OPFS receives funding to develop proposals for reforming the Child Maintenance System

Through their Programme Awards under their Financial Security Theme, The Robertson Trust has awarded £1.7 million to six projects across Scotland, all of which are working to deliver big change that lasts on tackling poverty and trauma in Scotland.  

The Robertson Trust awarded OPFS £384,678.00 to deliver evidence-based recommendations to achieve transformational change to the UK child maintenance system, thus contributing to reducing child poverty. This work will be carried out in partnership with IPPR (Scotland) and Fife Gingerbread, with each organisation leading on different strands of work, while working together across all activities. The partnership will develop ambitious policy proposals, at both Scottish and UK Government levels, to radically reform the Child Maintenance System (CMS), informed by robust evidence and lived experience.  

Commenting on the announcement of our new Programme Awards,  Satwat Rehman, Chief Executive of One Parent Families Scotland, said: 

“OPFS is delighted to receive this funding from the Robertson Trust. Child maintenance is an issue which single parents have raised with OPFS time and again, calling for there to be a fairer and more equitable system. Four in ten children in poverty in Scotland live in a single parent family but maintenance payments can contribute to the costs of raising a child and in giving them a decent quality of life. 

“However, over £474 million in child maintenance in the UK has gone unpaid – money owed to children. This is an issue of children’s rights and the rights of the child to financial support. Working alongside our amazing partners IPPR and Fife Gingerbread we will develop ways of supporting families through the maze that is the current child maintenance system and work with families to design a model that works for them and contributes to lifting children out of poverty. “  

The Robertson Trust’s vision is of a fair and compassionate Scotland where everyone is valued and able to flourish. As Scotland’s largest independent grant making Trust, they have awarded over £300 million across Scotland since 1961.