Watch - Child poverty and Scotland’s public debt crisis
Published: 1 May 2025
1 May 2025: A new video shares insights from the recent national conference on child poverty and public debt in Scotland, co-hosted by the Centre for Public Policy and Aberlour Children’s Charity, and how the Centre is creating space to talk about and find solutions to challenging policy issues.
A new video from the Centre for Public Policy shares insights from its recent national conference on child poverty and public debt in Scotland, hosted in partnership with Aberlour Children’s Charity. It shares more about the event, research carried out by Professor Morag Treanor, and how the Centre is creating space to talk about and find solutions to challenging policy issues like this.
WATCH: Child poverty and Scotland’s public debt crisis: A national conference
The day looked at child poverty and public debt broadly and built on research undertaken by Aberlour Children’s Charity with the University of Glasgow’s Professor Morag Treanor that sheds light on the consequences of public debt, such as Council tax and rent arrears, which 'exacerbate poverty and effectively trap families in a cycle of financial hardship'.
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Shirley-Anne Somerville; Nicola Killean, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland; Professor Nicola McEwen, Director of the Centre for Public Policy; and SallyAnn Kelly OBE, Chief Executive of Aberlour, all spoke at the event, along with a cross-party panel of politicians, who discussed the key issues during a live recording of the Centre for Public Policy’s Spotlight podcast.
Read more about the conference on the Centre for Public Policy website.
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First published: 1 May 2025
Listen to the live political panel on the UofG Spotlight podcast
UofG Spotlight: Child poverty and the Public Debt Crisis
Our Associate Director, Kezia Dugdale hosted a political panel discussion, asking all the major parties in Scotland what we can expect to see from them in the run up to the election on the issues of poverty, public debt and the multi-level governance challenges at play.
During the panel we heard from the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Shirley-Anne Somerville; Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP; Cllr Blair Anderson; Miles Briggs MSP; and Paul O’Kane MSP.
