Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan: Progress Report 2025-26

Section 2: Reporting on Progress 2025-26

This 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 4.2 in the final section of this report.

A. Strengthening our employment offer to parents

This year we have continued to strengthen our approach to employability, focusing on improving awareness and take‑up of support among parents in line with the Employability Strategic Plan 2024 to 2027. We have maintained capacity in frontline services and strengthened specialist support in order to increase participation and improve employment outcomes. This is in addition to ongoing work to reform the wider skills and post‑school education landscape to drive agility and efficiency through the system, making it simpler for learners and employers to engage with, and better aligning provision with labour market demand and fair work. Alongside this, action continues to better leverage the impact of public sector investment, including within the NHS workforce, to support access to secure employment opportunities, progression routes and in‑work training for parents.

Impact summary

• Between April and December 2025, 5,918 parents were supported through No One Left Behind services. In total, 32,005 parents have been supported under the No One Left Behind approach since April 2020.
• Of parents supported over this period, lone parents represented 55% of parents. Additionally, 23% were parents with three or more children and 27% were parents with a disability. 70% of all parental participants were women.
• The percentage of parents receiving support who are disabled has continually increased from 13% in 2020-21 to 33% of parent participants supported in 2025-26 up to December 2025.
• As of December 2025, 9,216 parents (29%) who had started receiving support through No One Left Behind had entered employment. Of the parents that entered employment, 64% were in employment at four weeks, 61% at 13 weeks, 52% at 26 weeks and 39% at 52 weeks.
• Parents achieved a number of other positive destinations. As of December 2025, of all parents who had started receiving support through No One Left Behind, 2,778 entered further or higher education or training (9%), 6,082 gained a qualification (19%), 1,345 started work experience (4%) and 894 started volunteering (3%).
• At least 1,034 No One Left Behind participants have received Specialised Employability Support between April and December 2025.
• The latest reporting data shows that in 2023-24 NHS Boards delivered 507 new starts on foundation, modern and graduate apprenticeships. Of the NHS Boards delivering apprenticeships, 83% were targeting young people aged 16-24 and 22% were targeted at either care experienced or disabled individuals.
• In 2025-26, the King’s Trust – NHS Scotland Partnership supported over 300 young people, widening access to the workforce and helping young people towards positive destinations.

Summary of action taken in 2025–26

In 2025-26 we continued to invest over £40 million in Parental Employability Support delivered through our No One Left Behind approach. Available in all 32 Local Authority areas, this continued to provide tailored, person‑centred support to help parents enter, sustain and progress in employment. Through the Scottish Spending Review, published in January 2026, we have committed to maintaining our £90 million a year investment to 2028-29, providing greater certainty for people accessing services, staff who deliver support, and our delivery partners.

We also continued to fund Employability Child Poverty Coordinators for a third consecutive year to support the alignment and integration of local wrap-around services for parents. We will publish an independent evaluation on the role of Employability Child Poverty Coordinators and user experience of No One Left Behind later this year.

In recognition of the unique barriers disabled people face in finding and remaining in suitable work, we invested an additional £5 million to strengthen help available through Specialist Employability Support for disabled people and people with long term health conditions. Since its launch in July 2025, this has provided tailored, intensive assistance to parents and others facing complex barriers to employment, complementing mainstream provision delivered through No One Left Behind. The service focuses on person‑centred support for those furthest from the labour market, offering flexible engagement, in‑work support and close coordination with local, health and skills services. Delivery has also strengthened links with employers and the wider public sector, including the NHS, helping to leverage training, progression routes and job opportunities, while learning from implementation continues to inform service improvement and wider employability system reform.

To further strengthen local partnerships and the delivery of employability services across Scotland we published an updated Local Employability Partnership Framework and Good Practice Guidance in December 2025, providing resources to strengthen local systems and encourage consistent, high‑quality delivery across Scotland. Locally planned commissioning of employment services is a cornerstone of the No One Left Behind approach to employability in Scotland. This supports an emphasis on integration and alignment, a mixed economy of provision and a commitment to partnership working.

Aligned with our focus on increasing awareness and uptake of employability support, we have continued to work together with partners, including the public and third sector, to take a targeted approach to engaging parents, exploring peer-to-peer approaches and utilising existing touch-points. To increase awareness of employability and financial support we delivered a Parent Club digital campaign in 2025, which reached 1.3 million people across Scotland. This informed a further Parental Employability Financial Support campaign launched in February 2026 which combined national and local promotion reaching 4.24 million adults across Scotland, including 96% of lower income parents. Evaluation shows that as a result of the campaign, lower income parents are more aware that practical support is available in their local area to help with benefits, childcare and finding work that fits around their family.

Evidence from delivery set out in the No One Left Behind Employability Strategic Plan 2024-27 indicates that these approaches are contributing to improved awareness and take‑up of employability support in practice, with services increasingly using targeted outreach, partnership working with public, third and community sector organisations, peer‑led engagement and existing service touchpoints, alongside stronger alignment with health, skills and wider public services, to better reach priority groups, including parents.

We have also continued work to leverage the impact of NHS Boards on child poverty by embedding parental employability pathways within the NHS workforce. We invested an additional £500,000, bringing the total investment in 2025-26 to £645,000, to expand the King’s Trust–NHS Scotland Partnership programmes that widen access to NHS employment for 16–30-year-olds facing barriers, including young parents. An NHS Parental Employability Task & Finish Group was also established in October 2025, which has driven national progress in supporting parents to enter, sustain, and progress in NHS employment. The group has developed the NHS Parental Employability Framework and Pathway Design Guide, with further practical resources scheduled for publication in early 2026-27. The first NHS Health Anchors Summit held in March 2026 strengthened alignment with Community Wealth Building and child poverty objectives, reinforcing the NHS’s role as an anchor institution within local economies.

Beyond employment support, work also continued on our multi-year programme to reform Post School Education and Skills. As part of this, we supported passage of the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill, working closely with stakeholders to further strengthen this legislation following Stage 1 consideration in September 2025. Receiving Royal Assent on 11 March 2026, this Act will support delivery of a simplified and more coherent funding and governance landscape, strengthening alignment between skills provision, labour market demand and inclusive growth. In parallel with Parliamentary consideration of the Bill, detailed work was undertaken with Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council and other stakeholders to plan and prepare for implementation. Together with wider post-school reforms, this legislation will reduce complexity across the system and, over the longer term, make post‑school education and skills provision easier for learners to understand and navigate.

Aligned with our focus on Adult Learning and the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Act 2026, we continue to focus on Community Learning and Development (CLD) more broadly. This includes publishing the CLD Outcomes 2025–2028 in February 2026, setting a clear direction of travel for meaningful reform across the CLD sector. This renewed focus strengthens the contribution of adult learning to improving parents’ skills, confidence and progression pathways, supporting sustainable employment and longer‑term income growth for families at greatest risk of poverty. Alongside this, the CLD Standards Council made significant progress in developing a CLD Workforce Plan focused on qualification pathways, career and job progression, career‑long professional learning, and responding to future learner needs – helping to ensure the workforce is equipped to support inclusive growth and improved outcomes for children and families.

Case study: Parental Employability Support

Hayley* is a lone parent and full-time carer for her disabled daughter. Due to caring responsibilities, traditional employment was not a viable option, creating significant barriers to re-entering the labour market. Over time, this affected Hayley’s confidence and reduced her sense of identity beyond her caring role.

Through the Parental Employability Support (PES) service in Edinburgh, Hayley received tailored support from a key worker, exploring options that realistically fit around her circumstances while enabling her to provide for her family. Rather than focusing on standard employment pathways, discussions centred on what was manageable, flexible, and aligned with her interests. From this, self-employment emerged as the most suitable route.

Hayley has a strong interest in skincare and was keen to develop this further. With financial support from Edinburgh’s PES Internal Transition Fund she enrolled in an Advanced Skincare course and achieved a recognised qualification. Alongside this, she was referred to Business Gateway for specialist advice on how to start and run a small business successfully.

As a result of this support, Hayley started working from home as a self-employed Skincare Specialist. As her confidence and client base have grown, she has taken the next step of renting a room in a salon part-time. This flexible model allows her to balance her caring responsibilities while gradually expanding her business in a way that feels sustainable.

The impact of this support has been significant. Hayley has started to generate her own income and reinvest in her business, supporting its steady growth. While still in the early stages, her journey reflects a positive shift towards greater financial independence and stability for her and her daughter.

Just as importantly, Hayley has experienced a renewed sense of purpose and identity, saying: “Working a regular 9–5 job is not an option for me due to being my daughter’s carer. Returning to work has given me a confidence boost and allowed me to be something else, rather than just a mum and carer. My business is slow but steady, but most importantly it fits around my personal commitments.”

