Introduction
Under the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, local authorities and territorial health boards have a duty to produce joint annual local child poverty action reports every year.
These reports should describe actions taken in the past year – and planned future actions – to tackle child poverty and contribute to national targets to significantly reduce child poverty by 2030. The reporting year begins on the 1st April and runs to the 31st March.
Local Guidance provides detail on the Scottish Government's expectations.
The hope is that the production and implementation of these reports will help bring about a ‘step-change’ in action to tackle child poverty by encouraging a strategic, preventative approach focusing on the underlying drivers of child poverty (income from employment, income from social security and the cost of living).
This self assessment is designed to help you to consider how well you feel your approach to tackling child poverty is working, to take time to think through any challenges or areas for improvement and to think about the future.
The Self Assessment Process
The purpose of the Self Assessment is to consider your approach to addressing child poverty in your local authority area. By taking time to reflect on this work and gathering a collective view, you will be well placed to ensure you bringing the right people, resources and approach to take this important agenda forward.
The process involves three steps:
1. Each partner completes the self assessment survey
2. The Improvement Service reviews comments and identify common areas for consideration.
3. At a subsequent planning session , the child poverty group prioritises improvement points and develops an improvement plan.
The Survey
The survey contains four sections, each with a set of supporting statements.. You are asked to consider these statements in the context of your local area and then rate the extent to which you as an individual agree/disagree with each statement, as per the description below:
Strongly agree
Agree
Strongly disagree
Don't know
The ‘Don’t Know’ option should be used when you feel you do not have sufficient information about the particular statement to enable you to make a judgment.
At the end of each section there are comments boxes. The first requires you to provide details of positive examples that support your views on how well the working group is performing in relation to the statements covered by the section (strengths). The second requires you to provide further details of how you think the approach can be improved in relation to the statements covered by the section.
Please be as honest as possible with the answers you provide. The more information you provide, the more you will get from the process. Your answers are also anonymous.