Policy Overview: September 2024

September is party conference season – the first after the change of administration at Westminster. As ever, organisations from the children and families sector have been delivering a range of fringe events in Scotland and other parts of the UK, highlighting important campaigns in the fields of child poverty, education and human rights. But there has also been mounting frustration expressed at the gap between political rhetoric and action, particularly directed at those parties in government.  

 
Child Poverty 

Both the Labour government at Westminster and the SNP government at Holyrood have made addressing child poverty one of their policy priorities. Keir Starmer announced the setting up of a Ministerial Taskforce on child poverty shortly after coming into office in July. However, End Child Poverty Coalition members (including Parenting across Scotland) have repeatedly asked why the government isn’t taking one of the most obvious steps to reduce poverty byremoving the unjusttwo child limit.At the time of writing there has been no shift on this policy.   

At Holyrood,September’s Programme for Government (PfG) reaffirmed the eradication of child poverty as one of the Scottish Government’s main priorities. While charities welcomed this focus, there was widespread disappointment that the PfG provided little in the way of specific detail about how this policy goal was likely to be achieved. Furthermore, the delay to the planned expansion of free school meal entitlements to P6s and P7s was described by organisations such as the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland as ‘deeply concerning’.  
 

Human Rights Bill  

Human Rights organisations expressed their dismay that the PfG didn’t include the anticipated Scottish Human Rights Bill, making it unlikely that the Bill will be introduced within this parliamentary term. Over 100 organisations (including Parenting across Scotland) signed the Human Rights Consortium Scotland’s letter to the First Minister urging him to rethink the delay.  
 

Education 

September also saw the Scottish Government publish its response to the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment, otherwise known as the Hayward Report. While the response indicated that more emphasis will now be placed on continual assessment, charities working in the sector were left underwhelmed and disappointed that the government did not commit to more radical educational reform.    

Now, as we look forward to what is likely to be a very tight Scottish budget in December, it is difficult to feel particularly hopeful that bold positive policy changes are on the horizon. It is clear that any new calls or campaign by our sector will need a strong economic case if they are to achieve any traction.