Tackling child poverty skills package - equality impact assessment

Equality Impact Assessment of the Tackling Child Poverty Skills Package

The Tackling Child Poverty Skills Package (Colleges RISE, TAF, new FWDF) has been developed as part of the tackling child poverty delivery plan published in March 2026 to help families to increase their earned income by supporting skills development and, thus, improve access to labour market and to progression opportunities.

The package is intended to directly target and impact people experiencing, or at risk of, poverty in Scotland. This will encompass people in work and people out of work – parents/carers, care experienced young people, disabled young people and people with other and intersecting protected characteristics (as set out in the Equality Act 2010).

Advancing equality of opportunity

Protected Characteristic: Age, Disability, Pregnancy & Maternity, Race, Sex, Religion or Belief

Overview of Impact:

By providing support for people to engage with accessible training opportunities to develop work-based skills, the three projects intend to advance equality of opportunity for parents, carers and young people by enabling them to benefit from fulfilling employment and progression opportunities, and in turn, provide a sustainable route out of poverty through higher earned incomes. The skills support package (Colleges RISE, TAF, new FWDF) will contribute to this by investing £22 million to support parents/carers, disabled / care-experienced young people and people experiencing, or at risk of poverty, to access the training and education they need to gain skills that will enable them to access improved future employment and progression opportunities and boost their earnings. Given the overlap between priority family groups and the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010, the targeted interventions are expected to have positive impacts on people with protected characteristics.

Positive outcomes will be dependent on participants successfully completing opportunities, and will be influenced by wider labour market and economic conditions.

All three initiatives should have a positive impact in removing barriers in accessing education, tackling discrimination, and advancing equality of opportunity for these priority groups, as well as in fostering good relations.

However, the effectiveness of this policy on minority ethnic groups depends heavily on implementation. Communication methods and channels, information networks, multilingual approaches etc are important considerations. If these are not utilised then there is a risk that, while all groups benefit to some extent, by having a greater impact on white British people than on minority ethnic groups it actually widens inequality.

Minority ethnic workers are more likely to be overqualified or under-employed, so while supporting skills is helpful, its impact is mitigated by systemic racism. The three projects in the skills package must be accompanied by wider work to address inequalities in Scotland’s labour market to maximise positive impacts.

All three initiatives will be delivered by the college sector. Scotland’s colleges are adept at reaching into disadvantaged communities, providing the required courses and holistic support as anchor institutions in local communities.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

To drive further progress on helping families increase their earned incomes, we are taking action focused on:

• Providing aligned skills and employment support for parents/carers, priority groups and young people through RISE, TAF and the new FWDF.
• Providing training opportunities that meet learner needs.
• Including wraparound essential support, such as childcare and travel, through RISE to enable learners to attend and complete their course.
• Promoting collaboration between colleges, community learning & development services and employability services to help increase the reach of these initiatives and produce better outcomes for target cohorts.
• Raising awareness of the availability of the funded skills support through effective communications and marketing strategy among target groups.
• Supporting recognition of prior learning (RPL) wherever possible to build on existing skills.
• Driving positive change in labour market and workplace conditions by using the new FWDF to recognise and promote Fair Work practices across employers in Scotland and incentive them to support upskilling and progression opportunities for priority groups in their workforce, including young people and parents/carers experiencing in-work poverty.

The Scottish Government will work with partners to raise awareness and engagement amongst targeted cohorts, including people with protected characteristics who experience existing barriers in engaging with colleges or receiving information about opportunities such as those envisaged in the funds.

To address existing evidence gaps, minimise the risk of unintended widening of inequalities, particularly among ethnic minority communities, and ensure that the skills support package delivers positive and equitable outcomes, robust monitoring of access and participation alongside evaluation of outcomes and impacts will be undertaken. This will be developed to ensure the targeted priority groups are not only accessing suitable training opportunities, but also to consider longer-term outcomes, including if people are progressing to, for example, better paid employment, and taking remedial action if data suggests this is not the case or if inequalities emerge due to current delivery approaches.

Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation

Protected Characteristic: Disability, Pregnancy and Maternity, Race and Sex

Overview of impact:

The policy is expected to have positive impact by:

• targeting specific cohorts of adult learners across all three initiatives, with a particular focus on individuals experiencing, or at risk of, poverty and in-work poverty
• introducing wraparound support through Colleges RISE to help learners overcome barriers to participation and sustain engagement in training
• promoting Fair Works practices and incentivising employers, through the new FWDF, to provide training, skills development and progression opportunities for priority groups in their workforce
• implementing an effective communication strategy to raise awareness on the availability of the funded support and improve uptake among target groups.

