Fife Gingerbread charity calls for child poverty reforms with new manifesto

A Fife charity has launched its own manifesto calling for reforms to tackle child poverty.

Fife Gingerbread supports families living in poverty across the region and want to see policy and practical change in five key areas.

They include multi-year funding for third-sector organisations, more support from employers for lone parents, transformational change to child maintenance, improvements to the way the housing emergency is being tackled and a fresh look at the cost of school day support.

Laura Millar, CEO of Fife Gingerbread, told STV News: “What we’re hoping to do is spend a bit more time and energy working towards a change in the systems because often the systems that were designed to support families that we work with are actually working against them.

“Families are really stuck in poverty and we need to change some of those barriers so they can progress in their lives and their children can flourish.”

First Minister John Swinney has repeatedly said eradicating child poverty is his driving force.

Last week, a report by the anti-poverty charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found while Scotland had reduced child poverty, there was still work to do to eliminate it.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and the Scottish Government’s top priority.

“The draft Scottish Budget for 2025-26 prioritised action to eradicate child poverty, including through investment in breakfast clubs, expansion of free school meals, employability and to develop the systems to mitigate the two child limit.

The Scottish Government is continuing to invest over £3bn a year to policies which tackle poverty and the cost of living for households.

“The draft budget includes up to £90m for the delivery of devolved employability services, including specific funding to continue supporting parents to enter employment.

“It also includes an additional £4m to help local authorities, frontline services and relevant partners prepare for their new homelessness prevention duties and to help them to respond to the housing emergency by preventing homelessness before it occurs.

“We are committed to fairer funding for the third sector and this week announced that 45 projects will share in £61.7m this year as part of multi-year funding pilots.”