Parenting newsletter Winter 2022

Welcome

Welcome to the Parenting across Scotland newsletter.

All links were checked and working at the time of going to press.

Family support

Before the pandemic many families were struggling to get support services. The pandemic has made things worse, with vulnerable children, young people and families in Scotland the most affected by successive lockdowns.

In February 2020, the Independent Care Review reported its findings in The Promise. The Promise reflected what over 5,500 care experienced children and adults, families and the paid and unpaid workforce told the care review.

One of its recommendations was that families should be given more support so that, as far as possible, families could stay together. When families need additional support, this should be available to them, as set out in article 18 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This establishes the right of families to help and support. Holistic accessible whole-family support is central to Scotland’s commitment to Keep The Promise for children and families. The Change Programme ONE, from The Promise, found that, while work in this area is underway, it is not sufficient.

The Scottish Government has set up a Family Support Delivery Group to take action on this, and has committed a Whole Family Wellbeing Fund of £500 million over this parliamentary session.

Martin Whitfield MSP submitted a motion on holistic family support to the Scottish Parliament. A debate on family support was held in the Scottish Parliament on 13 January at the end of which the Scottish Government committed to producing an implementation plan for whole family support by the end of the year.

Aberlour has published a helpful briefing for MSPs: Aberlour: championing the right to family support. This is useful for others too.

Poverty

Practical assistance for families

If you are working with families who are struggling there are various funds which you can approach for help:

·         The Aberlour Urgent Assistance Fund offers help to families struggling to make ends meet

·         The Family Fund provides assistance to families on low incomes who are raising a seriously ill or disabled child

·         Best Start Grants help parents and carers on certain benefits with the costs of pregnancy or looking after a child

Child poverty delivery plan

One in every four children in Scotland was living in poverty before the pandemic. Now, even more families are in financial hardship, needing to use foodbanks, finding it difficult to pay bills, and falling into debt. In March, the Scottish Government will publish its new Child Poverty Delivery Plan to cover the period 2022 to 2026.

Scottish Child Payment

One measure that will make a positive difference to families on low incomes is to double the Scottish Child Payment (SCP). This will commence from April 2022. As part of the End Child Poverty Coalition, PAS is delighted that End Child Poverty’s campaign to double the SCP was successful.

Child poverty since the 1960s: briefing

The UK Government's Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 repealed much of the 2010 Child Poverty Act, including the targets to reduce poverty and the measures of child poverty based on family income. However, the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 reintroduced targets for Scotland. The 2017 Act, therefore, marked a significant divergence from the rest of the UK in the approach to discussing and tracking child poverty. This research briefing from the Scottish Parliament gives an overview of child poverty in Scotland from the early 1960s, when data collection for Great Britain began, to the present day. Scotland-specific data is not available before 1994-95. Measuring child poverty is complex and often contentious. This briefing considers various approaches to measuring child poverty in Scotland: by expenditure, by income, by the median and by material deprivation. It also details an increasing interest in food insecurity, and describes the difficulties of measuring child poverty at the sub-national level.

Poverty in Scotland 2021: report by Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Published in October, this JRF report shows that, without urgent action to release poverty’s grip, the Scottish Government is on course to significantly miss the child poverty targets.

Financial security

Save the Children’s new report, It would be nice just to feel secure, is based on speaking with parents of children under two to understand the issues facing them, and to find out what they’d want prioritised in the Child Poverty Delivery Plan.

Local action

A report published by the Poverty Alliance as part of its Get Heard Scotland project, is based on interviews with 32 low-income families from Renfrewshire and Inverclyde. These explored families’ experiences during the pandemic. The report found that the pandemic had intensified their challenges, with lone parents, Black and minority ethnic families, and families with a disabled parent or child the most affected. The report calls for local action to tackle poverty.

Childcare

Coronavirus safety in early years settings

New non-statutory guidance has been published (January 2022) to support the safe operation of early years settings (nurseries and childminders).

