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News: Calls for government to prioritise children in Scottish Budget

Posted 16 November, 2021 by Nina Joynson. Image: Illustration from Being Bold: Building Budgets for Children's Wellbeing report

Tackling child poverty should be central in the Scottish Budget, say leading children's organisations, arguing that the recent UK Budget does not go far enough to address the issue.

The Scottish Government will soon set out its 2022/23 Budget with spending plans hoped to reflect the challenges faced by households, communities and businesses as a result of the pandemic.

It comes after the recent UK Budget was criticised for falling short on several issues surrounding the wellbeing and equality of children and young people, including persisting with the £20 cut to Universal Credit.

Evidence shows that a quarter of children in Scotland are in relative poverty, with rates vastly exceeding the targets outlined in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017. With deprivation associated with lower wellbeing levels and heightened external risk factors, increasing rates of child poverty puts pressure on wider services throughout the life course.

Looking ahead to the Scottish Budget, the parliamentary Social Justice and Social Security Committee has published a letter on what they deem necessary to reduce child poverty. In the letter, the cross-party committee calls for the stabilisation of family income, improved access to childcare, and for the Scottish Child Payment to be doubled.

These calls are echoed in Children in Scotland’s own hopes for the budget. Amy Woodhouse, Head of Policy, Projects and Participation at Children in Scotland, said:

“As we continue to deal with the impact of Covid-19, the next budget laid out by the Scottish Government must propose ambitious spending plans to support children, young people and families now.

“We know that child poverty in Scotland continues to rise, and many more families will struggle over the year ahead as we see rising fuel and food costs. The Scottish Government must urgently bring forward its plans to double the Scottish Child Payment to loosen the grip of poverty on people’s lives.

“We also hope to see the Scottish Government uphold other commitments made in the Programme for Government. These include investing in family support and mental health services, while continuing spending plans for the implementation of the UNCRC, which can and must continue alongside action to respond to the supreme court's ruling.

“The budget should embody the spirit of the recent COP26 and ensure that there is substantial funding to tackle the climate crisis. Children and young people have made their voices clear, and the Scottish Government must respond with spending plans to reduce emissions and achieve net zero by 2045.

“Going forward we need to have a budget that places people’s wellbeing at its heart. Our ‘Being Bold’ report has created a blueprint for this, and we hope the Scottish Government will make meaningful commitments to reforming its budget process in 2022-23.”

The Scottish Budget will be presented to Holyrood on Thursday 9 December.

Click here to read Being Bold: Building Budgets for Children's Wellbeing

Radical wellbeing-focused redesign of government budget ‘key to post-Covid renewal’

18 March 2021

A major report published today calls for the Scottish Government to introduce wellbeing budgeting to improve lives for children as part of a radical systems change in the wake of the coronavirus.

The new report, Being Bold: Building Budgets for Children’s Wellbeing, by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance’s Dr Katherine Trebeck, with Amy Baker, was commissioned by national charity Children in Scotland, early years funder Cattanach and the Carnegie UK Trust.

It makes a series of bold calls focused on redirecting finances to tackling root causes of inequality and poverty as Scotland emerges from Covid. Key recommendations include:

A post-Covid spending review, with all spend proposals assessed against evidence of impact on children’s wellbeing
Training of the civil service to ensure effective budget development and analysis, and moving to multi-year budgeting aligned with wellbeing goals
Establishing an independent agency, modeled on the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, to support activity and scrutinise effectiveness of delivery of wellbeing budgeting by the government
An overarching change to the ways of working in the Scottish Government budget process to ingrain greater transparency; cross-departmental working; and a participatory approach involving the public and the diversity of children’s voices.

The report argues that the Scottish Government’s stated aims of improving wellbeing across society and addressing the fact that one quarter of children live in relative poverty (click to learn more) cannot be met unless we create conditions for our youngest children to be healthy and supported from the outset.

To do this, it makes the case for directing funds at root causes that diminish child wellbeing, rather than targeting symptoms ‘downstream’, which is inefficient, stifles implementation of policy and legislation, and slows ambitions for societal change.

First steps towards wellbeing budgets would involve holding a conversation with the public about budget-setting to absorb lived experience; interrogating data to ‘map’ the distribution of wellbeing in Scotland; and ensuring policy development was properly connected to evidence on what would actually change outcomes for children and addressing the root causes of what undermines their wellbeing.

The report’s lead author, Dr Katherine Trebeck, said:

“If the Scottish budget is to be a mechanism that brings about change, we need to create a context where children can flourish in Scotland. Then we need to think about a few fundamentals. The budget needs to be holistic, human, outcomes-oriented, and rights-based. It needs to be long-term, upstream, preventative and precautionary. Finally, a bold budget for children’s wellbeing needs to be participatory – children’s voices in all their diversity need to be at the heart of setting the budget agenda.”

Sophie Flemig, Chief Executive of Cattanach, said:

“This report shows why it is necessary to set out a high-level vision for wellbeing outcomes and hardwire it into government processes. Countries need to acknowledge that the economy is in service of wellbeing goals, not a goal in and of itself. Meaningful public involvement is key. Ministerial responsibility for wellbeing outcomes drives progress. And cross-departmental work is essential for success.”

