Fifth of children in Scotland ‘are living in families in poverty’

to improve the educational chances of children from poorer areas mous challenge. Today’s report by the Social Mobility Foundation is the latest in a succession of studies which have identified a worrying attainment gap between the academic outcomes achieved by those from poor backgrounds when compared with those from more advantaged families.

Closing the poverty-related attainment gap is at the heart of the challenge faced by the Scottish Government. In 2015 the £750 million Scottish Attainment Challenge scheme was launched to tackle the problem. This year it was announced that £45m would go to schools in the most deprived areas. The cash has been welcomed, although there are question marks over whether the way of distributing it is targeting the most needy youngsters.

In the meantime, the problems of teacher recruitment have been well documented. Staff shortages in the classroom have been illustrated by a number of high-profile cases. Reports of unfilled teacher training vacancies – particularly in maths and English – suggested that a solution to the recruitment crisis is still a long way off.

Teaching unions say more must be done to make teaching a more attractive profession. Holyrood’s education committee has heard evidence from practising teachers suggesting the profession is overworked and demoralised.

There remains unrest about the effectiveness of Curriculum for Excellence, the flagship policy on how subjects are taught in schools.

Mr Swinney has announced a series of reforms, which have giving more power to headteachers at their heart. Every parent in Scotland will be willing him to succeed. But only time will tell if he can sort out the area upon which his boss has staked her reputation. One-fifth of children in Scotland live in families that are in poverty and cannot afford basic necessities, new figures show.

Scottish Government statistics indicate that 20 per cent of children in Scotland live in families which are both classified as having limited resources – meaning they have low incomes, defined as having 70 per cent of middle income - and also live in material deprivation, so cannot afford basics such as being able to repair or replace a broken kettle.

Researchers found children in Glasgow were more likely to live in families with limited resources than the rest of Scotland,with41percentofyoungsters affected, while those in Moray were less likely to be in that situation than elsewhere in the country, with 10 per cent affected.

The report shows children are more likely than the Scottish average to live in families with limited resources if they live in a single parent household (42 per cent), have three or more siblings (39 per cent), live with a disabled adult (32 per cent) and if no or only one adult in the home works (67 per cent).

Living in a rented home and in a deprived area both mean children have a higher likelihood than the Scottish average of being in poverty, with 53 per cent of those in social rented accommodation and 30 per cent in private rented homes affected and 40 per cent of those in the most deprived areas.

Children are less likely than the Scottish average to live in poverty if they are living with two or more adults (15 per cent), in homes where two adults are in employment (4 per cent), stay in accessible rural areas (14 per cent) and live in the least deprived areas of Scotland (3 per cent).