 еслиw cwrin amser, y dyfodol a'i ddim yn ysgolwsgawdd i'r cyflawni chi o'r pryd yn ysgolwsgawdd yna ddigwydd, 2022-26, ac rym ni'n cymdeithasiannol i ddim yn ei ddigwydd i'r cyflawniau a'r ddrygu chi i'r cyflawniau i'l ysgolwsgawdd, ac rwyf i mwyn o'r olygu i'r cyflwyndu miillies-rigion i gael mwy deithasiannol. Rydw i'r cymdeithasiannol, dwi'n gydag i'r cyfroswnol mai'r cyfroswnol, ysgolwsgawdd was passed unanimously by Parliament setting a target to substantially reduce rates of child poverty in Scotland. It would be fair to say that we have not seen the progress expected or hoped for to deliver the reductions in child poverty we all wanted to see. Indeed, since the passing of the bill, many organisations are pointing towards greater challenges we face as a country, but eliminating child poverty must be a priority for all of us. I have to say from the outset of this debate that I have been disappointed by the Scottish Government's approach to this. They have singularly failed to reach out across Parliament to develop this strategy or listen to the ideas from other parties in this chamber beyond the Green Party where they now rely on support for. That is a decision that SNP and Green Ministers are there to take, but I think it will leave this strategy all the poorer. I have not got time at the moment. New pressures on the cost of living aggravated by the effects of successive lockdowns and the pandemic, such as rising food and fuel costs, now threatens to even more families impacted and living in poverty. In 2019-20, 26 per cent of all children in Scotland were in relative poverty. In Glasgow, that number was as high as 32 per cent. The Scottish child payment, which has been mentioned and identified by the Trussell Trust, is one of the forms of support that is most effective at addressing financial hardship. That is why Scottish Conservatives also supported calls to double the payment. I welcome the action that we have seen. That targeted support is what I think is very important. Our local authorities are often at the heart of action to support vulnerable families and have a critical role to play in helping to eliminate child poverty. I am grateful to Mr Briggs for giving weight. Does he, in his argument about the importance of the Scottish child payment, is well-made? Does he not think that he should follow that through by supporting the enabling of that payment by supporting the Government's budget, which he has failed to do earlier on this year? That is the reason why I did not support the Scottish Government's budget, because it cut £250 million from local authorities. The cabinet secretary said that she wants to work in partnership with local authorities in Scotland. I do not take cutting their budget by £250 million—any partnership that I would want to be involved with. The decision by Green and SNP ministers to cut that funding will impact on child poverty, and they should be acutely aware of that. They are creating better jobs and fairer jobs and job opportunities for families is incredibly important and something that I welcome from what was outlined by the cabinet secretary. There is cross-party agreement on that. In the time that I have today, I want to concentrate on children in Scotland who are homeless and living in unsuitable and temporary accommodation. The housing emergency in Scotland is contributing to levels of child poverty, with children and families often stuck in unsuitable, unaffordable homes or in temporary accommodation for unacceptable lengths of time. Families being accommodated in former hotels and bed and breakfasts, many left-sharing toilets with strangers and cooking on toasters and kettles is totally unacceptable. Across Scotland, more than 7,500 children are living in temporary accommodation, and the typical stay for families in temporary accommodation is now nearly double of that a year ago, over 58 weeks. Alison Watson of Shelter Scotland described the number of children in temporary accommodation as a national disgrace, and I agree that a permanent safe home is vitally important for a child's wellbeing and development. The number of children becoming homeless every year is equivalent to 32 Scottish children every day, equivalent to a primary school class. Homelessness has been shown to have long-term negative consequences on a child and young person's development. Children who have been homeless are three times more likely to experience mental health problems. Children who have been homeless can see increased risk of ill health and disability back to 25 per cent, and any teacher will tell you that children in temporary accommodation often struggle to maintain relationships and experience increased anxiety. SNP and Green ministers need to drive action on this issue. Ending all children living in temporary accommodation should have the full attention of the Government. I am sorry to say that all my efforts to engage on this issue with ministers and, in fact, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport have fallen on deaf ears. Here in the capital, 1,500 children are living in temporary accommodation. Edinburgh City Council is not being given is being shortchanged by £9 million due to a bureaucratic anomaly. The Cabinet Secretary has not listened to my calls for action and to assist the capital on this, but it is something that we need to see. Simply telling me to speak to the council is not good enough. SNP ministers cannot wash their hands of this housing crisis, which is driving children into temporary accommodation here in the capital today. As Shelter Scotland state in their briefing ahead of today's debate, the 2022-26 tackling child poverty delivery plan must outline how the Scottish Government intends to get thousands of children out of temporary accommodation and unaffordable homes and out of poverty and into safe, secure affordable homes as a matter of priority. Reading the delivery plan, which I did before we came to the chamber, there is nothing new on that issue. Cabinet Secretary, we need to see a new approach. If the Cabinet Secretary had consulted with other parties, I would like to see us develop a plan to go further and to ban children living in temporary and unsuitable accommodation. That is something that we could have had in this document, which I am sorry to say is not there. The negative impact that the pandemic has had on Scotland's children and young people is only now starting to be fully understood. For the most vulnerable children and young people in our society, we know that impact has been significant. Realising the potential of every child and young person in Scotland is something that we must all see as a focus. That strategy does not include. One of the areas that I believe needs urgent action is the long-term impact of lockdown on vulnerable children's learning. A long-term system-wide support is required to help every child to catch up and recover from additional disruption that we have seen to learning and child development. For the most vulnerable children, that needs targeted support. Prior to the pandemic, we know that the Scottish Government was failing to close the attainment gap. What I would really like to see, and what again ministers should be looking to do, is where we can prioritise young people's education with the delivery of additional support catch-up schemes that we have been calling for for disadvantaged children and young people. It is clear that we need to see a cross-portfolio effort from Government to make progress to address child poverty and targeted support. I welcome the Deputy First Minister being in this debate today, because I hope that that will be the work that he will be tasked with taking forward. However, there are longer-term issues that we as a Parliament and as a country also need to consider around intergenerational employment and the need to drive social mobility again in this country. The SNP has set ambitious targets with regard to child poverty five years ago, but we have not been able to meet those as a Parliament or as the Government has not been able to meet those with all the powers that they have. The strategy has presented again an opportunity to genuinely look towards how we refocus that effort, and I hope that that is what we will see. To conclude, it is critical that we hold this SNP Green Government to account, and they are accountable to Parliament. We see ministers today set out detailed plans around another strategy to reduce child poverty, but how that will be delivered on the ground is something that we now need to see as a Parliament our work to make sure that ministers achieve what they are setting out. We desperately need targeted resources and for ministers to outline what the child poverty delivery plan will achieve and how councils will be given the resources to help to implement that. If we are going to meet those targets, I agree that we need to work across party, and I hope that the Government will start working to live up to that as well. I thank the minister for advance sight of our statement. I welcome the publication of the second tackling child poverty delivery plan and the uplift to the Scottish child payment, but this is not enough. It is not enough to erase the string of warnings from experts that a ffiverr won't be enough, it won't even get enough nappies for a week, or that we won't meet the targets. We cannot do half measures when it comes to poverty and we cannot keep rehashing old policies and presenting them as new. What that plan does not do in half measures is set out plans to or do reviews of. We needed, children in Scotland needed more new ideas and concrete policies today, not plans to have them in the future. The cost of living crisis is now and plans don't pay the bills. Yesterday's solutions will not fix today's problems, and I hear the minister say that this Government is on track to meet its legal child poverty targets, but it cannot pat itself on the back for doing so. Let's not forget that those Labour benches, the third sector and colleagues across the chamber had to drag them, kicking and screaming, to double the Scottish child payment. Civic society, think tanks, third sector, I will. I am grateful to Pam Duncan-Glancy for giving way. She cannot get away with that remark, because the Labour Party, when it came to the moment of truth, voted against the Scottish child payment in the budget. It is pointless that the Labour Party comes to this chamber, trying to engage in a debate, and then when it comes to the moment of truth, voting against the payment, that is hypocrisy. The Deputy First Minister will understand parliamentary process far better than I has been here for longer than me, and he will know that that is not a fair reflection on what happened. I simply do not have time today to go into all the parts of the budget that the Government announced that we did vote against, including the fact that they would not give £15 an hour to care workers. The Deputy First Minister knows that to be the case. Civic society, think tanks, third sector, academics have all lined up to help the SNP Government here. Even we, the opposition, have gone to try and do their job for them. We have all set out a suite of options to reach the targets and go further to make sure that we meet them, not just on a hope and a prayer, but by implementing measures that would ensure that, even on our worst day, with the worst outlook, we would get there. Instead of taking the advice of experts on boards, they have tinkered around the edges, small piecemeal changes and rehashed policies, rather than bold and ambitious actions that are needed to radically improve the lives of children right across Scotland. Is there time for a bit of slack? A little. Can Pam Duncan-Glancy not find it within herself to welcome a big, bold initiative? That is the mitigation of the benefit cap, which will lift thousands and thousands of children out of poverty, and for many families will go well beyond the £40 Scottish child payment that she was advocating. Will she not just welcome that? I think that the cabinet secretary will remember that, moments ago, I said that I welcomed the child poverty delivery plan, but I also note that there is £10 million associated with the mitigation of the benefit cap. I believe that that figure is at least £6 million too short to do it, so it would be good to see the modelling that you have based that on so that we can understand it. There is also very little detail in the Government's plan for how it will do that. Instead of taking the advice of experts on board, I still believe that they have tinkered round the edges, small piecemeal changes and rehashed policies rather than bold ambitions. If, as the Government has suggested today, we meet the relative poverty