Tackling child poverty skills package - fairer Scotland duty impact assessment

Fairer Scotland Duty summary template

Title of policy, strategy or programme

Tackling Child Poverty Skills Package (Colleges RISE, Training Access Fund, new Flexible Workforce Development Fund)

Summary of aims and expected outcomes of strategy, proposal, programme or policy

Background

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 (“the Act”)^[1] sets in statute four income-based child poverty targets to be met in 2030. The targets are largely focused on household income after housing costs, while also taking into account wider costs of living through the material deprivation measure.

The Act requires Scottish Ministers to publish child poverty delivery plans covering set periods at regular intervals. The first tackling child poverty delivery plan - Every Child, Every Chance: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2018-2022^[2] – was published on 29 March 2018 and set out the initial actions to be taken to progress towards the ambitious child poverty targets set for 2030. The second plan – Best Start, Bright Futures: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022-2026^[3] – was published on 24 March 2022 and outlined the action to build upon the first plan.

The final tackling child poverty delivery plan under the Act – Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026-2031^[4] – was published on 12 March 2026. It covers the period 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031 and focuses on four key themes: increasing earned incomes; reducing the costs of living; maximising incomes from social security; and supporting children and families to thrive.

The skills package covered by this Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment (FSDIA) is aimed at increasing earned incomes by targeting upskilling opportunities towards parents and people in priority family groups. This FSDIA builds upon the broader FSDIA carried out and published as part of the final delivery plan.^[5]

Policy Aim

This policy aims to help reduce child poverty by improving access to skills, education and training which can have an indirect positive impact on access to increased and better employment opportunities, career progression and earnings for people experiencing, or at risk of, poverty, including the six priority family groups^[6].

While employment can be an effective route out of poverty, many families remain in poverty despite being in work due to low pay, limited hours, or barriers such as discrimination, underemployment, occupational segregation and lack of recognition of skills and qualifications. To address this, the Scottish Government will deliver a £22 million skills support package through colleges as part of the final delivery plan. The package consists of three interventions:

• The £10 million Colleges RISE (Raising Income through Skills and Education) Programme – providing new and expanded upskilling and retraining opportunities for low-income parents and carers, with practical support such as childcare and travel to enable participation.
• The £2 million Training Access Fund (TAF) – helping people experiencing, or at risk of, in-work poverty access higher-level skills to improve earnings and long-term career prospects.
• The new £10 million Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) – incentivising employers to offer upskilling and progression opportunities for parents, carers and young people in low-paid work, while promoting Fair Work practices and addressing skills shortages.

The interventions will aim to tackle inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage and respond to evidence, such as the OECD Skills Outlook 2025^[7] and research by the Department of Education^[8], that disadvantaged adults face multiple barriers to learning, including financial pressures, childcare responsibilities, insecure work, transport difficulties and low confidence in formal education.

Overall, the three initiatives aim to provide flexible and accessible upskilling and training opportunities that support people —particularly the six priority family groups, parents and carers, disabled and care-experienced young people, and others at risk of poverty— to enter, sustain and progress within well-paid employment, thereby increasing earned incomes and supporting the Scottish Government's ambition of eradicating child poverty.

Summary of evidence

Poverty and Priority Families

Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland data^[9] shows that children in priority groups^[10] have a higher risk of being in relative and absolute poverty. Poverty affects a wide range of families with a variety of protected characteristics. However, around 90% of all children in poverty in Scotland live in one or more of the six priority family types – lone parent families, minority ethnic families, families with a disabled member, families with a mother aged under 25, families with a child under one and larger families (3+ children). There is significant overlap between these groups, meaning many families experience multiple, intersecting disadvantages. Furthermore, evidence shows^[11] that most working-age adults in poverty, and around three-quarters of children in relative poverty live in working households.

Skills, Training and Poverty

A Scottish Government literature review found limited evidence – mainly focusing on in-work poverty – on the role of skills and training in alleviating poverty and child poverty. ^[12]The review, however, found that:

• Employers viewed training and career progression as important routes to better-paid jobs and out of poverty. However, many employers had limited awareness of in-work poverty and took few specific actions to address it.
• Training and progression opportunities can help people move into better-paid jobs and reduce in-work poverty.
• More days spent in training are associated with greater pay progression.
• Adults with lower levels of education face a significantly higher and growing risk of poverty than those with higher qualifications.
• Parents improving their own skills can have positive impacts on their children's outcomes.
• Addressing childcare barriers can help people access training and progression opportunities.