The ‘warn and inform’ letters that settings send to parents/carers when they are informed of a positive coronavirus case among their staff or children have been translated into the following languages: Gaelic, Chinese (simplified), Urdu, Punjabi, Polish and Arabic. These versions have been added to the supporting documents for the guidance.

There are more resources on the Care Inspectorate hub.

Consultation on data sharing

The UK Government is consulting about allowing data sharing to enable local authorities to get contact details for families with a two-year-old eligible for funded childcare in Scotland. Currently, it is not possible for local authorities to get this information from the DWP and to inform families directly of their entitlement.

ELC audit

Scottish Childminding Association’s ELC Audit 2021 says that change is needed in Scottish childcare policy as implementation is failing childminding and threatening parental choice.

Intergenerational child and elder care

Jacqueline Cassidy, director of Place 2Be Scotland, travelled (as a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fellow) to Japan, Singapore and the USA to look at intergenerational practice in early years and elderly care. Her report, Intergenerational Child and Elder Care: supporting improved outcomes for communities, looks at how visits from children to homes for the elderly benefits both young and old.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

At the time of writing the UNCRC Bill has not yet been returned to the Scottish Parliament. However, the work of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Implementation Board continues with its plans to implement the UNCRC in Scotland. More information on Scottish Government activity relating to the UNCRC.

PAS is running a series of webinars on parents and the UNCRC. The first one, ‘The UNCRC: what does it mean for families?’, took place in September. Juliet Harris, director of Together, and Brid Featherstone, professor of social work at the University of Huddersfield gave presentations. Their presentations and a recording of the event are on our website.

The second webinar, ‘The UNCRC: supporting families’, took place in January. It looked at how implementation of the UNCRC might be used to tackle poverty, inadequate housing and family support. The speakers were Satwat Rehman, director of One Parent Families Scotland; Alison Watson, director of Shelter Scotland; and SallyAnn Kelly, CEO of Aberlour. Their presentations and a recording of the event are on our website.

Research

Out of school care 

As part of this year’s CivTech 6 challenge, Caerus are working with Scottish Government to understand what school age childcare options families need and what options are available to them. This research will benefit parents as finding the care and activities they need for their school age children will be easier. Providers will get real time insights to demand for their services, this will show what and where parents are searching for care and activity clubs.

The system will include both providers registered with Care Inspectorate and activity providers such as dance, swimming, football, drama classes etc.

If you would like to contribute to the research please use the links below:

Registered providers link: https://regprovider.caerus.scot/

Parents link: https://parents.caerus.scot/

Activity providers link: https://unregprovider.caerus.scot/

Understanding children’s lives and outcomes

In keeping with Scotland’s policy ambitions to create the conditions for children to grow up loved, safe and respected in order that they realise their full potential, the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research aims to facilitate and contribute research that monitors how Scotland is doing and what needs improved. More information on research to understand children’s lives and outcomes.

Domestic abuse and child protection: thinking and doing differently

Research in Practice has published a series of resources to support new conceptual and practice developments when responding to families where there is domestic abuse. Relevant to England, but with some useful information for the UK generally, the resources have been produced as part of a Research in Practice Change Project that explored domestic abuse and child protection, drawing on international research, practice initiatives and family expertise.

Resources for practitioners

Training from Families Outside

Families Outside offers accredited training to individuals and groups across the statutory and voluntary sectors who come into contact with families affected by imprisonment. The training is designed to raise awareness of the impact of imprisonment on families, to improve practice and to develop the knowledge and skills of participants for supporting families. The training is online for now. More about Families Outside training.

Someone to talk to and someone to listen: supporting young pregnant women and young parents in school

Every pregnant young woman and young parent should be supported to stay in school. Guidance from the Scottish Government sets out why it is important to provide support, how that support could be provided, and what needs to be taken into account when reaching decisions with a young person.

Coaching and mentoring from Education Scotland

Education Scotland is offering childcare providers and school staff a digital coaching programme to support staff with the issues they are facing during the pandemic. Because work and life are not separate, there is space to talk about personal as well as professional issues.

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