Open letter to Dundee City Council on proposed cuts to Children and Families Services

One Parent Families Scotland is deeply concerned about the proposed budget cuts to Children and Families Services by Dundee City Council. On 19 December 2025, we sent the following letter to Dundee City Council:

Dear Dundee City Council,

We are writing to you as a collective of organisations and local residents to express our deep concern with the proposed budget cuts by Dundee City Council.

Cutting funding for Children and Families Services will have a devastating impact on our community. It will leave families struggling without the specialist support they need and place increased pressure on other services, costing Dundee City Council more in the long run.

At One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS), we are continuing to see high demand for our specialist needs-led service. We support single parent families with access to financial support and advice; community-based initiatives that provide accessible support networks and reduce isolation; and employability services that support parents in securing employment, education and training opportunities.

We have been running services in Dundee for over 40 years, supporting thousands of local families. In the last three years alone, we have supported around 2100 single parents and children – even with a 24% drop in staffing due to previous funding cuts.

We adopt a holistic, whole family model which enables us to meet families where they are at. This tailored approach ensures no aspect of a family’s situation is overlooked and leads to better outcomes, greater resilience and stronger, more financially secure families.

What single parents have told us about our service in Dundee:

“Life is hard. I just feel like I’m failing – everything feels too much.”

“OPFS is a place which helps you grow as a single parent, unfortunately due to the negative media stigma and in some cases from the government you always worry that you are not good enough as a parent. However, the help and support from OPFS has helped empower me and look beyond the realm of the negative connotations that are imposed on single parents especially as a mother and a woman.”

Single parent families are already disproportionately impacted by a number of intersecting inequalities. Over a third (38%) of children in single parent families are growing up trapped in poverty, compared with 24% in other families. We also know that single parents make up the highest proportion of households in fuel poverty.

Removing funding for essential Children and Families Services is a short-sighted move that will put single parent families in Dundee at risk of isolation, financial insecurity and growing debt. The work of OPFS in Dundee contributes to your Council Plan priorities of reducing child poverty and building resilient and empowered communities. We can support you in achieving your outcomes by 2027.

The mitigation plan outlined in the Dundee City Council 2026-27 Budget Consultation risks destabilising essential support at a time when single parents in Dundee are facing rising levels of poverty and increasing need. Alternative funding opportunities are rare and when they do arise, they are often short term, competitive and unreliable. They do not provide the core stability needed to run comprehensive family support services. Sustainable long-term funding remains critical to ensuring continuity of services, protecting vulnerable families and preventing wider social and financial costs in the future.

We call on Dundee City Council to fulfil their responsibility to support families in the local community by continuing to fund Children and Family Services, ensuring all families have access to the lifeline provided by these services.

If you would like to discuss this further, we would be delighted to meet with you to share more about our services and the impact on the local community.

Signed by,

Satwat Rehman, Chief Executive of One Parent Families Scotland