Hayley is now optimistic about the future and continues to build her business at a pace that works for her. Her experience highlights the importance of flexible, person-centred employability support in enabling parents with caring responsibilities to pursue sustainable, meaningful work while strengthening wellbeing and financial resilience.

*name changed to protect identity

B. Transforming our economy

Despite the challenging economic and fiscal context, we have continued to drive progress toward our vision of making Scotland a Fair Work Nation. To improve the working lives of people in Scotland and boost economic growth, we have maintained our focus on improving access to flexible, high-quality work and continued to implement our Fair Work First approach to drive fair working practices through public sector investment. While data is not yet available to say whether our commitment to being a leading Fair Work Nation by the end of 2025 has been met, the Fair Work Convention is clear that “Scotland has made measurable progress on improving fair work”.

Impact summary

• In 2025, Scotland remained the highest real Living Wage paying nation by rate across the UK, with 88.7% of employees over 18 earning this, compared to a UK wide figure of 85.4%.
• In 2025-26, over 4,700 workers were uplifted to payment of at least the real Living Wage as a result of Living Wage accreditation.
• The number of accredited Living Wage employers has increased to over 4,000 in 2026, from over 3,800 as reported last year.
• 88% of women (employees 18+) earned above the real Living Wage in Scotland in 2025, more than the proportion of women in the UK overall (83.2%).
• The median gender pay gap for full-time employees in Scotland was at 3.5% in 2025, compared to 6.9% in the UK.
• The Disability Employment Gap in Scotland was estimated to be 32.5 percentage points in 2025, a reduction from the baseline of 37.4 percentage points in 2016.
• Up to an estimated 13,000 childcare staff are receiving the real Living Wage as a result of additional investment. This has supported an average increase of around £1,000 in the gross salary of eligible staff working full time in 2025-26, with women accounting for 96% of child day care staff.
• Our approach to public sector pay has resulted in the net median pay for a full-time public sector employee in Scotland in 2025 being £1,483 higher than for UK counterparts.

Summary of action taken in 2025-26

Through our flagship Fair Work First approach, we have continued to promote high-quality and fair work practices, particularly in relation to public funding and contracts. Following implementation of more stringent grant conditionality in July 2023, Fair Work First criteria were applied to £6 billion worth of public sector grant funding by the end of March 2025, incentivising employers to adopt practices such as paying the real Living Wage and providing appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice.

In July 2025 we commenced work on an independent evaluation of our Fair Work First policy. This aims to strengthen our understanding of the impact of Fair Work First on organisations receiving contracts and grants and how this has affected workers within these organisations. It also seeks to assess whether the approach has been delivered as intended. The evaluation is being supported by a Research Advisory Group with representation from the Fair Work Convention, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Close the Gap, Scottish Enterprise, and Glasgow City Council. The evaluation report is due to be published in summer 2026 and it is intended that findings of this will inform consideration of the future direction for Fair Work First policy in Scotland.

In April 2025, we launched a new Fair Work resource hub, developed in collaboration with stakeholders, to provide guidance for employers on embedding Fair Work practices such as flexible and inclusive workplaces and providing effective channels for employee voice. To further promote fair work practices, we also hosted two Fair Work Festivals in June 2025 and March 2026, with a range of events across each week to raise awareness of and encourage workers to make positive workplace changes.

To improve pay and conditions in sectors where we know people experience low pay and precarious work, we have made progress in establishing Fair Work sectoral agreements. This includes implementing pay uplifts to real Living Wage and the establishment of a new voluntary bargaining body within the adult social care sector, publishing a ‘Growing Fair Work’ resource for retail employers and commencing drafting of a Fair Work Charter for the construction sector. This builds on our continuing action and engagement within the childcare sector. In 2025-26 we provided Local Authorities with an additional £9.7 million to enable childcare workers delivering funded early learning and childcare in private and third sector services to be paid at least £12.60 an hour from April 2025.

In recognition of the importance of helping people to get into work, remain and progress in work and prevent economic inactivity, we provided funding of up to £250,000 for three pilot projects in 2025-26. The projects began in June 2025 and focused on flexible working in the manufacturing sector, the disability employment gap, and inclusive hiring, progression and management initiatives within public sector organisations. We also committed up to £63,000 through the Tackling Child Poverty Fund in 2025-26 to support two short-term projects, funding Flexibility Works to help catalyse employer action on flexible working in frontline and low-paid sectors, and The Challenges Group’s ‘Making Work Work’ project, supporting mothers from priority family groups to undergo training to re-enter or progress in the workforce at a level that matches their qualifications.

Beyond this work, we have continued to focus on the Living Wage and Living Hours Accreditation of employers, in partnership with Living Wage Scotland and the Poverty Alliance. As a result, over 4,700 workers were uplifted to at least the real Living Wage in 2025-26 – with over 1,500 uplifts achieved through accreditation of large social care and childcare employers. Between April 2025 and March 2026 a further 31 employers were also accredited for Living Hours, supported by an additional £47,000 from the Tackling Child Poverty Fund, helping to provide more workers with greater certainty of their working hours and income. This year has seen a 92% retention rate, demonstrating commitment from employers to continue good practice.

Our Public Sector Pay strategy is also working to increase income from work and earnings and reduce child poverty. In January, the 2026-27 Integrated Pay and Workforce Policy was published alongside the Scottish Budget. Building on previous Public Sector Pay Policies there is a continuing expectation that employers work towards standardising to a 35 hour working week, action which can positively impact working families. Public bodies are also required to continue to uphold fair work principles, including payment of at least the real Living Wage and the promotion of fair and sustainable working practices across the sector.

Aligned with our focus on Fair Work, the Community Wealth Building (CWB) Bill was passed by Parliament in February, before becoming an Act in March. This establishes a framework for Local Authorities and public bodies to generate, circulate, and retain wealth in local communities, aiming to reduce inequality and support sustainable economic growth. As part of the legislation, each Local Authority must prepare a CWB plan that will support the generation, circulation, and retention of wealth in the local economy. This will build on existing action in this space, including our investment in the CWB Practitioners Network and the CWB Centre of Excellence to further embed CWB policy and share good practice across Scotland as part of our wider approach to delivering a thriving wellbeing economy.

Looking across these commitments, the first annual Fair Work Action Plan impact report was published in September 2025. This highlighted the milestones that have been reached since the Fair Work Action Plan was refreshed in 2022, recognising that Scotland has made significant progress towards becoming a leading Fair Work nation, despite not having powers over employment law. This notes the existence of strong collaboration with partners, including trade unions, equality organisations, and employers, which has created a platform for cultural change across Scotland as more workplaces engage with and see the benefits of Fair Work practices. A further narrative report covering substantive progress between June and December 2025 was published in March 2026.

December 2025 also marked the end of the Scottish Government’s commitment to become a leading Fair Work Nation by the end of 2025. While data for 2025 will not be fully available until later this year, the Fair Work Convention report published in November 2025 shows improvements against 11 of 13 indicators. These include reduced gender economic inactivity and pay gaps, significant reductions in low pay and strong performance on permanent employment compared to comparator countries.

C. Improving access to and the availability of childcare

Delivering more affordable and accessible childcare is critical to our national mission of eradicating child poverty. This year we have continued our focus on ensuring a person-centred and place-based approach to improving outcomes for families, maximising the impact of existing funded services and using learning from delivery, evaluation and engagement to inform future expansion. This has been strengthened through increased investment in the ‘Extra Time’ programme and establishment of the Bright Start Breakfasts fund, both of which ensure more families are able to access provision that wraps around the school day – improving children’s outcomes, and supporting parents to access training, learning and employment.

Impact summary

• Estimates show almost all three and four-year-olds took up funded early learning and childcare in 2025, with 55% of eligible two-year-olds also taking up the offer. If families paid for their full entitlement themselves, it would cost them around £6,400 per eligible child per year.
• Evaluation of the 1140 programme, published in March, shows that:
  • Provision is supporting mothers with work, training or study, including for those in the lowest income groups, resulting in a seven percentage point improvement in maternal employment outcomes.
  • More parents can now access childcare that fits around their lives, with nine out of 10 parents satisfied with the provision received.
  • For eligible 2s, there was a positive association between the expansion of childcare and an improvement in social, emotional and behavioural outcomes after their first year of funded early learning and childcare by age three.
• Our School Age Childcare programme is supporting almost 7,000 children and their families to access funded or subsidised school age childcare services across Scotland, targeted to low income families and those most at risk of living in poverty. This includes up to 5,000 children and families supported through the Scottish Football Association ‘Extra Time’ programme, around 1,400 from the Early Adopter Communities projects and over 500 from our Access to Childcare Fund.
• Interim evaluation findings indicate that Early Adopting Community projects are having an impact on household incomes, as well as improving employment and training opportunities, and parental and child wellbeing.
• Our Bright Starts Breakfasts fund has created 9,000 new breakfast club places, supporting up to 20,000 children to access early morning childcare. This is enabling parents to get to work and extend their hours of employment, while ensuring that more children can access a nutritious breakfast and socialise with peers.
• Since launching in June 2024, the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future has assisted over 500 candidates with childminder induction training across 30 Local Authority areas. Over 150 of these candidates are now registered as a childminder with the Care Inspectorate.

