Transforming Child Maintenance

Transforming Child Maintenance is a partnership project between Fife Gingerbread, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Scotland, and One Parent Families Scotland, funded by The Robertson Trust. We are working with parents, practitioners, and policymakers to make the case for a fairer system for children and families.

We believe that children have a right to fair financial support from both parents wherever possible to ensure their health, happiness and wellbeing. 

At the moment, this is not the reality for too many children. In 2021, the National Audit Office found that only one in two separated families with children have an arrangement where at least some child maintenance is received, and only a third have an arrangement that is satisfied in full. 

Our aims

1. To make evidence-based recommendations to achieve systemic and transformational change to the UK child maintenance system. 
2. To develop options where the Scottish Government are devolved further powers to make the child maintenance delivery process more efficient and effective.
3. To develop and test, within the existing status quo, new approaches to child maintenance locally – working with families to enable an increase in the successful receipt of child maintenance for children.

Roles of project partners

• Fife Gingerbread is supporting single parents in Fife to navigate the child maintenance system, pilot and evaluate training for local practitioners, and develop and test new local approaches within Fife to inform recommendations for other local areas. 
• IPPR Scotland has delivered focus groups with paying parents, commissioned public polling on public opinion around child maintenance, has carried out workshops and interviews with professionals with expertise in child maintenance, and used statistical analysis to create ‘models’ showing the impact and cost of different possible new approaches to the child maintenance system.
• One Parent Families Scotland  has delivered focus groups with single parents and is supporting a group of ‘Single Parent Experts’ to help shape and test the project recommendations through a series of workshops, ongoing communications and participation activities.
• Together we are working with other partners on an Advisory Group which meets regularly and includes both receiving and paying parents.
• We shared the findings in a series of reports, Child Maintenance and its impact on child poverty and financial security for single parent families’, which provide an in-depth analysis of the current state of the UK Child Maintenance Service based on focus groups, public opinion polling, statistical analysis and an evaluation of the work being carried out by Fife Gingerbread with parents in Fife.

New report: Better for everyone: a new vision for child maintenance

This autumn 2025, we launched a major new report: Better for everyone: a new vision for child maintenance

The report sets out a series of actionable recommendations for the UK Government, Scottish Government and Local Authorities, with the aim of transforming the system into one that is fairer, more effective and better aligned with families’ needs.

More information related to child maintenance

• Find out more about the how to arrange child maintenance and what the Child Maintenance Service can do.
• OPFS research report on single parents’ experiences of the CMS
• OPFS submission to the DWP on improving enforcement through curfew orders
• OPFS and Scottish Women’s Aid briefing on the UK Government Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Bill
• Speak to other parents about your experiences of child maintenance on our Parent Forum.
• If you are a parent living in Fife who would like support with your child maintenance claim, contact Fife Gingerbread on 01592 725 210.