Tackling child poverty skills package: island communities impact assessment

Tackling Child Poverty Skills Package - Island Communities Impact Assessment

1. What are the aims, objectives and impacts of the Fund?

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 (“the Act”)^[1] sets in statute ambitious targets to significantly reduce rates of child poverty in Scotland by 2030. The final tackling child poverty delivery plan under the Act – Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026-2031^[2] – 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 objective of this policy is to help people experiencing, or at risk of, poverty, especially those in the priority family groups^[3], increase their income from employment. Education and skills have the potential to support career progression and access to well-paid employment and, thus, help people increase their earned income. This is why, as part of the final plan, we will deliver a £22 million skills package that will provide targeted opportunities for people to train and upskill, enabling them to access employment and progression opportunities and increase their earned income. The package will be delivered primarily by colleges in Scotland and consists of:

• The £10 million Colleges RISE (Raising Income through Education and Skills) Programme, which will include the delivery of new and expanded training and upskilling opportunities to low-income parents and carers alongside essential support with childcare and travel to ensure learners are able to complete their courses.
• The £2 million Training Access Fund (TAF), which will help people experiencing, or at risk of, in-work poverty, including the six priority family groups, access higher-level skills training.
• The £10 million new Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF), which will aim to incentivise businesses in Scotland to provide upskilling and progression opportunities for parents, carers and young people in low-paid roles within their workforce, while promoting Fair Work practices and helping employers address skill needs and increase productivity.

There are no specific targets for the islands, with intended impacts and outcomes the same for both island and mainland target cohorts. College funding allocations for the delivery of these initiatives were informed by Scottish Child Payment (SCP) data, as it serves as the most robust proxy for mapping financial hardship and child poverty within a region. ^[4]

2. What data is available and who will be affected by the Fund?

Poverty

Although poverty rates have consistently been lower in rural areas than urban areas

of Scotland, rural poverty increased from 13% in 2012-2015 to 18% in 2018-2021. ^[5] Since 2018, relative poverty rates in remote areas have broadly returned to the lower levels seen previously.

In-work poverty has increased in both remote^[6] and accessible rural areas, bringing poverty rates closer to those observed in the rest of Scotland. An estimated one in seven working households were experiencing poverty.^[7]

Child poverty rates appear to be lower in rural Scotland than in urban areas, although the difference has not changed substantially over time. Relative child poverty in rural Scotland has declined in recent years, falling from 21% in 2018-21 to 15% in 2020-23. ^[8]

Employment

Rural economies have become more service-focused, but low-paid, seasonal and insecure work remains common.^[9] Jobs in agriculture; forestry and fishing; manufacturing; construction; and accommodation and food services are all more common in rural areas, with the adoption of the real living wage in some of these key rural sectors remaining low.^[10] Generally, most island local authorities are estimated to have higher employment rates than the Scottish average.^[11]

Education, Skills and Training

Education is key to enabling individuals on low incomes to access better-paid employment and reduce their risk of poverty, as well as contributing to the economic growth of rural Scotland. However, opportunities for education and skills development, particularly at further and higher education levels, can be limited in rural areas.^[12]

Perceptions on education provision differ amongst the island population. Movers are the least likely to agree that they can complete a college qualification while living in their island, while Stayers are most likely to agree, closely followed by Returners.^[13] Movers are also least likely to agree that they can participate in adult education while living in their island, while just over half of Stayers and Returners agreed that there are adult education opportunities.^[14]

Perceptions of access to college and university education also vary by region, with the most positive views in Orkney Mainland and Connected Islands and Lewis and Harris, and the least positive in the Shetland Outer Islands.^[15]

Barriers and challenges to accessing education and training opportunities in island and rural communities, especially for people living on low incomes, include caring responsibilities, inaccessible learning environments, inadequate access to childcare (especially for parents/cares) and lack availability of public transport.^[16]

Funding

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC), as the administrative body, will retain the option, if necessary, to redistribute funds between Colleges if (a) there is evidence that any funding is being underutilised and (b) there is evidence of unmet demand elsewhere.^[17]

Stakeholder Engagement

This Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) builds on the broader ICIA carried out as part of the final delivery plan. The Scottish Government undertook an extensive consultation process with various stakeholders ahead of the plan, including several of the island local authorities, and health boards, third sector organisations working in and with island communities, the Scottish Rural Network and the Rural Child Poverty Network.^[18]

This included a wide-ranging and targeted consultation in 2025 to gather feedback from community based and national third sector organisations, local authorities, health boards, COSLA, and the Scottish Parliament, in line with the requirements of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

Who will be affected by the skills package?