Summary of action taken in 2025-26

In recognition of the importance of a statutory early learning and childcare offer in tackling poverty, we continued to invest over £1 billion in the delivery of 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare in 2025-26 for all three- and four-year-olds, and eligible two-year-olds.

Working with the Improvement Service and Local Authorities, we have continued to take steps to maximise uptake of our existing offer for eligible two-year-olds, with a focus on families most at risk of poverty and on areas with some of the lowest uptake rates. During 2025-26 we funded a post within the Improvement Service to deliver intensive support to five Local Authorities under a ‘National Improvement Project’ on maximising uptake in Falkirk, Glasgow, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire and Aberdeenshire. We are disseminating lessons from this work to all Local Authorities, including through published reports and workshops, providing opportunities for sharing learning on successes and shared challenges.

We published the full evaluation of the expansion to 1140 hours in March 2026, which demonstrates the impact of this funding on outcomes for children and families. The evaluation finds that overall capacity and workforce has increased since 2018, increasing the flexibility and accessibility of funded childcare which is available to families. Satisfaction with the 1140 offer remains high, however the report also acknowledges the challenges that have been faced during delivery, including the lack of clear progress in many of the children’s outcomes being measured. Further findings from an economic evaluation will be published once available.

Through our School Age Childcare programme, we are continuing to test models of childcare that meet the needs of particular families and communities. We have continued to invest in our 23 childcare Early Adopter Communities. Covering Dundee, Clackmannanshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Fife and Shetland, this work is expanding access to childcare, activities, and wider support services for children and families at greatest risk of poverty. In addition to delivering childcare provision, projects are also working to identify challenges and share learning about how families can be supported to access childcare and wider family support services. The second stage of the Early Adopter Communities evaluation is currently under way, taking a gendered and intersectional approach. Covering the period from spring 2025 to summer 2026, this is expected to publish in autumn 2026.

In May 2025, we committed to investment of £5.5 million to expand the ‘Extra Time’ programme, delivered in partnership with the Scottish Football Association (SFA), providing free breakfast, after school and holiday club places for children from families most at risk of poverty. Providing support to almost 5,000 children, this investment has enabled delivery through 50 clubs across 27 Local Authorities - with services working closely with primary schools to host and refer children and families. In rural and remote areas without an affiliated club, the SFA continue to work with Local Authorities and local recreational trusts to design and deliver projects. In June 2025, the SFA published the Extra Time Evaluation Report, which explored emerging themes such as the impact activity services can have on school attendance and attainment, supporting employment for parents, and improved child health and wellbeing. A further evaluation report will be published in summer 2026.

This year also saw the launch of the £3 million Bright Start Breakfasts fund, which opened for applications in May 2025. Funding was awarded to 490 breakfast clubs, including 142 new clubs, creating almost 9,000 breakfast club places. This has supported up to 20,000 primary and special school children across Scotland. Funding was prioritised to breakfast clubs supporting families most at risk of poverty, as well as to create new clubs in areas with low levels of existing provision. All clubs applying for funding in remote rural towns and areas were awarded funding in recognition of the challenges related to rural living. Funding has enabled breakfast clubs to target free places towards children and families who need it most, including lone parents and large families. Learning from the fund will help to inform and shape development of a national breakfast club offer which was announced as part of the 2026-27 Budget.

The Access to Childcare projects continue to meet the needs of particular families and communities, including children with additional support needs and rural communities, whilst also testing innovative models of school age childcare. Targeted towards the priority family types most at risk of living in poverty as set out in ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’, these projects are supporting over 500 children and their families across Angus, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Perth, and Shetland to benefit from funded or subsidised school age childcare services. Projects have focused on various types of childcare support and services, including providing childcare alongside family support, outdoor and STEM activities, partnership working with schools, and testing what is needed for a school age childcare system in rural and coastal towns and villages.

In 2025-26 we also provided an additional £1 million to support and enhance the delivery of holiday playschemes and activities for disabled children and children with additional support. These services provide vital support for families during school holiday periods, helping to meet childcare needs, provide short breaks, sustain parental employment and improve household finances. This funding was distributed across all 32 Local Authorities and aimed to support and enhance access to specialist services for disabled children during school holidays.

In recognition of the vital role of the childminding profession, we have continued to fund the Scottish Childminding Association to deliver the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future, ensuring more families can access this unique and flexible experience of childcare. In the past year, the Programme has expanded to 30 Local Authority areas, offering a £750 start-up grant to new childminding businesses, alongside a package of support and training to establish a new childminding business. The Programme also includes a range of measures to address the retention of the childminding workforce, including funded time off the floor, mentoring and peer-to-peer support, helping to deliver more practical support for professionals providing high-quality childcare options in a home environment.

Acknowledging that affordable and accessible school age childcare supports employment and the economy, we have also looked at the future accessibility and sustainability of school age childcare services. This includes launching a consultation inviting views on the first steps for regulatory change – creating a new legal definition for school age childcare which will help services operate more sustainably.

Case study: Bright Start Breakfasts

The Bright Start Breakfasts Fund delivers and supports breakfast provision that offers before-school childcare, activities, supervision and access to a healthy, nutritious breakfast. Supported by £3 million of investment in 2025-26, 142 new services have been introduced and a further 348 clubs have expanded their services by offering additional hours of childcare, activities including active play, and making more places available for children.

Through the Fund, Carnwardric After School Service in Glasgow have expanded their existing service to include provision across three local primary schools supporting families living in disadvantaged communities. Fully funded places were offered to families identified by school leadership or community staff, including the family of siblings Harrison* and Zoe*, two pupils in P2 and P7.

Childcare before school was unaffordable for both children, forcing Harrison and Zoe’s parents to miss work. Rising food costs made it difficult for the family to eat a consistent morning meal, and rushed routines often left everyone feeling stressed and anxious, affecting the children’s behaviour in class. Financial challenges added emotional strain and the family experienced social isolation, limiting access to community activities and friendships.

Through the new funded places, both children attended breakfast club daily, receiving a healthy breakfast, opportunities for supervised active play, and time to settle before learning. Staff provided relational support and a predictable routine that eased morning pressures for the family, whilst encouraging a calm and supportive start to the school day for the children, easing their anxiety and allowing their parents to get to work.

Both children now start the school day nourished, confident, and ready to learn. Their social confidence has grown, supported by new friendships formed at the breakfast club. Morning physical activity has also improved their emotional regulation and classroom readiness.

Speaking of the impact of the breakfast club, Harrison and Zoe’s parents said: “This has been a lifeline for our family. As working parents, having the use of this facility has enabled us to continue to go to work each day, on time without any stress. By having our two kids at the service, not only have they had the opportunity to make new friends and build great relationships with the staff, it has also helped them with their own confidence. We are extremely grateful to have to received a funded place for our children.”

*names changed to protect identity

D. Enhancing access to and the affordability of public transport

Across this reporting year we have continued to fund a wide range of actions to strengthen the role of reliable, accessible and affordable public transport for children and their families. This includes maintaining our commitment to concessionary travel schemes, providing young people under 22 across Scotland with free bus travel and establishing a free foot passenger travel scheme on inter-island ferries, providing young people with better travel connectivity and supporting families with the costs of living. This section sets out how we are going further, including through establishing a £2 bus fare cap pilot, expanding access to concessionary bus travel and removing ScotRail peak fares for good.

Impact summary

• Between January 2022 and March 2026, almost 300 million free bus journeys have been made by under-22s through the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme. This includes almost 85 million free bus journeys made in 2025-26, an increase of nearly 4 million from the previous year.
• As of March 2026, almost 839,000 children and young people were registered for free bus travel through the scheme, a 5% increase in cardholders from March 2025.
• Children and young people made 8.3 million free bus journeys between the 1st and 31st of March 2026, a 5% increase on the same period in 2025.
• Over 330,000 journeys were made as part of the national pilot to support free bus travel for asylum seekers, with 3,900 cards issued for free bus travel through the pilot.
• In June 2025, the National Concessionary Scheme providing free ferry vouchers was extended to island residents aged 16 to 21. In the first six months, young people made over 5,000 journeys and saved a total of £163,000.
• In the first nine months of providing free foot passenger travel on inter-island ferries for this group, almost 70,000 journeys were taken, saving young people a total of £116,000.

Summary of action undertaken in 2025-26

This year we have continued investment in the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme, supporting children and young people under the age of 22 to access education, employment, health and social activities. This is part of wider investment of over £414 million in free bus travel for over 2.4 million cardholders, including eligible disabled people and everyone aged 60 and over.

