There’s been a definite – and very welcome - spike in the number of inquiries I’ve received from local child poverty leads over the last few weeks. Although your work to tackle child poverty locally is relentless, it seems that many leads are gearing up to draft their second Local Child Poverty Action Reports.
Though the Scottish Government and Poverty and Inequality Commission have recently highlighted their hopes and expectations for year 2 LCPARs, I thought it might be useful to remind everyone of the information and resources that are on offer from the Improvement Service (IS) and other national organisations such as NHS Health Scotland, the Scottish Government, the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit (SPIRU), Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland (CPAG) and the Poverty Alliance to support local action to tackle child poverty.
This is not an exhaustive list and we would really welcome your thoughts and feedback on what would be most useful in future.
The IS website
A good starting point for those new to the child poverty agenda is the IS website. The website include links to key documents such as the relevant legislation, guidance, the Scottish Government’s child poverty data dashboard, the Commission’s report and a range of other tools.
There’s also a handy list of published Local Child Poverty Action Reports here – if the link to yours is missing, send me on the details and I’ll ensure it’s included (hanna.mcculloch@improvementservice.org.uk).
The Knowledge Hub (KHub)
The Local Child Poverty Action Report Group on the Knowledge Hub has 235 members and is a great place to make contact with others working to tackle child poverty at local and national level. It provides a place to ask questions and share good practice, access research on tackling child poverty and view an up to take contact list of local leads. A recent blog published on the KHub also highlights the initiatives that local child poverty leads across Scotland think are working in their area to tackle child poverty.
I’ll be revamping the KHub over the coming months so look out for a relaunch and publication of a ‘walkthrough’ film that will help you get the most out of it. It would be great if you could share your thoughts about the kind of information you’d like to see on the KHub in future via this forum. Please just let me know if you have any technical difficulties – using the KHub is a learning curve for everyone!
Feedback on local child poverty action reports
Over the past few months I’ve provided ‘critical friend’ feedback on eighteen year one local child poverty action reports. This is usually done via a face to face meeting or over the phone and supported by some written notes highlighting areas for discussion and interesting practice from across Scotland. Although I’m off on maternity leave from the middle of March, I’ll do my best to provide feedback and respond to any requests received in the next few weeks.
When I’m drafting any feedback, I draw on the Feedback Framework which the national partners developed about a year ago. The framework draws on the legislation and guidance to draw out what the key characteristics of a strong LCPAR might be. Although it seems a bit bureaucratic and dry at first, it can be an effective tool for highlighting strengths and areas for improvement in local action to tackle child poverty.
Practical Support
National partners are working with several areas across Scotland to provide more ‘hands on support’ with action to tackle child poverty. This includes:
Our capacity is limited but if you think you would benefit from this kind of support please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
In facilitating local or regional sessions, we often draw upon the Outcome Based Planning Tool for Child Poverty. This will be further developed by NHS Health Scotland this year but it provides a great starting point for discussions around LCPAR development. Essentially the tool allows you to map current action local against the three key drivers of poverty (income from employment, income from social security and the cost of living), prompting discussions about what the gaps and priorities for future action might be – as well as opportunities for services and partners to work together towards shared objectives. If you would like to discuss the tool or how to use it please contact Kerry McKenzie (kerry.mckenzie@nhs.net ).
Sharing Good Practice
Probably the most important aspect of the national partners’ role is supporting the sharing and implementation of good practice to tackle child poverty. Ongoing and upcoming opportunities include:
Networking Opportunities: We’re really keen to provide opportunities for those working on child poverty locally to build relationship and their share experiences and good practice. In the coming year we will:
Information and Data Many local areas are wrestling with how they can best understand local need and establish that they are making progress towards tackling child poverty.Work underway that might be of interest include: The Local Child Poverty Dashboard Created by Scottish Government analysts this online resource draws together a selection of indicators available at local authority level. These indicators do not measure child poverty directly in the same way as the indicators used for the national targets, but they can be used to understand the local context and how that might be changing. The indicators chosen also provide some evidence on drivers of child poverty, along with information on the groups of people that are more at risk of experiencing child poverty.
The Child Poverty Information Working Group
SPIRU and the Scottish Government have established this group which will meet for the first time on Tuesday 4th February. The remit of the group is to collaborate on identifying effective approaches to using existing evidence and information resources for needs-assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of local programmes to reduce child poverty. We’ll be reporting back – but if you’d like to be involved then get in touch with Elizabeth Fraser. (Elizabeth.Fraser@gov.scot ) Elizabeth is also keen to hear from anyone who has used the dashboard.
Inverclyde Data Group
NHS Health Scotland and NHS NSS Local Intelligence Support Team are testing out a public health needs assessment approach with colleagues in Inverclyde. The purpose is to explore how local data might be accessed and utilised to plan, develop and deliver local actions to tackle child poverty. Learning from this initiative will be shared in due course. For more information, contact Megan Watson (megan.watson4@nhs.net )
Briefing papers on child poverty for the priority groups
NHS Health Scotland has been working with local and national partners to produce briefing papers on the priority groups affected by child poverty. Each one aims to describe the priority groups, the challenges they face and what might be done to reduce child poverty for these families. The first briefing, on child poverty in families with three or more children,was published in January 2020. A second briefing on child poverty in lone parent families, will be published in Spring 2020, while a third, on child poverty in families where someone has a disability, will be published soon after that. If you would like more information, please get in touch with Martin (martintaulbut@nhs.net ).
Supporting Involvement of those with Lived Experience Through its Get Heard Scotland initiative, the Poverty Alliance has some capacity to support several local areas in their efforts to meaningfully engage people with lived experience of poverty in the LCPAR process. For more information on the support available contact Robin Tennant.robin.tennant@povertyalliance.org
Influencing and Advocacy Through all our contact with local leads via events, surveys and informal chats we’re in a good position to help identify some of the difficulties that come up again and again across the country. From data sharing difficulties to funding arrangements, national partners can sometimes help draw attention to the difficulties that create barriers for you at local level nationally – whether that’s via COSLA, the Scottish Government, SOLACE or others. So please don’t hesitate to get in touch to let us know what’s bothering you!
It’s been a real pleasure working with you all and I hope to speak to most of you before I head off on mat leave in mid-March. If I don’t, have a great year and keep up the incredible work.
Hanna
Hanna.mcculloch@improvementservice.org.uk
