Nesta Scotland – Addressing early years disadvantage and poverty: is cash the solution?

Growing up in poverty can lead to a range of negative outcomes that can last a lifetime. And yet in the UK, where more than a quarter of children are living in poverty, we are still some way away from creating an equitable start for all of our young people.

Ensuring a decent family income, including through unrestricted cash payments, is increasingly being viewed as a route to address poverty and ensure children get the best start in life.

But what do we know about how cash affects the family environment a child grows up in and the outcomes they experience? How does it interact with other supports (financial and non-financial) that a family may receive? What can we do to strengthen the case for investment in early years as a way to tackle poverty and reduce the inequities that still exist? And what lessons are there to be learned from how other countries are tackling these issues?

Scotland, with its current focus on reducing child poverty and raising household income through interventions such as the Scottish Child Payment, provides rich opportunities to explore these questions in detail.

Australia is at the forefront of work in this field with a number of studies and interventions investigating ways to reduce early years inequities. Our free online event provides the opportunity to find out more about the approaches being taken there.

We invite you to join us on 4 October 09:30-10:30 BST to hear our Head of Nesta Scotland, Angela Mitchell, in conversation with Sharon Goldfeld and Anna Price of the Centre for Community Child Health, a department of The Royal Children’s Hospital and a research group of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Sharon and Anna will describe the approach that Australia is taking to consider family cash and investment as part of a package of interventions to address early-years inequities.

This event is taking place as part of the Challenge Poverty Week in Scotland.

Why you should come

This free online event is for anyone interested in understanding the link between family income and child development outcomes, whether you work in early childhood development, focus on poverty and inequality, or work in policy at local or national government in any part of the UK.

Sharon, Anna and Angela will explore what can be done to better understand how poverty affects educational and developmental inequality and the impact of alleviating poverty on attainment in Scotland and Australia and what lessons can be learned by governments elsewhere.

Speakers

Professor Sharon Goldfeld
Professor Sharon Goldfeld is a paediatrician and Director of the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH), a department of The Royal Children’s Hospital and a research group of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She has a decade of experience in state government as a senior policy maker in health and education including Principal Medical Advisor in the Victorian Department of Education and Training. Her research program is made up of complementary, synergistic and cross-disciplinary streams of work focused on investigating, testing and translating sustainable policy-relevant solutions that eliminate inequities for Australia’s children. As an experienced policymaker, public health and paediatric researcher she aims to ensure ongoing effective, rapid translation of research into the policy and service arena.

Dr Anna Price
Anna Price is a senior postdoctoral researcher and the child health equity scholar at the Centre for Community Child Health, a department of The Royal Children’s Hospital and a research group of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Her work focuses on the social conditions necessary for families to thrive, and finding the system levers that enable equitable health promotion.