The Centre launched a new research project The State of Poverty on 23 June 2025. Dr Thomas Rochow shares more about the project, which is exploring how policy siloes shape experiences of poverty in Scotland. By understanding where government structures fail to connect, we aim to find practical ways to break down barriers and build better solutions. 

Blog by Dr Thomas Rochow, Research Associate, Centre for Public Policy

The wealth and quality of evidence that details the scale and lived experiences of poverty in Scotland continues to grow. Despite this, and the Scottish Government making tackling child poverty its' central mission, currently more than 1 in 5 Scots and nearly a quarter of all children live in poverty (JRF, 2024). An increasing number of families and individuals across the UK face compounding crises in the housing, labour, and energy markets, and the rising cost of living disproportionately affects those on a low income. Tackling socio-economic inequalities is central to meeting the existential challenges we face together. It also gives future generations the best chance to live in healthy societies that build trust and encourage innovation.

This Robertson Trust-funded project, operating from a person-centred perspective, will focus on the governance of poverty. We will understand the relatively underexplored relationship between poverty and policy siloes. A policy silo is an isolated policy strategy that fails to integrate approaches with wider related, or unrelated policy spheres. We will outline the opportunities for policy and multi-level governance to practically and collaboratively enable more people to realise economic security.

Through identifying the challenges of coordinating strategies and fiscal policy across departments and between different levels of government, we will illustrate how siloed decision-making shapes experiences of poverty in Scotland. For instance, an effective policy intervention designed and implemented within the confines of one department can be offset or undermined by decisions made elsewhere in government. This complex dysfunction at the system level can create poverty traps for individuals and families. 

Our opening event on 23 June brought together a range of government officials, from Scottish, UK, and Local Government, as well as practitioners and researchers working in the anti-poverty space to outline our aims, structure, and methodology.

Collage of photos from the event featuring (top left, bottom left, right) Dr Claire Macrae, Professor Kezia Dugdale, Fiona Duncan

Project team Dr Claire Macrae (top left), Professor Kezia Dugdale (bottom left), Fiona Duncan (right) at the launch event

Developing composite stories and delivering policy labs

Our three-pronged approach will first synthesise existing evidence on poverty rates, experiences, and policy approaches to address poverty across governments. Furthermore, we are currently interviewing third sector organisations working directly with those living in poverty to build a picture of the decision-making process and understand whether this alleviates or exacerbates poverty risks in Scotland.

Secondly, this evidence base will inform the development of five composite stories, drawing on expertise from The Promise Scotland. These composite stories will illustrate the complexity of people’s lives and the number of policy domains and public bodies they encounter, to highlight that people’s lives do not fit neatly into siloed decision-making boundaries. Each composite story will be centred on a specific theme, our first is focused on temporary accommodation, and we will work with the Poverty Alliance to co-produce the stories alongside a panel of experts by lived experience.

The third and final part of our project is the curated design and delivery of five policy labs framed around each composite story in turn. Each policy lab will bring together decision-makers, leading third sector organisations, and researchers in this space to collaborate and develop solutions that foster greater coordination within and between governments. Keep an eye out for our policy briefings and policy labs in the autumn.

Left to right - Professor Nicola McEwen and Dr Thomas Rochow speak to attendees at the launch event

Professor Nicola McEwen (left) and Dr Thomas Rochow (blog author) (right) speak to attendees at the project launch event

Author 

Dr Thomas Rochow is a Research Associate at the Centre for Public Policy and is part of the research team on The State of Poverty project. He is primarily a qualitative researcher, and his work intersects youth studies, welfare conditionality and care policies. 

For more information about the project, contact: public-policy@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 15 July 2025

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