Tackling child poverty - six priority families concept: overview and guidance

1. Background

Eradicating child poverty is a national mission and the top priority of the Scottish Government. The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 sets in statute ambitious targets to significantly reduce levels of child poverty by 2030, with interim targets to be met in 2023-24.

Under the Act, Scottish Ministers must publish delivery plans in 2018, 2022 and 2026, and report annually on progress made in delivering the actions and against the targets. Evidence highlights the need to take wide ranging action to tackle child poverty, focusing on increasing the incomes of families with children from work and earnings and from social security and benefits in kind, reducing the costs of living, improving wellbeing and outcomes for children and families, and supporting them to thrive.

The six priority family types at greatest risk of poverty were identified in the first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan using data from the Family Resources Survey and the Understanding Society Survey. When taken together the six family types below account for around 90% of children in poverty:

• Lone parent families
• Minority ethnic families
• Families with a disabled adult or child
• Families with a mother aged under 25
• Families with a child under one
• Larger families (3+ children)

While families with these characteristics account for 9 in 10 children in poverty, it is important to recognise that every household’s circumstance is different. There are children experiencing poverty even though their family has none of these characteristics. There are also children living in families which have one or more of these characteristics, yet they do not live in poverty.

This guidance is intended to provide colleagues with an overview of the six priority family concept and practical advice on how the concept should be used in practice across the Scottish Government to deliver more effective policy outcomes. It covers:

• A summary of the concept
• Using the concept to inform policy development
• Using the concept to inform monitoring and evaluation