What we’re doing for Scotland’s families

Here’s just some of the support the SNP Scottish government is providing for families in Scotland.

• Free childcare will be almost doubled to 30 a week for all 3 and 4 year olds and vulnerable 2 year olds over
• By 2021, we will provide free meals to all 2, 3 and 4 year olds who benefit from increased nursery provision.
• All new parents are entitled to a baby box, which contains essential items for a child’s first weeks – adapting the successful Finnish model which has helped to improve lives for babies and toddlers.
• We will introduce a new Maternity and Early Years Allowance. The grant will provide expectant mothers on low incomes with £600 for their first child. We will also reintroduce a grant of £300 for second and subsequent children. Low-income families will receive a £250 grant when their child starts nursery, and again when they start school.
• By spring 2017 all pregnant women will receive free vitamins, helping improve the health of mothers and babies.
• We will recruit an extra 500 health visitors by 2018 so that every child benefits from a health development check at 30 months.
• The child allowance within the Council Tax Reduction Scheme will be increased by 25 per cent, benefitting 77,000 households by an average of £173 per year. This boost for low-income families will help nearly 140,000 children across Scotland.
• We will give more power and resources direct to schools, to put teachers, parents and communities in the driving seat of school improvement.
• Our decisions on tax will protect family incomes, while providing additional investment for the public services we all rely on. Over the course of this parliament the NHS revenue budget will be increased by almost £2 billion in total.
• We will introduce a national allowance for kinship and foster care families, so everyone receives the same amount to care for their children, no matter where they live in Scotland.
• We’ll use new powers over social security to give support to people to get on, while taking steps to protect the most vulnerable. We’ll create a Scottish Social Security Agency that is founded on the principles of dignity and respect, increase support for carers, and scrap the Bedroom Tax.
• Prescriptions and eye tests will remain free of charge.