Impacts of austerity
Austerity – the phenomenon where spending on public services is decreased by a State in response to financial contraction – is having a serious effect on the children and young people of Scotland. The manner in which it impacts their lives, however, is often far from straightforward.
This short blog series aims to ask organisations from across the Scottish children's sector about the effects they've seen austerity policies have. In doing so, it tries to build up a picture of the broad range of challenges such policies can present to children and young people— and the ways in which their rights may be negatively affected.
The series is not intended to endorse any particular party or position. Rather, it exists to raise awareness of issues around austerity in Scotland, to people of all views and none.
Past entries
15 October 2014
Alison Todd is CEO of CHILDREN 1ST. In this blog, she talks about the challenges poverty creates for Scotland’s children― and about the changes that need to be made in the future.
02 October 2014
Ashley Cameron is Education Campaign Assistant at Who Cares? Scotland and NUS Scotland Student of the Year 2014. In this blog, she discusses her personal experience of payday loans.
24 September 2014
Lauren King MSYP is a young adult carer and a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament. Here, she writes to raise awareness of the organisation's recently published research report, A Costly Youth: The Impact of Caring on Young People in Scotland.
15 September 2014
Marguerite Hunter Blair is Chief Executive of Play Scotland. In this blog, she talks about overcoming the barriers to play that austerity can create.
05 September 2014
Marion Macleod is Senior Policy and Parliamentary Officer at Children in Scotland. In this blog, she discusses the effects of poverty across Europe, and discusses steps the European Commission has taken to make things better.
19 August 2014
In this introduction to our series of blogs on austerity, Robert Shepherd, Digital Media Officer for Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, discusses the background of the concept and explores the impact it has on the rights of children and young people.