The Scottish Government believes child poverty can become a thing of the past.
Scottish equalities secretary Angela Constance visited Dundee on Friday to announce details of a new nation-wide drive to tackle poverty and deprivation.
Marking the publication of the Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Bill, Ms Constance said she believes the introduction of “statutory targets”, which must be met by both health boards and government, will prove key.
As part of the new bill, the government will be tasked with providing regular updates on how work to end child poverty is progressing.
Asked if she felt child poverty can be eradicated, Ms Constance said: “I do.
“What is the purpose of being in politics if it’s not to give our children the best start in life?
“There will always be circumstances that will mean individual families, perhaps due to redundancy or some other shock in their life, will find themselves in a situation where they’re struggling to make ends meet.
“But what we have to be working to ensure is that time spent in financial difficulty is as short as possible.”
Though she concedes examples of child poverty in Scotland remain “way too high”, Ms Constance insists she and her parliamentary colleagues are “absolutely up for it”.
She said: “In a nut-shell, this bill is about seeing that irrespective of how hard the challenge is, we’re absolutely up for it.
“We want all of our children to get the very best start to life and to grow up with hope and joy in their heart.
“All of Scotland’s children, each and every one of them, should matter to us all and we’re absolutely determined to break that cycle of deprivation and that cycle of poverty.
“We know in some parts of the country it’s more acute than others, that is very true.
“That will require us…to have a more focused approach in some areas of the country.”
Ms Constance was visiting Dundee’s Fairy Job Mother initiative during Friday’s visit.
The Shore Terrace-based service aims to provide support to help get more 16-24-year-olds back into work.
Service user Morgyn Waterston, 20, said: “It (Fairy Job Mother) has given me skills I didn’t know I had.
“They were telling me skills I had which I didn’t know I could put down on a CV.
“I’ve gained a lot of confidence.
“I’m 100% more confident that I’m going to get a job.”