interim targets, it will be by a small margin, a tragedy of when we had the opportunity to do so much more. The fact is that absolute poverty, that is complete distribution, is set to still be 16 per cent. That is around one in six children, and that is nothing to be proud of. That represents inequality, which in there is nothing in the plan to directly help families with babies under one, one in three of whom are living in poverty, or black minority ethnic families, 48 per cent of whom are in poverty. At a time when we needed ambition and a Government hungry for change, the SNP Government and Green Government have given us nothing but complacency. One child in poverty is too many, one day is too long. We have the habit of talking in this chamber about child poverty and the abstract, numbers on a page and figures on a spreadsheet, but let's give those numbers a name and a face. That one child too many, that's Lucas, a 12-year-old boy in Glasgow. His dad, Simon, spends every single penny he has with a purpose. Some of us in this room could go out to a restaurant or a bar and spend £30 possibly more. For Simon, that's his electricity cost for one week. Simon doesn't have that luxury. To quote him directly, I watch how people just spend money on coffee and beer and food in cafes and bars. I would love that life. Simon had to take Lucas out of school because he was being bullied and called a skank by other children. That is too often the reality of children living in poverty. That one child is the child whose mother couldn't afford appropriate winter clothing for herself or her child. Another parent noticed and referred her to social services, leading her to feel that she had failed her own children she hadn't this Government had. Thankfully, the baby centre, a lifeline service in Glasgow, was able to help her to get winter clothing and essentials to keep her going. But let's bear in mind that that's a third sector that's also been handed a million pounds cut in the next year's budget. Not only are they stepping up and stepping in where the Government is failing, but they're not getting the thanks they need for it. That one child is a little girl from Govanhill. She sees her dad at the weekends. Her dad living on £60 a month after bills is having to raid the cupboards of his dead dad to find food to feed her when she visits his home, a home that's freezing because he cannot afford to heat. This young man doesn't know what he's going to do when the cupboards come bare. He cannot afford to restock them, so I say to the Government, do not come to the chamber with pride. Instead, we need to have humility. I welcome a further increase to the Scottish child payment, but it can't be ignored that it took too long to raise it to £20 in the first place. So long that the Government stands here today and telling us that it will increase the payment to £25, families are still waiting to reach £20 and that won't even happen until April. It should have happened sooner. Because this Government has so far failed to implement full roll-out of the payment to over 60s, 150,000 children on bridging payments won't get the increase at all. The Government has given no indication that it intends to upgrade bridging payments either. Over the next few years, we must see cast iron action that will take us to and well past our 2030 target. More of the same won't cut it. That's why Scottish Labour has launched our child poverty commission. We need more ambition. The time for bold action was long ago. We can't wait, and we can't rely on tinkering round the edges. I am pleased to speak for the Scottish Liberal Democrats in this important debate to tackle child poverty. Author Andrew Harwitz once wrote that, and I quote, "...childhood, after all, is the first precious coin that poverty steals from a child." It's been four years since the Child Poverty Act set the target of fewer than 18% of children living in relative poverty by 2024. However, in recent years, the child poverty rate has actually been increasing in Scotland. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has won that the Government is at risk of missing the target that was unanimously agreed by this Parliament. The Government's own figures show that more than one in four of Scotland's children are officially recognised as living in poverty. That equates to around 260,000 children. It goes without saying that, in 2022, in one of the wealthiest nations on earth, that figure is unacceptable. It's even more shameful when you note the fact that 68% of children in poverty live in working households. 29% of children with a disabled family member are in poverty, and 38% are in lone-parent households. Numerous studies have found that children who grow up in poverty experience many disadvantages that can have a negative impact on their health and significant social consequences. Those effects are felt both during childhood and well into adulthood. There is a significant impact on health outcomes, educational attainment and even cognitive development. It should go without saying that every child has the right to safety, warmth, a roof over their head and food in their belly. It is important to say that poverty is not just about their lack of money. All too often, it means that children are excluded from their everyday activities and opportunities that are so vital to their development, their happiness and their mental wellbeing. Opportunities that children from more privileged backgrounds are able to benefit from. So what should be done? Everyone, no matter where they come from and no matter what family they were born into, deserves the opportunity to build a good life for themselves. In modern Scotland, every parent should know that they have the means to provide such an environment for their children. Everyone deserves to be paid a fair wage to afford a home and to be able to use good public services but for too many people that is far from the reality and this has only been exacerbated by the pandemic and all this before the cost of living crisis has even begun to take hold. The impact on low-income households and the knock-on effect on children already living in poverty could be catastrophic. Put simply, it is the duty of government to do absolutely everything in its power to alleviate this crisis and to move towards a Scotland free of child poverty as soon as humanly possible. Scottish Liberal Democrats believe that that starts with the Government reversing its planned £250 million cut to councils, which will inevitably force councils to raise council tax, keeping yet more pressure on low-income families. The 3.8 per cent rise in rail fares should also be cancelled because disability benefits are boosted. It is welcome that the Scottish Government is implementing a 6 per cent increase to a number of social security benefits from April but they are not going far enough with disability benefits which are being raised by just 3.1 per cent. That is 3 per cent less than the figure for inflation that was announced yesterday. It is potentially 5 per cent less than the inflation figure that experts are predicting. All of that is in line with the UK Government and the DWP. Scottish ministers continue to ask the DWP to run the system under its... Yes? I wonder if she could find it in herself to welcome any aspect of the plan, but maybe particularly the mitigation of the benefit cap, which, after all, was introduced under the Lib Dem Tory coalition in 2013. I have announced today that it is going to be mitigated fully as far as we can under devolved powers. Is that something that she would welcome? We are certainly giving the time back. I would welcome any plans that tackle child poverty. The result is that thousands of people will still be hit directly in their pockets and more people will be pushed into poverty. It is simply not good enough for thousands of families across Scotland and certainly not for those 29 per cent of impoverished children with the disabled family member whom I mentioned earlier. I would like to finish by speaking about the crossover that can often exist between childhood poverty and mental health. Often it is teachers who notice that something is wrong with a child's home life and it can be the case that parental mental health is at the root of difficulties. There are countless reasons why families can find themselves in a situation where children and parents are going hungry, including the delays built into universal credit, insecure work and no recourse to public funds. There are clear links between mental health and poverty, which is why improvement in the provision of mental health services in Scotland is something that we have always prioritised and highlighted. Childhood should be a time to explore the world, to learn, to grow and play, secure all the while in the knowledge that things are going to be okay, that there will always be food on the table and a warm safe place to call home. That should be the case for every child in this country and we must all, all of us, endeavour to make it so. Thank you, Ms Witter. We now move to the open debate. I call firstly Eleanor Whitham, who joins us remotely to be followed by Alexander Stewart for up to six minutes, please, Ms Whitham. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Before I embark on my speech in support of the Scottish Government's effort to tackle child poverty, I want to put a human face to what we are discussing here today. I was that child facing poverty twice in my life before the age of nine. Firstly, the extreme downturn in Scotland's manufacturing fortunes meant that we became economic migrants in 1980, and my parents, at the young age of 23, packed me and my two-year-old brother into a jumble jet at Prestwick airport bound for Canada. Christmas of 1982 is seared into my consciousness as my father had been made redundant and my mother started to work nights in a doughnut shop to try and make ends meet. The ends never met. On that Christmas day, I watched as my mum struggled to make us a meal from the food parcel that we had received from the food bank. With Christmas cartoons on in the background, I watched as she served as homemade rice pudding for Christmas dinner with tears rolling down her cheeks as my wee brother pushed it away in disgust. At eight years old, I already knew the immense pressures my parents were under as I cajole him into eating the hated rice pudding as there was nothing else to be had. That period in my life of food insecurity has impacted on my relationship with food my entire life. It was the time where, in the absence of free school meals, my mum tried her best to ensure that I had something nutritious to accompany the flask of hot sugary tea in my lunch box, and I was hyper aware that we were struggling, and I tried to hide my lunch on my classmates. Presiding Officer, there will be others in this place who also experienced childhood hunger and deep-seated poverty and just worry, and it is up to us to bring that lived experience with us as we make decisions that will have a lasting impact on our youngest and most vulnerable citizens. As we stand on the precipice of a growing and deepening cost of living crisis, my heart again is filled with dread and worry for those children for whom their struggles are going to multiply and for those wanes who will experience their first encounter with poverty despite their parents' best efforts. That will also be despite the efforts of the SNP Government who has made it a national mission to turn the tide on centuries of child poverty, despite having one hand tied behind our backs. Nowhere else in these islands do we see the equivalent of our game-changing Scottish child payment set to be doubled from April and now with an extra £5 to be added by the end of this year. Combining that with our three best start grants, our best food schemes, families will see their Government invest £10,000 on their first child by the time they turn six. If that family has the dreaded bedroom tax looming over them, we will make sure that it is mitigated too, bringing up much needed family income for necessities and helping to secure their home. We are also committed to continuing to build affordable homes faster than anywhere else in the UK, making sure that we can realise our aims to end homelessness and its traumatic impacts. The recent report by the Child Poverty Action Group highlights that, by the time a child is 16 in Scotland, Scottish Government interventions will reduce the cost of raising a child by 31 per cent. That is a huge £24,000 and is despite savage welfare cuts by the UK Tory Government, including the short-sighted removal of the £20 head-up lift, the regrettable benefit cap, including the abhorrent requirement for women to disclose rape trauma in