Humza Yousaf has announced extra funding for after school clubs in a bid to cut spiralling child poverty rates.
The new First Minister told the Record he wanted to be judged above all else on whether poverty levels fall.
But in a major departure from his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon, he also signalled dumping the roll out of universal free school meals:
“I’ve got a 14 year old now. Should people be paying for her free school meals when I earn a First Minster’s salary?
“I don’t think that’s the right way to use that money. I think the better way to use the money is to target it to those that need it absolutely the most.”
Labour MSP Monica Lennon, a supporter of free universal school meals, said: “It would be a serious betrayal of Scotland’s children if Humza Yousaf does a u-turn on universal free school meal promises.
“Even the Scottish Tories are backing the campaign led by Scotland’s trade union movement and anti-poverty charities.
“The stigma of means-tested school meals stays with people for life.
“We need people in government who understand this, even if they haven’t experienced it.”
“Expanding universal free school meals is the right thing to do, and First Minister must listen.”
Yousaf will today host an anti-poverty summit in Edinburgh attended by experts, charities and opposition leaders.
With around 250,000 children languishing in poverty, he wants ideas brought to the table.
One of his announcements will be extra cash to help low income parents by ensuring their children can stay in school longer.
He told us: “I’m really pleased to be able to announce £4.5m of capital funding and that will go to help local authority schools to really actually use in quite a flexible way in whatever they need to do in order to help with school aged childcare - holiday clubs, after school clubs.
“We know how pivotal they are in helping families, particularly from low income households, stay at work or work longer hours if that’s what they’re wanting to do.
He described after school club provision as “patchy”, adding: “My first full week as First Minister was to Ayr United to see some of the work that they were doing on holiday clubs during the Easter break.
“So we’ve got some really good examples of where it is working well. But we want to make sure that those schools that might not feel they have the capacity, [that] this capital funding will help them to make the renovations they need.”
When she was First Minister, Sturgeon declared her top priority would be closing the educational attainment gap.
Asked whether he wanted to be judged on reducing poverty, he said: “It’s the biggest challenge we face, so absolutely. I’ve made it very clear and I’m not intending to shy away from it.
“We have statutory targets in relation to reducing child poverty and I should be held to account, and the government I lead should be judged by whether or not we shift that dial on child poverty considerably.”
Under Sturgeon, the Government was committed to extending free school meals to pupils in primary 6 and 7, with campaigners also wanting secondary schools to be covered.
He dropped a big hint this policy is in doubt as he favours greater targeting of scarce resources: “There’s a lot of discussion going on internally with my cabinet about how do we use all the powers we’ve got to our absolute maximum, and how do we target that money in our investment in the best way possible.”
He added: “I believe that if we’re going to make a difference to tackling child poverty, we have got to be more targeted in our investment. Parliament will be the first to know.”
He said: “You get one crack at being First Minister. I want to be judged, absolutely, as somebody who used all the power they have, focused it and made the difficult decisions, even if they were unpopular, all in order to make life better for those who are in the areas of the highest deprivation.”
Ahead of the summit, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the Government had to use every lever to tackle the “national scandal” of poverty.
He called for public transport to be made more affordable, school meal debt to be wiped out, support for housing costs and and a freeze on water charges.
He said: "Every government has a duty to tackle poverty, but the SNP has delivered 16 years of empty rhetoric.
“We need more than SNP talking shops and photo ops to tackle the national scandal of poverty.
“Scotland is crying out for change from an incompetent SNP government and a morally bankrupt Tory one – but only Labour can deliver it.
“The next Labour government will put an end to the Tory’s shameful time in government and deliver transformative change to lift people across the UK out of poverty – but the SNP cannot keep passing the buck while people are suffering.
“We need to use every lever we have here in Scotland to tackle poverty and deliver the change people need.”
John Dickie, Director of Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said ahead of the summit:
“It’s vital that this summit builds on the commitments to tackle child poverty that were made during the First Minister’s leadership campaign. We need to develop detailed plans to increase the Scottish child payment, building on his campaign promise to raise it to £30 a week. But we also need to see wider action to extend funded childcare and develop an economy that provides secure, decently paid family-friendly jobs.
Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance, said: “Our members want a Scotland built on compassion and justice. They told us that they see those values in the rhetoric from Scottish Government, but are not seeing them put them into practice consistently.
“Members agreed that there are good policies in Scotland that have the potential to make meaningful progress on our shared ambitions to tackle poverty. But, there remains a clear, and sometimes substantial, limiting the impact of existing action plans, including the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan.
“Our members are clear. That has to change.”
Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: “We welcome the First Minister’s invitation and look forward to taking part in this summit.
“However, if he’s going to invite the leaders of other parties, Humza Yousaf has a duty to genuinely listen to the full range of ideas for tackling poverty, including the record levels of homelessness on the SNP’s watch.
“This has to be more than just a talking shop.”
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