Social welfare
Hidden Costs of Inequality
Author / Creator: Stuart Donald
Media type: video
Date published: 2025
Inequality is associated with many socio-economic problems.
More People Reporting Disabilities and Receiving Support
Author / Creator: Scottish Fiscal Commission
Media type: Report
Date published: 2026
Increasing numbers of people have received disability support payments in the last 5 years in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
SAVING CHILDHOOD IN SCOTLAND: CHILDREN’S ONLINE RIGHTS AND ETHICS
Author / Creator: raig Dalzell
Media type: Report
Date published: 2026
Digital technology has reshaped how children learn, communicate, form relationships, and develop a sense of self, but the systems designed to protect and support children have not kept pace. Scotland now has an opportunity to lead by treating children’s digital wellbeing as a matter of ethics, evidence, and collective responsibility.
National Care Service Charter of Rights
Author / Creator: Scottish Government
Media type: Article
Date published: 2026
It tells you about your rights which exist as at 25 March 2026. The Charter does not create any new rights or alter any existing ones.
It gives you information about what to do if you think your rights or expectations are not being met.
Basic or Minimum? Income Guarantees and Welfare Provision in a Devolved Scotland
Author / Creator: Naveed Hakeem
Media type: Article
Date published: 2025
Can an income guarantee work in a devolved Scotland?
The Power of Youth Work
Author / Creator: Emma Davidson
Media type: Article
Date published: 2025
Youth work intersects with other aspects of a young person's life, revealing its role as a supportive, preventive service.
Do we know how much the Scottish Government has spent on tackling child poverty?
Author / Creator: Emma Congreve
Media type: Report
Date published: 2025
What is outturn expenditure on measures in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery plans?
Why and how the Scottish Government must end private provision of children’s care
Author / Creator: Nick Kempe
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published: 2025
Profits in residential children’s services in Scotland currently are at least £28,000 per child.
The trend direction is clear; the share of the market taken by private providers is increasing.
NATIONAL CARE SERVICE (SCOTLAND) BILL
Author / Creator: Care Reform Group
Media type: Briefing Paper
Date published: 2024
The Scottish Government has now decided to proceed with the Bill as originally drafted, despite many concerns expressed by stakeholders.
Social Work or Social Care – National Entitlement or National Control?
Author / Creator: Marion MacLeod
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published: 2024
Making Social Work Fit for Current and Future Needs
Fixing The National Care Service Bill
Author / Creator: Common Weal
Media type: Briefing Paper
Date published: 2025
Scotland needs a National Care Service fit for purpose.
The Crisis in Foster Care in Scotland
Author / Creator: Common Weal Care Reform Group
Media type: Policy Paper
Date published: 2025
More children require foster care. More foster carers leave than are recruited. Funding for many aspects of fostering is inadaquet or misplaced.
Building on shaky foundations? Multi-level policy realities for Scottish social security policies
Author / Creator: Hayley Bennett,
Media type: Blog
Date published: 2025
[Social welfare] is a fickle and unsettled policy domain.
Tackling The Care Crisis Now
Author / Creator: Common Weal Care Reform Group
Media type: Article
Date published: 2024
There is a co-design process offering a package of care reform options that could be implemented whether or not the National Care Service as proposed goes ahead or before it is established.
Keeping the Promise for Scotland’s children and their families
Author / Creator: David Anderson
Media type: Article
Date published: 2024
The partial failure and potential success of past and present plans to implement recommendations for the Scottish care system
Assisted dying in Scotland
Author / Creator: Bylines Scotland
Media type: Opinion
Date published: 2024
A social work practitioner’s view of obligations and ramifications of assisted dying
Social security in a devolved UK: realities, risks & opportunities for families
Author / Creator: Hayley Bennett
Media type: Blog
Date published: 2024
We spend more on working-age social security than education, or the police and defence combined (Hoynes et al., 2023), and it is the policy instrument most directly able to reduce poverty.
Building a New Scotland: Social security in an independent Scotland
Author / Creator: Scottish Government
Media type: Report
Date published: 2024
Social security can be fairer, more dignified and more respectful over the long term.
Best Start, Bright Futures: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022 to 2026
Author / Creator: Scottish Government
Media type: Report
Date published:
Best Start, Bright Futures sets out how the Scottish Government will work together to deliver on Scotland's national mission to tackle child poverty. It is not solely a plan for the Scottish Government, it is a plan for all of Scotland, recognising the contribution all parts of society must make to deliver the change needed for children and families.
Scotland's pupils are among the best readers in the western world
Author / Creator: Believe in Scotland
Media type: Article
Date published: 2024
Education in Scotland is making real achievements. Unionist politicians and media exaggerate the difference between English and Scottish pupils in the international comparison table PISA. UK politicians brag that English children are “among the best readers in the western world” - well so are Scots as there is only half a percentage difference in the two countries’ scores.