Collectively, this policy is intended to reduce barriers to training participation experienced by groups with protected characteristics including disabled people, women, minority ethnic groups and parents/carers experiencing poverty. By improving access to skills development and progression opportunities, the policy should support access to better paid employment opportunities. This should have an indirect positive impact to help reduce inequalities associated with discrimination in education, training and employment.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

The Scottish Government will work with partners to raise awareness and engagement amongst targeted cohorts, including people with protected characteristics who experience existing barriers in engaging with colleges or receiving information about opportunities such as those envisaged in the funds.

To address existing evidence gaps, minimise the risk of unintended widening of inequalities, particularly among ethnic minority communities, and ensure that the skills support package delivers positive and equitable outcomes, robust monitoring of access and participation alongside evaluation of outcomes and impacts will be undertaken. This will be developed to ensure the targeted priority groups are not only accessing suitable training opportunities, but also to consider longer-term outcomes, including if people are progressing to, for example, better paid employment, and taking remedial action if data suggests this is not the case or if inequalities emerge due to current delivery approaches.

Promoting good relations among and between disabled and non-disabled people

Protected Characteristic: Disability, Sex and Race

Overview of impact:

Accessing the available funded support could help disabled people to increasingly engage in the labour market and this may contribute to increased understanding and inclusion. This is particularly the case if upskilling enables progression into more senior roles so that disabled people are better represented in managerial and leadership positions.

Raising awareness of in-work poverty and how it particularly impacts specific groups across employers in Scotland, promoting Fair Work Practices and inclusive access to training participation and progression opportunities through the new FWDF, could also contribute to fostering better understanding and good relations between disabled people, women – especially women returners and women in the six priority family groups – and minority ethnic workers and employers and reduce prejudice faced by disabled people in the work place.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

The Scottish Government will work with partners to raise awareness and engagement among targeted cohorts, including people with protected characteristics who experience existing barriers in engaging with colleges or receiving information about opportunities such as those envisaged in the funds.

To address existing evidence gaps, minimise the risk of unintended widening of inequalities, particularly among ethnic minority communities, and ensure that the skills support package delivers positive and equitable outcomes, robust monitoring of access and participation alongside evaluation of outcomes and impacts will be undertaken. This will be developed to ensure the targeted groups are not only accessing suitable training opportunities, but also to consider longer-term outcomes, including if people are progressing to, for example, better paid employment, and taking remedial action if data suggests this is not the case or if inequalities emerge due to current delivery approaches.

Differential Impacts

Protected Characteristic: Disability and Race

Overview of impact:

Due to the overarching policy objective of reducing child poverty, all three initiatives focus on broadly similar target groups. While the eligibility criteria of the three initiatives are designed to direct resources towards those most in need, they may result in some people being unable to access the funded support. However, individuals who do not meet the eligibility requirements may still be eligible to access other education and skills funded support, such as employability support and free tuition. In addition, the current policy approach to this skills support package is deemed to be proportionate in order to achieve the legitimate aim of addressing child poverty by targeting funded training opportunities according to each project’s criteria.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Groups facing digital exclusion, language barriers, caring responsibilities, inaccessible learning environments, or employer nomination processes may be less able to benefit without active mitigation. The wrapround support available through RISE, flexible provision that fits learner needs across all three initiatives, raising employer awareness of in-work poverty, promoting Fair Work Practices and inclusive access to training participation and progression opportunities will aim to mitigate these challenges. Delivery partners will be expected to provide reasonable adjustments, ensure accessibility of learning materials and accommodate flexible participation requirements.

The evaluation of the previous FWDF found under-representation of disabled and minority ethnic participants, suggesting a risk of unequal uptake. This is why participation will be closely monitored and evaluation of outcomes, including longer-term employment and earnings impacts across different groups supported through the initiatives, will be carried out.

Protected Characteristic: Gender reassignment

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic, however the tackling child poverty skills support package in the plan targets priority family groups and people experiencing, or at risk of, poverty and therefore, may be beneficial for individuals under this protected characteristic.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of poverty amongst trans people.

Protected Characteristic: Sexual Orientation

Overview of Impact:

No specific impacts have been identified for this characteristic, however the tackling child poverty skills support package in the plan targets priority family groups and people experiencing, or at risk of, poverty and, therefore, may be beneficial for individuals under this protected characteristic.

Specific Action or Mitigation:

Consider the development of data and work with stakeholders to improve understanding of the impact of skills support amongst LGBTQI+ people.