Tackling Child Poverty - Scottish Funding Council

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Aligned with the First Minister’s commitment and Scotland’s Third Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, the Scottish Funding Council provides £22m of targeted funding to support colleges in delivering impactful skills, training, and progression opportunities.

This work complements existing regional employability initiatives – including Local Employability Partnerships (LEPs) and No One Left Behind (NOLB) across local authorities – to help low-income family households, working parents, and underrepresented groups boost their earned incomes and secure sustainable employment.

RISE (Raising Income through Skills and Education)

Supporting parents into sustainable, higher-earning work

RISE supports colleges to deliver targeted, high-impact skills training and wraparound support to families across Scotland who are living in poverty and would benefit from accessing skills and employability provision in colleges. The funding is designed for parents from low-income households (both in and out of work) to help them increase their earned incomes and progress into work or in their careers.

Key Focus: Skills training, wraparound support, and earned income progression for low-income parents.
Duration: Funded for an initial one-year period in Academic Year 2026/27.
Guidance: Detailed policy and operational guidance is available in publication [SFC/GD/10/2026].

TAF (Training Access Fund)

Removing financial barriers to skill-building programmes

The Training Access Fund (TAF) provides dedicated, targeted funding to help socioeconomically disadvantaged or underrepresented parents experiencing in-work poverty overcome financial barriers to progression. TAF enables eligible learners to access and complete short, work-focused skills courses.

Key Focus: Removing financial barriers for working parents to complete vocational short courses.
Duration: Funded for an initial one-year period in Academic Year 2026/27.
Guidance: Detailed policy and operational guidance is available in publication [SFC/GD/10/2026].

New FWDF (New Flexible Workforce Development Fund)

Upskilling low-income workers and supporting Fair Work employers

Departing from the legacy FWDF model, the New FWDF directly supports workers in lower-income brackets to gain new skills and increase their earned incomes, while encouraging participating employers to commit to Fair Work principles.

Eligibility: Available to employees with individual incomes under £33,000 per year who belong to one of three target groups:
1. Parents
2. Young workers aged under 25
3. Care-experienced or disabled individuals aged under 30
Duration: Funded for an initial 15-month period, delivered September 2026 – December 2027.
Guidance: Detailed policy and operational guidance is available in publication [SFC/GD/11/2026].

In addition to these funding streams, SFC is investing in training for college support staff to enable them to provide dedicated welfare rights advice and guidance for students who are parents across all Scottish Colleges.

Contact Us

For general enquiries, guidance, or further information regarding any of these funding streams, please contact your local college in the first instance or the SFC Tackling Child Poverty team:

Email: tcp@sfc.ac.uk