The charities involved estimate that up to 35,000 families could benefit from the Scottish Government’s package of whole family support, spanning almost all of Scotland.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has received £2.7m to deliver a project in partnership with Home-Start UK and Save the Children UK across 19 local authority areas while using insight and learnings to support other locations long-term. The support will be used to specifically help families with babies and children under five to thrive.

Karen Nailen, director of advice at Citizens Advice Scotland, said: “Our network is seeing record levels of demand from people across all corners of Scotland. One of the unique elements of our advice is its people-centred, wraparound nature where few problems exist in neat isolation. We see and understand a person’s complete set of circumstances.

“Last year alone our network supported almost 24,000 families from priority groups - that’s the six groups at highest risk of experiencing relative child poverty identified by the Scottish Government. We can never lose sight of the systems and structures that force families and children into poverty and keep people trapped there.

“Whole family support is who we are, so funding like this is incredible. To strengthen our service offering and outreach, we’re pleased to be working in partnership with Home-Start UK and Save the Children UK to support families with babies and children under five.

“This approach allows us to help more families at risk of poverty through local community engagement, provide tailored advice in a stigma-free environment, and design individual family plans to deliver positive outcomes for households across Scotland.”

Other beneficiaries include:

• Salvesen Mindroom Centre (Mindroom), which will expand its support into new areas of Scotland, such as Dundee, to pair parents of neurodivergent children with a Family Adviser to help boost incomes and improve children’s outcomes
• Home Start Caithness, which will bring together nine organisations to provide a one-stop gateway to financial and wellbeing support in the region
• Borders Community Action, who will work with 30 local charities under a new partnership to embed support in rural communities, where poverty can be harder to identify and the right support more difficult to access
• Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector, which will coordinate a new partnership between more than 30 local organisations to deliver help specific to the needs of communities across the city

In Dundee, social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville met with families of neurodivergent children to hear about the difference that effective support at point of need can make. Mindroom will use this funding to expand into new areas of Scotland.

Ms Somerville said: “We have made great strides in our ambitious mission to eradicate child poverty. Within the powers we have, we have boosted incomes while delivering a transformational cost of living support package.

“But we know that more needs to be done, which is why we are driving whole family support. This is about making sure that people can access the help they need easily, as simply as possible, and as quickly as possible.

“To remove barriers, we need to empower local charities and local people and bring them together with other services so that there are clear and easy ways to access the right support, in the right place and at the right time.

“I am proud that this ambitious programme, which we will deliver in partnership with charities across Scotland, does just that.”

CEO of Mindroom Alan Thornburrow said: “We see the benefits that whole family support brings to parents and children on a daily basis, so we are pleased to receive support from the Scottish Government to expand our services, including into Dundee.

“Neurodivergent children and their parents have historically found it challenging to access the right support, in the right place – but we are determined to be there for them, tailoring services to meet their individual circumstances, and giving children the best start in life in the process.

“This funding will help us do so on a larger scale, enabling us to reach more people in varied communities. We look forward to pressing ahead with this work.”