order to secure much-needed money for their third child. That tells us everything that we need to know about the Conservatives' approach to tackling child poverty, and the inactions of the chancellor in his spring statement yesterday further underlines their total disregard for those families most at risk of the volatility of our present situation. If a family cannot afford to top up their prepayment metres or buy enough food, they cannot benefit from the removal of that on solar panels. It is a great shame that he did not follow our lead to upgrade social security by 6 per cent, and instead chose to pander to his base. Orn trust this with our approach set out today that will see us invest £10 million per year to mitigate the benefit cap that disproportionately impacts on lone parents, a move that surely is welcomed across this chamber. Presenting officer, when my son was a toddler, we struggled to move from benefits and back into work as the transition period meant huge financial hardship for the first few months. Therefore, I am really pleased to see in the announcements today that the Scottish Government also understands those pressures and will be investing up to £15 million in 22, 23 and a new fund to tackle the financial barriers parents face when they enter the labour market, particularly those for the first time. As convener of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, I also want to ensure that we see a maximum uptake of our devolved benefits and will work cross-party to ensure that all families are entitled to help to receive it. Part of that could be to create a system that sees automatic awards across social security and local authority payments, such as clothing grants and free-skilled meals, tying in with the Scottish welfare child payment. The Scottish welfare fund also plays a huge role in tackling poverty caused by crisis situations, and I will work to ensure that it is funded and equitable across local authority areas. All of our reans deserve the best start and the brightest of futures, and we must do all that we can to support them. Therefore, I welcome the statement made by the cabinet secretary and our updated strategy, which calls on all of us, public, private and voluntary sectors, to work collectively in the most important endeavours. Imagine what we could do if we were a normal, everyday, common or garden, independent country with all the levers. I welcome the publication of Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan for 2226, and I look forward to closely scrutinising its content more closely over the years as it progresses. Few issues in politics will attract as much agreement as the importance of tackling child poverty. The issue of poverty more generally may be spoken about many times. However, we know that child poverty carries with a set of particular concerns. Unfortunately, a child who grows up in poverty is more likely to suffer problems with their emotional and cognitive development, and as they go through their life, if they continue, they will move into adulthood. The child poverty act passed in 2017 received unanimous support in this Parliament and enshrined into law a number of child poverty targets. Although the issue was clearly considered a priority in 2017, however, it is clear that the events of the last two years have shone an entirely different light on an important issue. We know that the pandemic has created further challenges in tackling child poverty. Analysis from the Fraser of Allander Institute suggests that we will not know the full extent of the damage for a number of years to come. Consequently, there will be perhaps more uncertainty as to how we will progress with tackling child poverty. Unfortunately, we do not know the most recent figures suggested that about child poverty is about 17 per cent higher than the target, and that continues to rise. We also know that, before the pandemic, the number of children concerned and connected with homelessness applications was increasing, and Shelter Scotland recently described the number of children in temporary accommodation as a national disgrace. To that end, I hope that the measures that will be put in place and we acknowledge the doubling of the Scottish child payment will be an effective way at driving down child poverty. That is something that we repeatedly called for, and I am delighted to see that it was in this year's budget. Child care provision is also a very important component when we are trying to fight and challenge our child poverty. Those benters supported the decision to introduce 30 hours a week for free childcare across all local authorities. It was a positive step to see the policy finally put into place in August 2021. However, there is still much more to be done to ensure that those children and the hours that are available are what parents can and wish to depend on. Funding follows the child was the correct approach to base the policy on. Right now here, we still see that there are some parents who are finding it difficult to access that. I would therefore urge the SNP Green Government to do more to ensure that this policy is able to finally realise its potential and drive down child poverty. I thank the member for giving way. I would also like to ask him. He outlined a number of things that he has supported by the Scottish Government here today. There is a lot of great work going on. However, your bench has also talked continuously about the two Governments of Scotland, so can you explain what the Government in England yesterday did to help child poverty in Scotland? Thank you for the intervention, Mr Fairlie. As you have already seen, the broad shoulders of the financial support of the UK Government has gone miles in ways of ensuring that funding comes to Scotland and continues to, and that will trickle down to ensure that everybody across Scotland is given more funding to support them. Other measures such as introducing the universal fee school meals and primary schools will also help to help this process. It is, however, the regrettable that the Scottish Government will not be implementing the policy in full by August this year, which was originally planned. Despite such measures, analysts suggest that by 2022-23, relative child poverty will still be as much as 4 per cent higher than the interim target of 18 per cent. Although we may see a certain amount of progress on the issue in the coming years, it is unlikely that that progress will be completely satisfactory. I would therefore urge the Scottish National Party Government to leave no stone unturned in attempting to meet both the interim and the primary target of child poverty act. That includes listening to the recommendations of the Poverty and Equality Commission. It has called for the Government to reduce barriers to employment and ensure that the job guarantee is provided for families. Although that is the case, the issue of employment and associated with lower rates of child poverty is with additional educational attainment. That is an area that the Scottish Government's record is far from something to be proud of. Last year Audit Scotland reported that there is still so much work to be done to close the poverty-related attainment gap. Recent reports and reforms that I have taken place show that the whole idea of tackling the pupil equity funding has got massive implications for local authorities and is unlikely to ensure that that gap will actually be shortened. We may even be widened, because, for example, it includes the removal of £800,000 worth of money from Clackmannanshire in my region. On this issue, the Government needs to go back to the drawing board and ensure that every child is given the chance to succeed regardless of their background. In conclusion, it may well be the case that the 2030 target set out on the child poverty action plan has still some way to go. However, such a fact does not make for the targets a less. Sufficient action is required to meet those targets, and such of that will be required. Over the coming years, those benches will welcome and will work actively to ensure that any issues are raised and that we will constructively support the measures that are going forward. I will also ensure that we will scrutinise what happens to needs, because it is vitally important that we support every child to ensure that they reach their full potential and come out of poverty and break that cycle. I am proud of the actions that Scotland has taken to tackle child poverty, and the further measures that are announced by the cabinet secretary today, which I know will have a real impact on people's lives. However, I will not be content until every child in Scotland is free from the grips of poverty. Every child deserves the right to three meals a day. Every child deserves a warm home. Every child deserves to have a decent standard of living, and that is the bare minimum. Every child also deserves to enjoy their childhood and not be dragged down by the stigma and the anxiety that poverty inevitably brings. Child poverty is only set to worsen through the cost of living crisis that we are now experiencing. Good bills are rising rapidly, and this alone will result in more families making difficult choices, and the reliance on food banks will only increase. The energy price hikes, according to Ofgem, will see direct debit customers see their bills sore by an average of £693, and prepayment customers will see an increase of £708 a year. Now, breaking that down to a minimum of about £57 per month, I honestly do not know how people are going to manage. For the people struggling with these bills, we are predicted to see a huge increase in levels of debt, and for those on prepayment meters, we could see people going without electricity for days. Now, if any members do not know what it is like to wake up and get ready for school on a cold morning when your powers ran out, let me tell you, it ain't fun, and this is only going to become a more regular occurrence for children in all of our constituencies. Now, we've heard today some of the increased measures that the Scottish Government are taking to address child poverty. However, I genuinely fear that no matter what policies we implement, no matter how much money we invest for the children in our country, those will always be counteracted by the cruel Tory Government policies implemented at Westminster, and the audacity of some of the opposition members in this chamber just blows me away. During one of the biggest crises that our people have ever faced, yesterday's spring statement was a chance for the Tories to take a different path. They could have scrapped the 10 per cent national insurance hike, they could have followed the SNP's lead and upgraded benefits by 6 per cent, matched the SNP's Scottish child payment and made it UK-wide, and in turn, giving additional fiscal financial resources to protect and increase our spending on social security. They could have reversed the cut to universal credit, reversed the decision to scrap the triple lock, and they could have introduced a windfall tax on energy companies' excessive profits and put that money back into the pockets of people struggling to keep the lights on. But instead, Presiding Officer, they did nothing. Parliament should aim to be representative of society, but in Westminster 29 per cent of MPs are privately educated compared with just 7 per cent of the general population. How can we possibly expect MPs to understand the hardships that are faced by working families when more than a quarter of them have been brought up completely sheltered from working-class and impoverished families? How can we then expect the same people to have the slightest incline as to what those families experience on a daily basis? Perhaps the UK chancellor could take a minute away from one of his luxury billers or his fancy yachts and come to my constituency and live on the money that he is expecting our children to live on. He would not last five minutes, I am sure. The UN has openly condemned the UK Government for the austerity agenda that blatantly targets those that need our help the most. Meanwhile, we have Tories that have the brass neck to smile for photos that are food banks. Do they realise that it is their fault that they continue to exist at all? They have the powers to end food poverty right now so that no child or parent has to go through that experience. Over the past decade or so, food banks have become normalised in our society, but they are not normal and they never should be. They are a failure of the UK political system. I focus today on the Conservative Party in relation to food banks, but I should give an honourable mention to the Lib Dems who propped up the austerity agenda and went into bed with the Conservative