Jennifer Wallace, Head of Policy at Carnegie UK Trust, said:

“This project has focused on one important lever of change – the finance system, the way that we think about money and spend in Scotland, asking: what is value for money when we’re talking about our children’s lives? We know it’s not a silver bullet, but we do think it’s important that we consider how we spend that money if we’re going to begin improving outcomes for children and putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to children’s wellbeing.”

As the election campaign approaches, and following Tuesday’s vote to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law, the report’s calls and the case for wellbeing budgeting informs Children in Scotland’s manifesto for 2021-26, backed by organisations across the children’s sector.

The report is published as Scotland takes stock of the damage the pandemic has done to individuals, families, communities, and the macroeconomy, and an increasing number of people recognise that we must not revert to pre-Covid ways of working.

Jackie Brock, Chief Executive of Children in Scotland, said:

“Now is the time for us to reset our economy and the way in which we prioritise our budgets. Katherine’s work gives us a real manifesto for how we will secure children’s rights and wellbeing. We call on you to read the report, particularly the section which identifies what the crucial next steps are. We don’t need any more research or evidence – we need to work together to put a budget for Scotland’s children into place, this year, and we look forward to working with you to make that happen.”

Click here to download and read a copy of the report

Media contact: Chris Small csmall@childreninscotland.org.uk

Being Bold: Wellbeing Budgets for Children

The report calls for major systems change in government to support delivery of child wellbeing outcomes

Click here to read the report

Lead author Dr Katherine Trebeck

Dr Trebeck is Advocacy and Influencing lead at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance

Click to learn about the Alliance

Project partner: Sophie Flemig

Sophie is CEO of early years funder Cattanach

Click to learn about Cattanach

Project partner: Jennifer Wallace

Jen Wallace is Head of Policy at the Carnegie UK Trust

Click to learn about the Trust

Project partner: Jackie Brock

Jackie is Chief Executive of Children in Scotland

Click to learn about CiS

A Manifesto for hope in hard times

Wellbeing budgeting for children is identified as a key priority in our 2021-26 Manifesto

Find out more

Manifesto launches with calls for wellbeing to be at heart of Scottish budget and children protected from air pollution

13 November 2020

Children in Scotland today launches its Manifesto for the 2021-26 Scottish Parliament, backed by national and local organisations from across the children’s sector.

The Manifesto outlines key changes in policy and legislation the charity believes the next Scottish Government must make to improve outcomes for children and young people living in Scotland, and their families.

Click here to download a copy of the Manifesto

It contains 10 themes and 33 calls, with demands of political parties including:

Learning
Drawing on the experience in Finland to introduce a ‘hobby premium’ to ensure that all children and young people in Scotland have free access to a hobby or activity of their choice within or around the school day.

Rights and democracy
Supporting Citizens Assemblies to extend their scope to include the voice and perspectives of under-16s.

Economic planning
Producing a comprehensive Wellbeing Budget by 2022 to ensure that the annual Scottish budget is designed and implemented with the goal of improving the wellbeing of all citizens in Scotland, including children, young people and families.

Environment
Improving air quality in locations where children live, learn and play: a school air quality monitoring and education scheme should be introduced to measure air quality, educate children and families about this issue, and reduce children’s exposure to harmful pollutants.

Children in Scotland’s Chief Executive Jackie Brock said:

“Our Manifesto is being launched at the end of a punishing year for so many children and families, but we feel there’s a shared recognition that this is also a time for a radical change in direction for policymaking and legislation.

“We now need a deeper and more wholehearted restructuring of society, based on redistributing power to children, young people and families who’ve never had it before. Taken together the calls in this Manifesto make that case.”

Amy Woodhouse, the charity’s Head of Policy, Projects and Participation, said:

“This Manifesto builds on three examples of hugely significant policy change in Scotland over the past year – the recommendations of the Independent Care Review, the introduction of the Equal Protection Act, and the promise of full incorporation of the UNCRC.

“These are all powerful signs of the effectiveness of collective campaigning to make change for children, and we’ll be taking forward our 2021-26 Manifesto in that spirit.

“In the run-up to the election as we use this Manifesto to influence parties’ policy platforms, we will welcome the support and solidarity of other organisations who may wish to endorse our calls.”

Organisations who have already endorsed the Manifesto in full include Save the Children, Children 1^st, YouthLink Scotland, Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights), PEEK (Possibilities for Each and Every Kid), Includem, Play Scotland, Starcatchers, the Health and Social Care Alliance and the Yard.

Organisations that have signed up to specific themes include the Children’s Parliament (Theme 1), Friends of the Earth Scotland (Theme 9), Place2Be (Themes 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 10) and the Royal Caledonian Education Trust (Themes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10).

The Manifesto was shared yesterday with Children in Scotland’s members, and attendees at the charity’s online annual conference.

It has been developed over the past 18 months with input from Children in Scotland’s members, its children and young people’s advisory group, and its staff and Board.

Media contacts

Chris Small: csmall@childreninscotland.org.uk

Catherine Bromley: cbromley@childreninscotland.org.uk

Photography from the Manifesto is available to publish on request. Please contact Chris Small or Catherine Bromley.