Stopping child poverty

Information

In partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

With estimates that 24% of Scottish children remain locked in poverty, intergenerational poverty remains a persistent challenge despite legislative moves like the Scottish Child Payment. How do we break the cycle and make meaningful change to poverty that corrosively impacts hunger, health, work, debt, insecure housing, and energy poverty? Are policies and interventions too piecemeal and fragmented, to make substantive structural change and who will be bold enough to align policies with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)?

Panellists:

Chris Birt leads the Scotland team at Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) that works to find solutions to poverty in Scotland and amplify the voices of people experiencing poverty. Prior to joining JRF, Chris worked for the Scottish Government as Head of the First Minister’s Policy and Delivery Unit.

Louise Hunter is the CEO of Includem, a sector-leading organisation providing intensive support to children, young people and families across Scotland. Louise has worked across the third and public sectors for the past 25 years, supporting the most marginalised groups and lobbying for change. Louise is also a Commissioner as part of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Commission.

Professor John Holland McKendrick is Professor in Social Justice at Glasgow Caledonian University and was appointed Commissioner for Fair Access (to higher education) by the Scottish Government in 2023. He is also Co-Director of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit in the Glasgow School for Business and Society at Glasgow Caledonian University. He co-edited the book Poverty in Scotland 2021 that brought together almost thirty sector leaders to share their thoughts on what must be done to tackle poverty in Scotland.