Child Poverty Action Plan

Colleagues across the Council; the NHS Board of Greater Glasgow and Clyde; and, the East Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership, have worked together on the attached local child poverty report and action plan. The Council approved the plan at their December 2021 meeting and is committed to the statutory targets in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, to put an end to child poverty across Scotland. 

The plan is our third and is updated every year.

The plan makes progress towards meeting reductions in child poverty targets, outlining the work we do in East Dunbartonshire to give children living in low-income households the best start in life. The plan seeks to also outline some of the work we do in partnership with voluntary and community organisations, who have proven crucial to concerted efforts to meet community needs during the difficult time of the global pandemic.

The Scottish Government has asked all 32 Councils to focus efforts, through these plans, on those families who have the lowest incomes and to look specifically at producing actions under three main drivers of poverty reduction:

  • Increasing income from social security
  • Increasing income from employment
  • Reducing essential costs of living

We believe that if we work together to align our resources in these areas, we will make a real difference to increasing family incomes and reducing the known detrimental impacts that poverty can have on a child’s health, social wellbeing and educational achievement