"There are children living in poverty across every council area in Scotland, including 23% of children in the Highlands”

 That figure came to the Gurn in the following press release from the Scottish Greens. It's pretty grim isn't it that so many children are having their lives blighted by poverty?

"Children in the Highland Council area to receive attainment challenge funding for first time

Schools in the Highlands will receive Attainment Challenge funding for this first time, following a change to the way the cash is distributed.

£43million of ‘Challenge Authority’ funding was previously directed at nine council areas with high levels of child poverty but will now be distributed amongst all thirty two councils based on child poverty rates in their area. The fund is intended to provide additional support which will close the attainment gap between pupils from the most and least advantaged backgrounds.

The Scottish Greens have welcomed the change, pointing to the number of children living in poverty across every council area, not just the nine previously eligible.

Scottish Green MSP Ariane Burgess MSP said:

"There are children living in poverty across every council area in Scotland, including 23% of children in the Highlands”

This new way of distributing Attainment Challenge funding is a welcome recognition of that reality and means children in the Highlands can benefit for the first time.

“The majority of children experiencing poverty don't actually live in what we would recognise as deprived postcodes, so whilst geographically targeted approaches are sometimes useful, in this case the previous Challenge fund was missing a majority of the children it was set up to help. That will no longer be the case. This comes on top of £20 million in additional funding this year to help the most disadvantaged pupils recover from the effects of the pandemic."