Designing a charter together, to remove barriers and build trust
As part of Fife’s Cash First work the Poverty Alliance is working in Fife to help develop a Cash First / Dignity Charter.
There is an invitation to the events listed below, for you to come and share your ideas and vision for a values-led way of working across Fife, that tackles the stigma and barriers of accessing support for the people who need it most.
This is your chance to help shape the way Fife Council and partners commit to working together.
A charter can turn shared values into clear, practical commitments—guiding how services operate with dignity, respect, and trust. Co-created with partners and people with lived experience, it can embed learning into everyday practice, challenge stigma, and build accountability across Fife to ensure consistent, compassionate support that truly puts people first:
For more information or a chat about this work please contact anne.mccormack@povertyalliance.org
An opportunity to learn about the Scottish Government pilot – Cash-First: Towards Ending the Need for Food Banks in Scotland – and how it has been delivered locally by Aberdeen City last year.
Welfare Support Assistant’s in Glenrothes highlighted cases where the migration from ESA to UC has had problems resulting in people having lump sum deductions taken from their UC for over payments of Housing Benefit. The clients have their rent paid direct to the landlord – in these cases direct to FC, so they had not received the money but still had the overpayments deducted. This left people struggling to meet their basic needs.
After raising the cases Fife Council. Housing has made the decision to pay the people the funds from their housing accounts direct to them where there are no arrears. Those migrating between these benefits are frequently vulnerable and already must budget to manage the 5 week wait time.
We know of only a handful of cases where this happened but please get in touch if you are aware of any other who may have been impacted in the same way.
The Scottish Government initiative will see S1 to S3 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, who attend selected schools( Viewforth High School in Fife ) in eight local authority areas, receive a nutritious and healthy meal. This takes the number of pupils being offered free school meals in Scotland to over 360,000.
John Swinney, First Minister, said: “The free school meals programme is key in our national mission to eradicate child poverty, which saves families who take up the offer around £450 per eligible child per year. This next phase of the rollout will ensure that this offer is available to more families across the country.
The SWAY linked above is the Improvement Service report on last years Local Child Poverty Action Reports. Fife work on partnership, understanding the need and use of data and approaches to increasing affordable access to childcare are all highlighted in the report .
The 2024/25 report will be going to the 5th August 2025 Fife Partnership board and circulated after that – all the reports are uploaded to Improvement Service website – a couple of LA’s have reported early including Dundee.
As always, please get in touch with Sheena Watson (Fife Council) or Audrey Whyte (CARF) if you would like more information on any of this week’s content. We would also value any contributions you would like to make towards future editions.
Contact: Sheena Watson
Email: sheena.watson@fife.gov.uk