Policy Overview: December 2024 Scottish Budget Special

Yesterday the Scottish Government published its Scottish Budget for 2025-26. The document outlines, in 139 pages, where the Scottish Government intends to spend its resources next year. It has been laid before parliament and will be debated and voted on in the new year.

We’ve had a look to see what’s in there specifically for families.

Child poverty

The budget aims to address the Scottish Government’s stated priorities, the first of which is the eradication of child poverty. The big headline announcement yesterday was a commitment to mitigate the impact of the two-child benefit cap from 2026.

This hugely unfair cap is a UK Government policy, so it’s not in the Scottish Government’s power to remove it, but it can put in place mechanisms to ensure that families in Scotland are in effect reimbursed for what they would receive if the cap weren’t in place. The Scottish Government has already taken this approach with the Bedroom Tax, for example.

End Child Poverty members including the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, One Parent Families Scotland, Aberlour (and Parenting across Scotland) have been calling for an end to the two-child limit since it was introduced and warmly welcomed this new commitment. The change won’t come into effect until 2026 however, so in reality, families won’t see any difference this year. In the meantime however, we can hope that the Scottish Government’s commitment puts further pressure on the UK Government to change its policy soon.

Other new commitments relating to child poverty included:

· £3 million for a Bright Start Breakfasts pilot, which will test the delivery of free breakfast clubs for children

· Inflationary uplift to the Scottish Child Payment (which the Scottish Government has to do)

· Expanding free school meal entitlement for P6 and P7s – but only for those whose families receive the Scottish Child Payment, falling short of a previous commitment to universal expansion of free school meals for all P6s and P7s.

Childcare, education and family support

The Scottish Government also announced a range of commitments in the areas of childcare, education and family support. Most of these were continuations of existing policies, such as maintaining provision of 1,140 hours early learning and childcare services to all 3- and 4-year-olds, and eligible 2-year-olds. However, there was £29 million of additional funding announced for additional support for learning – this was welcomed by Children in Scotland.

Other commitments relating to childcare, education and family support included:

· Continuation of the Early Adopter Communities pilots which extend childcare provision for school aged children

· Continuation of the Scottish Attainment Challenge to address the poverty related attainment gap

· Continuation of the school clothing grant

· Continuation of the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund

Other Scottish Government commitments in the areas of health, housing and culture could bring benefits for families as well. However, despite the fanfare attached to the two-child limit mitigation, the commitments outlined in the 2025-26 budget suggest more of a roll over year for families than a transformational one.