Foundation Scotland backs national call for community-led change
With one in four children living in poverty in Scotland, a new manifesto highlights the urgent need for community-led solutions.
“Ending child poverty in Scotland will only happen when we trust families and communities with the power to shape the solutions that affect their lives."
Political leaders are being asked to support a new national blueprint that would give families and communities greater decision-making power to help end child poverty.
The What Matters 2 You (WM2U) manifesto sets out how Scotland can move away from crisis-driven services and towards preventative, community-led solutions. It draws on evidence and partnership working with families, communities, funders and public services in Dundee and Clackmannanshire.
With one in four children living in poverty in Scotland, the manifesto calls on all Scottish political parties to commit to a national approach that embeds community-led decision-making at the heart of how support for children and families is designed and funded. It urges a clear set of national commitments from government, local partners and funders, alongside an offer from WM2U to help support delivery.
This includes the creation of an independent national advisory group, led by Scotland’s independent funders and philanthropists, to champion community-led decision-making and help scale the approach across Scotland. At its core, the manifesto highlights how efforts to tackle child poverty are being undermined by fragmented funding, short-term decision-making and systems designed around institutions rather than the people they exist to serve.
It proposes a clear alternative: voice-led transformation that shifts power, decision-making and resources directly to families and communities. This helps to prevent crisis, reduce long-term public spending and deliver better outcomes.
Foundation Scotland backs this national call for change.
Giles Ruck, CEO of Foundation Scotland said:
“We know that services designed at arm’s length from the people they are meant to support will never be capable of tackling deep-rooted and systemic disadvantage. When children are still going to school hungry and families are skipping meals to keep the lights on, it is clear that our current approaches are not enough. We urgently need to reshape how decisions are made and how resources are distributed, so that community voice and lived experience are not an add-on, but the foundation of change. Through our work at Foundation Scotland, we see this every day in communities who are organising, innovating and leading in the face of challenges. These organisations are not just responding to crisis; they are building agency, ambition and long-term resilience.
“WM2U’s voice-led transformation manifesto is a powerful call to place community voice at the heart of efforts to end child poverty, so that the funding and policies intended to help families have the greatest possible chance of lasting impact. If we are serious about ending child poverty in Scotland, this is an approach we must all stand behind.”
The full manifesto and further information are available at WM2U Manifesto