Following John Swinney’s appointment as First Minister on Tuesday, Children 1st Chief Executive Mary Glasgow said: “We congratulate John Swinney on his appointment as First Minister.
"We especially welcome Mr Swinney’s stated commitment to eradicate child poverty, which is causing alarming and long-lasting damage to babies, children and young people across Scotland and must be a key priority for his government and we look forward to working with him to achieve that goal.
“Children 1st have consistently raised concerns about the growing numbers of children and young people living in very difficult and harmful circumstances in our country. Despite efforts and strong rhetoric, we have real concerns about the gaps between policy and practice in Scotland as well as the lack of progress in directly improving young lives.
“Children, young people deserve an urgent focus on tackling the many challenges they and their families face. We ask the new First Minister to prioritise actions that put the real and urgent needs of Scotland’s children first, such as an increase to the Scottish Child Payment, investment in support for families and quicker access to good quality support to improve their mental health and wellbeing.”