NASUWT Scotland is proud of its commitment to campaigning for the root causes of poverty to be addressed. The union and our members are appalled at the number of children living in poverty in Scotland. This is damaging their educational attainment, wider wellbeing and future life chances.

Work to find solutions to address this issue is long overdue.

The scale of child poverty in Scotland

Figures from the most recent Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland report show that 21% of children were living in relative poverty after housing costs in 2022-25.

  • The same dataset showed further inequalities, as 30% of children in lone parent families in Scotland are in poverty.

  • Children with a disabled family member in Scotland are also at higher risk, with 23% living in poverty.

  • Over the same three-year period, 75% of children in poverty in Scotland are in a household where someone is in employment.

These figures have been documented by charities and campaigning organisations, including the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

The impact of cuts

NASUWT is calling for an end to education cuts and greater investment in public services.

Scottish local authorities continue to be under significant pressure to cut costs.

A challenging fiscal environment for local authorities undoubtedly has an adverse effect on education, but it is particularly concerning how constrained education funding affects additional support needs provision and efforts to reduce the poverty-related attainment gap.

The assault on education budgets has an unequal impact on the most deprived areas and life chances of children from these areas.

NASUWT will continue to lobby the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Scottish Government to increase education budgets and teacher numbers, noting the impact on:

  • ASN support;

  • the poverty-related attainment gap; and

  • children and young people from the most deprived areas.

NASUWT joined The Poverty Alliance's ‘Scotland Demands Better’ campaign and also carried out our own lobbying in the run up to the 2026 Scottish Parliament election with specific asks around socioeconomic disadvantage:

‘Poverty continues to decimate the lives of children and young people, affecting their ability to get to school and engage in learning, which thereafter has long-term impacts on educational attainment, wider wellbeing and future life chances. There are measures the Government can take to improve outcomes for struggling pupils and their families.’ 

We want the next Scottish Government to deliver a Better Deal that will: 

  • provide universal free school meals and improve access to breakfast clubs; 

  • legislate to make the national school clothing guidance statutory; 

  • provide improved social security so everyone has a foundation for the future; 

  • introduce a wealth tax on the richest to raise billions per year for public services; 

  • ring-fence education funding to ensure that monies intended to fulfil national commitments (e.g. on teacher numbers or pupil equity) are used appropriately; and 

  • invest in digital infrastructure to combat digital poverty.

Legal requirements

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 includes four targets for child poverty in Scotland for 2030 and interim targets for 2023. The targets require that, of all children living in Scotland:

  • less than 18% are in relative poverty by 2023/24; and

  • less than 10% by 2030/31.

The Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Summary (pdf) shows that the Government missed the interim target for 2023/24.

Local authorities are governed by the statutory duties contained in the Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act 2000. Section 3B of the Act imposes duties on education authorities that are designed to secure a reduction in the inequality of educational outcomes experienced by pupils as a result of socioeconomic disadvantage.

The primary duty requires education authorities to continually consider whether they can do more to help those pupils impacted by socioeconomic disadvantage.

Local councils must also report yearly on their work to reduce poverty. The Scottish Government has published guidance to help councils develop child poverty action reports on their web page Developing a Local Child Poverty Action Report: Guidance.

The Fairer Scotland Duty, set out in Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010, came into force in Scotland from 1 April 2018. It places a legal responsibility on particular public bodies in Scotland, including local authorities, to actively consider (‘pay due regard’ to) how they can reduce inequalities of outcome caused by socioeconomic disadvantage when making strategic decisions, including, for example, during budget setting.

Although the Fairer Scotland Duty is derived from the Equality Act 2010, it is separate from the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).

Nevertheless, those who share particular protected characteristics are often at higher risk of socioeconomic disadvantage. For the most part, it will not be possible to reduce inequalities of outcome effectively if the problem and its solutions are not considered through an equality lens. Advice on meeting the duty can be accessed at Fairer Scotland Duty: Guidance for Public Bodies.

Poverty-related attainment gap

The Scottish Government, in a bid to support and drive progress in closing the poverty-related attainment gap, introduced local ‘stretch aims’ through the Scottish Attainment Challenge Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress in 2022, part of the wider National Improvement Framework (NIF) introduced by the Scottish Government in 2016.

The Union continues to believe that a significant review of the place of the NIF within the Scottish context should be undertaken to consider whether it has set out what it intended to achieve.

NASUWT has been calling on the NIF to be sufficiently reflective - to realise that measuring a thing does not automatically improve it. Indeed, where resources are limited, it can cause a detriment because the time and effort of teachers are being diverted from their core role of teaching and learning.

The work of NASUWT Scotland

Challenge Poverty Week

NASUWT Scotland engages annually with Challenge Poverty Week, joining the campaign to highlight the injustice of poverty across the nation. The week also shows that collective action based on justice and compassion can create solutions.

For Challenge Poverty Week 2025, NASUWT Scotland took an active role in raising awareness of the social challenges of poverty. 

As part of our work to raise awareness of issues related to poverty during this week and beyond, we undertook a snapshot survey of members exploring how the cost of living crisis is impacting them, their pupils and essential provisions like food and uniform.

The findings revealed that poverty continues to decimate the lives of children and young people, affecting their ability to get to school and to engage in learning.

  • 89% of teachers said that pupil behaviour had worsened over the last year;

  • 77% said more pupils were struggling with attendance and arriving late;

  • 76% said more pupils were lacking in energy and concentration;

  • there is concern for pupils’ access to food and appropriate clothing, with 64% of teachers reporting that more pupils were coming to school hungry;

  • 64% observing that more were attending school in unwashed or damaged clothes;

  • around a quarter of respondents said their school now hosts its own food bank; and

  • 71% have provided food or clothing on an ad-hoc basis.

Respondents were asked to indicate if they had seen any of the following in their pupils by the end of the last academic year:

  • More pupils unable to afford school uniform: 49%, up from 40% last year.

  • More pupils who do not have the appropriate footwear: 53%, up from 43% last year.

  • More pupils wishing to access breakfast clubs: 38%, up from 35% last year.

More details can be found in our MSP Briefing on Poverty and Schools, which can be downloaded on the right/below.

Child hunger

NASUWT Scotland has a longstanding campaign calling for universal free school meals, which would have significant benefits to pupils’ health, wellbeing and educational attainment.

We have taken an active role in the STUC Women’s Committee Food for Thought campaign. Through this campaign, the Committee is calling for a stigma-free, dignified and universally free school meals provision approach that meets the needs of all children and young people’s right to food, education and fun. The campaign continues to be given a high profile within the Women Demand Better manifesto (pdf).

The issue of child hunger and universal free school meals was explored in the recent Cost of the School Day report published by CPAG. The findings showed that 97% of young people say food is very or quite important in feeling ready to learn at school.

Hunger has a serious impact on learning and concentration: it makes pupils tired and unwell, leaving them feeling embarrassed and left out. This is an entirely unacceptable situation.

 


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