Government. Of course, we cannot forget our friends in the Labour Party that, when in government, brought food banks into existence in the first place. In Scotland, the SNP are doing what we can to protect children. The devolution of the child disability payment, for example, will mean that we have a system here in Scotland that will ensure that children entitled to CDP are treated with dignity and respect. However, like all other devolved social security, we are at the mercy of Tory fiscal decision making. If they choose to slash fending on social security, that will directly impact the financial resources that Scotland has available. There is only so much that we can do here to mitigate that without the full fiscal powers of independence. If the Scottish Tories have any credibility left, they will go back to their chancellor in London and implore him to deliver the policies and reverse the cuts and national insurance hike that the SNP is calling for. It is not too late. If Westminster is not prepared to take action, they should devolve the necessary powers to Scotland so that we have the fiscal autonomy to deal with that issue. Or better yet, they should not stand in Scotland's way when this Parliament calls for an independence referendum. I suspect that the opposition will be rolling their eyes at this, but it is time that they wake up to the reality. The only way that we can protect Scotland's future, Scotland's children, is by having the levers that every other independent country possess. With those powers, we can ensure that child poverty in Scotland becomes something that is only present in history books. In conclusion, our Scottish Government is doing all within its powers and resources to tackle child poverty, and the policies and steps laid out in the child poverty action plan will be crucial going forward. However, the true powers to address child poverty remain with Westminster, and I look forward to the day where an independent Scotland puts an end to child poverty and poverty in all its forms, once and for all. It is my view that the overarching priority of this Scottish Parliament should be to tackle, reduce and eradicate child poverty. Child poverty is a huge challenge facing our country, limiting the opportunities of children in every town and deepening the inequalities that already exist in our society from the second a child is born. It should shame us all that it remains as prevalent as it does in our country today. We stand in this chamber, week in, week out, discussing the modern, inclusive and progressive Scotland that we think exists when, in reality, according to the Cholest of Roundy Foundation, between 2017 and 2020, almost one in four children were living in relative poverty, and more than one in five children were living in absolute poverty. This is nothing short of a national disgrace, and we must redouble our efforts to address it every day. When figures like this exist, they represent not more than just a number, but a dark and difficult reality for so many children and their families across Scotland. It is unjust and unacceptable, and we must do all that we can do to fix it in this chamber. We must look at the dilemma facing parents today. They bring their children up in a Scotland where the riches continue to own the wealth, while those in their most deprived areas work on low wages to create that wealth. That is not a modern, inclusive or progressive Scotland, it is so far from it. It is, in fact, a representative of Scotland with two Governments, one at Holyrood and one at Westminster, breath of ideas and focused often on other matters. I say to both the SNP and the Conservatives, think again, it is only when every child does well that we will all do well. I thank the member for taking intervention on that point. In a constructive manner, on the basis of what they have just said, would the member support more powers coming to this Parliament over taxes such as capital gains tax and inheritance tax, so that we could start to realise some of the wealth in Scotland in a more progressive way? Without those powers, we are very limited in some of the things that we can do. The member will understand that I believe that we should use the powers that we have and that we should be open to the fact that the whole economy should run in a different way to benefit those in society who need the most from us. I say again to both the SNP and the Conservatives, think again, it is only when every child does well that we will all do well. There is enough wealth and resources to ensure bread and roses for everyone. What lacks is the political will of Governments to make it happen. To not think like that is to let down those who have been impacted for decades by poor policy making, decisions and lack of radical thought. I want to be clear from the outset that I deplore the Tory Government's attack on working-class people. They are the friends of the rich and show no interest in redistributing wealth to those most in need. That was only reaffirmed by yesterday's spring statement from the Chancellor which tinkers around the edges. It fails to recognise the scale of the cost of living crisis and, in turn, puts more financial pressure on working families and makes it more difficult to alleviate children from poverty. Our children, our communities and the entire country deserve so much more. However, as an MSP here at this moment in time in this chamber, it is my job to hold this Scottish Government to account. I ask them to do more. I ask them, are they doing absolutely everything that they can do to eradicate child poverty? I ask the back benchers, at every opportunity, do you ask your front bench to do more? But do not just listen to me, listen to the Trussell Trust and the Save the Children from their report on tackling child poverty and destitution. I will give some consideration in the debate to the policies that we need to move forward by the Scottish Government to tackle child poverty targets. Although a commitment to increase the Scottish child payment after several months of intense pressure from Scottish Labour is welcome, as is today's announcement of an increase to £25 before the end of the year, I ask the Scottish Government to listen to us once again and double the Scottish child payment from £20 to £40 by April next year. I will go on to say why I think we should do this. Amidst a cost of living crisis, for many like one we have never seen before, it is absolutely pivotal that those most in need are supported financially to put food on the table and to ensure that despite the difficulties placed on all of us by the pandemic and the immediate cost of living crisis, the targets set out by the Scottish Government in relation to child poverty are met. That is what we all want. We know that the Scottish child payment contributes massively towards tackling child poverty and that it alleviates pressure on families in receipt of it. However, we cannot ignore the fact that, even with the progress that has been made, the roll-out of the payment has to be quicker and more effectively targeted and the payment itself has to increase further. Although the Government has come forward with an optimistic prediction today, many organisations believe that failure to deliver that will likely lead to a failure of the Scottish Government to meet its interim targets for child poverty. It is simply unacceptable to take even that chance. So, for the Scottish Government to tackle child poverty properly, truly it is a priority. Listen to the experts, work with precision of a purpose and deliver the changes that are needed to alleviate the barriers of poverty and that hinder so many children. As a reminder, that starts by ending the incessant cuts to local government. In terms of time, I will go to the end now to say in conclusion, Scottish Labour's plans for addressing this huge challenge are clear. Increase the child payment, invest in local services, tackle cost of living, show ambition, show strategy for an ambition. I believe that the SNP and the Green Government want to do something about child poverty, but it is their decision if they actually do everything they can. However, Scottish Labour will always be on the side of working families, those living in poverty. Again, I turn to the back benches and the greens and I say, come and join us and call on the Scottish Government to use all the might of the Scottish Parliament to be used in tackling the number one priority to save thousands of children from the dire impacts of poverty. Eradicating child poverty has been declared a national mission by the Scottish Government and it must be a mission for all of us. As we have seen during the pandemic, it is often the most vulnerable who suffer the most and with rising fuel, food and housing costs. It is a mission that now more than ever requires urgency and action. I welcome the cabinet secretary's remarks that the current cost of living crisis and international uncertainty has strengthened the Government's resolve to work across society and I also welcome the actions laid out in the statement, increasing the Scottish child payment to £25 five times the initial amount when it is extended to all under 16s at the end of the year, increasing employment services, supporting up to 12,000 parents into fair and sustainable work. The new £15 million fund to tackle financial barriers to work and steps to mitigate the UK Government's benefit cap. The development of the delivery plan identified a range of priority groups where evidence shows us that the prevalence of child poverty is higher. Households with a disabled parent or child, minority ethnic households, larger families, lone parents, mothers under 25, and families with a child under one year of age. People's lives do not fit neatly into boxes and inevitably there will be many people who have more than one of those vulnerabilities and all those groups will benefit from the actions that have been outlined. Doubling the Scottish child payment to £20 in April and then increasing it to £25 is an example of real action that makes a difference to families, especially children, and it underlines the Scottish Government's commitment on that matter. Where we can, getting cash into the hands of those who need it, is crucial and it is the most dignified approach. Families themselves know what they need. I have heard the line a few times now from the Opposition benches, admittedly not in this debate but this week, that there is not a constitutional solution to the cost of living crisis. Of course, simply having the power and the responsibility does not mean that a Government will tackle poverty and inequality. We see that from Westminster, where yesterday the Chancellor did not use every lever and resource at his hands to protect and support families, but no-one serious can fail to acknowledge that the actions of our Scottish Government are being undermined by the UK Government's austerity. Combined with the deeply damaging £20 cut to universal credit, the constant need to mitigate the actions of the Conservative Government to protect our citizens means that investment made to alleviate things like the obscene bedroom tax is money that is spent to stand still. I have greater ambition for my country than simply reducing the worst harms caused by a Tory Government, a Government that Scotland did not vote for. We can see the difference. Better choices can be made here, even under the current set-up. I am grateful for the member for taking the intervention. The relationship that she describes is also the relationship between the Scottish Government and councils. The decision how a Government took to cut £250 million from council budgets is also going to have an impact. Would you not accept that? We are operating in challenging times here. The Scottish Government's budget has been cut. We have outlined a number of things where the Government is taking action. What I have just said there is that putting money directly into the pockets of families who are affected is one of the most important things that we can do. Until we have the full powers and responsibility of independence, we are going to have to work with one hand tied behind our back. Despite that, the Scottish Government is maximising incomes and providing support through devolved social security powers, with the eight Scottish social security benefits being increased by 6 per cent from April 1. That will go some way to help the most vulnerable with the cost of living crisis. With almost £6 billion being invested over the past three years to support low-income households across Scotland, more than a third of that total, around £2.18 billion, has directly benefited children. The benefit take-up strategy is crucial, too. Despite what some of