OPFS launches Single Parents’ Manifesto for Scottish Parliament election 2026

Informed by single parents, experts by experience, our 2026 Scottish Parliament Manifesto sets out the key changes that single parent families need to see by 2031. It lays out a path towards a Scotland where all families have equity of opportunity and choice.

Priority calls to action

OPFS consultations with single parents, experts by experience, found that they want a Scottish Parliament that:

Ensures that all families in Scotland have adequate incomes by: 

• Increasing the Scottish Child Payment to a minimum of £55 by the end of the next Parliament, with targeted further increases for priority families – recognising that risks and depths of poverty are different for different groups.
• Targeting additional support through the Scottish Child Payment to families affected by the Young Parent Penalty.
• Increasing funding for income-maximisation services, with targeted investment in services which are best able to reach priority families.
• Ensuring separated parents can easily find their way into and through the Child Maintenance System, through provision of expert advice and support as part of income maximisation and financial inclusion services.
• Introducing funding requirements for financial inclusion services to provide guidance in relation to child maintenance eligibility, where relevant for families3.
• Providing face-to-face support for parents using the Child Maintenance System whose separation is complex as part of holistic family support.
• Responding to the public debt crisis by reforming public debt recovery processes to prevent public debt trapping children and families in poverty, including targeted action to help and support single parent families.

Gives all children the resources they need to thrive at school by: 

• Extending free school meals to all primary school pupils and committing to introducing universal free school meals for all pupils in secondary schools.
• Increasing the School Clothing Grant to cover the real cost of school clothing, widening access to all families on Universal Credit. This should include annual uplifts in line with inflation, and further work to ensure that eligible families are auto enrolled.
• Ending school meal debt in Scotland, recognising that no child should have to learn on an empty stomach.

Empowers families through opportunities to learn and access
employment by:  

• Supporting single parents into training, education and sustainable, family friendly employment, which pays the Real Living Wage at a minimum, through specialist employability support and actions to reduce inequalities in the labour market. This should include support to pursue career progression through provision of in-work training and mentorship opportunities.

Shows that Scotland is a country that cares by: 

• Accelerating progress towards expanding universal childcare to one and two-year-olds and actions to create a system of funded school age childcare, whilst committing to a more radical childcare ambition including the choice of up to 50 hours of ELC.
• Introducing a new National Outcome on valuing and investing in care, and all those who provide it, as has already been agreed.

Supports families impacted by disability by:   

• Introducing targeted social security interventions for families with disabled children, in line with the Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Delivery Plan – recognising that they are likely to experience higher living costs associated with caring needs and receive lower levels of social security support through the UK social security than other family types.

Keeps the Promise made to Scotland’s children and families by:  

• Increasing support for families through statutory agencies, such as social work. Families must be helped to address key concerns and given support to increase the chance of successful reunification. This should include access to independent advocacy.
• Working with COSLA to review how, as part of the Promise, parents whose children are looked after away from home are protected from homelessness – or being forced to move to inappropriate accommodation that prevents family reunification.
• Investing in financial inclusion services so they are integrated into whole family support. A family finance health-check should be introduced for all families who have a child removed from the family home, or who have a child returning home after being looked after.
• Introducing flexibility to devolved benefits to provide for families in exceptional circumstances, so that benefits continue after a child is removed. This would require discussion with officials from Social Security Scotland, who have the expertise on whether this would require a change to existing regulations or legislation.

Supports single parents to access Further and Higher Education by:  

• Publishing clear information about what financial support is available to single parent students, and how this interacts with paid work and the benefits system.
• Reviewing the adequacy of the tailored financial support for single parents entering higher education.
• Integrating the voices of single parent students into policy development so that higher education is ‘single parent proofed.

Takes a more progressive approach to taxation by:   

• Using the Scottish Parliament’s devolved tax powers to pursue more radical tax reform, including overhauling Council Tax and exploring new ways to tax wealth. This could raise substantial additional money, ensuring those with the highest incomes pay more while protecting those on the lowest.

Protects our planet for future generations by:   

• Linking the Just Transition into employability initiatives, so that work to achieve net zero and work to reduce poverty supports each other. Without this interconnectedness there is a risk of reproducing and deepening inequalities.
• Recognising that a Just Transition must include investment in job creation within more carbon neutral sectors such as the care and childcare sectors.
• Investing in public transport as a viable alternative to car use, and as a lever to break down some of the inequalities and barriers facing single parents who already use public transport as their primary means of travel.
• Prioritising households experiencing fuel poverty, such as single parent families, in initiatives to improve energy efficiency and in available support such as grants. Otherwise, such families will be left behind in the transition to net zero.

Read the full manifesto