Tackling Child Poverty Locally: Principles, Priorities and Practicalities in Challenging Times

Abstract

The 2010 Child Poverty Act placed new obligations to address child poverty upon each of the national governments in Britain and all of the local authorities in England and Wales. Local authorities in Scotland do not have the same legal requirement to tackle child poverty, but it is evident that their actions, in conjunction with local partners within the context of Community Planning Partnerships, will be critical to the success of the Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland introduced by the Scottish Government in 2011 . At the present time, local interventions to tackle child poverty must be enacted under particularly challenging conditions, as measures to reduce child poverty are undermined by a prolonged economic recession, fiscal austerity, reductions in UK welfare spending, and welfare reforms introduced by the UK government which appear likely to increase the number of households and children experiencing poverty. This paper examines what measures Scottish local authorities, Community Planning Partnerships and other local bodies could take to address child poverty at the local level and meet the national commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020.