Targets and strategies
Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to have poorer levels of health, emotional difficulties, poorer educational attainment, difficult family and social relationships, lack of access to material goods, poorer quality/inadequate housing, and lack of access to leisure and out-of-school activities.
In 2013, Glasgow agreed a ten year Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) with Community Planning Partners in the city. It focuses on three key priority areas where partners in the city believe that they can achieve better outcomes for residents by working more collaboratively and integrating services. The priorities are: alcohol, youth employment and vulnerable people. A further focus for the SOA is to tackle persistent inequalities within specific targeted neighbourhoods in the city, known as Thriving Places.
Specific work to tackle poverty in Glasgow City is being progressed by the Poverty Leadership Panel, made up of public, private and third sector organisations along with a Community Activist Panel, made up of people who have experience of living in poverty. The Panel is committed to making a difference to people's lives through their strategy, launched in 2016.
In 2015, Glasgow City Council launched a refresh of their Strategic plan: 2012 to 2017 which set out the Council's priorities. It focused on economic growth and resilience for the city and its communities.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has established a Financial Inclusion Group and developed an action plan and has piloted a number of financial inclusion initiatives, one of which is the Healthier, Wealthier Children Project.
Scottish Government
The annual report for the Child Poverty Strategy 2016 outlines measures taken by the Scottish Government to progress the strategy.
Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland - Our Approach 2014-2017 provides an update on the 2011 Scottish Government strategy for eradicating child poverty and reducing inequality, including income inequality. The main aims are to (a) reduce income poverty and material deprivation by maximising household resources and (b) improving children's wellbeing and life chances by tackling the underlying social and economic determinants of poverty and improving the circumstances in which children grow up. The three key policy frameworks to deliver these outcomes are :
Achieving Our Potential: A Framework to Tackle Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland
Equally Well: Report of the Ministerial Taskforce on Health Inequalities.
These policy frameworks provide the basis for the Scottish Government, with its local partners (local government, the NHS, the third sector and other community planning partners), to develop a shared approach to tackling child poverty and are based on the principles of Getting it Right for Every Child - a Scottish approach to improving outcomes for all children. These principles provide a vision for Scotland's Children as: Safe; Healthy; Achieving; Nurtured; Active; Respected; Responsible and Included (SHANARRI).