Our commitment to providing free bus travel has been strengthened by the delivery of a national pilot to support free bus travel for people seeking asylum. Backed by £2 million of funding, this ran from December 2025 to March 2026 to support people seeking asylum to attend essential legal, health and educational appointments, supporting people and families at a time when they are generally not allowed to work. Following conclusion of the pilot, we are undertaking an evaluation to determine how this has impacted people seeking asylum and supported their integration into society in line with our New Scots Strategy.

To support our rural and island communities with access to affordable travel, we are undertaking a 12-month £2 bus fare cap pilot across the Highlands and Islands. Supported by £10 million of investment, the pilot was launched on a phased basis, commencing in Shetland in January 2026 before rolling out to the Western Isles, Orkney, Highland, Moray and areas of Argyll and Bute from March. This aims to increase bus patronage, strengthen local service provision and provide enhanced support for lower income passengers in rural and island areas. Learning from the pilot will be utilised to strengthen our understanding of the impact of the fare cap and to inform future policy considerations.

We have also taken action to support children and young people’s access to transport in our island and rural communities. In April 2025, a free foot passenger travel scheme on inter-island ferries commenced, providing free travel for islanders aged 22 and under across the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland, providing accessible links between these communities. We also extended the National Concessionary Scheme providing free ferry vouchers, expanding this to island residents aged 16 to 21 in June 2025. Over 3,000 young islanders are expected to benefit from the expansion of the Scheme, with vouchers supporting them to travel sustainably between their home island and mainland without cost.

In relation to rail, peak fares were removed from Scotrail services for good from 1 September 2025, backed by up to £35 million in investment annually. In doing so, we have helped families by making rail journeys cheaper and simplifying fares. Building on this, in April 2026, we committed to freeze all ScotRail fares for 12 months to save people money on travel. Work is underway to build upon the evaluation of the initial peak fares pilot, with emerging findings anticipated towards the end of 2026.

To support people to access public transport easily, we are continuing work to deliver the next generation digital travel system. In March 2026 we refreshed the Traveline Scotland national public transport planning service website and app to include more information on ticketing and fares, supporting passengers with options to choose the right price for their journey. This update also included better real time bus location information and an ‘alighting alert’ to help people identify the right location for departure, facilitating easier navigation of bus travel for service users, including for children and young people. Next phases of the project will see further enhancements to the system across 2026, including enhancements to support user experience and progressing open bus data legislation to enable data improvements.

Beyond our focus on sustainable public transport, we are continuing to support active travel for young people across regions through the People and Place Programme delivered by Regional Transport Partnerships. In March 2026 we published an assessment of the first year of the Programme, covering 2024-25. This found that a range of projects are focused on accessibility and inclusion, including providing access to cycles and adaptive cycles for young people who cannot afford them. Data analysed for this assessment found that these projects were directly contributing to reducing transport poverty and reducing barriers to active travel for underrepresented groups.

Case study: £2 Bus Fare Cap pilot

The £2 Bus Fare Cap pilot, launched in 2026 across the Highlands and Islands, is helping to make everyday travel more affordable for families on low incomes, including those with children. Backed by £10 million of Scottish Government investment and in partnership with HITRANS and ZetTrans Regional Transport Partnerships, the 12‑month pilot caps single bus fares at £2 on participating services across Highland, Moray, Argyll and Bute, and our island communities.

For families experiencing poverty in rural and island areas, transport costs can present a significant barrier to accessing employment, education and essential services. Research has shown low income households are more reliant on buses and can spend a higher proportion of their income on transport, with affordability directly affecting access to opportunities.

By introducing a simple, low-cost fare, the pilot is helping to ease these pressures and put money back in people’s pockets. Passengers are now saving around £8 per journey on average, with larger average reductions of £14 on longer journeys.

The pilot is also designed to improve connectivity and reduce social isolation, issues that can be more pronounced in rural and island communities. Affordable, reliable transport enables children and young people to access school, training, and social opportunities, while supporting parents to sustain employment or increase working hours.

Ranald Robertson, Director of HITRANS, said:

“By capping fares at £2, this pilot is helping to make everyday journeys more affordable and opening up access to jobs, education and essential services. In rural areas especially, where distances are longer and options are limited, this can make a meaningful difference to household budgets and to children’s life chances.”

Learning from this pilot will inform our commitment to cap bus fares at £2 nationwide, helping to tackle the cost of living for even more families.

E. Person centred support

‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ outlined the importance of providing access to the holistic person-centred, trauma informed services families need to thrive as part of wider action on child poverty. In the past year we have continued to drive forward progress on this commitment, including through increased investment in the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme, to support transformation at a local level, the wider rollout of the Getting it Right for Everyone approach to embed person-centred practice across adult services, and expansion of Fairer Funding for third sector organisations delivering services key to tackling child poverty. This investment and action have helped to further strengthen the foundations on which future action will be taken through ‘Bringing Hope, Building Futures’.

Impact Summary

• Analysis of Year 3 (2024-25) Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme Templates shows that Children’s Services Planning Partnerships are using funding to advance more responsive, preventative and holistic models of family support.
• Monitoring and reporting data from year four (2024-25) of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults, published in November 2025, shows 619 (44%) projects supported people from at least one priority family group at greatest risk of poverty. Of these, 36% focused on one group and 64% supported multiple groups. 8.5% of projects supported all six priority family types.
• Third sector organisations in receipt of 51 grants, focused on delivering essential services and action on child poverty, have benefitted from expanded multi-year funding as part of our Fairer Funding policy, with recipients indicating it has positively impacted staffing, stability and future planning.
• The MCR Pathways mentoring programme engaged around 5,000 young people in 82 schools across Scotland, with early evidence indicating positive impacts on attainment, school engagement and post-school destinations.
• Continued investment in Inclusion Health Action in General Practice has supported 65 GP practices in Greater Glasgow & Clyde to address healthcare inequalities, with evaluation showing the continued value of this approach in providing more equitable, patient‑centred care in areas of high deprivation.

Summary of action undertaken in 2025-26

This year, we have continued to strengthen our commitment to the transformation of holistic Whole Family Support through the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme. We increased funding to Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs) to £38.1 million, with a commitment to maintain this level into 2026-27. We have also continued to support local transformation through collaborative learning partnerships, our Learning into Action Network, and investment in 12 cross-Government projects to drive transformational system change, aligned with the National Principles for Holistic Family Support.

With a continued focus on preventative, joined-up working aimed at improving people’s experience of public services, we have progressed the wider rollout of the Getting it Right for Everyone (GIRFE) approach. As a result, GIRFE has been incorporated into NHS Board Annual Delivery Plans and positioned as a key mechanism for embedding public service reform principles into frontline adult services and local delivery models. We have developed and published GIRFE learning resources and tools to support implementation and established a collaborative learning community for practitioners.

Our investment in Inclusion Health Action in General Practice has continued this year through £1 million to support 65 GP practices in Greater Glasgow & Clyde to address healthcare inequalities. Practices have focused on a range of activities including community engagement, workforce development in relation to health inequalities, as well as proactive outreach and extended consultations for individuals who may face barriers to accessing healthcare. Evaluation findings published in March 2026 highlight the value of this approach and the transferable learning generated for addressing inequalities through General Practice.

Building on the £66 million invested over the first four years, we have continued to strengthen support for adults’ wellbeing through the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, with £18 million distributed to projects in 2025-26 bringing our total investment in the Fund to £84 million since 2021. A diverse range of projects were funded, including social activities, peer support and mentoring.

To support families affected by drug and alcohol use, we invested an additional £3.5 million in Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) to implement our ‘Families Affected by Drug and Alcohol Use in Scotland’ framework. This has seen 93% of ADPs having agreed activities and priorities with their partners to support implementation, an increase from 77% in 2023-24. We have also continued delivery of the Family Inclusive Practice development programme, working with ADPs and local services to develop high-quality holistic support for families, and published new standards for supporting young people aged 25 and under who use substances - helping ensure that services are better tailored to their needs.

In support of our commitment to scale up approaches focused on improving the outcomes of disadvantaged children and young people, we have continued to invest £2.1 million in MCR Pathways school-based mentoring for care experienced young people and other young people. This includes young carers, asylum seekers or those who have suffered significant family bereavement or disruption. Interim indications are that the programme has demonstrated a positive impact on young people’s attainment levels, engagement in school and post-school destinations - delivering a strong social return on investment. Fuller evaluation will be published in the coming months.

In recognition of the importance of our third sector partners in delivering services for families, we have continued to improve the sustainability and stability of funding through an expansion in Fairer Funding in April 2025. This expansion is providing 51 multi-year grants totalling over £130 million across 2025-26 and 2026-27 for organisations delivering essential services and action on child poverty, and represents a first step towards mainstreaming multi-year funding.

