Child poverty continues to be a key priority for Local Government. Despite unprecedented financial challenges, local authorities remain firmly committed to our shared goal under the Verity House Agreement: tackling poverty — particularly child poverty — and delivering vital services and support to children and families in need.

Commenting, Councillor Tony Buchanan, COSLA Spokesperson for Children and Young People, said:

“On Challenge Poverty Week, I would like to take this opportunity to thank colleagues across Local Government for the vital work they do every day to support our children - it is important that we can continue to recognise their dedication.

Child poverty is a cross-cutting issue that pervades across all council areas with latest figures estimating around 2 in 5 people in Scotland live in very deep poverty, meanwhile relative child poverty remains at 21%.

Local Government is at the frontline of tackling poverty. Every day, our councils work to boost incomes, provide vital services such as housing and transport, and deliver key interventions such as free school meals, and the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

However, we know we have more to do. COSLA will continue to call for evidence based whole‑family, community‑centred support, a balance between universal and targeted provision, and flexible and sustainable long-term funding so councils can build on and accelerate the vital work they already undertake to tackle poverty in their communities. COSLA will also continue to lobby for meaningful multi-year settlements for local government and our partners that enable preventative investment for children and families.​

Despite the financial pressures facing councils, local authorities remain strongly committed to our shared priority under the Verity House Agreement to tackle poverty, particularly child poverty, and to deliver a range of services and support children and their families in need.

A holistic approach must be taken at the local and national level to ensure our approach is person-centred and utilises the lived experiences of local families, particularly those in priority groups, to overcome barriers and address specific challenges faced by those families within their community context. This requires adequate funding for local authorities, who are best placed to target provision for their local contexts.

Earlier this year COSLA published a white paper COSLA-White-Paper-Strengthening-Scotlands-Approach-To-Tackling-Poverty.pdf. The paper sets out how Local Government is already helping to address the impacts of poverty through action on the housing emergency, delivering free school meals and funded early learning and childcare, supporting households affected by in-work poverty, and helping people overcome barriers such as a lack of affordable transport

Challenge Poverty Week 2026 runs from Monday 6th - Sunday 11th October with events taking place across Scotland.  Including an Elected Members Seminar on Wednesday 7^th October at 2pm hosted by Cllr Chalmers, Community Wellbeing Spokesperson. COSLA Elected Member Webinar: Tackling Child Poverty