the nastier commentators might have, you believe that there are a lot of people out there not claiming their full entitlement. I know that to be true for my own case work. Income maximisation is an important offering in a lot of our community organisations, but I would like to particularly acknowledge the work of North Ayrshire Council's money matters team. In the past two years, they have helped North Ayrshire residents to secure £30 million in state benefits, money that I would press that those citizens are entitled to, and money that is more often than not spent in the local economy. Social security alone is not the answer. We need continued focused action from other areas of government to contribute to meeting targets. Housing is crucial. Rent payments are the single biggest cost for many households, and year on year increases from social landlords squeeze already stretched family budgets. I know that the cabinet secretary agrees that we must ensure that our affordable house in Scotland truly means affordable, and I look forward to hearing about the work that the Scottish Government is doing in that regard. Economic development, transport, skills and childcare provision brought together and focused on knocking down barriers to employment would be a hugely powerful and effective thing. I know that there are limitations on what the Scottish Government can do to improve job quality in the private sector, but I believe that the commitments in the national strategy for economic transformation to improve wages and conditions in sectors such as leisure, hospitality, early learning and childcare through sectoral fair work agreements is a very welcome focus. No one action in isolation can make the scale of difference that we need, but with direct efforts to get more cash in the pockets of families now, action on economic development, transport skills, childcare and other family supports, we can make a difference to families now and real progress on sustained poverty reduction. The challenge of tackling child poverty in Scotland is immense and incredibly important. Families and communities still reeling from the impact of the Covid pandemic are now hit hard by the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the resulting cost of living crisis. That will only add to the acute problems faced by families and children during a life in poverty. That is a problem that has increased in recent years with the Poverty and Equality Commission highlighting that the percentage of children living in relative poverty has increased from 21 per cent a decade ago to 24 per cent now. I think that we can all agree that tackling those issues must be an urgent priority for all parties across this chamber. We therefore welcome the publication of the tackling child poverty delivery plan today. There is much within it that we can support. We welcome the doubling of the child payment to £20 and the plan to increase that to £25 over time. We also support the extension of the free school meals to all primary school pupils, both measures that we have also been calling for. In addition to those measures, we also welcome yesterday's spring statement from the chancellor, which delivers additional support for low-income households, including an increase to the national insurance threshold, a move that has been described by Martin Lewis, the consumer expert, as a big boon to those on low incomes. The chancellor also announced the doubling of the household support fund to £1 billion, resulting in an extra £45 million in Barnett consequentials to the Scottish Government to support struggling families. The reduction in income tax that was announced yesterday will deliver an additional £350 million to the Scottish Government budget. I look forward to hearing from the cabinet secretary or if it is the Deputy First Minister's closing on what plans the Scottish Government has for this additional funding. All those steps from the Scottish Government and the UK Government are welcome and will make a difference. However, as we know, much more still needs to be done to tackle the long-term challenges of child poverty. In looking at that, in order to address this long-term society-wide problem, we need to understand where the powers reside to deal with this issue. The cabinet secretary, in her opening remarks or in her statement, said that the powers available and the budget available to the Scottish Government are limited. However, on powers, I would remind the cabinet secretary that extensive welfare powers were devolved to the Scottish Government in the 2016 Scotland Act. Those are welfare powers that could be used now by the Scottish Government. I appreciate that some are being used now to create additional benefits to target vulnerable families. I will give way. Thank you for giving way. Does the member recognise that there are 12 benefits now being delivered, seven of which are new? The devolution of powers from the Scotland Act 2016 did not include a majority of the low-income powers in the social security system. Those powers continue to reside with the UK Government. Is he as disappointed as many are, including Martin Lewis, who he cited earlier, that there was absolutely zero action from the chancellor yesterday when it comes to low-income benefits? On Ben Macpherson's final point, he has mentioned that more money should be available in the Scottish budget to tackle child poverty. I agree with that. I will come on shortly to explain the real reason why that money is not available in the Scottish budget. The Scottish Government has received record funding from the UK Government last year. The chancellor announced an extra £4.6 billion for the Scottish Government, the largest overall budget, and the largest overall budget increase in the history of devolution. Ben Macpherson's question addresses the point directly. This year's Scottish budget will also see a negative adjustment of £200 million entirely as a result of slower economic growth here in Scotland compared with the rest of the UK. In other words, the Scottish budget is losing £200 million that could have been spent on alleviating child poverty because of the Scottish National Party's inability to keep pace with economic growth elsewhere in the UK. That is just the reality, Mr Macpherson. While we are talking about lost money and lost opportunity, we heard yesterday of another £250 million being wasted on two ferries that might not see the light of day. I will not go into a whole longer list of a catalogue of mismanagement from the Scottish Government. That is £450 million that would make a huge difference to struggling families and which would be available to spend in the Scottish budget, but for the SNP's incompetence. I am afraid not. I have got a lot to cover in my time short. I also want to touch on the underlying causes of long-term poverty. We talk about the consequences, which is absolutely right, but the long-term underlying causes include unemployment, low wages for unskilled workers and the education gap. Again, we have seen that those underlying causes have not been properly addressed. Levels of job creation in Scotland and employment levels in Scotland are far behind other areas in the UK. Inactivity rates in Scotland are much higher and wages are lower. 150,000 college places have been cut under the Government, places that were most likely to help low-paid workers to retrain into better jobs. Local Government budgets have been slashed this year by £250 million. If we look at the education attainment gap, after 15 years in power, the attainment gap has not been addressed, with almost 2,000 fewer teachers and schools, a shortage that is particularly severe in deprived areas. Those are facts, Mr Swinney. All those negative factors result in a long-term cycle of negative outcomes and multi-generational poverty. Mr Swinney, I am talking about the underlying causes here. You have had 15 years to deal with the underlying causes. Mr Swinney, if you want to make an intervention, I will allow Mr Locker additional time, but not sedentary positions. I am grateful to Mr Locker for his intervention. Does he not realise that his comments are somewhat thin on constructive ideas as to how the plans that the Government has put forward could be advanced and enhanced? Mr Briggs has gone on, but we did not consult them. Just to say that he consulted with Parliament and with everybody, what is not the Tory's bringing forward—or Mr Locker's bringing forward—a constructive suggestion this afternoon that it would break the monotony from the Tory— Dean Locker. I suggest that Mr Swinney reads our manifesto, but the point of my comments is that we are to address the distorted reality and the distorted narrative that we hear from the SNP, the child poverty, and all those other problems are the fault of someone else. Someone else has to blame when the reality is that the Scottish Government has the powers at their disposal and you have the budget. I have just highlighted £450 million, but for your incompetence would be available to tackle child poverty. We welcome and constructively all measures to address child poverty. The reality is that the SNP has the powers, the resources and the budget available to make a difference. It has also had 15 years to address the underlying causes of poverty that I have outlined, but on all of those counts the SNP is failing to deliver. In his withering assessment of the impact of the UK Government's policies on extreme poverty, the UN's Philip Alston called poverty a political choice. It is a choice. It was a choice when the UK Government cut off child tax credit support for families who have more than two children while spending £1.25 billion on a new royal yacht. It was a choice yesterday to cut fuel duty by 5 per cent, inflating the profit margins of fossil fuel corporations and making it cheaper for the rich to drive gas guzzlers while having no effect on the millions of low-income families with no access to a car. Where have those choices got us? On the latest data, 24 per cent of our children, 240,000 of them are in poverty. However, if poverty is a choice, we can choose differently. That is what this place was set up to do, to make different and better choices for Scotland. It is not a perfect plan, but the best start bright futures child poverty delivery plan published today should give us confidence that we will make progress towards a Scotland free from child poverty and meet the targets that Parliament set itself five years ago. The pledge to increase the Scottish child payment to £25 is welcome, and I was pleased to hear that it is now part of an additional £10,000 per first child within the initial six years of a child's life. However, we must be constantly alive to new opportunities to use the social security system to reduce child poverty. As we have seen from the several fairly rapid increases to child payment and the cabinet secretary's assurance that those will lift 50,000 children out of poverty, it is a powerful tool, and we need to keep exploring how it can be used even more. IPPR Scotland has estimated that disability and loan parent premiums of £10 a week added on to the payment would lift an additional 20,000 children out of poverty, and I know that the cabinet secretary will keep this and similar proposals under very active consideration, but extra entitlements are, frankly, useless if people are not supported to claim them. We still have too many households who are not claiming what they are entitled to, whether that is because they have been put off by decades of denigration of benefit claimants from successive UK Governments of all colours, or because they simply are not aware of what they can receive. It is good to see a substantive part of the plan focus on income maximisation. For instance, there will be social security training for all health visitors by the end of 2024 to ensure that all new parents have access to money advice if they need it. Reaffirmation of the commitment to placing money advisers in up to 150 GP practices in some of Scotland's most deprived areas is also very welcome. The benefit cap is a fundamental distortion of our social security system. It draws an entirely arbitrary limit on household entitlement, regardless of the need. In effect, the UK Government pays households less than even what its own assessment say they require to meet basic needs. On average, families lose £235 a month, but some lose far more—15 per cent of cat families lose out on over £400 a month. Recent figures show that 10 Scots families are losing between £900 and £1,000 a month. First of all, it lays a target to children for cuts, the vast majority of households having at least one child. With most households' impact of being lone-parent families and those