Case study: Aberlour Urgent Assistance Fund

Aberlour’s Urgent Assistance Fund provides vital and immediate financial assistance to families in poverty. Helping 3,000 families each year with necessities such as food, clothing and bedding, and supporting families facing public debt. In January 2026, the Scottish Government allocated £550,000 of funding, previously committed to mitigating the two-child limit, to enable the fund to provide extra support to families in crisis.

Through the additional Scottish Government funding made available, 1,072 families experiencing crisis were provided with emergency financial grants and holistic support. Amanda* and her children are just one of the families supported.

Amanda had separated from her husband following domestic abuse and alleged child abuse, which was being addressed through the court system. She was staying in the family home with her three children but was struggling financially and emotionally. Her ex-husband had removed financial support and she was unable to work herself due to the impact of the abuse on her own mental and physical health. She worried that she and her children would be unable to access the essentials they needed.

Amanda was made aware of the fund and referred to Aberlour by her school’s health team. With Amanda’s consent, they acted as her family’s sponsor, with a food parcel arranged on the same day by Aberlour to provide immediate support.

Scottish Government funding meant the Urgent Assistance Fund could provide Amanda with an additional £300 to support her with food, heating, and clothing for the children – this provided additional relief and helped ensure she was able to meet her needs and those of her children.

Recognising the need for support beyond this crisis, Aberlour also provided financial inclusion and trauma recovery support. Amanda was referred to the Local Authority Welfare Rights Team and got help to reapply for Universal Credit, to give her a steady source of income, and Child Disability Payment for her oldest child. Aberlour also made a referral to Home Energy Scotland to help tackle the energy debts Amanda had built up and to access home energy efficiency measures, to help minimise the money she was spending every week on her essential fuel bills.

Following the award from the Urgent Assistance Fund, Amanda’s applications for Child Disability Payment and Universal Credit were approved, providing the family with a stable income to help make ends meet.

In addition to financial assistance, Amanda and her children have continued to receive emotional and trauma recovery support, helping them to overcome the experiences they have faced and helping them to rebuild their lives.

*name changed to protect identity

F. Enhanced support through Social Security

Delivering a strong, accessible and trusted social security system is one of the most direct ways to tackle child poverty. This year, we continued to deliver and embed a wide‑ranging package of income‑related support, providing direct financial assistance to families, carers and disabled people and strengthening take up of entitlements. We completed the final and most complex phase of our social security devolution programme, transitioning disability and carer benefit awards from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland and ensuring a system of support grounded in dignity, fairness and respect. Our commitment to these principles has been demonstrated through the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment, which found our approach to be a compassionate step change in providing meaningful and vital support to families.

Impact summary

• As of March 2026, the families of 321,885 children were in receipt of Scottish Child Payment, with over £460 million paid in 2025-26. Modelling suggests this support will keep 50,000 children out of relative poverty in 2026-27.
• As of March 2026, £35.7 million has been paid to clients for Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods in 2025-26, supporting 67,560 individual clients.
• As of March 2026, it is estimated that 101,990 children and young people were in receipt of Child Disability Payment and over £574 million in payments had been issued in 2025-26.
• As of April 2026, 504,710 people were in receipt of Adult Disability Payment and over £3.4 billion in payments were issued in 2025-26.
• As of March 2026, 472,815 Winter Heating Payments had been issued for 2025-26, worth over £28.3 million.
• As of March 2026, 101,080 people were in receipt of Carer Support Payment, with a further 33,305 carers having underlying entitlement. In 2025-26, £426.5 million was paid to households.
• Over £100 million was made available for Discretionary Housing Payments in 2025-26, including £9.4 million targeted to mitigating the UK Government benefit cap. Benefit cap mitigation has potential to support around 2,900 households with over 9,000 children. In Scotland, 97% of all households affected by the benefit cap are families, and around 70% are lone parent families.
• From April to December 2025, the Scottish Welfare Fund has issued over 51,000 awards to families with children across Scotland totalling almost £16 million, with an average of £310 per award assistance.
• Free School Meals were made available to over 360,000 pupils in Scotland, saving families who take up the offer every school day £450 per child per year. The proportion of pupils taking a free school meal increased from 64.3% in 2022-23 to 67.7% in 2023-24.
• It is estimated that an additional 25,000 children were eligible for Free School Meals as a result of eligibility being expanded to children in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in P6 and P7. Up to 6,100 newly eligible pupils were supported by a test of change across S1 to S3 pupils in 60 schools on the same basis.

Summary of action taken in 2025–26

From 1 April 2025, all Scottish benefits were increased in value by 1.7% in line with inflation, at an estimated cost of £110 million, to ensure that families can continue to depend on social security assistance retaining its real-terms value. This brought the value of the Scottish Child Payment to £27.15 per child per week in 2025-26.

Building on investment in our five family payments, we worked at pace to deliver our Two Child Limit Payment from March 2026 – progressing consultation, policy and the development of systems to provide this vital support to families. In June 2025 we published the consultation analysis report, the findings of which were fully considered as we developed the draft regulations that were sent to the Scottish Commission on Social Security for scrutiny later that month. At the same time, work progressed rapidly to establish a delivery system to ensure families could receive timely payment. Following the UK Government announcement on 26 November 2025 that it would end the two-child limit from April 2026 the payment was no longer required. As a result, we reallocated £10 million of funding previously committed to support the payment to 2025-26 in a package of measures to tackle child poverty.

2025-26 marked the first full financial year of the Carer Support Payment in Scotland, with nearly 120,000 awards transferred. Replacing the Carer’s Allowance, this extends eligibility to more carers in full time education and provides more stable support for carers also in paid work. A multi-phase evaluation of Carer Support Payment is underway, with Phase 1, published in March 2026, finding that clients had a generally positive experience of accessing support, with many reporting improved financial stability and reduced stress.

To further strengthen support for carers, we launched the Carer Additional Person Payment on 16 March 2026, a new payment for carers receiving Carer Support Payment who look after more than one person getting certain disability benefits. Introduced at £10 per week, and increased to £10.40 from 6 April, the payment can be received for each additional person the carer is caring for. The extra payment recognises and provides support for the additional impacts caring for multiple people can have on carers’ lives, including on their health and wellbeing. It is anticipated that this payment will benefit around 16,000 carers in Scotland in 2026-27.

The transfer of Personal Independence Payment awards to Adult Disability Payment was also completed this year, with £7 billion paid since launch. Shaped by the voices of those with lived experience, the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment finds that our approach to Adult Disability Payment is focused on human rights and dignity, with positive changes in the implementation of the payment evident. The review makes a number of recommendations to further improve delivery. The Scottish Government published its formal response in February 2026, marking the start of further improvements to delivery and client experience.

Our Benefit Take‑Up Strategy has continued to prioritise increasing awareness of Scottish benefits, reducing barriers to access, and improving the consistency of advice and information available to families. This year we have undertaken national marketing campaigns for Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Foods and digital engagement events to support families in understanding how they can access support. Alongside this, work has continued to embed the Seldom‑Heard Groups Action Plan, published in August 2025, which sets out practical steps to reduce barriers through improved inclusive communication, strengthened engagement with organisations, and greater use of lived‑experience insight. Building on these findings, Social Security Scotland launched its national Tackling Stigma Campaign in February 2026 to challenge stigma and normalise social security as a human right.

Linked to improving take-up, work has progressed during this year to strengthen data sharing and governance, laying the foundations for exploring the delivery of automated payments or more proactive payment approaches. In collaboration with Local Authorities, Social Security Scotland has worked to implement secure data‑sharing processes to support the current phase for the expansion of Free School Meals to children in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in P6 and P7.

This phase of Free School Meal expansion commenced in February 2025, with capital works ongoing to deliver the necessary improvements and expansion to kitchen facilities to support expansion which will allow around 25,000 newly eligible pupils to access nutritious meals. In addition, the Scottish Government invested a further £3 million in a test of change which allowed around 6,100 pupils in S1 to S3 in receipt of Scottish Child Payment in 60 schools across eight Local Authorities to access meals. Regulations to allow data sharing between Social Security Scotland and Local Authorities came into effect on 19 May 2025, supporting the identification of children newly eligible for this expanded offer.

Working closely with our Local Authority partners, we have continued development of the Care Leaver Payment. The Care Leaver Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026 were laid in Parliament in January 2026 and came into force on 1 April 2026. Following this, in April 2026 we published national guidance for practitioners and information for young people eligible for the payment. Developed in collaboration with key stakeholders, this is intended to provide support and clarity to practitioners as they deliver the payment and to promote consistency across all Local Authorities, with resources for young people tested with care-experienced young people to ensure clarity and accessibility.

We have also continued to complete and embed the actions of the Independent Review of the Scottish Welfare Fund. Revised statutory guidance was published in April 2025, supporting consistent application across all Local Authorities. In the face of ongoing cost of living pressures, we allocated an additional £5.5 million of funding, previously committed to the Two Child Limit Payment, to support councils in meeting ongoing demand for support through the Fund.

