WHAT SCOTLAND, WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND CAN DO TO REDUCE CHILD POVERTY Devolution won’t stop the rising tide of child poverty but it can impose some limits, explains JRF’s Scotland adviser Jim McCormick. What difference can devolution make to the projected rise in poverty? While the key powers over tax, welfare and regulation are reserved to Westminster, governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can still make their own dent in poverty. A review for JRF looks at how each country frames its approach to child poverty jrf.org.uk/publications/devolved-approaches-child-poverty. Scotland’s approach to child poverty is based on ‘prospects, pockets and places’. Set within a broad shift towards prevention, the Early Years Collaborative looks especially promising. Families with three and four year-olds are set to have most access in the UK to free, part-time childcare, but support for under-threes is more limited than in England or Wales and there’s less focus on closing the attainment gap in schools. Employment programmes like Community Jobs Scotland are making inroads into youth unemployment. Maximising incomes is done through various ‘social wage’ policies such as a council tax freeze for all. Limited welfare devolution has led to council tax rebates being protected, avoiding the localisation and cuts found in England, and a new, expanded Welfare Fund replaces parts of the Social Fund jrf.org.uk/publications/impact-localising-council-tax-benefit. Progress in paying a living wage is furthest advanced. But Scotland puts less emphasis on area-based approaches. Since there isn’t an outcomes framework for the strategy and there is no duty on public bodies to contribute (as applies in Wales), it’s harder to gauge the true impact of the Scottish approach. Wales has the broadest strategy, with an emerging focus on improving evaluation and ‘bending’ mainstream programmes to work better in disadvantaged places. But it starts further back with the highest rate of child poverty. Positive aspects include growth of Flying Start for pre-school children and Jobs Growth Wales but there’s less emphasis on addressing in-work poverty. Wales has also fully funded council tax rebates and introduced a hardship fund with new powers. Northern Ireland also has a broad anti-poverty strategy. Stretching to 30 priorities, it’s hard to tell which actions will contribute most. Plans to develop a child poverty outcomes model to inform the Executive’s work should help. The province has the most centrally-driven approach, reflecting the limited powers of councils. Half a dozen ‘signature projects’ shift the focus to extra support for pre-school children, improving literacy and reducing worklessness. An emerging aim to target disadvantaged places goes further than in Scotland but not as far as Wales. Weak spots include the lack of a statutory childcare policy. But the most significant feature is how more extensive welfare powers can be used. Winter fuel payments to low-income households regardless of age couldn’t be made within current powers in Scotland or Wales. Universal Credit is likely to have a distinctive design and the bedroom tax is set to be rejected. Devolution won’t stop a rising tide of poverty, but it can impose some limits. While we can’t gauge how much of a difference devolution makes beyond short-term mitigation, more can be done before new powers arise. Initiatives that may have a clear anti-poverty impact – on childcare, helping lone parents into work, fuel poverty and affordable housing – need to be scaled up substantially. This means hard budget choices. And the need for a wider approach – engaging with employers to improve the position of low-paid households (through training as well as living wage) as well as service providers to reduce costs of energy and credit – will highlight areas where devolution offers scope to procure and persuade even if not to legislate. Read more about our work on anti-poverty strategies for the UK: jrf.org.uk/work/workarea/anti-poverty-strategy -- Dr Jim McCormick has been JRF’s Scotland adviser since 2007 jrf.org.uk/about-us/contact/james-mccormick. He is @JimMcCormick16 on Twitter twitter/JimMcCormick16
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 20:30:00 +0000
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