Talking about costs and money with parents and carers can feel difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. This resource is full of insights from parents and carers about how schools can communicate with them about costs, make them aware of the entitlements for school age children, and how to make sure families feel comfortable enough to open up when there are financial problems at home.
Understanding the challenges facing families on low incomes supports greater empathy and engagement. Promoting awareness and understanding of the challenges facing families on low incomes to everyone in your school community will help boost that knowledge.
Parents say they feel frustrated and unseen when their schools aren’t mindful of financial pressures. A proactive approach tells parents that their school understands financial challenges and that conversations about costs and money are possible and welcomed.
It doesn’t matter how affluent a school community appears, families can be struggling financially and could benefit from entitlements and help at school. To make sure families don't miss out, good communication is key.
As a way of helping to boost family incomes and reduce the impact of child poverty, school communities are increasingly offering referral pathways to welfare and money advice for families. This briefing offers examples of existing pathways and makes recommendations about how we can make sure more families are able to access help in this way.
We'd like to speak with parents and carers in Scotland who are on a low income and have experienced difficulties claiming universal credit and Scottish child payment.
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Cost of the School Day Voice network members Summer and Brooke from Ardrossan Academy and Cathy and Leland from Newton Primary school took part in a Scottish Parliament roundtable about universal free school meals. Organised by Monica Lennon MSP in collaboration with the STUC Women’s Committee and the Sunday Mail as part of the Food for Thought campaign, the learners got the chance to tell decision makers, including Jenny Gilruth, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, what they thought about universal free school meal provision and what needs to happen next.
East Ayrshire Council decided to commit funding to extend their Financial Inclusion Team and place workers in every secondary school in the authority, focusing on maximising family incomes, making sure families are receiving all the benefits and entitlements they’re eligible for. Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland worked with the financial inclusion team to deliver child poverty and rights sessions to 70 learners, helping to raise awareness of the causes of poverty in Scotland, the impact poverty can have on children’s rights and cost barriers families and pupil face at school.
Staff at Girvan Academy in South Ayrshire put a lot of thought into providing support for young people from low income families and after consulting with the whole school community they realised that they would also have to consider how they describe and promote these supports, to encourage uptake and make sure there was no stigma attached.
