Scotland is Determined to End Child Poverty
First Minister John Swinney heard from partners in the third sector, local government and academia to inform the Scottish Government’s work to end child poverty. Speaking after the meeting in Glasgow, the First Minister said that eradicating child poverty remained his government’s top priority – and called on the UK Chancellor to take equally urgent […]
Supporting Families with School Attendance
A national TV, radio and multi-media campaign that aims to improve school attendance by supporting parents, carers, and teachers to make school a positive experience for all children has been launched. The £320,000 national school attendance campaign will run for four weeks across TV, radio, static ads including posters, and digital mediums between 30 October […]
Charity Declares ‘Fuel Poverty Emergency’
ALIenergy is calling on the UK Government to introduce a social energy tariff ahead of the energy price cap rising by 2%, for millions of people in Scotland. The most recent fuel poverty statistics from the Scottish House Condition Survey and Scottish Government (2023) displayed that overall fuel poverty in Scotland is 34%, up from 31% […]
Support for Transgender Young People
The guidance to help schools in Scotland support transgender children and young people has been updated. The refreshed guidance takes account of recent court decisions while also providing greater clarity for schools on provision of toilet facilities and support for pupils. The Education Secretary met with COSLA, ADES, and teaching unions throughout the summer as […]
Easing Teaching Workload
Proposals to help alleviate workload pressures faced by teachers have been announced by the Scottish Government. Work is underway with councils and teaching unions to create a plan to reduce class contact time for teachers, which is supported by increased funding for councils of £186.5 million to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels. In addition, […]
Thousands of Young People to Benefit from Free School Meals Expansion
The Scottish Government is expanding its Free School Meals programme to cover an additional 6000 high school pupils in a trial project beginning in August. This trial phase of the free school meals programme will see S1 to S3 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, who attend selected schools in eight local authority […]