The Scottish Government is seeking views to inform the development of a new Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland. The strategy will set out the Government’s plans on doing all within its powers to tackle child poverty, in line with the requirements of the Child Poverty Act 2010. A Discussion Paper and an Evidence paper are available. The closing date for written responses is 7 January 2011. The questions, and directions for responding to this consultation, can be found in Section 6 of the discussion paper. The strategy itself will be published in Spring 2011. Any comments from members on a possible CDAS response would be welcome.

The section of the proposals that looks at the community context for child poverty looks at the regeneration of disadvantaged areas, housing, community safety etc. Interestingly, it also emphasises “community engagement and empowerment”.

“The Scottish strategy will set out how children and young people, their families and communities, can become better engaged in and mobilised in efforts to tackle child poverty, building on the approaches set out in Equally Well, the Early Years Framework and the Community Empowerment Action Plan. Scottish Government will be working with key stakeholder groups, including the Poverty Alliance, in order to explore this aspect of the strategy”.

The COSLA/Scottish Government Joint Statement on Community Learning and Development is also highlighted, because it “recognises the contribution that CLD can make to giving children the best start in life, in particular through work with their parents, others who care for them and the wider community that contribute to children’s earliest experiences. This can take the form of: community development, empowering groups to make things happen on their own terms; adult learning in communities, helping people to take the first steps back into learning or to access and sustain employment, or working with young people to help their personal, social and educational development.”