Reaction: Scottish Budget 2026

Communications Officer Innes Burns sets out reaction to the 2026 Scottish Budget.

Yesterday, Finance Secretary Shona Robison presented the Scottish Government’s draft budget for the year 2026/27. MSPs will debate the proposals in the coming weeks and a final vote is scheduled for 25th February.

The Budget offers several welcome commitments, particularly considering the tough economic backdrop.

There are clear areas of progress, including increases to the Scottish Child Payment for infant children and the rollout of breakfast clubs by the summer of next year. There are also some opportunities that can be identified where the Scottish Government could have gone further to tackle child poverty more decisively.

Let’s take a look at the detail.

Support for families and tackling child poverty

The Budget increases the Scottish Child Payment to £28.20 per week in 2026/27 and also provides additional support by boosting the payment to £40 per week for children under one from 2027/28.

We welcome this continued investment. These increases will provide transformational help for families navigating a difficult economic climate by mitigating some of the pressures they are facing.

While the uplift is positive, child poverty rates remain, and will continue to remain, stubbornly high. There was an opportunity for a more ambitious increase that would have lifted more children out of poverty.

The Budget had also earmarked funding in anticipation of mitigating the two-child limit. With that funding no longer required for this purpose, it is disappointing that it was not redirected to provide a more substantial boost to family incomes. Used differently, this money could have supported thousands more children and strengthened Scotland’s progress towards child poverty targets. A clear and bold strategy of how these funds would be redirected would have had a more significant impact.

Breakfast clubs and practical support

The Government has committed to “funding a breakfast club in every primary and special school” by August 2027 and additional funding for afternoon and early evening wraparound activities. There is also investment to support free summer sport activities for children.

Announcements around the expansion of breakfast clubs are also very welcome. Access to a nutritious breakfast makes a real difference to children’s wellbeing, readiness to learn and overall school experience. These commitments recognise the importance of practical support for children and families, and we look forward to seeing how they are delivered in practice.

Education funding and further education colleges

Local Government funding will increase by 2% in real terms, which underpins education budgets. The Budget also includes a 10% increase in funding for Scotland’s colleges, helping to strengthen post-school learning and skills.

We strongly welcome these increases. This is a significant and much-needed investment in a sector that has been under sustained financial pressure in recent years. The uplift for local authorities should help deliver reductions in teachers’ class contact time and better provision for learners with additional support needs. Colleges play a vital role in supporting young people’s transitions, skills development and life chances. This funding is a clear step in the right direction.

Additional support for learning (ASL)

While the official Budget documents confirm the broad education funding package, they don’t detail specific ASL allocations by name.

The growing number of children requiring ASL has placed increasing pressure on teachers, schools and local authority budgets. In 2024/25, a record 300,000 children were identified as having additional support needs. That represents 43% of the total school population.

Against this backdrop, schools will welcome the commitment of £57m for additional support needs within the education budget. Last year, the Auditor General highlighted that between 2020 and 2024, specific Scottish Government funding for ASL had remained static at £15m, amounting to a real-terms decrease.

While it is not clear how much of the £57m represents new investment rather than reallocated funding, the scale of commitment is encouraging. If it represents the increase it appears to be, it would mark a really welcome shift and recognition of the pressures faced by schools and children.

Summer holidays and enrichment programmes

Alongside breakfast clubs, the Budget provides £40m for sport and physical activity initiatives during the summer, including free opportunities and lessons in swimming for primary-aged children. This is really helpful.

We would have, however, liked to see more sustained investment in a broader range of hobbies, activities and enrichment opportunities for children and young people, rather than a more limited or short-term approach. Access to play, culture, and leisure is a core part of children’s rights, not a luxury. This includes activities that contribute to children’s creativity, mental health and social development.

Efficiency and public sector reform

The proposed £1.5 billion in efficiency savings underline the scale of challenges facing pubic finances. We recognise the need for improvements, and we welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to a public sector reform programme.

The third sector has a crucial role to play in delivering better outcomes and more effective use of public resources. We look forward to being a key partner as these plans develop.

Looking ahead: Children in Scotland 2026 Manifesto

Difficult circumstances require bold and ambitious thinking. The 2026 Manifesto will outline our calls to action for the next term of the Scottish Government.

Children in Scotland members will have exclusive access on Thursday 15th of January. It will be made publicly available Tuesday 20th January.

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