The Poverty Alliance organise Challenge Poverty Week every year in Scotland. They want to highlight the injustice of poverty in Scotland, and to show that collective action based on justice and compassion can create solutions.

The week is an opportunity to raise your voice against poverty and unite with others in calling for a just and equal Scotland.

 

The Education Scotland CLD Team would like to highlight a variety of professional learning resources that are available with links to poverty across a wide range of examples and areas. They include community-based adult learning, youth work and community development. Please take a look to enhance and improve your understanding and practise and support others by sharing the resources.

 

Challenging Poverty | Resources | Education Scotland – a series of CLD case studies

CLD, Poverty & Social Justice Education Scotland wakelet

Scotland’s Equity Toolkit | Resources | Education Scotland – with sections on families and communities amongst others

Equity: Mitigating the impact of poverty – An Education Scotland professional learning programme.

Informed level | Inclusion, wellbeing and equalities framework | Leading professional learning | Professional Learning | Education Scotland – with sections on impacts of inequalities, bias, prejudice-based behaviours and trauma informed practice.

Cost of the School Day PLA – self-directed learning activity

 

Education Scotland CLD team would also like to highlight a couple of other organisations as part of promoting Challenge Poverty Week 2026.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation launched their latest Poverty in Scotland 2026 report to launch the start of Challenge Poverty Week. These are some of the key messages:

“This year, as well as assessing the national picture, we have focused on the vital role of local government in reducing poverty, backed by new public attitudes data and engagement with people with lived experience. In findings that must shape live discussions about the future of local governance and public service reform in Scotland, we have heard that:

• people think councils are too underfunded to provide the services needed in their area
• there is significant public disaffection with councils, regardless of people’s backgrounds and across Scotland’s different communities
• councils are not doing enough to tackle poverty, with people on low incomes and living in more deprived areas reporting worse experiences of services and higher levels of disaffection.”

See here for an article from COSLA as part of their promotion of Challenge Poverty Week.

 

Child Poverty Action Group has focused work in Scotland – including cost of the school day. CPAG’s work in Scotland:

We work for the one in five children in Scotland growing up in poverty.

We collect evidence from families living in poverty and campaign for solutions to bring about a society where children have a fair chance in life free from hardship. We provide training, advice and information on social security to frontline workers to make sure families get the financial support they need.”

 

Events are happening across the week by various organisations so please see here for further information: Challenge Poverty Week – The Poverty Alliance