Race and Poverty - Minority Ethnic Children Still on the Margins

Black and minority ethnic families are disproportionately at risk of poverty in Scotland. CRER has written a report that looks at the action plans of local authorities to see if enough is being done for minority ethnic families at a local level. Amy Rich, Assistant Policy Officer, discusses this report below.

In Scotland, someone from a Black or minority ethnic (BME) background is nearly twice as likely to experience poverty as someone from a white Scottish/British background. With less than one year left to meet the Scottish Government’s interim milestone of reducing overall child poverty to less than 18%, current levels of BME child poverty still stand at 48%. These high rates persist despite multiple Scottish Government anti-poverty commitments, so it seems evident that current anti-poverty measures are not meeting the needs of BME families in Scotland.

Every year Local Authorities across Scotland publish a Local Child Poverty Action Report (LCPAR), describing what they have done in the previous year to tackle child poverty and what actions they will commit to in the coming year. Recently, we looked at these reports to see if BME children and families are being considered within local anti-poverty actions. We have found that, across the board, very little is being done to tackle the disproportionately high rate of child poverty amongst BME families.

We found very few actions that were explicitly aimed at BME communities

The Scottish Government’s 2022-26 delivery plan for tackling child poverty lists six priority groups that anti-poverty actions should be targeted at. Minority ethnic families are one of these groups, yet throughout the reports, we found that very few actions were explicitly aimed at BME communities.

This is particularly concerning because the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 states that Local Authorities are required to describe any actions they have taken in relation to families with protected characteristics, such as race. Despite this, and though almost every report acknowledges high levels of child poverty amongst BME groups, the majority do not then go on to target any of their actions at these families. This can be seen as an example of structural racism within the reports where BME families and children are continually overlooked.

A lack of understanding prevents meaningful action being taken

Often in the reports, Local Authorities suggest they are taking a targeted approach by focusing on all six priority groups, even though the six groups together make up almost all families currently living in poverty. This approach can show a lack of appreciation of how each individual priority group experiences and finds routes out of poverty. For BME communities, anti-poverty measures must understand the particular ways these families are affected by poverty and target their strategies in a focused way through employment, financial support, and other specific routes.

In a small number of cases, actions were targeted at named groups, with the majority of these aimed at Gypsy/Traveller families. Whilst focus on Gypsy/Traveller families is essential due to the extremely high levels of poverty recorded in Scotland, Local Authorities should make sure they actively consider all minority ethnic groups in their area.

Employment is a key area where BME people are disproportionately affected; more action is needed to ensure they do not get left even further behind

Access to quality employment is likely a key step in reducing BME poverty levels. In 2021, the ethnicity employment rate gap between white groups and minority ethnic groups was 11.7 percentage points. Across the reports, some Local Authorities wanted to increase engagement with employment support services and provide support to young people and parents in the priority groups. A few Local Authorities mentioned these initiatives, with the assumption that BME communities would benefit from this wider initiative. However, most of the reports did not have data for how many BME people were using these services.

Edinburgh was the only Local Authority to mention a specific employment service for BME groups. Their Datakirk programme supports parents from minority ethnic groups to achieve careers in data. The project and inclusion of this in the report can perhaps represent good practice, but without the inclusion of monitoring on the outcomes of the programme, we cannot see if it is successful.

Employment is a significant area where BME people are disproportionately disadvantaged, and therefore, Local Authorities should ensure that they are fully accounted for in employment support services.

Scottish Government data does not provide enough insight to help Local Authorities tackle BME child poverty

Since our report was published, the Scottish Government has highlighted data which shows the rates of children living in relative and severe poverty by ethnicity.

Figures 1 and 2 show the proportion of children in relative poverty and severe poverty, respectively, alongside the Scottish Government interim target for reducing child poverty levels for 2023/4 and the final 2030 target. These figures are three-year averages to reduce data volatility and show trends more accurately. [1] This shows that minority ethnic children are disproportionately in relative poverty compared to their white counterparts in Scotland.

Figure 1: Proportion of children in each category who are in relative poverty (%)

Source: Scottish Government. (2022). Poverty and Child Poverty Data

Figure 2: Proportion of children in each category who are in severe poverty (%)

These graphs demonstrate that minority ethnic children are disproportionately in both relative and severe poverty compared to white Scottish/British children and that this is not a new phenomenon; it has been the case for over twenty years. Whilst the poverty gap between children in minority ethnic households and white children was decreasing, it began to rise again in 2015-18, a trend which has since continued.

While useful for looking at long-term trends in BME child poverty, this data does not provide insight for constructing anti-poverty strategies, particularly those targeted at specific ethnic groups.

Similar data that shows five-year averages has been described as ‘detailed’, yet the ethnicity groups are broken down into only four broad categories (‘White-British’, ‘White-Other’, ‘Asian or Asian British’ and ‘Mixed, Black or Black British and Other’). These categorisations are not detailed enough as they lump together ethnic groups into categories that are not representative of actual communities. Data at this level cannot show the nuances of BME families’ experiences of poverty. For example, we cannot see how Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi families are affected differently by child poverty.

Local data would help Local Authorities understand how minority ethnic children in their area are affected by poverty

Additionally, Scottish Government data only covers child poverty at a national level. Without local data, it is more difficult for Local Authorities to know how BME children in their area are affected by poverty, meaning they will not have a clear picture of the specific and varied ways that different minority ethnic communities need anti-poverty actions.

There needs to be collection and publication of data on ethnicity and poverty at both a national and local level, with detailed ethnicity breakdowns.

Our research on Local Authorities' anti-poverty plans found that there is not enough being done to prevent BME children from living in poverty. Going forward, Local Authorities need to better target support for minority ethnic families, especially in areas such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, where there are larger BME populations.

Without these recommendations and more being implemented, minority ethnic families will continue to be left behind.

As it stands, BME child poverty rates will not be reduced enough to reach Scotland’s child poverty targets. While BME families continue to be left behind we don’t believe that these targets can be considered as truly met.

Read our full report, which includes other areas not discussed here, such as considering people’s lived experiences and the importance of taking an intersectional approach: Black and Minority Ethnic Child Poverty in Scotland: A Review of the Local Child Poverty Actions Reports 2020/21.

[1] The most recent data covers the period including the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdown rules disrupted data collection, meaning this data is unreliable.