families experiencing a poverty rate of 14 per cent higher than average, it is absolutely imperative that we do all that we can to mitigate its impact. In a recent report, the child poverty action group estimates that scrapping the benefit cap, which only the UK Government can do in full, would lift 175,000 children out of poverty across the UK. Even the architect of the 2012 welfare reform act that introduced the cap, David Freud, has called for it to be abolished. Greens have raised this in Parliament and with the Scottish Government for many years, including through the co-operation agreement, and I am pleased to see the commitment in today's plan to mitigate the benefit cap as much as possible, backed by £10 million. With thousands of families hit by the benefit cap right now, we should be aiming to find every last one of those families and get them the support that they are entitled to. Along with the new system of rent controls being designed by Greens and Government and which will take effect during the lifetime of this plan, action against the benefit cap is an important part of the new deal for renters, championed by the Greens, too. To conclude, Greens welcome the delivery plan published today, and I thank Rhona Robison and others for the very constructive conversations that we have had about it up to this point. It is not a perfect plan. I would, for example, have liked to have seen more focus on what we can do to support people affected by the UK Government's cruel no recourse to public funds regime. I think that we will see additional asks on this as the crisis in Ukraine worsens. Although the Scottish Government estimates that the interim target for relative poverty reduction will be met and exceeded—which is very welcome—the projections state that the absolute poverty target will be missed. That shows just how much more work we have to do. However, it is clear from this plan that we are choosing a different Scotland, one that redistributes wealth to support those on low incomes, not one that grinds them into poverty, a Scotland that makes it easier, not harder, for them to access support, and one where no child should ever grow up in poverty. Thank you, Ms Chapman. I now call on Claire Baker, who joins us remotely, who will be followed by Marie McNear for around six minutes. Scotland is a place that places compassion and justice at the heart of everything that we do, where everyone should have a decent standard of living and the same chances in life no matter who they are or where they come from. Scotland is also a place where poverty, including child poverty, is increasing, where more and more families and individuals have to rely on food banks or struggle to pay their bills. Scotland is a place where 1 million people live in poverty and the constant pressure of it can dominate their lives. Before the pandemic, rates across Scotland of relative and deep child poverty were increasing. Demand on food banks and food parcel distributions are at an all-time high. Now the withdrawal of emergency support, alongside the cost of living crisis, means household budgets are under more strain than ever before, but those in need are getting less support to deal with it. No one chooses to have their child go to bed hungry, turn off the heating on a cold night. Far too many families, this is the reality. Parents who can't afford winter coats and shoes, kids who aren't getting birthday presents or Christmas gifts, more than 240,000 children in Scotland are experiencing poverty right now. More than half will have experienced poverty by the time that they are 12 years old. Every one child living in poverty is too many. Those children and their families do not want to hear an argument between Governments about who is most responsible. They do not want to be told how the pandemic has changed the backdrop. They have experienced it and they continue to feel its impact firsthand. They do not care to compare figures with families in another country. They want to know if they have food for their next meal if they can afford to feed their homes. They need money in their pockets today. The Child Poverty Act mandates that less than 18 per cent of children should be in relative poverty by 2023-24, below 10 per cent by 2030-31, yet, prior to the pandemic, child poverty rates were increasing in every region of Scotland. In 5, child poverty has increased by 2.7 per cent since 2015 to 26.4 per cent in 2019-20. More than one in four children in 5 is living in poverty. 6,981, almost 17,000 children, that is shameful. In 5, as in many areas, we have seen community organisations stepping up to deliver support where they can, build the gaps and help those on their doorsteps get by. This support is invaluable and community groups should have a role in local delivery, but we need better support so that less families have to rely on these safety nets. The First Minister has previously said that she wanted the driving mission of the Parliament to be ending child poverty, but the action today, while it indicates that we can see some progress, does not match the ambition of those words. The failure to end poverty is a failure to end wider inequalities. We know that children in poverty are more likely to be from ethnic minorities living with lone parents or in families where someone has a disability. We have heard much today about the responsibility that it lays with Westminster, and yesterday's spring statement failed to provide for those who are struggling the most. The choices that the Conservative Government is making are exacerbating the cost of living crisis, but both Governments need to do more to prevent poverty and to enable the families and individuals living in poverty to get out. The SNP argued for more powers, but it needs to use every lever available to fight poverty and support the children and families in need across the country. Its own growth commission exposed the poverty that would come from the economics of independence that I have heard many of them try to argue for today. The Scottish Government needs to do more. As the powers over housing, local government, health, tax and social security and yet it is failing to take the policy decisions needed and failing to meet its own targets, the policies that it has put in place are widely expected to fall short. Failing to meet an interim target, which itself would mean that 18 per cent of children were still living in poverty. Although the Scottish Government now projects that there will be around 17 per cent of children in relative poverty by that point, based on optimistic assumptions, even if that is the case, that is a figure that we should be saddened by not proud of. Addressing poverty is a stubborn issue, but when we have seen so little progress over a period of years, we need to reflect on where and how money is being spent and whether we have the right balance between universal support and more targeted measures. We need to see evidence-based and inclusive approach to ensure that support is getting to those who are most at risk. The establishment of a child poverty commission would focus action and look at all aspects of devolved policy and design a route map to not just reduce but to end child poverty. The Scottish child payment is a positive step in that it will get money directly to families on low incomes and must be rolled out as soon as possible. However, it is not going to stretch far enough and must be further increased. The £25 a week pales in comparison to the increases in food and heating bills that families are facing. We must ensure that every family is able to access all the benefits that they are entitled to and see the Scottish welfare fund expanded to make sure that there is a stronger safety net for those facing financial emergencies. We also have to see better routes to secure and quality employment for parents. People in low-paid and insecure work are too often battling against rising household costs while juggling and caring responsibilities. The pandemic has shown us that, for many, it would not take much to change their lives. A loss of wages, a hike in rent on an unexpected bill can be all it takes to make it harder for those to get by. We cannot let so many Scots continue to live like that. We cannot continue to have Scotland be a place for half of our children who will experience poverty. We all want to live in a society that supports our children to be the best they can be, but we need to do much more to make this a reality. We now move to the final speaker in the open debate, Ms Marie McNair, and it is up to six minutes, please, Ms McNair. I thank the cabinet secretary for her statement and the launch of the next phase of our tackling child poverty development plan. It is absolutely correct that eradicating child poverty should be a national mission of our Government. How we want to see our nation's children treated will define us as a country. The measures contained in the plan are very welcome, and our approach rightly shows that at the end of child poverty we need a multi-agency approach that is all parts of society signed up to this national mission. As a Parliament, there can be no more important issue for us to debate than the welfare of our nation's children. We must be resolute in our determination to act to remove all barriers and help to see our young people thrive. There is much to be done, and we should work collectively and take an honest and realistic approach when considering how we get to our stated destination. That honestly should call out all the obstacles and avoid kite-flying of political opportunities. If we are all signed up to this national endeavour, we need a cross-party consensus on how we deliver on that mission. In that spirit, we must recognise what has been achieved already. We also need to recognise that the challenge is even greater because of the cost of living crisis. Our Government in this Parliament must do everything within the powers that we have to eradicate child poverty, and we have seen some very welcome progress in that regard. When other political parties were calling for a Scottish child payment of £5, the Scottish Government instead introduced a payment of £10 and now recognising the scale of the challenge, we accelerated our plans to increase the payment to £20 per week, and now it will be £25—five times more than the amount of other parties that we are suggesting. The child poverty action group has said—if it is brief, then we will get time back. What would the member do to the 150,000 children on bridging payments who do not get the double on the Scottish child payment? I thank the member for intervention, but I will not be taking any lessons from a representative of a party that has backed the cap on welfare spending. To continue, the child poverty action group has said that Scottish child payment is a real lifeline for the families across Scotland who are facing a perfect storm of financial insecurity as the UK cut to universal credit bites, energy prices soar and the wider cost of living rise. I also welcome that almost £6 billion has been invested to support low-income households across Scotland over the past three years. An announcement subject to parliamentary approval that eight of our Scottish social security benefits will be increased by 6 per cent from the first of April is very significant. That is in contrast to the 3.1 per cent increase for DWP benefits. It is deeply concerning in the context of child poverty when we know that disability is a major driver of poverty and that we cannot apply that increase to disability benefits. When I questioned our minister for social security and local government at the last social security committee, I warmly welcomed his call for the Westminster Government to do the right thing and mirror our higher up rating. Also Scotland remains only part of the UK to have five family benefits, including Scottish child payment, which is designed to tackle child poverty head-on. Combined with the three best start grants, the best start foods, low-income families can receive over £10,000 of financial support by the time their first child turns six and over £9,700 for each and subsequent child. That is 8,200 more than Support Veil when England and Wales for every eligible child. There is no two-child policy here, with his abhorrent rate clause. I have also long campaigned against the benefit cap and I welcome the Cabinet Secretary's plan for mitigation. In an honest world of better together, we need to compare this approach with that of the Westminster Government. The Office of Budget Responsibility, set up by the Tories, has stated that the current standard of living crisis is a biggest fall in living standards since records began. The statement of the chancellor yesterday