Chief Executive Blog: Developing our network

Questions of poverty and inequality have been forced onto the political agenda over the last few weeks. When the UK Government announced plans for significant cuts to social security entitlements campaigners, including the Poverty Alliance, were quick to respond, highlighting the impact that these cuts will have, particularly on disabled people. Again and again, we emphasized that these cuts would be counterproductive and did not align with the compassionate country we all aspire Scotland and the UK to be.  

Alongside the social security cuts, we had the news that the interim child poverty targets in Scotland had been missed. A target of reducing child poverty to 18 per cent by March 2024 was missed by some distance, despite the welcome news that levels of child poverty were falling in Scotland. They just aren’t falling anywhere near fast enough.  

Both of these events – welfare cuts and missed targets – illustrate the need for a strong anti-poverty network, and movement, to speak out on changes that will have a negative impact and push for policies that will led to real improvements in people’s lives. For more than 30 years the Poverty Alliance has worked to build just such a strong network, one that can coordinate civil society, challenge those making decisions, and identify the systemic changes we need to bring about permanent changes in poverty.  

Over those 30 years much has changed in the patterns of poverty, and the responses to it. Deepening in-work poverty, the interaction of housing and low income, the racialised and gendered nature of poverty, the links with disability – all are areas where we have witnessed changed.   

But for all that the patterns of poverty have changed, along with some of the approaches to addressing it, much has remained the same. For those living on low incomes experiences of exclusion, stigma and powerlessness remain consistent. The people and places that were at greater risk of poverty 30 years ago, still retain that greater risk.  

As the anti-poverty network in Scotland, we have sought to respond to those realities of continuity and change. However, whilst our programmes and projects have developed in response, we have changed little in relation to our underlying structure as a network.  

In 2023, the board of trustees of the Poverty Alliance began a process looking at the governance of our network, with a focus on who is part of our network and how they shape the future direction of our work. As our network has grown over the last few years, and as we seek to continue that growth, it was a good time to consider who can join our Alliance, and who we primarily represent. This work concluded at our Annual General Meeting in February this year when our members adopted a new set of articles of association.  

One of the critical changes in these articles is a new structure to our membership. Previously almost any organisation could become a full member of the Poverty Alliance, no matter whether they were in the private, public or voluntary sector. The proposal that only civil society organisations – that is, excluding those in the public or private sectors – should be full members was adopted at the AGM. 

This change helpfully clarifies who the primary members of the Poverty Alliance are, and who we are speaking for. We know that many in the public and private sectors are supportive of the aims and outcomes of the Poverty Alliance and can still be part of the Alliance as associate members. Working alongside the public and private sectors will remain an important part of our approach. But now it is clearer that it is those organisations whose primary purpose is bring people and communities together, from grassroots organisations to national voluntary organisations, from trade unions branches to churches, mosques and synagogues, that are at the heart of our network.   

The decision at our AGM also makes clear the position of individuals in relation to Poverty Alliance membership. A new category of individual supporter has been created to better accommodate those individuals who wish to engage in our work.  Over the coming months we will further develop the offer to individual supporters of the Poverty Alliance, particularly in relation to campaigning and advocacy work. Individuals, particularly those with direct experience of poverty, have always been vital to our work. Now we will have a new and more focused way of engaging and working with individuals in campaigns and actions against poverty.  

These changes may seem minor, and in some ways they are. The Poverty Alliance will still work with all the organisations and individuals that we in the past. But the changes to our structure will give us a clearer focus and new impetus to reach out further, to engage a broader swathe of civil society, building a stronger network for change.  

Our anti-poverty movement is strong in Scotland. It is made up of a very wide range of organisations and individuals that have a myriad of concerns about poverty and inequality. The Poverty Alliance is a key part of that movement, and by refreshing our approach to membership will continue to help to grow and give coherence to our movement. Missed targets and welfare cuts remind us that the challenge of poverty requires a strong and concerted response. The Poverty Alliance and our members aim to continue to provide just such a response.  

If you are a member of the Poverty Alliance, we will be in touch with you shortly to explain how these changes affect you. If you are not a member, then you can join us here.