ICYMI: Learn all about proposals to introduce congestion charging in Glasgow in our latest podcast episode 🎧 .

Could congestion charging reduce gridlock in Glasgow? Join FAI economists @jhampson2002 and @HL_Randolph to hear how proposals that are currently being debated compare to other policies and cities in our latest podcast episode 👇 .

🚨 50th Anniversary Conference 🚨 . There's less than 60 days to go until our conference and we're looking forward to welcoming you all to celebrate the Institute's work and impact over the past 50 years! . Still not registered? Click the link here:

Happy Friday listening! 🎧 New podcast episode out now. We’re chatting all things social policy - employment, child poverty, housing, health, and even a bit of tax reform. Listen now:

The outlook for the Scottish and UK economies has weakened, with growth now expected to remain sluggish through the rest of 2025. Read more in our latest Economic Commentary:

More on the Medium Term Financial Strategy and the Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan

7/ Tackling child poverty requires accountability—and that means knowing where the money goes. The data exists. It just needs to be clearer, more consistent, and more transparent. Full report (and accompanying spreadsheets for the detail): .

6/ To make this work, SG needs to:.➡️ Set clear internal guidance on minimum standards for reporting spend .➡️ Appoint a lead official or team for oversight .➡️ Consider the application of the Code of Practice for Statistics and/or oversight of the Head of Profession.

5/ SG sets up funds for public, private and 3rd sector bodies to apply to, but it's difficult to find out what was actually spent. Some published data is scattered across PQs, FOIs and patchy “transparency” releases. A standardised, consistent reporting approach is needed.

4/ 3rd sector gets many grants to help tackle child poverty, but tracking spend is difficult. We’ve had to dig through audited accounts from the charities themselves to find out what they were actually paid. SG should routinely publish confirmed outturns for these grants.

3/ Employability funding under No One Left Behind is hard to track, and it's hard to work out how current monitoring of spend takes place, and if/how that information is collated and used. An annual report showing how money is distributed and spent should be feasible.

2/ Progress reports mix outturn, estimated & budgeted spend. It's unclear what’s actually been spent. We need multi-year breakdowns of confirmed outturn spend, published before the next child poverty delivery plan in 2026.

1/ Do we know how much the Scottish Government is actually spending to tackle child poverty? New analysis with @jrf_uk looked at the data on outturn (confirmed) expenditure. Short answer: only a partial picture is possible. Here’s what we found and what needs to change ⬇️.

@ServingFuture You can also hear @ChirstyResearch discuss our findings on Good Morning Scotland via BBC Sounds 🎧. 🗣️ Skip to 54:50 to catch the interview:

ICYMI! Earlier this week, @ServingFuture published a new policy brief exploring what changes are needed to better support the businesses in the hospitality sector – and improve pay and conditions for its workers. 📄 Read about it here:

Yesterday, the Scottish Government published their medium-term financial strategy, which kicks off the Scottish Budget process. Listen to our reaction in our latest podcast with @MairiSpowage:

You can also register for our conference here:

Last week, we shared our exciting programme of events and publications to mark our 50th anniversary celebrations. This included announcing that we are hosting our first Economic Conference on the 18th and 19th September. To find out more, click here:

A very busy one. public service reform, the population health framework, the minimum income guarantee, prevention, and our latest podcast on financing the energy transition

What will it take to reach Scotland's 2030 child poverty targets? Our latest blog rounds up insights from recent research into the role of raising income from work, increasing social security, and other options.