Evaluation of Scotland's Individual Training Account (ITA) scheme^[13] also found that training helped people secure new or better-paid jobs, and many participants would not have undertaken training without financial support.

Skills and training alone do not guarantee higher earnings. Ethnic minorities and disabled people face structural labour market barriers such as discrimination, occupational segregation, and unequal access to progression opportunities. According to the 2026 report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Ethnicity, poverty, and in-work inequalities in the UK^[14], ethnic minorities are more likely to be overqualified for their jobs and experience a lack of economic return for education qualifications and improvement of skills.

Other marginalised groups at risk of poverty

The evidence also highlights additional groups who face significant barriers and poverty risks, including:

• People experiencing homelessness
• Gypsy/Travellers
• Survivors of domestic abuse
• Families affected by imprisonment
• Care-experienced people
• Refugees and people seeking asylum

Many of these disadvantaged families face particularly complex circumstances because of multiple adversities. These can include stigma, trauma, marginalisation or mental health problems, and many families will fall into various disadvantaged groups, including existing priority family types. Scottish Government’s focus report on other marginalised groups at risk of poverty looks at these other marginalised groups at risk of poverty, providing an evidence review on barriers across the three drivers of poverty and available evidence on what works.^[15]

Expected impact of the skills package on poverty reduction

The first two tackling child poverty delivery plans set out that tackling child poverty most effectively results from the inter-relationship between three key drivers of poverty reduction:

• Increasing income from employment
• Reducing cost of living
• Increasing income from social security and benefits in kind

Evidence from the 2024-25 tackling child poverty progress report^[16] shows that this approach remains relevant and appropriate.

This tackling child poverty skills package aims to support the first key driver of poverty reduction – increasing income from employment by:

• Improving access to skills and qualifications for adult learners in the six family priority groups and people at experiencing, or at risk of, poverty, and, therefore, supporting access to increased and better employment opportunities.
• Promoting Fair Work practices and progression opportunities for priority groups.
• Addressing practical barriers to learning and upskilling through support such as childcare and travel support.

Positive outcomes will be dependent on participants successfully completing opportunities, and external labour market and economic conditions. In particular, in relation to ethnic minorities, the effectiveness of this policy will depend heavily on implementation. Communication methods and channels, information networks and multilingual approach 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 racialised minorities it actually widens inequality. Minority ethnic workers are more likely to be overqualified or under-employed, so while supporting skills is helpful, there is a risk that the impact may be mitigated by systemic racism.

To address gaps in evidence, avoid unintended widening of inequalities, particularly for ethnic minority communities, and ensure that the skills support package has a positive impact, robust monitoring and evaluation of participation and outcomes will be undertaken. This will be developed to ensure that priority groups not only have access to 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.

An Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) has also been carried out, building on the broader EQIA undertaken as part of the recently published delivery plan^[17], for the tackling child poverty skills package. It sets out evidence and demonstrates the anticipated impact of the package on protected characteristic groups and describes how the package has been developed in order to: address negative impacts and eliminate unlawful discrimination; advance equality of opportunity; and foster positive impacts and good relations between groups. The EQIA has not identified any potentially unjustifiable indirect negative impacts to those with protected characteristics.

Summary of assessment findings

Overall, no direct negative impacts have been identified from the skills support package in relation to equalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage. There may be positive impacts on outcomes for individuals and families given the package’s focus on increasing earned incomes through training and upskilling, promoting Fair Work practices across employers in Scotland and incentivising them to offer progression opportunities to priority groups in their workforce.

Looking forward, as a result of the Fairer Scotland Duty assessment it is recommended that:

• robust data collection and analysis is undertaken specifically to better understand how these initiatives are reaching and impacting on priority families and other marginalised groups;
• alongside any monitoring data on participation and provision, an evaluation is carried out to measure outcomes and impact; and
• evaluation findings are used to determine whether options for strengthening the offer and further supporting learners are required. This will also enable greater monitoring of how policies are contributing to reducing inequalities for the target cohorts.

Sign off

Name: Gavin Gray

Job title: Deputy Director, Learner Experience Division, Directorate for Lifelong Learning and Skills

Date: 15 September 2026