Case study: Children First Support Line

Through the reinvestment of two-child limit mitigation funding in 2025-26, the Scottish Government awarded £1.5 million to the Children First Support Line. Available 365 days a year, this provides a national, trauma‑informed front door for families to access practical, financial and emotional support.

Debbie* is a single mother of three children. During the Covid pandemic, Debbie lost her job and built up significant rent arrears. Despite working multiple jobs since, she was unable to recover financially and became overwhelmed. Court letters and eviction proceedings caused significant distress and Debbie felt unsure where to turn for help. At the same time, the family also faced challenges as a result of their living conditions. A recent leak caused mould damage to clothing and Debbie had been sleeping on the sofa for many years in order to ensure her children all had separate bedrooms and their own space. As a result of all these pressures, the family were struggling to meet basic needs, regularly having to choose between food, clothing and bills.

The children’s head teacher was aware of the family’s situation and contacted the local Children First service. With Debbie’s consent, the Support Line made contact by phone to get to know her and understand the family’s situation. The Support Line team member worked at Debbie’s pace, building trust and focusing on stabilising the immediate crisis while planning for longer‑term improvement in her circumstances.

Urgent practical support was provided, including £800 towards food costs, £500 in vouchers to purchase storage in the home and £1,500 for essential household items including a sofa bed and bedding. This allowed Debbie to sleep in a bed for the first time in 15 years. The family also received a new fridge freezer, accessed through a partnership with the British Gas Energy Trust, replacing a faulty appliance they could not afford to repair or replace.

The Support Line’s Money Advice team also worked with Debbie, identifying that her Universal Credit housing costs had stopped without her knowledge and making her aware that she was not claiming all the benefits she may be eligible to receive, including Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment. Debbie was assisted to gather documentation, respond to court correspondence, and correct her Universal Credit award. She was also supported to make payments towards her rent arrears. Debbie described the support received as “life changing” and expressed relief that she could provide for her children’s basic needs and improve their home environment.

Mary Glasgow, Chief Executive of Children First, said: “Children First Support Line is described as a lifeline by families because, at a time of real despair, it offers help and hope, quickly and without stigma. Support Line colleagues offer a skilled, non-judgemental space to be heard with a focus on reducing stress, developing confidence, and finding long term solutions. This helps families move beyond the damaging short and long-term effects of poverty and offers children a brighter and safer future.”

G. Ensuring access to warm, affordable homes

Across the reporting year, we have continued to take action to ensure every child has access to a warm, safe and affordable home. Our Housing Emergency Action Plan, published in September, sets out new, enhanced and accelerated actions to provide a bold and coordinated response to the national Housing Emergency – with action to tackle homelessness and deliver the affordable homes Scotland needs. Beyond this immediate action, we also secured passage of the Housing (Scotland) Bill, which will help transform homelessness prevention and improve standards in rented housing in the longer term. Together with action to tackle energy costs, these steps further strengthen the foundations for future action.

Impact Summary

• Between April and December 2025, an estimated 2,075 households with children were supported into affordable housing through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.
• Over the same period, we helped deliver 3,943 affordable homes of which 3,080 were for social rent. We have also approved 3,675 and started 4,109 affordable homes during the same period.
• It is estimated that keeping social rents substantially lower than market rents benefits approximately 140,000 children in poverty each year.
• Doubling housing acquisition funding to £80 million is estimated to help take between 600-800 children out of temporary accommodation.
• Across 2025-26, Warmer Homes Scotland supported 6,270 households with 15,109 heating, insulation and renewable measures installed. On average, households saved around £300 a year on their fuel bills as a result.
• As of 30 September 2025, 26 local authorities in Scotland deliver Housing First. The approach has demonstrated strong outcomes, with 83% of people offered a Housing First tenancy remaining in their homes 12 months after moving in. It is estimated that 8% of Housing First tenancies are households with children.
• Increased Discretionary Housing Payment funding of £2 million has supported at least 113 households including 197 children to either stay in their Private Rented Sector home, or to move from temporary accommodation to a settled home within the sector.
• As of 31 March 2026, Scottish Women’s Aid had received 747 successful applications to the Fund to Leave totalling £423,533. This supported 1,010 dependent children, with applicants receiving an average award of £570.
• As of March 2026, nearly 460,000 households received support through Council Tax Reduction (CTR) saving recipients on average over £900 a year. Latest estimates suggest just over 100,000 households with children received CTR as of March 2026.

Summary of action taken in 2025-26

In 2025-26, we invested £808 million in affordable housing, an increase of over £200 million from 2024-25, supporting continued progress toward our commitment to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. As a result of our investment and action, by the end of December 2025, 32,479 affordable homes were delivered toward the target of 110,000 by 2032, with 77% of these available for social rent.

Building on the significant progress made to date, we published our Housing Emergency Action Plan in September 2025. This sets out new, enhanced and accelerated actions to tackle the housing emergency in Scotland focused on ending children living in unsuitable accommodation, supporting the housing needs of vulnerable communities, and maximising investment in Scotland’s housing sector. New measures included doubling funding for housing acquisitions from £40 million to £80 million as part of our Affordable Housing Supply Programme. We also increased funding for Discretionary Housing Payments by £2 million to support households with children, currently in temporary accommodation, to find settled homes in the private rented sector.

We have also continued to deliver on the implementation of the Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan, with the majority of actions ongoing or having been completed by 1 April 2025. Across this reporting year, we have built upon the action taken to date to support rural and island housing delivery. This has included extending the application period to the Rural and Islands Housing Fund (RIHF) to March 2028, increasing the RIHF budget to up to £37 million, and increasing the RIHF feasibility funding to up to £20,000 per project. We also published the National Islands Plan in February, which includes a number of actions on housing delivery as well as childcare and education, and the updated Local Housing Strategy guidance in March, which includes a renewed focus on rural and island delivery, and eradicating child poverty.

To advance vital reforms in the Private Rented Sector and to support the prevention of homelessness, we continued to progress the Housing (Scotland) Bill, with legislation receiving Royal Assent in November, to become the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025. The rented sector measures in the Act will help improve affordability by implementing a national system of rent controls as well as delivering a package of reforms that strengthen tenants’ rights and improve the experience of renting a home. These reforms include additional protections for tenants facing eviction or who have been unlawfully evicted, new measures aimed at preventing homelessness, and measures designed to support those who are experiencing domestic abuse. Implementation of the measures in the Act is underway, and the regulations to introduce ‘Awaab’s Law’ in Scotland, starting with tackling damp and mould, were made in March 2026.

To continue to enhance suitable accommodation for the Gypsy/Traveller community, in 2025-26, progress has been made on the remaining projects funded under the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund. Residents have moved into their new homes in Fife, Highland and Perth and Kinross. Residents of the remaining site in Clackmannanshire are due to move back in June 2026.

To help people keep their homes warmer and reduce their energy bills we continued to invest over £90 million in Warmer Homes Scotland. This service has supported households by installing heating and energy efficiency measures in homes, targeted at those in or at risk of fuel poverty. In January 2026, Warmer Homes Scotland achieved a key milestone of supporting more than 50,000 customers since the scheme was first launched in 2015. During the year, Warmer Homes Scotland also completed 1,117 clean heating installations, the largest number since the scheme re-launched in October 2023.

In order to prevent and end homelessness, we continued to implement actions in our homelessness strategy. This included providing local authorities with £9 million of funding to help them transform the use of temporary accommodation, as well as a £3 million funding boost to expand Housing First across Scotland, strengthening our support for families experiencing or at risk of homelessness and helping people move into warm, safe and affordable settled homes as quickly as possible.

Recognising the specific housing challenges faced by women experiencing domestic abuse, the Scottish Government invested £1.5 million to launch the national Fund to Leave, which opened for referrals in February 2026. Administered by Scottish Women’s Aid, the fund offers grants to women for essentials when leaving an abusive partner, removing the financial barriers that can trap women in harmful relationships. This will help to give women and children more choices and more control by giving them the means to act quickly and safely.

Case study: Island Cost Crisis Emergency Fund

Established in December 2022, the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund supports vulnerable island households facing cost‑of‑living pressures, with a specific focus on tackling child poverty. Since its inception, the Fund has distributed £5.4 million through Scotland’s six Local Authorities with offshore inhabited islands on a population basis, with flexibility given to tailor support to local needs.

In 2025–26, a total of £1 million was distributed to Local Authorities, with Shetland Islands Council receiving £223,000 to deliver targeted support. Through this the council delivered a range of support, including issuing two winter payments to low income families. These provided immediate support worth a total of almost £300 to over 650 children during the winter months. One recipient noted: “The payments have enabled us to afford to pay for heating to keep our home warm. This has been a relief at a time when heating has become very expensive”.

