Scottish government on course to miss child poverty targets, charity warns

The Scottish government is on course to miss legally-binding targets on child poverty "by miles", a charity warned.

Social justice and housing secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville announced earlier this year the government would look at the type of goals set in the binding 2031 targets, which currently has the relative child poverty target set at less than 10%.

Figures revealed earlier in 2026 showed the government had missed an interim target, with the rate sitting at 21% between 2022 and 2025.

The UK average is 28% - with England at 29%, Wales at 32% and Northern Ireland at 19%.

On Monday, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) published a highly critical report, saying a "shocking" 21% of children are growing up in poverty, despite the First Minister's promise to eradicate it.

The Poverty in Scotland 2026 report warned Scotland will miss its legally-binding target to cut relative child poverty to below 10% by 2030-31 by a "wide margin".

The review also suggested the Scottish government will struggle to meet its own targets and that "radical change is needed".

Chris Birt, the charity's associate director in Scotland, said there could be a "risk that they could be taking their foot off the gas".

Speaking at the launch of the report, he said: "It's not the numbers that are important, it's the action.

"The worst thing they could possibly do is take a break - take a pause on action.nThey need to keep pushing while they do that review and they can't be moving the goalposts.

"It has to be about something that restates their passion for improving the lives of children in Scotland."

He added: "We are on course to miss the legally-binding targets by miles, but parliament can choose to up the ante and provide challenging new targets that re-energise government efforts."

First Minister John Swinney has made the eradication of child poverty his driving mission in office, but the JRF report said there was an "increasing disconnect" between government rhetoric and action.

The report said: "We have consistently heard the first minister describe eradicating poverty as his defining mission.

"This commitment is welcome, but there is an increasing disconnect between the Scottish government's rhetoric and the reality of life for families in poverty across Scotland."

It called for ministers to bring forward a "new, much bolder and properly-funded plan to reduce poverty in Scotland", and to reform local government funding to ensure that "services are best where they are needed the most".

At an event in Perth and Kinross on Monday, Mr Swinney said eradicating child poverty remained his government's "central mission".

He added: "We are reviewing the targets because we want them to be meaningful in capturing all of the interventions that we make to eradicate child poverty.

"So, we want to make sure that, for example, housing support and childcare support and employment support and income support are all counting towards the measurement of how we lift children out of poverty.

"And, of course, the progress that we're making is already keeping 100,000 children out of poverty as we speak.

"It's resulting in lower levels of child poverty in Scotland than the rest of the United Kingdom and that progress will be central to how the government takes forward our agenda to ensure that we succeed in our mission of eradicating child poverty."

Mr Swinney added that the government's plan uses "whole family support" to boost the chances of young people, but he said: "We recognise there is more to be done and that's why that provision of eradicating child poverty is central to the government's programme that we set out to parliament in September."

Around 940,000 people in Scotland, or 17%, are in poverty - with 11% in deep poverty and 7% in very deep poverty, according to the JRF report.

Rates of poverty and deep poverty have only fallen by one percentage point between 2021-24 and 2020-25, and very deep poverty has shown little change, it said.

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Around two in five people in poverty are in very deep poverty, meaning their incomes are well below the poverty line.

The poll of 3,381 adults found around half, some 49%, said they thought their local authority is highly responsible for reducing poverty in their area.

Two-thirds, around 67%, said they thought their council received too little funding to provide the services needed in their area.

Despite widespread disaffection with councils, the survey found high levels of trust in key people working for and with them, such as teachers and nursery staff.

The report recommends the Scottish government's public service reforms should focus on reducing child poverty and local government finance should be overhauled to help make services best where they are needed the most.

(c) Sky News 2026: Scottish government on course to miss child poverty targets, charity warns