Programme for Government 2026/31: OPFS Response

We welcome the Scottish Government’s continued commitment to prioritising tackling child poverty, alongside the increase of the Scottish Child Payment to £40 a week for eligible children under one. 

This is a positive step.  

However, it is important that the Scottish Government recognises that poverty is not experienced equally by all families. Single parent families are at an enhanced risk of experiencing poverty, with around one in three children in single parent families growing up in poverty – without the resources that they need to grow, develop and thrive. 

Right now, we are not on track to reach our rapidly approaching child poverty targets. We need to see further and faster targeted action to address child poverty in Scotland, especially for priority families. The Scottish Child Payment needs to be raised to £40 for all children at the earliest opportunity, with targeted additional increases for priority families introduced within the life of this Parliament. We also need to see mitigation support for families impacted by the Young Parent Penalty within Universal Credit.  

Adequate, reliable income provides the foundation families need. We are disappointed that the Programme for Government makes no reference to the Minimum Income Guarantee. A Minimum Income Guarantee, ensuring everyone has enough for a decent and dignified standard of living, offers a long-term route to the security that single parent families need, and OPFS has been a strong supporter of the work to develop it. 

For single parents, who juggle being a sole carer and sole earner, the case for a guaranteed adequate income is especially strong. We urge the Scottish Government to renew its commitment to the Minimum Income Guarantee and to set out the next steps towards it within the life of this Parliament. In the meantime, it should use the levers it already holds, above all the Scottish Child Payment and wider Scottish social security, to move families closer to an adequate income. 

Commitments to develop a childcare system that provides an offering across the whole year, rather than just during term time, are welcome. Single parents often tell us that it can be challenging to sustain employment throughout the year where childcare offerings are time limited. We further support the expansion of provision to include children aged nine months through to the end of primary school. 

For single parent families, childcare can be a lifeline, but it can also be challenging to navigate. To be successful, the Scottish Government’s proposed expansion of provision must be offered in a way which works for families – ensuring that offerings are accessible, flexible and affordable. For children with Additional Support Needs, this is even more crucial, and an increase in appropriate placements must be made available.  

The Scottish Government should ensure that single parents, and other families most affected by childcare barriers, are directly involved within the design and testing of new measures. Adopting a co-design method will help to ensure that change is undertaken in a way which most effectively meets the needs of the families.

We are supportive of the commitment to expand access to breakfast clubs across Scotland. However, after years of commitments to the expansion of free school meal provision, including tackling school meal debt, we need to see faster implementation in this area. 

No child should have to learn on an empty stomach, and no child should have to accrue debt to eat. 

Furthermore, we were disappointed to see an absence of commitments to review the value of the School Uniform Grant. We would strongly urge the Scottish Government to commit to ensuring that this payment is uprated over time to ensure that it meets the real cost of clothing for children.  

Safe and affordable housing is fundamental to ensuring that families can thrive. However, for some single parents, persistent housing insecurity can directly affect their ability to maintain employment, access childcare, keep children connected to school and sustain family relationships. 

Where families are at risk of homelessness, the Scottish Government must ensure intervention occurs before the point of crisis – placing emphasis on prevention. It must ensure that single parents are not left without appropriate housing following separation, domestic abuse, bereavement or other changes in family circumstances. 

Where domestic abuse plays a role in separation, we welcome commitment within the Programme for Government to make the Fund to Leave permanent. This action recognises that financial support is crucial in enabling women and children to leave abuse and establish a safe and independent home elsewhere.

We welcome the focus on good, fair work in the Programme for Government, including ongoing commitment to provision of Scotland’s No One Left Behind employability programme.  

However, for the single parents that we support, we know that entering employment is only part of the journey. For work to be sustainable over time, they also require appropriate infrastructure to support this – including childcare, transport, flexible working, adequate incomes and opportunities for training and progression over time.  

In relation to employment and training, we therefore welcome the commitment to invest £22 million through Colleges RISE, the Training Access Fund and Flexible Workforce Development Fund to help parents access skills development and training. However, we need to see further investment and reform to Higher Education pathways to ensure it is an accessible and sustainable option for single parent families.  

Building upon learning from our recent OPFS and Public Health Scotland employability programme, we are calling for single parents to be explicitly included within the design and delivery of employability programmes. This should include specialist employability support available where required. At OPFS we are supporting workplaces across Scotland to single parent proof their provisions and we have seen the difference this makes for families.  

We know that transport costs play a crucial role in enabling single parent families to access employment, education, community activities and leisure. We welcome the Programme for Government commitment to introduce a £2 bus fare cap nationally by the end of the Parliament. 

However, families across Scotland should not have to wait years for affordable transport. We encourage the Scottish Government to accelerate the rollout to all parts of the country at the earliest opportunity. Alongside this, we need to ensure that public transport is available and accessible across Scotland. 

At OPFS, we are delighted be working alongside the Scottish Government to deliver whole family support provisions for single parent families across Scotland over the coming years. Through our work, we know the crucial role that early intervention plays in supporting children and families to thrive. 

Single parents frequently face multiple, interconnected challenges relating to social security, child maintenance, housing, childcare, employment, health and relationships. Provision of targeted services, recognising their unique needs, ensures that they have the right support in place, at the right time, to help them navigate these complex systems holistically.  

We are supportive of the Scottish Government’s wider commitments to whole family support through provision of £20 million for the Whole Family Support Third Sector Delivery Fund. This vital funding will enhance the sustainability of services that work directly alongside children and families. 

In addition, we recognise the invaluable role that advice, financial inclusion and debt services play. With disproportionately high levels of debt, including public debt, supporting single parent families to navigate their finances and ensure financial stability long term is critical.  

Finally, we welcome the proposed Scottish Government Partnership Agreement with the third sector. This must be based on meaningful partnership, sustainable funding and recognition of the expertise of organisations working directly alongside children and families. 

The Programme for Government sets out significant public service reform, including replacing the fourteen territorial health boards with two strategic boards; a three month dialogue on regional local government and the single authority model; a review of the future of social care; and the rationalisation of more than one hundred public bodies. 

 Reform on this scale will shape the services that single parent families rely on for years to come, and we believe it must be judged against whether it reduces child poverty and improves the lives of the families who depend on these services. 

The frontline of Scotland’s child poverty effort is delivered locally, through third sector organisations, councils and health boards. It includes health visiting and early years, the childcare expansion, employability support, free school meals and the Scottish Welfare Fund, housing and homelessness services and whole family support.  

Our central concern is continuity. These services cannot be allowed to pause while structures are reorganised, causing families to go without essential support. Single parent families, who have the least room to absorb disruption, would feel any interruption first.  

We are particularly concerned that Local Child Poverty Action Reports, a statutory duty held jointly by councils and health boards, could be weakened if both partners are reorganised at the same time, and that reform driven primarily by savings could reduce the very services that families need. Decisions should be kept close to the communities they affect, rather than moved further away. 

Reform is also an opportunity and, if approached well, it could deliver more consistent early years and family support across the country, and the genuine shift to prevention that the Programme for Government rightly aspires to. We encourage the Scottish Government to use this moment to move towards a model of universal basic services. This would ensure the essentials that support families to thrive, including childcare, transport, housing, and advice and support, are available to all, affordable or free at the point of need and designed around the realities of family life.  

A child poverty and single parent lens should be built into every reform from the outset, and single parents and the organisations that support them should help to shape the changes that will affect them. Services that are single parent proofed are better services for everyone.