NASUWT Scotland is proud of its commitment to campaigning for the root causes of poverty to be addressed. The union and our members are appalled at the number of children living in poverty in Scotland. This is damaging their educational attainment, wider wellbeing and future life chances.

Work to find solutions to address this issue is long overdue.

The scale of child poverty in Scotland

Figures from the latest Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland report show that 24% of children were living in relative poverty after housing costs in 2020-23.

  • During the same timeframe, 22% of children lived in households with marginal, low or very low food security.

  • The same dataset showed further inequalities, as 38% of children in lone parent families in Scotland are in poverty.

  • Children with a disabled family member in Scotland are also at higher risk, with 27% living in poverty.

  • Over the same three-year period, 70% of children in poverty in Scotland are in a household where someone is in employment.

These figures have been documented by charities and campaigning organisations, including the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

The impact of cuts

NASUWT is calling for an end to education cuts.

Scottish local authorities are under significant pressure to cut costs. For example, Glasgow City Council has produced a budget cutting £27.8 million from education provision.

This will undoubtedly have an adverse effect on all education in the city, but it is particularly concerning how this will affect those with additional support needs, as well as a likely negative impact on efforts to reduce the poverty-related attainment gap.

Furthermore, the assault on education budgets will have an unequal impact on the most deprived areas and life chances of children from these areas.

With other local authorities following Glasgow’s lead and proposing education cuts, NASUWT will continue to lobby the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Scottish Government to protect education budgets and teacher numbers, noting the impact on:

  • ASN support;

  • the poverty-related attainment gap; and

  • children and young people from the most deprived areas.

Legal requirements

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 includes four targets for child poverty in Scotland for 2030 and interim targets for 2023. The targets require that, of all children living in Scotland:

  • less than 18% are in relative poverty by 2023/24; and

  • less than 10% by 2030/31.

The Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Summary shows that the Government missed the interim target for 2023.

Local authorities are governed by the statutory duties contained in the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000. Section 3B of the Act imposes duties on education authorities that are designed to secure a reduction in the inequality of educational outcomes experienced by pupils as a result of socioeconomic disadvantage.

The primary duty requires education authorities to continually consider whether they can do more to help those pupils impacted by socioeconomic disadvantage.

Local councils must also report yearly on their work to reduce poverty. The Scottish Government has published guidance to help councils develop child poverty action reports on their web page Developing a Local Child Poverty Action Report: Guidance.

The Fairer Scotland Duty, set out in Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010, came into force in Scotland from 1 April 2018. It places a legal responsibility on particular public bodies in Scotland, including local authorities, to actively consider (‘pay due regard’ to) how they can reduce inequalities of outcome caused by socioeconomic disadvantage when making strategic decisions, including, for example, during budget setting.

Although the Fairer Scotland Duty is derived from the Equality Act 2010, it is separate from the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).

Nevertheless, those who share particular protected characteristics are often at higher risk of socioeconomic disadvantage. For the most part, it will not be possible to reduce inequalities of outcome effectively if the problem and its solutions are not considered through an equality lens. Advice on meeting the duty can be accessed at Fairer Scotland Duty: Guidance for Public Bodies.

Poverty-related attainment gap

The Scottish Government, in a bid to support and drive progress in closing the poverty-related attainment gap, introduced local ‘stretch aims’ through the Scottish Attainment Challenge Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress in 2022, part of the wider National Improvement Framework (NIF) introduced by the Scottish Government in 2016.

The Union believes that a significant review of the place of the NIF within the Scottish context should be undertaken to consider whether it has set out what it intended to achieve.

NASUWT has been calling on the NIF to be sufficiently reflective - to realise that measuring a thing does not automatically improve it. Indeed, where resources are limited, it can cause a detriment because the time and effort of teachers are being diverted from their core role of teaching and learning.

The work of NASUWT Scotland

Challenge Poverty Week

NASUWT Scotland engages annually with Challenge Poverty Week, joining the campaign to highlight the injustice of poverty across the nation. The week also shows that collective action based on justice and compassion can create solutions.

For Challenge Poverty Week 2023, NASUWT Scotland took an active role in raising awareness of the social challenges of poverty. In particular, we were vocal around the key issues of universal free school meals and library provision.

In 2024, NASUWT undertook a snapshot survey of members exploring how the cost of living crisis is impacting them, their pupils and essential provisions like school trips:

  • 92% of teachers said that pupil behaviour had worsened over the last year;

  • 74% said more pupils were struggling with attendance and arriving late;

  • 70% said more pupils were lacking in energy and concentration.

  • there is concern for pupils’ access to food and appropriate clothing with 62% of teachers reporting that more pupils were coming to school hungry and 58% observing that more were attending school in unwashed or damaged clothes;

  • a quarter of respondents said their school now hosts its own foodbank and 70% have provided food or clothing on an ad hoc basis;

  • there is significant worry over the future of school trips with 68% of teachers reporting that their school has been forced to limit trips due to cost.

More details can be found in our press release ‘Cost of living crisis is derailing education, says survey’ and our MSP Briefing on Poverty and Schools, which can be downloaded on the right/below.

Child hunger

NASUWT Scotland has a longstanding campaign calling for universal free school meals, which would have significant benefits to pupils’ health, wellbeing and educational attainment.

We have taken an active role in the STUC Women’s Committee Food for Thought campaign. Through this campaign, the Committee is calling for a stigma-free, dignified and universally free school meals provision approach that meets the needs of all children and young people’s right to food, education and fun.

The issue of child hunger and universal free school meals was explored in the recent Cost of the School Day report published by CPAG. The findings showed that 97% of young people say food is very or quite important in feeling ready to learn at school.

Hunger has a serious impact on learning and concentration: it makes pupils tired and unwell, leaving them feeling embarrassed and left out. This is an entirely unacceptable situation.

 


Your feedback

If you require a response from us, please DO NOT use this form. Please use our Contact Us page instead.

In our continued efforts to improve the website, we evaluate all the feedback you leave here because your insight is invaluable to us, but all your comments are processed anonymously and we are unable to respond to them directly.