Orkney Islands Council’s allocation was worth £214,000 and it provided immediate support to individuals, families and communities affected by the cost of living crisis. Through this, a range of initiatives were delivered, including the “Every Child Deserves a Christmas” grants scheme. Under this programme, almost 400 targeted cash-first payments were issued to families across Orkney, helping to ease financial pressures during the winter months and festive period.

These and other approaches taken have meant that families are better able to navigate the increased costs of living in our island communities and meet their essential needs.

H. Maximising income

Over the last year, we have continued to work with partners to improve access to the support and advice families need to thrive. This includes providing cash-first solutions to help tackle food insecurity, expanding the successful Council Tax Debt Advice Project across all Local Authority areas, and investing in action that makes it easier for people to access welfare, money and debt advice through the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund and Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships (WAHPs). Alongside our investment in front line advice services, we have continued work to maximise the impact of the trusted relationships held by Health Visitors to support conversations around finances and, additionally, ensured targeted support for young parents through the Family Nurse Partnership. This has been supported by our strategic communications approach to help increase the awareness of available support and how to access it.

Impact Summary

• Data reported by Citizens Advice Scotland’s Money Talk Team, StepChange, Advice Direct Scotland, One Parent Families Scotland and Advice UK shows that at least 115,320 clients were supported by Scottish Government funded advice services in 2025-26.
• The Money Talk Team alone supported over 64,000 clients in 2025-26 with over 13,000 of those belonging to one or more of the six priority family groups. Clients of the Money Talk Team secured over £52.1 million in financial gains, including £13.1 million for priority family groups.
• Since its launch in July 2023, the Advice in Accessible Settings Fund has supported more than 18,600 clients and unlocked more than £44 million in financial gains.
• In 2025-26, to provide access to food through emergency payments and wraparound support, approximately 1,467 families were supported by the Cash-First Programme - an increase from the 1,220 supported in 2024-25.
• One Cash-First delivery partner reported supported 2,096 beneficiaries (individuals and families) in 2025 to secure total financial gains of over £817,000.
• The Family Nurse Partnership is now supporting an additional 500 families per year since 2020-21. Over two thirds (67%) of those supported live in the two most deprived SIMD quintiles, with 22% of clients care‑experienced. Over 15,500 families with babies have benefited from FNP since its inception in 2010 with the percentage of mothers in paid employment or education doubling between six months after birth and 24 months (20% to 40%).
• Through the Council Tax Debt Advice Project in 2025-26, clients were supported to make over £2.8 million through Council Tax related financial gains.
• Statistics show that, across 2025-26, 55,426 people visited the Scottish Government’s cost of living portal, including 5,963 visits to the family benefits and payments page and 6,207 visits to the children and families page, increasing awareness of the support families can access.
• 265,476 people visited the Parent Club website, with 39,986 views of the Money and Work pages. Paid and organic Parent Club social media posts were seen more than 8.1 million times.

Summary of action undertaken in 2025-26

In 2025-26, we invested over £16.9 million in debt, welfare and income maximisation advice services. This funding supported a range of activities such as the provision of free to access advice – either online, by telephone or face to face – including the Money Talk Team delivered through Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS).

Through this funding, we also continued to deliver our Advice in Accessible Settings Fund, including additional funding to support disabled people. Projects supported by the fund are delivering holistic advice services, including debt advice, in a range of education, health and other community settings. Families receiving support from these services include lone parents, minority ethnic families, disabled people and families with disabled children.

In the past year we also expanded the CAS Council Tax Debt Advice Project across all 32 Local Authorities. This new national project, supported by £2.22 million of investment, has supported increased debt advice provision across the whole of Scotland for those in Council Tax arrears. It has also supported the development of national resources which can help support the best practice principles in Council Tax collection.

In addition, we provided targeted support for those experiencing energy debt, investing over £940,000 from the Consumer Levy. This funding was used to help established advice organisations to provide money and debt advice to energy customers, increase capacity through additional staff training, and enhance engagement with energy suppliers to facilitate more sustainable debt solutions for customers.

In recognition of the additional barriers faced by those experiencing economic abuse and coerced debt, we also provided new funding for Financially Included, a partnership project between GEMAP Scotland and the Glasgow Violence Against Women Partnership. In 2025-26, this investment supported the scoping and development of a new Scottish helpline for economic abuse, as well as increased provision of specialist advice and support.

In 2025-26, we invested more than £610,000 in Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships. The final evaluation of this ‘test and learn’ pilot was published in November 2025. The report highlighted the value of providing advice services in trusted, accessible settings. Following the anticipated conclusion of the ‘test-and-learn’ pilot, the Scottish Government agreed to continue funding under a tapered approach until 2026-27, helping delivery partners’ ability to embed WAHPs within wider income maximisation settings.

Beyond these settings, within our core home visiting programmes, we recognise the trusted and unique role universal health services have in the lives of families. That is why we have ensured that Health Visitors across Scotland continue to have the opportunity to access the Money Guiders learning programme, which helps grow their confidence in having conversations with families about money and wider financial circumstances.

To ensure young parents receive holistic support that addresses their immediate health and wellbeing needs – including support and resources such as money, employment and welfare advice – we have also continued to deliver the expanded Family Nurse Partnership across all mainland NHS Scotland Boards. Those aged 19 years old and under are prioritised, as well as care‑experienced parents up to 25, with support for 20–21 year olds provided where capacity allows. The programme is working to support young parents in building confidence, skills and knowledge, with strong reach in disadvantaged communities. Throughout the year, we have continued work with Health Boards to improve operational data to better inform impact on measures associated with reducing risk of child poverty.

Complementing our focus on income maximisation and debt advice, we have continued to drive forward wider action to ensure families can afford essentials through our Cash First plan toward ending the need for food banks. We provided funding across a range of activity, including almost £560,000 for the Cash-First Programme. Projects in the Programme provided ready access to emergency income when someone had no money for food alongside wraparound welfare rights and income maximisation advice and support to prevent future hardship. Seven of the eight Cash-First delivery partners delivered emergency income and advice directly to individuals, while one delivery partner introduced systems change initiatives to develop local cash-first pathways, engaging with local community food networks. The Cash-First Programme concluded on 31 March and a final evaluation will be published later this summer.

Alongside this, we have also funded action to support wellbeing through community food approaches, to support cash payments and casework that are inclusive for people with no recourse to public funds and in an emergency situation, and to continue to listen to people with direct experience of food insecurity.

This wide-ranging action on advice has been strengthened by our strategic communications approach, focused on helping ensure families know about ways in which they can maximise their household income. This has included paid-for marketing, social content, news and partnership activity to reach and drive parents to access the Parent Club website and Cost of Living support. Communications have targeted the six priority families through targeted paid-for campaigns, close work with partners and the third sector, and via Parent Club social media channels. Evaluation of these activities shows that people have been reached and have a better understanding that help and support is available for those who need it.

Case study: Council Tax Debt Pilot

Through the Council Tax Debt Project, Citizens Advice Scotland are working closely with Local Authorities across Scotland to support residents with tailored advice on Council Tax related issues including debt. In addition to supporting individuals, learning from the project is also being used to improve debt collection policies and practices.

Over the past year, almost 200 activities were undertaken with Local Authorities across Scotland as part of the Council Tax Debt Project, supporting families and households struggling with arrears. These include holding training events between Bureaux and Councils, campaigns promoting Council Tax Reduction, and efforts encouraging Local Authorities to implement policies on writing off debts which are unlikely to be fully repaid. As a result of the project, people supported have accessed more than £2.8 million of help, the majority of which was through the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, discounts or exemptions.

In Dumfries and Galloway, the Bureau is working closely with the Council to promote support available through local school newsletters so that every parent in the area receives information about the Project and the support available at their local Bureau. Through this, Leila* made contact with the Bureau.

Leila is a single parent of a six-year-old child who was concerned about being able to repay her Council Tax arrears of £1,394 while also maintaining the current year’s payments. Leila was keen to get out of the cycle of arrears which she felt she was in.

Leila has three part-time jobs, each with variable hours which affects her Universal Credit payments each month. Her income being so unpredictable had made it more challenging to budget and manage debts. The Bureau contacted the Council on Leila’s behalf and requested that a special arrangement be put in place to make sure she could afford to repay her arrears alongside her current liability. Following this, the Council agreed to a repayment plan over the course of 43 months – extending the repayment period and lowering the monthly cost faced.

As a result, Leila was able to afford to maintain her current year’s Council Tax payments in addition to making a manageable monthly payment towards her arrears. She was also able to avoid the 10% fee that would have been applied to the debt had it been transferred to the Sheriff Officers. Leila reported feeling relieved that she would no longer have to worry about a potential wage arrestment. In addition to the advice that Leila received on her Council Tax debt, she also received wider holistic support which focused on a sanction on her Universal Credit and on energy debt. The sanction was successfully challenged, resulting in a payment of £866, whilst energy debt support is ongoing.

