Minister wants more ambitious approach to child poverty from Scottish Government

The Scottish Government’s strategy to tackle child poverty lacks ambition and creativity, a senior Church of Scotland minister has warned.

Writing in his blog, the Rev Ian Galloway expressed his disappointment with a discussion paper recently released by the Scottish Government as part of a UK-wide consultation following the passing of the Child Poverty Act last March.

In it, the Scottish Government lays down its approach to eliminating child poverty by 2010, with its emphasis on early intervention and prevention, and a shift from ‘welfare to wellbeing’.

The strategy is centred on the need to maximise the resources of households with children and to improve the wellbeing and life chances of children but does not outline detailed action points.

Mr Galloway said that although the paper provided a useful overview of the Scottish Government's initiatives following the passing of the Child Poverty Act, he was disappointed that it had failed to include any strategic priorities or actions with long and short-term targets.

"If the Scottish Government is to genuinely strive to meet the 2020 child poverty targets then it is essential that the strategy now being developed is ambitious and creative," he said.

“That doesn't seem to be the case. We would be pleased to discuss how the work of the Church of Scotland is reflecting on the way in which we, as a society understand and respond to poverty."