In June last year, North Ayrshire Council’s cabinet approved the Child Poverty Plan 2023-26, which is a joint plan involving various partners and is a statutory requirement of the Scottish Government.

Last month, the cabinet agreed to publish the first progress report on the Plan and submit this to the Scottish Government.

The progress report highlights action that has been taken throughout 2023 and 2024, based on the three key drivers of child poverty - income from employment, income from social security and the cost of living.

Key activities have included:

• The Money Matters Team helping residents access over £20 million in financial gains from almost 6,000 referrals​
• £20,000 allocated from the Child Poverty and Early Intervention Fund to explore sustainable childcare provision​
• 7,000 households seeking energy advice alongside £600,000 in Emergency Support payments going to households struggling with high utility bills as part of the council’s Energy Smart programme and​
• 130 families benefiting from increased household income because a parent has been supported into employment by council services.

Going forward, key areas of focus will include:

• ensuring residents can access available Cost-of-Living support quickly and effectively through the No Wrong Door approach, which encourages all council staff to direct members of the public to the right advice;​
• improving out-of-school care provision; and​
• improving the data that is gathered on the six priority groups so that resources can be better targeted to support them.

Marie Burns, leader of North Ayrshire Council, said: We have the second highest rate of child poverty in Scotland, and tackling this is a key priority for us as a local authority.

“We can only help make life better for people by working closely with our partners across the public, private and third sector – and we are already doing this with support from bodies including NHS Ayrshire and Arran, The Ayrshire Community Trust (TACT), Arran Community and Voluntary Service and the Health and Social Care Partnership.

“We are determined to do everything in our power to help people living in poverty and will continue to keep our residents at the heart of matters as we approach this complex and challenging issue.

“This progress report sets out the scale of the challenge and also the wide range of activity that is already going into addressing it.”