Through this Project, the Bureau has been able to strengthen their relationship with the Council and to work more collaboratively to resolve cases and support clients. The Project aims to encourage all Councils across Scotland to embed similar collaborative approaches to ensure positive outcomes for all clients who require assistance with Council Tax issues.

*name changed to protect identity

I. Place based transformation

This year, we have continued to embed and scale a place based, holistic family support approach to tackling child poverty. We have significantly expanded our Fairer Futures Partnerships, strengthened system-wide learning and improvement, and invested in a range of programmes that support local partners to design and deliver person-centred support shaped around families and communities. In addition to our continued focus on rural and island communities, we have also advanced our approach to enabling the delivery of Whole Family Support through increased flexibility and shared outcomes. Collectively, these actions are providing immediate support for families while strengthening local systems and partnerships to deliver lasting change for families across Scotland.

Impact Summary

• Fairer Futures Partnerships (FFPs) have expanded to 16 Local Authority areas, with the earliest partnerships in Dundee, Glasgow and Clackmannanshire having supported thousands of individuals and families through holistic, person centred approaches during 2025-26.
• Dundee’s FFP has supported over 1,400 individuals and family groups through their community hub and key worker outreach model.
• In Clackmannanshire, the Family Wellbeing Partnership (FWP) approach, which aims to reduce child poverty and improve family wellbeing, saw around 8,000 individuals participating in a range of programmes and activities which include school and community-based activities for children, young people and adults.
• Emerging evidence shows that through systems change efforts some newer partnerships are already reaching priority families. In East Ayrshire, 110 lone-parent households and families with a disabled member were supported, contributing to improved family resilience and wellbeing and reduced social isolation.
• The Social Innovation Partnership engaged over 3,000 individuals and families across a range of themes – including addiction, family support, community engagement, employability and homelessness.
• The Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund (CPAF) has had clear positive impacts for families, including improved financial outcomes, earlier access to support, reduced stigma and increased confidence and agency. The Fund has also strengthened local systems through improved partnership working, better use of data, and increased use of co-production and lived experience in service design, alongside early evidence of a shift towards more proactive and preventative approaches.

Summary of action undertaken in 2025-26

This year we have continued to expand and embed our Fairer Futures Partnerships (FFPs), investing over £6 million in the programme overall. This has supported the inclusion of a further eight Local Authorities, bringing the total number of FFP areas to 16.

The actions of FFPs reflect local priorities, with a wide range of activity being prioritised to drive forward change specific to assessed need in each Local Authority area. FFPs have championed partnership working focused on delivering person-centred support to achieve better outcomes for families and inform the design of services which operate in a more preventative way. This includes meeting families where they are and providing support when they need it. An update on the work of six individual areas is noted below:

• Clackmannanshire’s Family Wellbeing Partnership (FWP) is increasingly informing work across the Local Authority through the testing of new delivery models and strengthening of partnerships with communities and third-sector organisations. The evaluation of the FWP, published in June 2025, found that this has improved wellbeing and driven innovative, trust-based, collaborative, and co-designed service delivery.
• Progress continues in Dundee, where the FFP has developed tailor made employability support to focus on specific parts of the community, including those aged 16-24, whilst also continuing to support communities with holistic Whole Family Support across three drop-in centres.
• Glasgow’s FFP have continued to support Demonstrations of Change in the Calton, Govan and Southside Central wards 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.
• West Dunbartonshire’s FFP is tackling the intersection between poverty and justice involvement, with a particular focus on families affected by parental imprisonment and engaged with the justice system. The support provided includes one‑to‑one coaching, personal development, employability workshops, and accredited training - supporting participants to build more positive futures.
• In East Ayrshire local third sector organisations have been empowered to deliver targeted early intervention and community-based support to priority families.
• North Ayrshire have used a Smart Data Foundry licence to better understand which local areas would benefit most from holistic family support and have targeted support accordingly, whilst also tracking the impact of these measures.

Alongside FFP expansion, we have taken important steps to build local capability and share learning, recognising that transformation requires sustained collaboration and system change over time. As part of our £6 million FFP investment, we provided £1.12 million in Adopt and Adapt funding to all remaining Local Authorities to support partners to engage more deeply with the FFP learning programme. In partnership with the Improvement Service, we have delivered seven learning sessions focusing on a variety of themes including approaches to partnership working, effective leadership and articulating change in the context of service design.

In addition to the system-wide transformation through FFPs, we invested a further £1.2 million in the Social Innovation Partnership (SIP) to support eight third sector organisations to learn how their innovative approaches can tackle deep-rooted poverty and inequality. With third sector partners working primarily in communities where there are significant levels of poverty and related forms of disadvantage, a key focus of the SIP has been practical delivery and extracting learning around what is required to support people from these communities.

We have also sustained our support for local partners to test and evaluate approaches to tackling child poverty through delivery of the Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund (CPAF), with £640,000 allocated in 2025-26 to support the continuation of twelve Round 2 projects. These projects have delivered a wide range of activity, including improving the use of data to identify and target support for families, increasing access to financial wellbeing advice and income maximisation services, and supporting families to re-engage with employability services. Building on this progress, we launched Round 3 of CPAF, with 21 new projects across Scotland sharing over £1.8 million of funding across 2026-28.

Linked to our focus on place-based action, and building on the learning that has come from it, we have also continued to develop our focus on delivering Whole Family Support. The First Minister led two system-wide learning and knowledge-sharing events during 2025-26, bringing together senior leaders and front-line practitioners to share best practice and to deepen our understanding of what is required to deliver holistic family support.

These events highlighted the systemic barriers to implementing Whole Family Support, and we have already taken significant steps toward tackling these. In the past year action has focused on increasing flexibility over funding and reporting for local partners to support the delivery of services that are more responsive to the needs of the families who use them. We have worked with seven ‘early adopter’ Local Authorities (Aberdeen City, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, Glasgow, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire and Edinburgh) to identify barriers and opportunities for funding and reporting flexibility. To underpin this approach, we have worked with the early adopters to develop an interim Whole Family Support Outcomes Framework, which shifts the system towards outcomes-focused and integrated reporting in order to meaningfully measure the impact of Whole Family Support approaches.

Finally, recognising that place‑based transformation must reflect all the distinct circumstances of Scotland’s rural and island communities, additional research was published in September 2025, alongside findings from the Shetland Anchor Project and the Agricultural Household Survey, with learning disseminated to stakeholders to inform both local and national approaches. We also invested a further £1 million in the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund, with an increased focus on tackling child poverty, and invested £9 million to support Community Led Local Development (CLLD) and similar initiatives in rural and island communities.

Case study: CPAF

Stirling Council utilised funding from the Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund (CPAF) to establish an Early Intervention Family Engagement Project to bridge a critical gap between education, learning and employability services.

Funding was utilised to recruit a Family Engagement Worker with lived experience of poverty. This enabled the Project to provide high-intensity, relational support to families where there were barriers in accessing employment, support services or in relation to school attendance. An example of one parent’s experience is below.

Sarah*, a parent of three living in temporary accommodation, felt increasingly overwhelmed as a result of her family’s situation. Her youngest child, in Primary 1, was struggling with attending school, and the morning routine had become a source of intense daily stress. Feeling judged and labelling herself to be failing, Sarah had disengaged from services. Her older son who had also left school and was not engaged in learning, training or employment, further increasing the household's financial and emotional strain. Having been identified due to low school attendance, the school referred the family to support from the Project.

The Family Engagement Worker worked to establish a non-judgmental relationship with Sarah, taking a whole-family focus. Through this Sarah received bespoke, flexible, daily on-the-ground support that linked school, home and Stirling Council Learning and Employability Services together. The Family Engagement Worker frequently visited Sarah’s home to help establish routines and accompany the children to school. They also supported Sarah’s eldest child to engage in positive activities and encouraged Sarah to take part in parental support programmes.

As a result of the support received, the family are better able to manage their daily routines. School attendance has stabilised and Sarah’s oldest child has been supported to enrol in college and reengage with learning. Working in partnership with other services, the Family Engagement Worker was able to assist in a referral that helped the family transition from homeless accommodation to a permanent tenancy. Sarah was also able to undertake a fully funded training course to support her in entering and sustaining work.

Sarah reported a significant reduction in stress, stating that the project allowed her to feel listened to in a way she hadn’t been previously. Speaking of the impact of the Family Engagement Worker, she said the support offered had been “amazing for this family”.

Beyond the impact for individuals like Sarah, the Project has facilitated local learning on the multi-faceted and complex nature of school attendance issues, helping to recognise that this is often part of a much bigger picture for families. This has also demonstrated the positive impact of early intervention in alleviating attendance barriers and preventing these from becoming entrenched for families.

*name changed to protect identity