertake a third round of funding.
• We will undertake a survey of farming and crofting households to improve our understanding of child poverty, inequalities and social aspects of agricultural households and conclude research to understand trends in rural poverty.

Case study: CPAF – Inverclyde Council and Home-Start

Inverclyde Council was awarded £83,000 from the Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund (CPAF) to work alongside a local third sector organisation, Home-Start Renfrewshire and Inverclyde, to provide holistic support to families experiencing poverty. The project focused particularly on families with parents with mental health concerns and children under five.

Jenny*, a lone-parent, self-referred into Home-Start as she was struggling with the aftermath of a relationship breakdown. She felt very isolated, on long-term sick leave, and was struggling with her mental health. Jenny faced challenges engaging with services and was hesitant to seek assistance.

Home-Start’s CPAF-funded Family Support Coordinator (FSC) encouraged Jenny to visit her GP and request a referral for mental health support. Jenny was also paired with a Home-Start Home Visiting volunteer, who provided both emotional and practical support on a weekly basis. This support enabled her to engage in community activities with her child, helping them feel less isolated.

With a trusted relationship established, Jenny confided in her FSC about financial worries she had around debt she had built up while out of work. The FSC discussed the income maximisation support that could be offered through Home Start’s collaborative work with advice services. Jenny was initially hesitant and had cancelled appointments, but felt more at ease when her FSC agreed to accompany her.

Once Jenny began attending appointments Home-Start sessions, she experienced a sense of relief as her debt was consolidated with the support of advice workers present and the burden started to ease. During her income maximisation assessment, it was identified that Jenny was not receiving all the benefits she was entitled to since she was now no longer employed. The Advice Worker recommended applying for Adult Disability Payment and assisted her in completing the application. Jenny’s application was successful, with the award increasing her income and helping her to meet the additional costs associated with her disability. This has eased the financial pressure and stress on Jenny and her family, and helps her pay rent and buy clothing for her children.

Through its collaborative approach in delivering holistic, targeted support to families most in need, the project has made significant strides in tackling child poverty and strengthening family resilience as it has done with Jenny.

*Name changed to protect identity

Case study: Fairer Futures Partnerships

Through our Fairer Futures Partnership with East Ayrshire Council, we have jointly funded yipworld to establish their Families First team approach. This programme offers a framework for how systems can evolve to better support families, including kinship carers and children with additional needs – moving from crisis response to meaningful, preventative care grounded in dignity, trust, and relationships. The below focuses on the experience of Lorna*, a kinship carer for her eight-year-old grandson Tommy, who has additional support needs.

Lorna initially contacted Families First in order to seek practical support to create a safe play space for Tommy. Following initial engagement, support staff quickly identified that her family were facing deeper challenges including social isolation, behavioural challenges and emotional stress. The family was at risk of escalating involvement with statutory services, including potential referral to child protection or foster care. When reaching out for support from other services Lorna had a negative experience, feeling that she was judged and unheard and that the support available to her was fragmented, leading to a breakdown in trust of services.

Families First worked to implement a comprehensive action plan to support Lorna. They acted as an alternative to the statutory services Lorna had previously contacted, building a strong relationship with Lorna and ensuring she felt comfortable to access support through the approach. They also worked in collaboration with police and schools to support Tommy, coordinating referrals to structured, preventative support for the family which relieved pressures on statutory systems. At the same time, Families First worked to create a secure outdoor play area at home for Tommy and supported Lorna and Tommy to access the yipworld Shine Together group for children with additional needs and their carers. Referrals were made to other services which could benefit the family and tailored one-to-one support was provided for Tommy during Easter and Summer holiday programmes. These included activities to support his social skills and building peer relationships.

As a result, Tommy remained safely within his family and Lorna had a positive experience of the support provided, saying she felt “listened to and helped”, with the service “exceeding her expectations”. Going forward, Families First will maintain an ongoing relationship with Tommy and Lorna and continue to monitor their involvement through long-term, relationship-based support groups. This continuity of care will work to support long-term wellbeing for the family and ensure they are able to reliably access community resources and support in the future.

* Name changed to protect identity.