The Scottish Government will review the way it measures its legally-binding targets to reduce poverty amid warnings they will be missed, the Social Justice Secretary has said.
Shirley-Anne Somerville said the current targets are based on income and did not capture the impact of anti-poverty measures.
She said policies such as childcare meal debt reduction would not feed into the figures.
Earlier this month, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) analysis of the tackling child poverty delivery plan found it may not be compliant with the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 and could be open to judicial review.
We need to review the targets to ensure that our approach is grounded in the best available evidence, continues to drive the right actions, and supports sustained long-term progress for children and families
The Act set legal targets to reduce relative child poverty to less than 10% by 2030-31 – however, the JRF has said the latest figure for 2022-25 was more than double that at 21%.
In a statement updating Parliament on the Government’s progress, Ms Somerville said while the 2030 targets were “challenging” there was still a “credible path” to meet them.
“Many of the policies that we are investing in are not captured in our income-based targets,” she told MSPs.
“This can lead to the debate and calls for action being skewed towards increasing social security, even when other policies lead to direct savings for families or drive systemic change across our public services.
“That is why I am confirming today our intention to undertake a review of the type of targets we use to measure our impact on child poverty.
“We need to review the targets to ensure that our approach is grounded in the best available evidence, continues to drive the right actions, and supports sustained long-term progress for children and families.
“We need to know what makes the most difference for families.
“The review will enable us to consider using the considerable evidence we have generated and work with partners to explore how we can use targets to drive focus and action where it is most needed to take a balanced approach, which focuses on prevention, immediate support, and longer-term outcomes that are right for families.”
The Social Justice Secretary said the Government remained “unequivocally committed to eradicating child poverty and to driving meaningful change for families”.
The Scottish Government estimates that its policies in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, published in March, will keep around 100,000 children out of relative poverty this year.
A coalition of charities, including the JRF, Save the Children, and the Child Poverty Action Group, said the decision to launch a review showed the Government was not taking enough action on poverty.
In a joint statement, they said: “It is welcome that the Scottish Government is repeating its commitment to eradicating child poverty, but ministers cannot ignore that part of the reason why they are planning to review the targets at this point is that they have not taken enough action thus far to meet them.
“Any review of the targets needs to be based on the goal of strengthening them to maintain their ambition and urgency.
“Removing any measurement of income from child poverty reduction targets would be like having a speedometer in your car that only told you the temperature.
“Whatever the Scottish Government proposes as changes to the targets, the Parliament will have to be very sure that these do not water down the responsibility of the Government to take action.
“We will, of course, work with the Government and Parliament as part of this review, but we will do so cautiously and with a determined focus on what families need.
Labour MSP Mark Griffin said: “Driving down child poverty is a key priority of this Government and I think of the Parliament as a whole but, reviewing the targets, the Government is failing to hit does not seem to meet that rhetoric.
“The Scottish Government’s own impact assessment of the child poverty delivery plan says that it will not meet the targets.”
Reform MSP Thomas Kerr said he welcomed the announcement of a review but said tax cuts were needed to give families more cash.
“I have an idea that the Cabinet Secretary could sign up to immediately, that will support plenty of hard-working parents, many of whom are in work but remain in poverty, and that is to cut tax,” he said.