was a chance to provide necessary support. It was also a chance to join us in making eradicating child poverty a national mission. Instead, he ignored the calls to reinstate the £20 uplift to universal credit. That removal is estimated to be responsible for placing 20,000 children into poverty, and described as the biggest cut to benefits since a welfare state was established. He refused to mirror our operating of 6 per cent for DWP benefits, not even for child benefit at a time when we are increasing the Scottish child payment. He has maintained a five-week waiting time for universal credit and that two-child policy, with its abhorrent rate clause, is absolutely disgusting. Although operating up to the benefit cap that is denying families with children, that basic subsistence that they should be getting within a safety net social security system, the Resolution Foundation has pointed out that £2.23 of new support is going to the top half. Let us get real. Let us not deny that UK policies holding us back, the misery that those policies are inflicting is very real, and a significant barrier to eradicating child poverty and the cause misery and hardship in our holding our communities back. I will pause here to praise the outstanding work of the advice agencies, the food banks, the council staff, the health and social care partnership staff, the housing associations, all the volunteers and the caring communities in my constituency. They are there day in, day out supporting those in need, and they are quite simply lifesavers. Let us get behind this delivery plan and also call for the powers. The full levers that will allow us to eradicate child poverty is that it is clear that a Westminster Government does not have the same ambition to end this misery. Let us not let that get in the way of what we need to do to help our nations to help them thrive. We now move to closing speeches, and I call Martin Whitfield for around six minutes. It is a pleasure to close this debate on behalf of Labour, and, indeed, in the original statement, the Cabinet Secretary was right. In order to tackle inequality and poverty, too often we are blunted in that potential. There is no silver bullet to tackling poverty, because if there was, it would not be a problem. I think that we need to take very great care that we do not end up in cul-de-sacs of slogans when what we are talking about are individual children. First, let me extend a thanks. The coalition of care and support providers came to me very early on and talked about the challenge they face when they do not get multi-year funding. It is a great pleasure to see in this report the proposal for multi-year funding to give the third sector the support they need and to give ongoing support to families. It would be helpful if the Deputy First Minister could expand on the phrase where possible to do so and whether indeed that multi-year funding will be available as soon as possible to the third sector, because I know that they are looking forward to or they need that very much. I would also like just to explore one aspect of the opening statement in relation to the Every Child, Every Chance, the original report on which this new report takes us further forward. When it talked about the investment of £5.9 billion in support of low-income households, of which £2.18 billion was estimated to have directly benefited children, so of the £3.72 billion that remains, how did that help lift children out of poverty? It would be useful to know that. Given my brief with regard to young people, I am going to take a couple of minutes to look at the question of education and learning, because poverty does affect our children. It affects our children hugely. The report rightly points out that in order to improve outcomes for children and young people who are impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty-related attainment gap. Children who are hungry cannot learn. Children who are cold cannot learn. Children who are coming from households where there are parental stresses because of money are not in a position to learn. I spoke with a teacher last week who confirmed that a young girl had come to the high school and her shoes had no soles on the bottom. She walked in with just the covering. The schools did what schools have done, what they've done especially well during the Covid. They stepped up. They went and buried around and found a pair of shoes. It's 2022, and we're expecting children to sit exams in only a few weeks' time, and they don't have a pair of shoes on their feet. I would like to ask, where is the baseline assessment of the damage of the last two years to our children and young people through education as a result of Covid, so we can look to see how we can make improvements, so we can look to see how we can prepare should anything as a parent again happen to us, and so we can see how we can help this Covid generation get on with their lives with the dignity and respect that they deserve. One aspect of that would be to see the UNCRC come back to this Parliament so that the young people can hold to account those politicians across all parties who make brave words, speak loudly and do nothing. I'm careful to do this, but I wish to do it. I know when Pam Duncan-Glancy was talking about the benefit cap, and there was a discussion about the £10 million that's very welcome within this. If we look at the universal credit dashboard, as of August 2021, there were 6,400 households subject to the benefit cap here in Scotland. Average £208 per month, that would be just under £16 million, and the offer is £10 million. Those are based on the uprated DWP figures that are the latest projections, so it's £10 million plus £3 million that local authorities already put in making a total of £13 million. I'm very grateful for that intervention and very grateful to get that on to the record because we can look to that going forward. What I would do is just pick up one additional comment from Pam Duncan-Glancy, which was in relation to going back to my comment about slogans. I'm concerned about the small number of pathfinders that are discussed. I'm concerned about work with up to 300 people in 2022-23. There are young people in our communities, as I've said, who are hungry now. Can we not raise our ambition to raise from a small number of pathfinders, indeed, to a pathfinding project that can help all young people in poverty, and maybe rather than working with 300 people, why can't we increase that? Welcome, as the increase in benefit is—I'm sure that many members across the chamber have received the Save the Children briefing—they ask, tackling structural drives of poverty is critical. Save the Children supports a cash-first approach echoed by a number of speakers here this afternoon, but the most impactful action that can be taken is to double the Scottish child payment to £40 as soon as possible. That would lift children out of poverty by putting cash where cash is needed. In the very short time I have left, I would like to point out with regard to Marl Briggs' contribution about the fact that, if we hit local authorities, we are hitting the vehicle that works most closely with these people. To Eleanor Whitman, can I say thank you, and congratulate her for sharing her life experience about being in poverty. Across this chamber, we all want the same outcome. I think it would be fair to say that we can raise our ambition to do so. To quote the Cabinet Secretary from her statement, there is no doubt that, and I will add, this Government could and should have done so much more. I welcome the opportunity to conclude today's debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. I would also like to acknowledge the publication of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26, and to reiterate the comments from the Round Tree Foundation that the upcoming plans must set out a clear and measurable course for meeting poverty targets for April 2024. Although I welcome the announcements from the Cabinet Secretary today, the SNP has now been in power for 15 years and, during that time, we have witnessed increased levels of child poverty despite the many devolved powers that the Scottish Government could utilise to reduce poverty here in Scotland. The recent Tackling Child Poverty and No Thank You, I'd like to make progress, thank you, and Destitution Report, written by the Think Tank Institute of Public Policy Research, estimated that, by 2030, 13 per cent of children will still be living in relative poverty, which is 3 per cent off of the SNP's own target of 10 per cent. It's not good enough that the SNP Scottish Government could miss its own targets on child poverty, and they must do more to tackle the root causes to ensure that everyone, regardless of their background, is given the opportunity to succeed. As highlighted by the Cabinet Secretary today, this is not the first child poverty delivery plan that the SNP Government has announced. The 2018-22 delivery plan outlined actions such as boosting employment, expanding social security and tackling the cost of living. Although some of the actions have been achieved, other programmes such as the Fear Start Scotland scheme only managed to achieve a 25 per cent success rate. Alongside education, employment is one of the best routes out of poverty, which is used back by the Poverty and Inequality Commission that has urged the SNP to reduce barriers to employment to tackle child poverty directly. That includes again increasing funding for parental employment support fund, and to introduce a job guarantee for priority families. Again, that would reduce the number of children in poverty within working households. Again, the SNP has the powers to do more to address working poverty, and I hope that tackling child poverty delivery plan will contain successful schemes that will support more people than its predecessor. Many colleagues from across the chamber have made important points during today's debate. Miles Briggs mentioned that across Scotland more than 7,500 children are living in temporary accommodation with SNP green ministers failing to provide the leadership needed to address the housing crisis and get families and children into safe, secure and affordable homes as a matter of priority. After 15 years of this SNP Government, we see no plan and no end to children living in temporary accommodation. As he rightly said, by not reaching out to other parties except the Greens, there could have been missed opportunities to work collegially across the chamber. Pam Duncan Glancy critiques the Scottish Government's plans, calling for concrete plans and resolutions to tackle the cost of living and child poverty. Again, had the Government reached out to all parties across the chamber, I am left wondering what could have been announced today as part of the delivery plan. Beatrice Wishart spoke about providing opportunities for our young people and families and measures that could have been taken to improve their wellbeing. I agree with her criticisms of the Scottish Government at their decision to cut local Government funding by £250 million, and I will speak more about that later. A number of SNP members mentioned that, if Scotland separated from the rest of the United Kingdom, it would give this Government more powers to tackle child poverty. As my colleague Dean Lockhart reminded this chamber, it was the SNP Government that rejected and delayed additional welfare powers that would have given this Parliament the opportunity to look at alternatives for Scotland if it would like to. No, I would like to make progress. I do not want to turn this debate into a constitutional squabble, but how can the SNP Government be serious about independence when they do not use the powers that are currently available to them? Today's debate, and it is not being focused entirely on by SNP members, should focus on reducing child poverty here in Scotland, not the SNP's own political obsessions. My colleague Alexander Stewart raised an important issue during his contribution regarding childcare provision, which is one of the many ways that this Government could support children and families out of poverty. Delivering 1140 hours of free childcare provision received cross-party support. As a councillor, it was something that I welcomed in my own local authority area of North Lanarkshire, which has high levels of deprivation. By offering free childcare provision, it gives our young people the best start in life and supports parents so that they can work and provide for their families without that additional childcare cost. It also supports the GIFEG model, a principle that is also widely supported. As I mentioned in this chamber before, there are deep-rooted issues with the delivery of 1140 hours. I