Child Poverty in Glasgow
At the Centre for Civic Innovation, we have been producing a Child Poverty Report every year since 2020
We are working with experts in financial inclusion, health and social care, employability and planning to better understand how to tackle child poverty through targeted interventions informed by co-designed data tools and citizens' needs. Using design-led methods we can improve service delivery and drive policy to ultimately put an end to Child Poverty in Glasgow.
Scottish Government Targets
In December 2017, the Scottish Government passed the Child Poverty bill into law which outlines targets to reduce the number of children experiencing the effects of poverty by 2030.
- By 2023 there is an interim target to ensure that fewer than 18% of children are living in relative poverty
- By 2030 there is a target to ensure that fewer than 10% of children are living in relative poverty
On behalf of Glasgow City Council’s Child Poverty Governance Board, The Head of Financial Inclusion and Transformation approached the Centre for Civic Innovation (CCI) to assist with this City Challenge.
The Child Poverty in Glasgow 2023 report helps us better understand Child Poverty in the city and the need for interventions targeted at priority groups. The council and partners are united in their efforts to address the unacceptable level of Child Poverty in the city. The insights in the report are vital in helping us better focus scarce resources and collaborate around implementing the required supports and services. The need for radical and bold action has always been there but has been further heightened as a consequence of the pandemic and Cost of Living Crisis.
Head of Financial Inclusion and Transformation in Glasgow City Council
The First Child Poverty Report
In partnership with the Financial Inclusion Team, the CCI wrote the first Child Poverty in Glasgow Report for 2019/2020. Our team has produced three further reports
Our latest released in Autumn 2023 has detailed the landscape of Child Poverty in Glasgow pre-COVID as well as focussing on the recovery from the pandemic and identifying the major negative impact on the communities within Glasgow.
The insights gathered in the past reports have been used to better understand the need for interventions targeted at priority groups. The initial research carried out in 2020 highlighted a significant gap in the uptake of education benefits, which led to funding being secured to set up a pilot to embed Financial Inclusion Support Officers in secondary schools across Glasgow.
This was used as a justification for the provision of financial support in schools where the need was greatest.
The role of the officers is to increase awareness and knowledge in young people of the various grants and awards available to them as well as supporting parents to maximise their income by raising awareness of entitlements to welfare benefits, grants and awards.
This year we’ve been working in partnership with those who have been using the report to design and build tools that will help provide services where and when they’re needed.
Glasgow’s detailed understanding of the extent and depth of child poverty was also pivotal in both establishing and informing the work of our Child Poverty Pathfinder, a partnership focused on radically rethinking our approach to tackling child poverty.
The collaborative effort between organisations creating the Child Poverty Report for Glasgow is a testament to our shared commitment to addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing our city. This joint effort not only amplifies our collective impact but also underscores the importance of a unified approach to combat child poverty. Together, we can gather crucial insights, identify effective solutions, and pave the way for a brighter future for the children of Glasgow.
Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council