Swinney pledges ‘significant reform’ of public services to fight child poverty

The First Minister laid out his plans for the next 12 months in his first Programme for Government.

John Swinney announced the Programme for Government on Wednesday (Andrew Milligan/PA) (PA Wire)

John Swinney has pledged “significant reform” of public services to provide “whole family support” in an effort to eradicate child poverty.

The First Minister delivered his first Programme for Government on Wednesday, just 24 hours after his Finance Secretary announced about £500 million of cuts.

The announcement, which was clearly hamstrung by the fraught financial situation in Scotland, included little in terms of concrete new action.

But the First Minister did pledge to revamp how poverty is tackled.

Our goal is to lift every child in Scotland who is in poverty out of it, so, we must do more

John Swinney, First Minister

The SNP leader has already made clear that tackling child poverty is “first and foremost” in his priorities.

“Our goal is to lift every child in Scotland who is in poverty out of it, so, we must do more,” he said.

Here, the First Minister stressed the need to ensure a “system of whole-family support” is available – adding this must be “easy to access, well-connected and responsive to families’ needs”.

He added: “Over the coming year, we will work with partners to enable greater local flexibility, so that services can be more easily tailored to the needs of the families they support.”

He said the Scottish Government would “consider where greater investment is needed”.

But he stated: “The key objective of the approach we will take forward will be to deliver significant reform of the work of public services to deliver whole-family support extensively across the country.”

Along with changes to public services, the First Minister also pledged to introduce rent controls in new legislation, invest £1 billion in “affordable, high-quality and funded early learning and childcare” and provide funding for Creative Scotland to restart its open fund.

Mr Swinney also pledged to overhaul the rules which govern the conduct of ministers.

The ministerial code, which will be published by the end of the year Mr Swinney said, will allow independent advisers to initiate investigations into the conduct of ministers, as opposed to requiring the First Minister to call for a probe.

“I want my Government to set the highest standard of propriety and integrity,” he said.

“I want trust to be at the heart of our relationship with the people of Scotland.”