Agenda item

Consider Local Child Poverty Annual Progress Report 2020/21 and Local Child Poverty Report and Action Plan 2021/22.  (Report and appendices attached)

With reference to paragraph 6 of the Minute of 19 November 2020, copies of a report by SBC Service Director Customer & Communities, along with a number of appendices, on Local Child Poverty had been circulated.   These included the Scottish Borders Local Child Poverty Annual Progress Report for 2020/21 and the Scottish Borders Local Child Poverty Report and Action Plan for 2021/22 which required endorsement by the Strategic Board prior to submission to Scottish Government.  The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 required Local Authorities and Health Boards to jointly prepare a Local Child Poverty Action Plan Report and an Annual Progress Report.  The Annual Progress Report for 2020/21 was the third Annual Report for the Scottish Borders and provided the Community Planning Partnership and Scottish Government with an update on progress made within the Action Plan.   Details were given of the background and main categories that drove poverty, along with the national context and measures to assess child poverty in Scotland.  A summary was given of the local context and further details going down to Ward level were provided in Appendix 2 to the report.  All indicators were showing an increase in poverty and that was without the impact of Covid which was still to come.  A further insight from Borders College highlighted student poverty.  Although this was a very challenging environment, a lot of work was already underway to tackle child poverty.  New actions had been identified and these were included in the Report and Action Plan for 2021/22.  The focus would now move to that Action Plan and also thinking ahead to 2022/23.  The Community Planning Partnership needed to consider what more it could do as a partnership given the impending impact of Covid, the effects of which were still to be felt.  Reference was made to the links with the Council’s work on its Anti-Poverty Strategy.   The Chairman invited the partners to contribute to actions for 2022/23 and look beyond simply treating symptoms and try to treat causes to give people the tools to lift them out of poverty longer term.     

DECISION

AGREED to endorse:

(a)        the Scottish Borders Local Child Poverty Annual Progress Report for 2020/21 for submission to Scottish Government; and

(b)       the Scottish Borders Local Child Poverty Report and Action Plan for 2021/22 for submission to Scottish Government.