The above skills interventions are a complementary package 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).

The new FWDF is also intended to positively impact businesses across Scotland. Increased access to skilled workers is expected to support employers improve their business productivity through addressing skills needs, and also promote inclusive growth.

The package is expected to have a direct positive impact on eligible individuals, including but not limited to those based on island communities. The package adopts a targeted approach in order to maximise the impact of available funding and direct support priority family groups in support of one of the key drivers of poverty reduction – increasing earned incomes.

3. Consultation and engagement

This Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) builds on the broader ICIA carried out as part of the final delivery plan. The Scottish Government undertook an extensive consultation process with various stakeholders ahead of the plan, including several of the island local authorities, and health boards, third sector organisations working in and with island communities, the Scottish Rural Network and the Rural Child Poverty Network.^[19]

This included a wide-ranging and targeted consultation in 2025 to gather feedback from community based and national third sector organisations, local authorities, health boards, COSLA, and the Scottish Parliament, in line with the requirements of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.

4. Assessment

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018^[20] places a duty on relevant authorities to consider whether a policy, strategy or service is likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities in Scotland.

The tackling child poverty skills package will directly target people experiencing, or at risk of, poverty/in-work poverty in Scotland, primarily parents/carers in the six priority family groups, care experienced young people, disabled young people.

The relevant skills initiatives will be delivered by the college sector. Seven out of 24 of Scotland’s colleges are located in the Highlands and Islands.^[21] 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 the challenges faced by adult learners in the target cohorts.

To evidence gaps on the link between education/training and poverty, minimise the risk of unintended widening of inequalities 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 cohorts 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.

It is expected that it will positively impact target cohorts’ opportunities to upskill or reskill in order to find and sustain fulfilling employment. It is not, however, expected that this specific policy will have unique impacts on island communities. Decisions on future delivery or policy direction will be informed by the evaluation insights.

Is a full Island Communities Impact Assessment required?

A full Islands Community Impact Assessment is NOT required.

Evidence indicates that island communities can face challenges in accessing education and training opportunities, including caring responsibilities, limited access to childcare, transport constraints and more limited local provision. Perceptions of access to education and training also vary across island communities. However, the tackling child poverty skills package (Colleges RISE, TAF, new FWDF) has been designed to address such barriers for people experiencing, or at risk of, poverty across Scotland. This skills package will support people in work and out of work, parents and carers, care-experienced young people and disabled young people. Its aim is to help these groups access flexible upskilling and training opportunities that support improved access to labour market, progression opportunities and increased families’ earned income.

While the evidence demonstrates some differences in circumstances and experiences between island and mainland communities, there is no evidence that the policy is likely to have significantly different effects on island communities or result in a disadvantage for island communities compared with the mainland or between island groups.

The Scottish Government will monitor participation and outcomes to ensure that the targeted cohorts are able to access and benefit from the support as intended. Given the purpose of the interventions (targeted skills provision) and the college sector delivery across Scotland, as well as on the basis of the available evidence, the Scottish Government concludes that the policy is not likely to have a significantly different effect on island communities and that a full Island Communities Impact Assessment is not required.

5. Conclusion

The Scottish Government considers that the tackling child poverty skills package will have an overall positive impact on families facing poverty that reside in island communities but that this impact is not likely to have a significantly different effect to island communities as opposed to other communities across Scotland. The package will specifically target parents and carers to help them gain skills that will support them to progress in work and boost their earnings.

This Island Communities Impact Assessment has been approved by Amanda Callaghan, Deputy Director for Governance and Assurance, Directorate for Lifelong Learning and Skills.