once again call on this Scottish Government to listen to the private and voluntary industry, which has warned that the current funding model in place will force nurseries to close or reduce their hours. If the Scottish Government does not act now, a crisis in our nursery sector could emerge that would leave their flagship policy in ruins. Staying on the theme of education, and I am conscious of my time, the SNP must do more to close the attainment gap and provide our young people with the tools to succeed. As others have mentioned, Audit Scotland's improving outcomes for young people through the Schools Education Report outlined that the attainment gap remains wide and that improvements were needed to close that quicker. If the SNP continues with their abysmal record in education, that will be unachievable, leaving many of our young people in poverty as they have been fuelled by this Government. Finally, I will refer members to my registers of interest as a serving councillor in North Lanarkshire. I would like to mention local government funding. The reason I wish to raise this is because of the cuts to local government and the pressures they face to deliver for communities, especially for those who are in the greatest need of support. Tackling child poverty is key to the work of our councils, and this has made difficult when the Scottish Government chooses to cut their budget year on year. Councils know their communities and have funded properly. Is the member arguing that we should have given more to local government in recent years and less to the NHS? It was one or the other. The Scottish Government should be ffiscally responsible, which we certainly have not. We have seen that with a ferry fiasco in recent days. The reason I wish to raise the cuts that local government and the pressures they face to deliver for our local communities. Could backbenchers, who have not really been in for any of the debate, stop carrying out a conversation at the back of the room while the front benches are speaking? Councils know their communities and, if they were funded properly by the SNP Government, they would be able to implement plans to support areas with high deprivation. Therefore, the Scottish Government must work alongside local government to continue to identify areas that have high rates of worklessness families to target an action plan at reverting those trends. Councils will not be able to do that unless they receive a fair level of funding. If the Government is serious about eradicating poverty, they must fund local councils properly so that they can provide the much needed support to those who need it most. We have heard many views today about how we can tackle child poverty. One goal that we all have in common is that we want to tackle the root causes of child poverty. I therefore hope that the Scottish Government listens to the concerns that are outlined by Opposition members today and will implement measures that will support children and families across the whole of Scotland. Thank you, Ms Gallagher. I now call on the Deputy First Minister to wind up the debate if he could take us to around 5.30, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Let me start with one point that Miles Briggs got correct in the debate. There wasn't much that he got correct, but he did get this correct. That was that the national mission on child poverty is a cross-government priority in the Scottish Government. My presence here to close the debate is designed to reinforce that point and to give support and endorsement to the excellent leadership that has been given to the formulation of this plan by the social justice secretary, Shona Robison, who has worked extraordinarily hard with her officials in engaging with a wide range of stakeholders in Scotland and with parliamentary committees and with our partners in the Green Party to formulate the policy programme here in front of Parliament. For this to be a cross-government strategy, it has to be balanced across a range of relevant factors that will make a difference of a sustainable nature to eradicating, as Meghan Gallagher just talked about, child poverty once and for all. The measures that we take must be sustainable across the whole of the policy spectrum, so they cover a range of measures around enhancing social security measures, where the Government has taken action already, to, as Maureen MacNeill pointed out, to respond to the calls for a child payment that was originally to be £5, which we originally said would be £10. We doubled it to £20 and it is now up to £25. Five times the original ask of this Government using our social security powers to effect those changes. The social security minister announced just this week a 6 per cent increase in the benefits under our control and, of course, the social justice secretary has announced today as a consequence of the dialogue that we have had with the Green Party around the plan, the steps to mitigate the effects of the benefits cap, which will have a huge impact on child poverty and the presence of that within individual families. That is the first element of the free-prong strategy. The second is tackling the costs that families have to endure. We set out a range of measures through the steps that we take on council tax, for example, or on some of the other work that has been taken forward on the renter strategy that Maggie Chapman made reference to and the work that Ruth Maguire talked about in relation to income maximisation to tackle the cost of living that families face to try to ensure the sustainability of our interventions. Of course, there is. I thank the Deputy First Minister for taking the intervention. What can the Deputy First Minister say to the 177,000 children who are eligible for the Scottish child payment but who do not currently receive it? The Government is acting as swiftly as we possibly can do to put in place the Scottish child payment measures that will have an effect on children within Scotland. We are moving at pace to achieve that, and the steps that we have announced today demonstrate the substance of the endeavours that the Government has taken forward. The third element of the strategy is about employability support, where we have set out, with increased resources, a focus with additional support around early learning and childcare, transportation costs and the other flexible funds that have been made available to our partners and local government. I will come on to their funding in a moment to assist 12,000 individuals into employment. Long-term employability is crucial to tackling child poverty by getting individuals into long-term sustained employment that can be a benefit. Of course, I will give way to Mr Stewart. I thank the Deputy First Minister. Many children live with an adult who has a disability. What are the Scottish Government doing to try to ensure that the disability employment gap is tackled? That is still a major issue for many households. We do that by the employability support that we have in place and also by some of the measures that the Social Security Minister has already taken to strengthen the position of the individuals who have disabilities. The strategy covers those three areas of social security about tackling the costs of living and employability support. It has to be said that the opposition reaction to the plan today has been, I think, the most charitable I could be, is somewhat grudging in their reaction. However, I will pass on the intervention for it at this moment. However, I thought that the contrast was between the comments of the opposition and the speech by Elena Whitham. Elena Whitham gave a contribution of the most powerful lived testimony that was in stark contrast to the political posturing that we have heard from the opposition this afternoon. In the course of this debate, my colleague Ruth Maguire made the comment about the context in which we are operating. The context in which we are operating is crucial in determining the extent to which we can be successful in tackling child poverty. Ruth Maguire made the contrast with the announcements that were made yesterday, as did various other members in the debate. Graham Simpson, one of the Conservative members, went on television last night and delivered an interview in which he said that he should have looked at doing something on benefits because we should be looking at the least well-off in society. They are going to be the worst hit. Not one single Conservative member reiterated those comments in this debate this afternoon. They cast a veil on the fact that the Chancellor of Exchequer walked on the other side of the road yesterday and did not do a thing to help people in low incomes. Alexander Stewart made comments about the broad shoulders of the United Kingdom being deployed to support people. The Daily Telegraph, one of the two House journals of the Conservative Party, had the headline this morning that the Chancellor's announcement represents the biggest fall in living standards on record. The other House journal of the Conservative Party, The Daily Mail, had the headline, The Forgotten Million Say What About Us. That is a question that the Conservative Party should be confronting and not avoiding in the way that their spokesmen did on the television last night. If we have a look at the path of child poverty, child poverty was falling until 2010 and then something happened. There was a change of government in the United Kingdom and the Conservatives and the Liberals conspired to inflict austerity on the public. What happened? Relative poverty in this country increased. We have been battling against that tide. No member should, in any way, mistake the determination of the Government to do everything that we can within our powers to address that situation. I will give way to Mr Lockhart. Mr Swinney talks about austerity. Does he agree with the conclusion of the SNP's very own growth commission that spending on benefits in an independent Scotland would have to be reduced by 4 per cent of GDP? His conclusions, Mr Swinney, are not mine. What the Scottish Government is determined to do is to use the powers that we have at our disposal, which we have just done to upgrade benefits, to tackle the standards that are living crises that individuals face and that the Conservatives have not lifted a finger to help people one eye older in the effort. I said that I would come back to the subject of local government, because the Conservatives, after all their years of austerity, have dressed themselves up as the protectors of local government. Let me put a couple of facts on the record. In the budget this year, for the forthcoming financial year, there is a 9.2 per cent cash increase in the local government, a 6.3 per cent real-terms increase, so we are funding local government, our partners, to deliver the action on child poverty, which this plan is determined to do. My last comment is this. Some members need to really keep up with the events of the afternoon, because we have had a whole host of comments, quotes read out from people about the points of view of commentators and stakeholders. In the course of this afternoon, the child poverty action group, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Save the Children, the Poverty and Equality Commission, the Independent Food Aid Network, the Trussell Trust, the Poverty Alliance, Barnardos and the Children's Commissioner have all welcomed the steps that the cabinet secretary has announced this afternoon and said that it is in stark contrast to the walking on the other side of the road by the UK Government yesterday. That concludes the debate on tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022-26. I will now move on to the next item of business. The next item of business is consideration of motion 3702 on legislative consent motion building safety bill UK legislation. I call on Shona Robison to move the motion. The question on this motion will be put at decision time. The next item of business is consideration of motion 2793, in the name of Kate Forbes, on a financial resolution for the Good Food Nation Scotland Bill. I call on George Adam to move the motion. I'm here, Presiding Officer, and moved. Not lurking in your usual position, minister. The question on this motion will also be put at decision time to which we now come. There are two questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first question is that motion 3702, in the name of Shona Robison, on building safety bill UK legislation, be agreed? Are we all agreed? That is agreed. The final question is that motion 2793, in the name of Kate Forbes, on a financial resolution for the Good Food Nation Scotland Bill, be agreed? Are we all agreed? That is agreed, and that concludes the meeting.